Tag Archives: Digital

OHD_SPS_0310 Timeline of technologies

Tech scandels Tech OHT
1981 TAPE system
1983 CD released in Europe and USA
1991 Project Jukebox (funded by Apple Library of Tomorrow Grant)
1992 Mini Disc
1993 Copyright Duration Directive (EU)
1994 Web Mail is used in CERN Steven Spielbarg starts the SHOAH institute
1995
1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty The Internet Archive
1997 Wi-Fi
1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (USA) [also had a big affect on the right repair] Google Interclipper demostration at OHA conference
1999 First SD card
2000 The Dot-com Bubble bursts VOAHA
2001 First iPod and iTunes ; Creative commons is founded ; The Wayback Machine goes public.
2002 Zoom H2 Handy Recorder
2003
2004 Vimeo ; Facebook Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project
2005 Youtube
2006 Twitter SHOAH collection moves to the University of Southern California
2007 iPhone ; SoundCloud Project Jukebox collabs with Testimony Software ; Montreal Life Stories kicks off
2008 FRISCH : First version of OHMS
2009
2010 France enacts the right to be forgotten Instagram Crash of VOAHA
2011 Zoom VOAHA II ; OHMS becomes open source ; Stories Matter is released
2012
2013 Edward Snowden
2014 European Court of Justice legally solidfies the “right to be forgotten” is a human right ; First NFT
2015 Australian Generations oral history project ends
2016 Cambridge Analytica Tiktok
2017 Obama Deep Fake UOSH starts
2018 GDPR is implimented
2019
2020 Covid-19 Pandemic
2021 Chat-GPT
2022 UOSH ends
2023 British Library Hack
2024 Europran Union adopts some right to repair rules. OHA conference on Oral History and AI

OHD_WRT_0276 C1168 uncatalogued items

Tranche 10 [G: Drive]

Property: Batemans

Folder contains:

One spreadsheet – which indicates four recordings on CDs transferred from mini disc

Four PDFs – scans of permission forms, summary, transcript and additional material

Property: Mottisfont (and Stockbridge?)

Folder contains:

One spreadsheet – which has 7 entries but only three are fully described. The NT reference is NT10678. There is also an additional sheet in the document for “Stockbridge” which has one entry with the NT code NT10924-001

Three word documents – summaries for interview with Derek Hill (NT reference NT10678-002), Prof. Rosalind Hill (NT10924-001, the Stockbridge one) and an BBC interview with Derek Hill (NT10678-004)

Property: Mottistone

Folder contains:

One spreadsheet – single entry NT10679

Tranche 11 (Knole) [G: Drive]

Property: Knole

Folder contains:

A single spreadsheet with 73 entries

C1168 Tranche 11 [N: Drive]

Property: Knole

Folder contains:

73 folders – each folder corresponds to an entry in the spreadsheet on the G: Drive folder “Tranche 11 (Knole). Each folder generally contains consent form, interview data sheet, timed content summary and the audio recording

Tranche 12 (Southwell) [G: Drive]

Property: Southwell

Folder contains:

One folder with 95 copyright forms and a spreadsheet of oral history interview metadata with 77 entries. The difference in the total of copyright forms to spreadsheet entries is likely due to some recordings having two or more interviewees. However the reference numbers for the recordings also seem to skip between NT10985—058 and NT10985—072 which could suggest files are missing although this is complete speculation. There are two entries for Brian Kay but this seems to be a mistake and one should be Paula Clifford. For nine of the entries I had not been able to locate any files these are:

Adkin, Margaret

Bowler, David

Cotterill, L

Gaunt, William

Knobham, Lily

Pitchford Diana

Ryan, Wendy

Thomas, Doris

Wright, Frederick

C1168 Tranche 12 [N: Drive]

Property: Southwell

Folder contains:

“OneDrive_1_05-10-2020” – the interviews on ten interviewees, one has an interview summary and the other seems to have additional written material. Two only have mp3s files. None of these names are found in the spreadsheet in the folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive but their copyright forms are in the folder “copyright assignment” in in the folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive.

Adamson, Louise

Ball, Samantha

Grice, Irene

Hancock, Peter

Kemp, Trevor

Kent, Pauline

Manning, Michael

Nicholls, Angela

Powell, Rosemary

Williamson, Neil

“OneDrive_1_25-09-2020” – 10 tapes with summary sheets in word doc format. Lynne Bush and Dorothy Bush are the same person. These are found in the spreadsheet in folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive and their copyright forms are in the folder “copyright assignment” in in the folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive.

