Life NATIONAL Review and Accounts 2014/2015 National Life Stories Chairman’s When many people think about history, they think about series of innovative interviewing programmes funded almost books and documents, castles or stately homes. In fact history entirely from sponsorship, charitable and individual donations Foreword is all around us, in our own families and communities, in the and voluntary effort. living memories and experiences of older people. Everyone has a story to tell about their life which is unique to them. Each collection comprises recorded in-depth interviews of Whilst some people have been involved in momentous a high standard, plus content summaries and transcripts to historical events, regardless of age or importance we all assist users. Access is provided via the Sound and Moving have interesting life stories to share. Unfortunately, because Image Catalogue at http://sami.bl.uk and a growing number memories die when people do, if we don’t record what of interviews are made available for remote web use through people tell us, that history can be lost forever. British Library Sounds at http://sounds.bl.uk. Each individual life story interview is several hours long, covering family National Life Stories was established in 1987 and its mission background, childhood, education, work, leisure and later life. is: ‘To record the first-hand experiences of as wide a cross section of society as possible, to preserve the recordings, to Alongside the British Library’s other oral history holdings, make them publicly available and encourage their use’. As an which stretch back to the beginning of the twentieth century, independent charitable trust within the Oral History Section NLS’s recordings form a unique and invaluable record of of the British Library, NLS’s key focus and expertise has been people’s lives in Britain today. oral history fieldwork. For nearly thirty years it has initiated a Bill Knight PRESIDENT BOOKKEEPER FREELANCE ORAL HISTORY PLACEMENTS AND This year we celebrate important milestones for two long- and Leicester University are helping us to develop our legal Lord Asa Briggs Pauline Morrison INTERVIEWERS VOLUNTEERS running National Life Stories projects: twenty-five years for and science collections respectively. And the long-running Dr Zibiah Alfred Loakthar Clare Canning Artists’ Lives, and twenty for Architects’ Lives. Together they relationship between Artists’ Lives and Tate Britain will be FOUNDER PROJECT INTERVIEWERS (An Oral History of Talking Claire Fons have gathered nearly 500 interviews, many with individuals marked in very tangible ways over the next two years, Professor Paul Thompson Frances Cornford Therapists in the UK) Fiona Laird no longer alive to share their memories. We devote much of through exhibitions, listening posts and events. There will be (Crafts Lives and Artists’ CHAIRMAN (to 14 May 2015) Sue Bradley this year’s Review to reflecting on the connections between a new partnership with the Courtauld Institute of Art. The Lives) Sir Nicholas Goodison (British Library Staff TRUSTEES (at 14 May 2015) these and our other collections. When both projects started, Rootstein Hopkins Foundation has again been a generous Niamh Dillon Oral History Project) Dame Jenny Abramsky users had to travel to the Sound Archive’s building and its supporter of Artists’ Lives. Other collaborations with Women CHAIR (from 14 May 2015) (Architects’ Lives) Louise Brodie Bob Boas rather primitive listening facilities in Exhibition Road, South in Publishing and with Newman University Birmingham are Dame Jenny Abramsky Dr Thomas Lean (Pioneers in Charity Roger Gavin Kensington. Now, growing numbers of the interviews can be developing our collections around the book trade and science. (An Oral History of British DIRECTOR and Social Welfare) Lord Hennessy of accessed on the web in the comfort of home or office; and Science and An Oral History Dr Robert Perks Geraint Franklin Nympsfield those not yet available online can be listened to in the British This is my final foreword as Chairman. NLS is creating a of the Electricity Supply (Architects’ Lives) Bill Knight OBE Library’s reading rooms. Some, of course, remain closed at remarkable resource of living history for future historians DEPUTY DIRECTOR Industry in the UK) Kirstie Gregory Lesley Knox the request of interviewees but they too will one day be and researchers. I have enjoyed my twelve years of office, Mary Stewart Dr Paul Merchant (Artists’ Lives) Dr Robert Perks marvellously rich resources for researchers. Internet access during which we have much enlarged both the quantity and (An Oral History of ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Stephanie Kenna Richard Ranft continues to transform the ways that people are making range of this material and set about making it much more British Science) Jennifer Wingate (British Library Staff Dr Jo Reilly use of oral history. Our campaign to raise the funding that accessible online. The achievement is due to the generosity Sarah O’Reilly Oral History Project) Prof Dorothy Sheridan MBE we need to digitise NLS’s collections has made excellent of our donors