Rarely-heard interviews about the lives of Glaswegians born in the early 20th century will bring the past to life through a partnership between Glasgow Museums and the University of Strathclyde.
Professor Arthur McIvor, Director of the Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) at Strathclyde, has received an Arts and Humanities Research Council knowledge transfer fellowship grant worth £182,000 to develop the oral history collection and use of oral history within Glasgow Museums.
"Reconstructing the past through a community's memories and stories is a vital way of understanding the social and cultural history of Glasgow. This project will embed their voices across Glasgow's museums, including the new Riverside Museum," says Professor McIvor.
The two-year project will first involve digitising and cataloguing the extensive collection of recordings. There are more than 700 oral history interviews across different storage locations that cover a breadth of social, cultural, economic and political experience spanning the 20th century. The interviews were conducted with Glaswegians born from the 1900-1930s.
Professor McIvor and research assistant Dr David Walker will then summarise the interviews and extract information with particular reference to work and workplace cultures, reconstructing the ways the experience of work has changed in the city over the years.
They will look at ways the collection can be used in exhibitions and accessed by the public online. They will also work with Glasgow Museums' staff to develop an oral history resource for schools.
Professor McIvor will create a new undergraduate programme, Work and Community Placement in Oral History, for Strathclyde's third-year history students - giving them unprecedented access to museum archives and the opportunity to contribute to the collection through their own oral history interviews.
"We will also write an oral history collection policy with Glasgow Museums and mark gaps in the collection for future interviews, Professor McIvor said.
"This grant will expand the use of oral histories in the heritage sector in Glasgow to begin with but there is the potential to roll the project out further through Scotland."
Who's involved?
- Professor Arthur McIvor (University of Strathclyde)
- Dr Martin Bellamy (Glasgow Museums)
- Dr David Walker (previously a PhD student at Strathclyde and latterly an oral history researcher on the M74 Archaeology project in Glasgow)
The knowledge and expertise of other staff and researchers at Glasgow Museums and the Scottish Oral History Centre will be drawn on during the project, including Research Fellow Dr Angela Bartie.
Who funds the research?
This research is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The knowledge transfer fellowship builds on the SOHC's long relationship with Glasgow Museums.
The SOHC has provided oral history training to museum curators and researchers, and Dr Juliette Pattinson and Prof McIvor currently hold a Collaborative Doctoral Award with Glasgow Museums on 'Glasgow's War' funded by AHRC. PhD student Alison Turnbull is completing this research project.