“OneDrive_2_25-09-2020” – 19 interviews with summaries and one extra summary sheet for Hughes, Daphne and Stanley. These are found in the spreadsheet in folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive and their copyright forms are in the folder “copyright assignment” in in the folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive.

“OneDrive_3_25-09-2020” – the audio for ten interviewees some do not have summary sheets and the is one lone summary sheet for Kay, Brian. These are found in the spreadsheet in folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive and their copyright forms are in the folder “copyright assignment” in in the folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive.

“OneDrive_4b_25-09-2020” – One interview in Mp3 format, 15 in WAV. Only six have summaries. These are found in the spreadsheet in folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive and their copyright forms are in the folder “copyright assignment” in in the folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive.

“OneDrive_5_27-09-2020” – 14 interviews no summary sheets. One additional document in PDF format. These are found in the spreadsheet in folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive and their copyright forms are in the folder “copyright assignment” in in the folder “Tranche 12 (Southwell)” in the G: Drive.

C1168 Tranche 13 [N: Drive]

Property: Clumber Park

Folder contains:

Material from one interview with Peter Stevenson, including permission forms, transcript and WAV file

Cupbooard

Tranche 5

Properties: A lot

Box 1 – Contains loads of CDs which are also found in the folder “C1168 Tranche 5” on N: Drive. HAS BEEN CATALOGUED but the CDs have not been given BL catalogue codes.

Box 2 – Contains CDs of recordings which are also found in the folder “C1168 Tranche 5” on N: Drive. A USB with summary sheets which are also found in the folder “Tranche 5” on G: Drive. HAS BEEN CATALOGUED but the CDs have not been given BL catalogue codes. There is also a cheat sheet explaining some stranger donations.

6 Rogue CDs – Definitely from Tranche 5 but these have bee labelled with their BL catalogue code.

Tranche 12

FIVE INTERVIEWS IN TRANCHE 12 ARE ALSO IN TRANCHE 4 IN THE FOLDER “WORKHOUSE”

The names are: Curtis & Freeman, Pointon, Smith S, Bush, Green

Property: The Workhouse, Southwell

Harddrive – OneDrive dump same as in the folder “C1168 Tranche 12” [N: Drive]

Box 1 of mini discs – Five interview which have been digitised and can be found in “OneDrive_3_25-09-2020” in N: Drive. Interview with Brain Kay which does have a summary in N: Drive but no audio file. And an interview with Margaret Adkin which does not have any material on N: Drive. One disc has no label, one has “interview (2)” as label and the final one is a test disc.

Box 2 of mini discs – One mini disc possibly labeled Touley, Law (handwriting is hard to read). And two labeled “Wendy Ryan ?” Note: Wendy Ryan’s interview is not in N: Drive.

9 CDs – also found on N: Drive. One is labeled Barker but there are two Barker in the spreadsheet

25 cassettes – Cassette not ripped from mini discs. One is labeled Holmes but there are two people called Holmes in the spreadsheet.

20 cassettes ripped from 13 mini discs 

Tranche 10

Property: Bateman’s, Mottisfont, Mottistone, Stockbridge

6 cassettes of 3 interviews

A memory stick which is labeled Tranche 4 but is not Tranche 4 or any other Tranche

OHD_WRT_0251 ChatGPT and oral history

E and W – Otter

0:08

The Duke of Windsor, Edward the eighth King of England for a little more than 10 months in 1936 was born at White Lodge which one sorry, on the 23rd of June at 94, son of the future Georgia the fifth and Queen Mary, great grandson of Queen Victoria and he remembers Queen Victoria, great, solemn, somewhat remote presence, queen, Empress, head of a vast international royal family.

0:37

The other Duke was born both the actuality and the idea behind the words the British Empire were at their zenith, Queen Victoria had been on the throne as long as almost anybody could remember. Her son, Edward the seventh, whom the Duke remembers with great affection not as a Monique but as an indulgent grandfather gave his name to another age, not so grand, but perhaps more golden.

1:03

So the Duke of Windsor is the last living royal contemporary of that great imperial past.

1:11

And like his father before him, the Duke went into the Navy at the age of 12. When his grandfather died in 19 110, and his father became king, he became the heir apparent. He was invested in Prince of Wales at Carnarvon, on the same spot, the same month, and much the same ring as he called it, as his great nephew Charles was last year. Then he went off to Oxford. Then came what he describes as his real education, the First World War, not so much the mud and blood of Flanders, he saw plenty of it, but the mixing with men of many different countries of many ranks and from many different backgrounds.