and to the imaginative and diligent efforts of TREASURER (Authors’ Lives) Andrew Lambirth Professor Paul Thompson progress. We thank the many trusts and individuals who our staff under the leadership of Rob Perks. I would like to Bob Boas Dr Elizabeth Wright (Artists’ Lives) Jennifer Wingate have contributed, notably the Pears Foundation and the thank Rob and the staff and volunteers most warmly for all (Crafts Lives) PROJECT DIRECTOR Victoria Lane Monument Trust. they have done during my tenure, to thank our donors, and NLS ADVISORS (at 14 May 2015) Cathy Courtney COLLABORATIVE (Artists’ Lives) to thank my co-Trustees and our Advisors for the energy and Sir Peter Bazalgette (Artists’ Lives, Architects’ DOCTORAL STUDENT Shirley Read Digitisation and enhanced access was a key goal of NLS’s enthusiasm they have brought to our work, not least in the Eric de Bellaigue Lives, Legacy of the English Dvora Liberman (Oral History of ten-year strategic plan, launched in 2011, alongside several last year. Lord Bragg Stage Company) British Photography) other dissemination initiatives, many of which have borne VIDEO CAMERAMAN Professor Mary Chamberlain Ann Sproat fruit. Peter Hennessy gave the inaugural NLS Annual Lecture I am delighted that the Trustees have elected Dame Jenny SENIOR ACADEMIC Matt Casswell Sir John Craven (Artists’ Lives) in December last year. His talk was every bit as stimulating as Abramsky to succeed me. She has a formidable experience CONSULTANT Sir Roger Gibbs TRANSCRIBERS Robert Wilkinson we had hoped. Our first NLS Goodison Fellowship has been of live and recorded sound and of the arts of chairmanship. I Dr Sally Horrocks (An Oral Dr Mark Girouard Susan Hutton (An Oral History of awarded, to raise the public profile of our food collection of wish her the greatest success and much enjoyment. History of British Science Sir Nicholas Goodison Susan Nicholls Oral History in the UK) some 200 interviews which are also due to go online later and An Oral History of the Professor Leslie Hannah Business Friend Dr Hester Westley in 2015. NLS team members have again had a busy year Electricity Supply Industry Dame Penelope Lively DBE (Artists’ Lives) presenting their work at academic conferences, and our joint in the UK) Lord Rees of Ludlow OM Dr Jon Wood training programme with the Oral History Society continues Jonathan Taylor CBE ARCHIVIST (to December 2014) (Artists’ Lives) to expand. Last year we ran 84 courses for over 700 people. Caroline Waldegrave OBE Elspeth Millar Bill Williams Partnerships remain crucial to NLS’s success and are likely ASSISTANT ARCHIVIST to figure more prominently in our work in the future. Two Sir Nicholas Goodison Emily Hewitt academic partnerships with the London School of Economics Chairman of Trustees 1 Review of 2014 Rob Perks Director of National Life Stories Digitisation and access we have recently completed pilot interviews with Robert May (theoretical ecologist, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Our campaign to digitise National Life Stories’ older analogue UK Government and President of the Royal Society), ecologist cassette interviews for long-term preservation and enhanced John Lawton, and – featured later in this Review – John access via the web has been a key focus of the year and we Postgate (microbiologist, writer of popular science books and have made excellent progress. We raised a further £50,000 son of socialist and writer Raymond Postgate). towards the £140,000 that we need to complete the programme and successfully added over 500 interviews to In the meantime, whilst we developed these new proposals, the British Library’s ‘Sounds’ website for global access (http:// interviewer Paul Merchant concluded ten audio and video sounds.bl.uk), including 289 testimonies drawn from two interviews for ‘Inspiring Scientists: Diversity in British Science’, major oral history projects: Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ a project funded by and conducted in collaboration with the Courtesy Kevan Gee Centre Testimony collected between 1993 and 1998, and the Royal Society’s Diversity Programme, which documented the Interviewee Kevan Gee (r) in Rugeley Power Station control room c.1970s. Living Memory of the Jewish Community, a project run by life stories of British scientists with minority ethnic heritage NLS between 1987 and 2000. We launched this to coincide (especially Asian, African and Caribbean) including metallurgist with Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2015. With over Harry Bhadeshia, space scientist and BBC science presenter 1,000 hours of recordings, this is one of the largest online Maggie Aderin-Pocock, atmospheric physicist Mark Richards, Thanks to an introduction from NLS Advisor Roger Gibbs, we collections of Holocaust testimonies in Europe, and we thank immunologist Donald Palmer, pharmacologist and entrepreneur were fortunate to receive a grant from the Wellcome Trust to the Pears Foundation and the Brian and Jill Moss Charitable Mah Hussain-Gambles, physics PhD student Jassel Majevadia, support five recordings with individuals with a long connection Trust for their generous support.