Winter 2013 Bulletin

Winter 2013 Issue 13
In this issue:
The Mass Observation Archive moves to The Keep The Queen opens The Keep New publications Mass Observation celebrates the ESRCs Festival of Social Science Mass Observation behind bars
Welcome to the Bulletin!

After a long summer of moving boxes and unpacking, we are pleased to introduce you to the first edition of the Mass Observation Bulletin produced at our new home, The Keep. You can find out more about The Keep in the article below and on page 2 you can read about the official opening of The Keep by Her Majesty the Queen. As well as moving, we have been very busy with all sorts of other activities and projects; many of
which you can read about in this Bulletin. On page 3 you can read about our recent outreach work in a prision and on page 4 we introduce a new member of the MO team, Ratna Jan Bibi. Remember, you can keep in touch with all our latest activities online, twitter or by e-mail. For more details visit www.massobs.org.uk Jessica Scantlebury Bulletin Editor
Keep in touch! Visit: www.massobs.org.uk Join our email list: [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MassObsArchive
The Mass Observation Archive has now opened at its new home, The Keep. The Keep is a purpose built state of the art repository located just outside of the University of Sussex. The repository brings together the archives,collections and staff of East Sussex Record Office, Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove, Sussex Family History Group and University of Sussex Special Collections. This move brings six miles of archives together, making them availible for research in one place. There are over 80 spaces for
individual researchers wishing to consult archives, collections, and publications at The Keep and three education and community rooms that will be used to introduce new audiences to archives and doing historical research. The Archive moved, along with Special Collections, during Summer 2013. 7,008 boxes were checked out of the University of Sussex Library and carefully transported and scanned into The Keep on to the bespoke inventory management system. Since moving to The Keep, the Special Collections and Mass Observation team have been working closely with their new Keep colleagues in order to prepare systems and get ready to open to the public.
The Keep was officially opened by The Queen on the 31st October (you can read more about the Royal visit on page 2) and opened to the public on the 19th November. For more details about The Keep, including details of how to make an appointment to consult material in our new reading room, visit www.thekeep.info.
A Royal Visitor
Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened the Mass Observation Archives new home, The Keep, on 31st October 2013. The royal party visited The Keep as part of their tour of East Sussex; their first visit to the county since 2007.
The Queen opened The Keep on 31 October 2013
The Keep, The Facts

Building work on The Keep began in August 2011 and was completed in Summer 2013, at a cost of 15 million. The building is 70 metres long, 32.5 metres wide and 14 metres high The Keep has been built to meet the BS5454. This is the British Standard for the storage of archival material and is recommended by The National Archive. The repository at The Keep has 2,295 square metres of storage space. This means that there is capacity for 10 miles of archives. The Keep has four multifunctional group visit rooms, a oral history recording studio, a large reference area and a Reading Room that was specially designed for consulting archival documents. Up to 270 visitors can use the public areas at The Keep at any one time. The Keep represents one of the most up-to-date and green archive buildings in the country, with an exceptionally low carbon footprint! It has gained an Excellent rating from the standard Environmental Assessment Method BREEAM. The Keep is open: TuesdayFriday, 9.30am-5pm and Saturday, 9.30am-4pm. For more details about visiting The Keep visit: www.thekeep.info
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were shown around the facilities and were shown some of the technology that is available to researchers using The Keep. They also met members of staff and students from local primary and secondary schools who have been involved with outreach and education projects. Fiona Courage, Curator of the Mass Observation Archive showed the Queen and the Duke material from the Mass Observation Archive along with examples from other archives and collections that are cared for as part of Special Collections. This included two notebooks from a Make and Mend course attended by a Portslade resident who served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. When looking at the material on displayed, the Queen complemented the sewing in the Auxiliary Territorial Service notebook. Until the Mass Observation Archive moved to The Keep, the Archive was housed in the library at the University of Sussex, which was opened by the Queen nearly 50 years ago in 1964. A BBC news report of the royal visit to Sussex can be found online: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-24763054.
The images reproduced in this Bulletin were taken by Stuart Robinson, Photographer for the University of Sussex.
The royal party were shown material from the collections housed at The Keep
Mass Observation Behind Bars