1:53

Now, because of the great eye opening and mind awakening which the war had been for him, he would have liked to have branched out into public work when the war was over. And as I said he did with many much fated world tours, including Canada and the United States. But his father had very limited notions of what was proper for a Prince of Wales to do. And since much of this was ceremonial and formal, the still young Prince of Wales found life somewhat frustrating. But nevertheless, in the 20s, he became more and more respected for the work he put in for the range of public interests he displayed for the nakki hand for getting on terms with people the friendly curiosity, he obviously showed in what everybody in all walks of life was doing. And because he obviously loved fun, while it was writing in steeplechase is all dancing to a jazz band, he became more and more popular, the notion grew that this prince was somehow the people’s prince, and the more so since though he kept up a tremendous round of visits in their salon Mala Hong Kong, the life of the court, the ceremonial side of being royal, did not seem to attract him in the least.

3:11

But on the early 30s, the pencil is being widely discussed for his interest in social problems, poverty, unemployment,

3:20

he was known to abroad businessman and industrialists together to see what can be done to get the country going again. newspapers printed photographs of his drawn face as he looked on slums in Lancashire, queues of unemployed miners in South Wales, and is a jack Ulation This is damnable something must be done about it was quoted and re quoted throughout the country. But let him deal with these matters in his own words in the programme,

3:48

and when I talked to the Duke of Windsor, I talked also to the Duchess.

3:54

The Duke first met Mrs. Wallace Warfield Simpson on a hunting weekend in 1931. And as you relate it afterwards, she had a heavy cold, and they hardly exchanged more than a few sentences. It was several years before they met again, that by the time he became king, on the 20th of January 1936, he’d fallen in love with her. He made up his mind that he wanted to share his life with her. And he resolved that if he could not marry her as kitten, he gave up the throne.

4:24

The record of his discussions with the government of the day on this subject are now part of history. After several tense, anguish days, the ultimate decision came December the 10th. The Duke sign the instrument of abdication gave up the throne for the woman he loved.

4:44

following June, he married Mrs. Wallace Warfield Simpson, who had by then obtained a divorce.

4:52

my conversation with the Duke and Duchess took place at their house in Paris and the wider Bitcoin 20 minutes by car from the centre of the city.

5:00

First, as you would hear the Duke and Duchess and I had a talk, sitting in the beautiful Salon of this handsome house, lay side by side, myself opposite. Then the Duchess left us and the Duke and I talked, moving into the library and settling down their wonderful room, high panels, lines of leather bound books, broad fireplace, roaring fire, and two of the four pugs present.

5:28

The Duke and Duchess live in this house in Paris in the week, most weekends, they go down to their middle house, 45 minutes southwest of Paris and the country at jif. Sea Rivette, they spend April, May and June in the United States, and usually a couple of weeks in Spain, and Portugal.

5:49

The Duke and Duchess are tremendously interested in young people absolutely fascinated by modern youth. So I began by asking them, now you both seen many generations of young people grow up? What do you make of young people today? I think they look like they’re having very little fun. I think they are. parents aren’t, of course. But the youngsters are.

00:08 – 05:49

The Duke of Windsor, born in 1894 as the son of future King George V and Queen Mary, remembers Queen Victoria and the grand imperial past of the British Empire. He joined the Navy at 12 and was invested as Prince of Wales in 1911. The First World War was a significant education for him as he interacted with men of different backgrounds and nationalities. In the 1920s, he became respected for his public work and was popularly known as the people’s prince. He took an interest in social problems such as poverty and unemployment and even met with businessmen and industrialists to discuss how to get the country going again. His discussions with the government on his desire to marry Mrs. Wallace Warfield Simpson and his subsequent abdication are now part of history. The Duke and Duchess live in Paris but spend their weekends at their house in the country and their summers in the United States.

05:49 – 09:05 TRANSCRIPT

So I began by asking them, now you both seen many generations of young people grow up? What do you make of young people today?

I think they look like they’re having very little fun.

I think they are. parents aren’t, of course. But the youngsters are.

Where do you think the parents tried to stop them? Now? How can they use this completely independent? mean financially independent? No, I mean, mentally independent and their actions and stuff? I don’t know about their finances. I suppose they work. But I think they’re independent, much more than we were when we were young.

