The Mass Observation Archive Annual Report 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020 Report Number 40 www.massobs.org.uk [email protected] Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive John Brewer Simon Garfield Jane Harvell Kitty Inglis Michelle Johansen Claire Langhamer Jeremy MacClancy Lucy Noakes Public Benefit Statement The Archive is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (registered charity number: 1179673) in the care of the University of Sussex as part of the University’s Special Collections. The Archive seeks to benefit the wider community by providing the public with the opportunity to gain knowledge of everyday life in 20th and 21st Century Britain through access to the original Mass Observation social research organisation (1937 to early 1950s), and newer material collected continuously since 1981. The Archive proactively engages in educational outreach with schools, Further and Higher Education institutions and the local and national community. This outreach provides the opportunity for intergenerational and interregional learning. The Archive also provides the opportunity for people all over the UK to participate in the recording of their everyday lives, either through participation in the national Mass Observation Project and other related projects and partnerships or through the donation of their personal papers and diaries to a publicly accessible archive. 2 Contents 1. Introduction to this report ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 2. Access ..................................................................................................................... 4 3. Academic Teaching ................................................................................................ 4 4. Projects and partnerships ...................................................................................... 5 5. NVCO ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 6. Adam Matthew Digital ........................................................................................... 6 7. Education and outreach .......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 8. 12th May .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. 9. Events ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 10. Trustee changes .................................................................................................. 7 11. Staff changes ....................................................................................................... 7 12. Volunteers ........................................................................................................... 7 13. The Mass Observation Project ............................................................................ 8 14. Friends of the Mass Observation Archive ........................................................... 8 15. Collections ........................................................................................................... 8 16. Publications ......................................................................................................... 9 17. External conferences, talks and exhibitions ........ Error! Bookmark not defined. Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................... 13 3 1. Access Research visits 226 individuals visited the Mass Observation Archive and made 430 orders for material (see fig.1 and fig.2). The number of physical visits made to the Archive decreased during this year as The Keep, where the Archive is based, was closed to researchers in March 2020 following the government guidelines relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Keep reopened on 28th July 2020. Group visits This year, the Mass Observation Archive hosted 42 group visits at The Keep (Appendix fig.3). These visits were attended by 456 people. A list of groups who visited during 2019-2020 is available in Appendix fig.4. The Mass Observation team delivered online teaching sessions to groups following The Keep’s closure in March 2020. Online Access Mass Observation Online Researchers continue to be able to access parts of the Archive through the Adam Matthew product, Mass Observation Online. The publishers have reported that during the year, the resource was accessed 18,790 times (Appendix fig. 5). The new Mass Observation Project resource (see section 4) was accessed 10,672 times. 22 of these visits came from members of the University of Sussex. The Mass Observation team are developing plans to launch the resource to academics at the University of Sussex. 2. Academic Teaching Between October 2019 and March 2020 physical teaching sessions were delivered to Undergraduate and Postgraduate students from both the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton across a range of disciplines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mass Observation team delivered online teaching sessions to groups including MSc Social Research Methods modules in June 2020 for the ESRC Doctoral School and Queer in Brighton community group. Susanne Rose and Kirsty Pattrick gave a talk to staff and students and State Archivist at Keene State College, New Hampshire on 27 April 2020. This talk was even to support their Mass Observation inspired project to record experiences of COVID-19 at their college. 4 3. Projects and partnerships 100 Voices that Made the BBC: The Birth of TV The Mass Observation Archive supported David Hendy and Alban Webb (University of Sussex) on the AHRC funded project on the history of the BBC. Fiona Courage advised the project on how Mass Observation recorded the BBC throughout the Second World War. As part of the project, the Mass Observation Archive participated in an event at The Keep to explore how the Second World War was broadcast by the BBC. Participates at the event were given the chance to hear rare recordings from the BBC’s vaults, including recording relating to the Blitz and D-Day. War correspondent Allan Little gave a talk at the event. JSTOR’s Open Community Collections Karen Watson (University of Sussex Archivist) oversaw the publishing of the Mass Observation Archive’s Observing the 1980s collection onto JSTOR’s Open Community Collections. This is an initiative resource aimed at unlocking the potential of special collections archival collections by making them freely available on the platform for all to use. Observing the 1980s was a JISC funded project which digitised selected material from the Mass Observation Project to create an online teaching resource. To view the JSTOR collection visit www.massobs.org.uk/about/news/216-observing- the-1980s-now-on-jstor. Lasting Diaries Mass Observation supported the The Lasting Diaries project run by BBC Radio Cumbria, Up for Arts Cumbria and Barrow Library in 2019. The project was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Inspired by the Mass Observation diarist, and Cumbrian resistant, of Nella Last, the project collected diaries by people from Cumbria. Themes covered included Brexit, austerity, climate change, technology and the high street. Extracts were voiced by actors and broadcast on BBC Radio Cumbria. The diaries written for this project have been deposited with the Archive. Learning to Live with Risk and Responsibility: Understanding Popular Responses to COVID-19 Mass Observation staff supported Dr Nick Clarke’s (Associate Professor of Human Geography) successful application to British Academy COVID-19 small grants scheme. The project will use material collected by Mass Observation during the COVID-19 pandemic to investigates how citizens have responded to the pandemic. The research aims to develop a better understanding of how people interpreted 5 demands to act responsibly and translated them into practices of everyday life. The project will include a workshop in 2021 to disseminate the research findings. Richard Slee: Mantelpiece Observations Bolton Museum is leading a two-year Arts Council National Lottery funded project in partnership with the Mass Observation Archive and the Museum of the Home (formerly known as Geffrye Museum). The project has enabled the creation of a new body of work by artist Richard Slee based on Mass Observation’s 1937 Mantlepiece reports. The exhibition opened at Bolton Museum in September 2020 and will tour to Hove Museum in 2021. In November 2020, the Mass Observation team worked with Bolton Museum to produce a series of online public engagement events, including an online conversation with Rachel Hurdley (University of Cardiff), and Claire Langhamer (Mass Observation Archive Trustee and University of Sussex) Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) is a three year British Library project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project aims to transform our access to sound collections across the UK, digitising recordings and make them available online or onsite in archives. Recordings from the Mass Observation Archive Australia Migration Project (SxMOA25) have been digitised as part of the project. 4. Adam Matthew Digital The Mass Observation Project Online was published in summer 2020 by Adam Matthew Digital. This resource contains responses to Mass Observation Project Directives from 1981 to 1990. The Archive worked with Adam Matthew Digital to obtain permission from the writers who contributed between 1981 to 1990 or show reasonable due diligence in contacting these writers. As well as the Directive