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Images of Britain: Mass-Observation 1937-2003

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Dorothy Sheridan
Dorothy Sheridan*
Affiliation:
The Library, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QL, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The papers generated by the research organisation ‘Mass-Observation’ provide a unique and insightful account of everyday life in the UK, documenting the years from 1937 until the mid-1950s. Using a variety of research methods (including in the early years photography and painting), Mass-Observation set about recording the lives of people throughout the country. In 1981 a new version of Mass-Observation was launched, based in the original Archive at the University of Sussex. Hundreds of volunteers record their own lives mostly in writing but also sometimes in images, in response to a variety of themes sent to them by the Archive. Research access is possible to both early and recent material.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , 2004 , pp. 30 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2004

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References

1. Shorter histories include: Calder, Angus. ‘Mass-Observation 1937-49’ in Bulmer, Martin, ed. Essays on the history of British sociological research. Cambridge University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Jeffery, Tom. Mass-Observation: a short history. New ed. University of Sussex, 1999. (Mass-Observation Archive Occasional Paper no. 10) (1978/1999).Google Scholar
Sheridan, Dorothy; Street, Brian and Bloome, David. Writing ourselves: Mass-Observation and literacy practices. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000.Google Scholar
>Stanley, Liz. The archaeology of a 1930s Mass-Observation project. University of Manchester, Dept. of Sociology, 1990. (Occasional Paper no. 27)Google Scholar
Stanley, Nick. The extra dimension: a study and assessment of the methods employed by Mass-Observation in its first period 1937-40. Ph.D. thesis (CNAA), 1981.Google Scholar
Summerfield, Penny. ‘Mass-Observation: social research or social movement? Journal of contemporary history vol. 20 1985. There is also a documentary film which includes interviews with surviving members of the M-O team: Stranger than fiction, directed by Ian Potts and shown on Channel 4 in 1987. Available from the British Film Institute.Google Scholar
2. Madge, Charles and Harrisson, Tom. First year’s work by Mass-Observation. London: Lindsay Drummond, 1938.Google Scholar
3. Ibid. Google Scholar
4. Plummer, Ken. Documents of life 2: an invitation to a critical humanism. London: Sage, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Thomas, W.I. and Znaniecki, Florian. The Polish peasant in Europe and America. New York: Dover Press, 1958.Google Scholar
6. Spender, Humphrey. Worktown people. Falling Wall Press, 1982. The Worktown photographs are now owned by Bolton Museum and Art Gallery.Google Scholar
7. Edited Mass-Observation diaries published so far include: Fleming, Suzie and Broad, Richard, eds. Nella Last#x2019;s war. Bristol: Falling Wall Press, 1981;Google Scholar
Sheridan, Dorothy, ed. Wartime women: a Mass-Observation anthology. London: Heinemann, 1990, reissued by Phoenix Press, 2002;Google Scholar
and Sheridan, Dorothy, ed. Among you taking notes: the wartime diary of Naomi Mitchison. 1985, reissued by Phoenix Press in 2000.Google Scholar
8. For fuller accounts of the contemporary project see Sheridan, Dorothy. ‘Writing to the Archive: Mass-Observation as autobiography’. Sociology vol. 27 no. 1, 1993, p.101–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Also Sheridan, Dorothy; Street, Brian & Bloome, David, op. cit. and Sheridan, Dorothy. Damned anecdotes and dangerous confabulations: Mass-Observation as life history. University of Sussex, 1996. (Mass-Observation Archive Occasional Paper no. 7).Google Scholar
9. Chamberlayne, Prue; Bornat, Joanna and Wengraf, Tom, eds. The turn to biographical methods in social science. London: Routledge, 2000.Google Scholar
10. For further information about the Mass-Observation Archive and for lists of publications, see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/massobs. The Archive also has an Occasional Paper series. Titles can be obtained from the website. (Tel. +44 1273 678157; fax: +44 1273 678441)Google Scholar