But on the whole losing, it’s a good thing.

It’s I think it’s a good thing doesn’t matter. You know, it’s experience for them, isn’t it? Then I think they’ll turn around become different from normal. I don’t think they’re abnormal. Now. You shocked what you see today. I’m not a bit I’m interested in it. I like very much being in the red light in front of the drugstore, shelves. elisee this marvellous time.

You go around Paris quite a lot on your own looking at life.

Well, I’m always going someplace, and the streets are always filled with life. And so I looking at him all the time not reading a book in the car.

People you’re amused and interested to see the people going in and out of the truck, whatever you want to happen in the house.

I don’t think they’d want to direct, I think there was people I don’t know, I might see on the street that I might think be amusing to have, because the ones I know do come, but I try not to mix them up with too many of our age, because I think that suppresses them a bit. But I just think they’re very good for older people to have young people. It’s the younger people be kind enough to offer us with their presence.

What can the older people stand the younger people can do, but the general tendency of young women is close. manuscripts, for instance, what do you think of the minister?

Well, I think he said, You know what you’re getting down to?

Number two, many, but they got good underpinnings. All right.

But apart from how young people dress, and there’s a question on how young people behave.

And I have a great many young people come here, because that makes me feel young. And I tried to make him have a good time. Yeah. And I think they behave extremely well. I mean, they behave like we didn’t we, and they may dance in the hall. There. They may do little dances, I don’t know and show them to me, and we all try. I think they’ve extremely well.

You don’t have any feeling of young people somehow going downhill. And at

all the ones that we see anyway, short while ago, we’re talking about being with it. Now the Duchess and I are a little past the age of being what they call with it today. But don’t one minute. And imagine that we went with it when we were younger. In fact, I was so much with it that that was one of the big criticisms that was levelled against me by the older generation.

05:49 – 09:05 SUMMARY

In this conversation, two elderly individuals discuss their observations of young people today. They believe that young people are not having as much fun as they should be, although they themselves are interested in observing them. They also think that young people are more financially and mentally independent than they were at their age. They do not see young people as abnormal, and they think that it is good for them to gain experiences. The conversation also touches on young people’s behavior, and the elderly individuals believe that they behave well and are not going downhill. They also talk about the importance of having young people around and how it makes them feel young. The conversation ends with a reflection on how they were once criticized for being “with it” when they were younger.

09:05 – 11:37 TRANSCRIPT

Can you throw your mind back to the first time you met the Duke?

Yes, I met him at Melton Mowbray he was hunting there and I was asked to that same house but then I met him there.

Can you remember the first thing he said do or the first? Remember the last thing he said?

When you first met the do, did he strike you as being a very conventional kind of Englishman or as a very different kind of English.

He struck me as being wizard at that time.

What kinds of things now made you feel that about him?

I think he was ahead of his time. I think he had lots of bap and I think he’s very much ahead of his time. I think he wanted to establish things that were a little not ready for them. Really

perhaps not ready for it though. But they’ve never anything new came along. I was wanting to try it out.

Always. You felt that when you met him when he was Prince of Wales that he had a, a different and forward looking conception of what a Prince of Wales ought to be?

Yes, I really didn’t think so I thought he was very interested in everything was going on in the people and made a lot of trips. And I thought that was very interesting. Not only ceremonials, but to go down among the people, which to me as an American is what I’m used to people doing and I thought that was pretty clever.

But as he got into bad habits,

he has two bad habits. He has smoking which I disapprove very much. And then he has golfing which leaves me alone the radio.

When you say you disapprove of smoking, you mean any kind of smoking you objector. Yes, any kind, it’s not that perhaps he doesn’t put his cigarettes out or something like that. But

that’s a little dangerous. They slide off the ashtrays, tips, and again, car strains that are of putting it in. I think it’s dirty habit smoking.

Doctor told me the other day that it was better to smoke marijuana than to smoke ordinary tobacco. I’ve never tried marijuana, and I never intend to. So I’m going to stick to my

ordinary, and you’re going to stick to your golf.

So long as I can.

You really do enjoy it.

I’m very, very poor player, but I died very much from the exercise. What about the endless cups of tea? That about having

endless cups of tea, but not cups? Really? Soup plates? Or tea cups? This law?

Who drinks the tea? You Oh.