Kirsty Pattrick and Suzanne Rose report on some recent Mass Observation creative writing workshops. May day diaries, so this was a good opportunity to mention the submissions we received from prisoners across the country in 2011 and encourage them Looking at the exhaustive to submit their own diary. The list on the wall of what could sense that they were being not be taken into prison and given a voice and that this overhearing a conversation could be heard amongst the about a recent hostage situation, thousands of voices within the we started to feel some archive was powerful. apprehension on what we were about to embark on. An exciting The writings produced were idea developed over coffee, raw and at times moving. It that now led us to enter the was quite an experience to austere Victorian gates of Lewes see one of the participants Prison. We were to support the physically change from an delivery of three workshops with awkward agitated state to one male inmates at this Category of more calm, with a sense of B facility, that holds a mix of pride in his writing. Evlynns prisoners on remand and those ability to validate their work in serving both short and long term her encouraging style visibly sentences. Working for Mass enhanced their self-esteem. Observation can certainly take you to some interesting places! Here are some of the poems In partnership with East Sussex Library Service and Lewes Prison three creative writing workshops for male prisoners were provided in May 2013, that used Mass Observation material as inspiration. The sessions were funded through Jisc as part of the Observing the 80s project, so responses to directives from this decade were highlighted. Workshops were also delivered for the Oyster Disability Charity and Ratton Secondary School. A highly skilled poet Evlynn Sharp facilitated the workshops with warmth and intimacy that ensured the men were comfortable to respond to the creative writing exercises and then share their work amongst the group. The first session took place prior to our annual call for 12th produced by the prisioners: LONG WAIT I remember waiting Where he said hed be. So long, the rain had gone though All my clothes to my skin, The cold hit me Like a slap to the face. I remember I kept telling myself, Hes in traffic, hell be here soon. My mum opened the door And told me to come in, Get a bath, and then Come down for dinner. I asked for the next six to nine months, Whens my dad coming to get me? To this day,
He never has. Was it somehow my fault? Or maybe hes still too busy. I had a letter some time ago From him. BEST FORGOTTEN Here to me is; this moment in time As I refuse to accept the walls around me, This place of noise and aggression and frustration And, yes, it must be said, inhumanity. So, I am here; its a blink of my eye, One more notch of my personal experience, But a here to be forgotten, To be ticked off as part of another day, Nearer to my return to normality, When there will be many heres: Some to be remembered, Some best forgotten.
Women at the Ready

From the summer of 1938, British women from all walks of life joined the Womens Voluntary Services (WVS). In their latest publication, Robert and Patricia Malcomson use archival sources (including the MOA) to tell the remarkable story of this organisation and the women on the home front.
Welcome to...
The Mass Observation Archive is pleased to welcome Ratna Jan Bibi to the Special Collections and Mass Observation team. Ratna took up the post of Mass Education Project Coordinator in September 2013. Her post is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and has been created to support the Mass Observation Archives HLF funded project, Mass Education. As part of this role, Ratna will coordinate a programme of creative Interested in supporting our activities?... learning activities Become a Friend of the Mass designed to inspire Observation Archive and help us reach and engage schools, our fundraising target families and the wider www..massobs.org.uk/becoming_a_ community groups with friend the Mass Observation Archive.
The English in Love

The English in Love is a new book by Claire Langhamer, Mass Observation Trustee and Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Sussex. The book, which uses material found in the MOA, explores the history of love, marriage and emotion in twentieth century Britain.
What is Happiness?
In 1938 Mass Observation asked the people of Bolton to respond to the question What is happiness? Hundreds of people sent a letter in reply to Mass Observations offices and factors such as; money; relationships; work and family were given as they key to a happy life. In November, the Mass Observation Archive celebrated this study with a series of events funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the ESRCs Festival of Social Science. The events, which attracted a wide audience, comprised of two public lectures given by academics who have published using material from the Mass Observation Archive, two creative writing workshops facilitated by the poet, Evlynn Sharp, and an evening event in a local pub with a panel of speakers. The events were recorded by Donna Galas, a postgraduate student from the Media department at the University of Sussex. Donna acted as blogger in residence for the Festival. Her blog posts can be viewed here: blogs.sussex.ac.uk/specialcollections.
The Mass Observation Archive specialises in material about everyday life in Britain. It contains papers generated by the original Mass Observation social research organisation (1937 to early 1960s), and newer material collected continuously since 1981. The Archive is in the care of the University of Sussex and is housed at The Keep with the University of Sussexs Special Collections. The Mass Observation Archive is a registered charitable trust (no. 270218) and is recognised by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council as having outstanding national and international importance under the Designation Scheme. The MO Bulletin is produced and edited by Jessica Scantlebury. It is distributed to Mass Observers and members of the Friends of the Archive scheme. Why not join our Friends scheme - not only will you be kept up to date with the latest MO related news, but you will also help to support Mass Observations activities. See our website for further details: www.massobs.org.uk or email [email protected]

Winter 2013 Bulletin

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Winter 2013 Issue 13

Welcome to the Bulletin!

The Keep, The Facts

Mass Observation Behind Bars

Women at the Ready

The English in Love

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