09:05 – 11:37 SUMMARY

The interviewee recalls her first meeting with the Duke at Melton Mowbray while he was hunting. She describes him as a forward-looking person who wanted to establish things that were not yet ready. She also mentions that he was interested in everything that was going on and made a lot of trips, which impressed her. However, she disapproved of his smoking and golfing habits. She thinks smoking is a dirty habit and dangerous, while she enjoys golf for the exercise. They also discuss the Duke’s habit of drinking tea, which she clarifies are actually served in soup plates, and she drinks the tea herself.

09:05 – 12:32 TRANSCRIPT

Can you throw your mind back to the first time you met the Duke?

Yes, I met him at Melton Mowbray he was hunting there and I was asked to that same house but then I met him there.

Can you remember the first thing he said do or the first? Remember the last thing he said?

When you first met the do, did he strike you as being a very conventional kind of Englishman or as a very different kind of English.

He struck me as being wizard at that time.

What kinds of things now made you feel that about him?

I think he was ahead of his time. I think he had lots of bap and I think he’s very much ahead of his time. I think he wanted to establish things that were a little not ready for them. Really

perhaps not ready for it though. But they’ve never anything new came along. I was wanting to try it out.

Always. You felt that when you met him when he was Prince of Wales that he had a, a different and forward looking conception of what a Prince of Wales ought to be?

Yes, I really didn’t think so I thought he was very interested in everything was going on in the people and made a lot of trips. And I thought that was very interesting. Not only ceremonials, but to go down among the people, which to me as an American is what I’m used to people doing and I thought that was pretty clever.

But as he got into bad habits,

he has two bad habits. He has smoking which I disapprove very much. And then he has golfing which leaves me alone the radio.

When you say you disapprove of smoking, you mean any kind of smoking you objector. Yes, any kind, it’s not that perhaps he doesn’t put his cigarettes out or something like that. But

that’s a little dangerous. They slide off the ashtrays, tips, and again, car strains that are of putting it in. I think it’s dirty habit smoking.

Doctor told me the other day that it was better to smoke marijuana than to smoke ordinary tobacco. I’ve never tried marijuana, and I never intend to. So I’m going to stick to my

ordinary, and you’re going to stick to your golf.

So long as I can.

You really do enjoy it.

I’m very, very poor player, but I died very much from the exercise. What about the endless cups of tea? That about having

endless cups of tea, but not cups? Really? Soup plates? Or tea cups? This law?

Who drinks the tea? You Oh. Have you got any things between you that you do disagree about that? You have strong differences of opinion about perhaps food or people? Anything?

hours,

hours? What you mean by that?

Well, I mean, I like to stay up very like I do. And I like to get up very early.

I don’t like to get up.

So we have hours with that works itself out. And then we’re a little late for things and I’m absolutely on the dark. Everybody says they know I’m gonna be the first person to arrive at the dinner party. Is

there a little bit like? You both like reading? So I,

I read all the time because I didn’t sleep I’m terrible sleeper. I don’t say that what I read is very educational. Because in the middle of the night, it’s always hard to read something very serious. So I read dozens of detective stories, mystery stories.

09:05 – 12:32 SUMMARY

The interviewee recalls the first time she met the Duke at Melton Mowbray and thought he was a “wizard” who was ahead of his time. She admired how he was interested in people and made trips to visit them. However, she disapproved of his smoking and golfing habits. She also mentions their differing sleeping habits, with her preferring to stay up late and wake up early, while he does not like waking up early. They both enjoy reading, with her reading mostly detective and mystery stories due to her trouble sleeping.

12:32 – 15:12 TRANSCRIPT

Did you ever think of having a career yourself?

Well, I was offered a very strange thing once years ago, and I wish I’d taken it up is when they first had that tubing for buildings. And I was offered to go around selling it. My mathematics weren’t quite good enough to accept that I

don’t think you really thought it might have been a good idea.

I think it would have been just like it’s on every building, every building is put up by that tubing now. But you

think that it’s quite a good thing for women to have careers?

I do. Indeed, I like to be head of an advertising agency, yourself. Because you’ve got lots of things to think up to sell a product and so forth. I’d like that very much.

You don’t think that being the head of such a business has somewhat de feminising effect on women

at all? I don’t see why should I think they have to use their femininity in business.

I think on the continent of Europe, I think they there are relatively few women go into business. But I think many more are going into business in Britain with that, right?

Oh, I think so. As you don’t you don’t think ma’am that women have suffered somewhat over the last 30 years by being too competitive with men that they’ve lost something of their essential character and charm

No, I don’t think so. Really. I know got many women in business and I don’t think they have it all.

Afternoon abdicated sir. You had two jobs and you’re in rapid succession.

I was appointed governor of the Bahamas. Occupied government has now sold for almost five years.

How did you enjoy getting out man,

I liked it very much wonderful climate interesting reward is being very rewarding. I ran a canteen to canteens there for the RAF. And when they were leaving, they were going to give me a present. So the dude knows that I’m speechless. I’m speechless in front of anything. So he’s, he had to give the secret away. He told me that he said they’re going to give you a silver box and I thought they wanted to be a surprise, but I knew that you wouldn’t be able to open your mouth when they presented it. So I warned you. And what happened? Well, I said fewer simple word.

Would you like to have gone on and added another job after that? So as I

offered my services if they were acquired and never gotten a job

I have to do to had a job this day much better much

in those days that 25 years ago.

I think he could have done something.

Why didn’t you get a job? Do you think?

Hard to say? Most of the people I think prevented me are underground. Now.

12:32 – 15:12 SUMMARY ONE

The conversation touches on various topics. When asked about having a career herself, the speaker mentions a missed opportunity to sell tubing for buildings. She also expresses an interest in heading an advertising agency, without believing that femininity should be used in business. The speaker discusses her time as governor of the Bahamas, running canteens for the RAF, and receiving a silver box as a gift. When asked if she would have liked another job after that, she says she offered her services but never got a job, possibly due to people underground preventing her.

12:32 – 15:12 SUMMARY TWO

The conversation includes the following points:

  • The speaker was offered a job selling tubing for buildings, but didn’t take it due to lack of math skills.
  • She thinks it’s a good thing for women to have careers, and would like to be the head of an advertising agency.
  • She doesn’t think that being a successful businesswoman requires using femininity.
  • There are more women going into business in Britain compared to the continent of Europe.
  • The speaker enjoyed being the governor of the Bahamas and running canteens for the RAF.
  • She was speechless when presented with a silver box as a gift.
  • She would have liked to continue working after her governorship ended but never got a job, possibly due to people preventing her from doing so.

15:12 – 18:35 TRANSCRIPT

Talking about young people around talking about old people, older people say that the really great problem for them is loneliness.

There’s no problems. A man alone is always an empty seat at every dinner table for the extra man. But woman alone is quite a different. When she’s older, she may be terribly rich, because her husband’s died and left a lot of money. But what is she going to do? Who’s going to take her out to dinner? How much time is she going to spend sitting alone, unless she’s going to entertain a great deal. And then most of our friends are probably in the same. Probably widows too. You see, then the great man hunt has to go on to get someone to come to dinner and sit next to these people.

The Duchess is on Mrs. Buchanan, Merriman, who live to 100 years and three months, lived in Washington. She was originally from Baltimore. And somebody said, best Why don’t you move back to Baltimore? Because you could look up all your old friends. They said, look them up. You mean Tiger Mom? Is a wonderful lady.

Duchess What is the secret of keeping? looking young? No, no,

I’m not secret. I think happiness is a great see secret to how you feel and look perhaps leaving that happy

when you set me up very answer to.

Well, I’m very happy.

I didn’t ask him what part of the United States you came from that you would consider as your home Maryland,

the wealthy Maryland. Line one off it was the governor of Maryland.

I always consider myself a Southerner by marriage.

Is the one part of the United Kingdom that you feel more attached to than another

in Britain? Oh, yes, I think Sunningdale I think that’s part of Britain’s great affection poll.

Do you feel that in some ways the Americans have got something to teach the British and the British have got something to teach the Americans?

I think they both have something to teach each other radio I think

what what do you think that the British might learn from the Americans?

Movement pap.

And the what do you think the Americans might learn from the British?

How to speak nicely?

I think that a lot of American Express has crept into the English language,

of course that you speak with a bit of an American accent accent

says but I don’t know. I got it for me if

you have any regrets when you look back on your life?

Oh, about certain things. Yes, I wish it could have been different. But I mean, I’m extremely happy and naturally have had some hard times but who hasn’t? So they will just have to learn to live with that. But I have great fun.

I read a lot of fun.

15:12 – 18:35 SUMMARY

The Duchess discusses the issue of loneliness among older people, noting that it is a greater problem for women as they may have lost their spouse and have fewer options for socializing. She mentions a woman who lived to 100 years and three months and the difficulties she faced in finding companionship. The Duchess attributes her own youthful appearance to her happiness, and she considers Maryland her home in the United States. She believes that Americans and British people have something to learn from each other, with the British possibly learning movement and the Americans learning how to speak nicely. The Duchess admits to some regrets in life but overall has had great fun and enjoys reading.

18:35 – 20:58 TRANSCRIPT

I remember you were saying in your book that both you and the duke would have liked to have had children, for instance? Yes,

I think that’s great. Because then you learn so much more and so forth. Because makes you lonely. Sometimes if you’re, we, we have got a lot of friends and that helps us enormously. But people in a mag I suppose to have been into are really friends with their children. Before they used to be a sort of former relationship between parents and children. Now they’re all sort of friends with each other, not scared of each other. I think that’s awfully nice.

Now how that come about, do you think I think the parents just become very intelligent, your relationship with your father, sir. You were obviously devoted to him, and he was very good father. But what’s the kind of rapport between you that the Duchess is describing?

None at all. We were brought up very strictly my father was a great disciplinarian. And in those days, as opposed to today, there was an old adage which said, children are to be seen and not heard. Sometimes when my father admonished me for something that I’ve done, that my dad boy, you will always remember who you are. So I used to think, but now who am I? No answer.

Parents now are friends with their children’s it’s more of a friendship and a mother and father children relationship and that’s why I think it goes off it well.

In your autobiography, you wrote that you always found the Duke somehow remote, aloof, I think is the word you use something mysterious about him. Do you think it has to do with what we’re talking about? I think

it has a great deal to do with that. And I also think that he is still aloof in a way because he he decides everything voice says it to see whereas I just go ahead.

I don’t consider myself a loser

or not to me. No, I think he reconsiders i It’s out before I have time to think and I think he thinks before he speaks which is very good. Maybe it’s

sometimes when I don’t don’t agree with you.

18:35 – 20:58 SUMMARY

In this conversation, the Duchess and the interviewer discuss the issue of loneliness among older people, particularly women who may become rich widows but lack companionship. The Duchess attributes her own youthful appearance to happiness, and she considers herself a Southerner by marriage. She believes that both Americans and British people have things to learn from each other. The conversation then turns to the topic of parent-child relationships, with the Duchess suggesting that parents today are more likely to be friends with their children than in the past. The interviewer asks the Duke about his relationship with his father, which was strict and formal, and the Duchess remarks that the Duke is still somewhat aloof, although she sees this as a positive trait.

20:58 – 25:50 TRANSCRIPT

When the Duchess had gone, I followed the Duke into the library. As I walked under the Prince of Wales, his standard from St. George’s Chapel Windsor, hanging down over the hall from the balustrade of the staircase. I passed by the table, on which lies the red despatch box, bearing in gold letters, the words, the king was asked open by a king nearly 35 years ago to take out the abdication document, which had been prepared for him to sign on December the 10th 1936. When I talked to the Duke on his own, we went on rather a different range of topics on affairs of state on statesman he’d met, though we talked also as you Yeah, about personal matters, its parents his upbringing, hobbies, Steeplechasing, his golf. We began with his attitude to the duty and role of being a king. How would you see the monarchy today is as an institution?

Well, I think it’s a it’s a great, great institution, but the monarchy has to change. With the times we’ll go back to the days of my great grandmother, Queen Victoria, who changed the image of the monarchy, from the rather frivolous, dissolute times of what she described as her wicked ankles. widowhood struck her when she was comparatively young at the age of 40. And he lived at court and the atmosphere became one of mourning, and austerity, which she maintained until her death. You will recall that there were even great criticisms that she didn’t show ourselves more. She wouldn’t have shot herself because she said, people only want to see me in my great grief. My grandfather changed at all. During the nine years that he was king. He’d been the leader of, of the Society of Britain and all the gay life, which is now called the Edwardian era. It was a horse racing. He was fortunate enough to win the derby horse race three times for the grand national ones in the same year Dhabi. And he was seen a great deal around the country and was very popular. My father was always quiet a man, great king, and a great rain. But life had caught again, shall we say, became more subdued. When it came to my turn, during the last 10 months, um, that matter of days, I wasn’t going to change, a great deal. But I could see, although a great believer in tradition, great believer in the ceremonial which is part of the monarchy, that there was some outmoded ceremonials which could be dispensed with. In other words, all I wanted to do, and all I meant to do was to open the windows a little and let in some fresh air. After I left, my brother had also a great rain was a very popular Monique. I think he tended more to follow in the footsteps of our father. After his untimely death, early death, tragic death. My niece became the queen and bear in mind all the great changes that have taken place in these last two decades since the last war I think that monarchy could not possibly be in better hands than it is today.

You remember Queen Victoria at all?

Yes, very dimly. I was six years old when she died. She was always a very serious figure to be, I think that was called a shadowy figure in my recollection, is to never it. Windsor and Osborne, Balmoral.

And Edward, the seventh son, oh, yes,

I remember him much better. He was always very genial with his grandchildren. And we’d like to escape to what we used to call the big house and salary away from the parental discipline.

20:58 – 25:50 SUMMARY

The narrator follows the Duke into the library, passing by the table on which lies the red despatch box bearing the abdication document that the Duke was asked to sign in 1936. The Duke and the narrator discuss various topics such as the monarchy and the role of a king. The Duke believes that the monarchy is a great institution but needs to change with the times. He talks about the changes brought about by his great grandmother, Queen Victoria, and his grandfather, King Edward VII. He also discusses his own reign and the changes he wanted to make during his brief tenure as king. The Duke remembers Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, whom he recalls as a genial grandfather.

25:50 – 29:02 TRANSCRIPT

When you were a child that were you temperamentally a rebel, so to speak?

Yes, I would say I was. Because we were brought up very strictly, my father had been trained in the, in the Navy, where the discipline is very rigorous. And I think he had it in his mind that that was the best way to bring up his children.

Interesting said that your father, whom you describe as being very strict, was such a different character from your grandfather. He was.

My grandfather was strict too. But I see he didn’t become King until he was 16 when Victoria never allowed him to see any of the state papers, and so he became the leader of London society and the pleasant life of those days.

That was his compensation for not having that right. But

tell he was he was very good king that he, in the news, foreign politics very well.

When you look back on your youth set, do you think you got a suitable education for becoming a king?

I think for the time during that time that I was being educated, I think probably it was quite suitable. I was raised in somewhat restricted training of the Navy. I went to Oxford for two years, not being very bookish, I never got my degree, although one year was cut short, and I said that I didn’t get a degree because the wall and the wall. But the wall was very restricting to four years, all we had to concentrate on was the waging of the wall. I was then in the army. And now in retrospect, I’m sure that my great nephew, Charles, present Prince of Wales, from his days in school, he went to school in Australia. And he’s been at Cambridge for two or three years, I would think that he’s not going out into the world to do his job. Far better equipped than I was that time.

Would you describe yourself as a reforming King? When you occupied the throne?

No, no, I wouldn’t. I wanted to be an up to date King. I didn’t have that much time to

know. And you didn’t have as it were, you didn’t have political conceptions about how the country had lots

of political perception and kept them to myself. That is the tradition of the royal family.

What were the things that you wanted to change? Could you give me some examples, some examples of the ways in which you ran up against the conventions?

I didn’t have time I wasn’t there long enough. But I had in mind to change, especially to do with the with the court which after all, the court is dominated by by the king and he influences the court and gives the orders its command so to speak.

25:50 – 29:02 SUMMARY

The interviewer asks if the King was a rebel as a child, and he says he was due to his strict upbringing. They discuss the differences between the King’s father and grandfather, and the King says his education was suitable for the time, but his great nephew, the current Prince of Wales, is better equipped for the job. The King denies being a reforming king and says he kept his political perceptions to himself, as is the tradition of the royal family. He wanted to change things at the court, but didn’t have enough time to do so.


E and W – Youtube


ChatGPT_summaries_test_230222

Could you summaries in 100 words the following text: This is a first interview with Mimi Feingold Real for the Bay Area Women in Politics Oral History Project. The interview is being conducted by Amanda Tewes on February 9, 2021. And Ms. Real joins me in this remote interview from Mill Valley, California, and I am in Walnut Creek, California. So thank you so much for meeting with me today, Mimi. 01-00:00:23 Real: Delighted. 01-00:00:25 Tewes: Starting at the very beginning: can you tell us when and where you were born? 01-00:00:30 Real: Okay, I was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 31, 1941. 01-00:00:37 Tewes: And did you grow up in Brooklyn? 01-00:00:40 Real: I grew up in Brooklyn, I lived in Brooklyn. I didn’t leave there until I went to college. But basically, I guess right after I was born my parents were living in an apartment, but they moved within the first couple of years to the house that I grew up in. I hesitated at the word house, because it was what in San Francisco would be called a pair of flats, and that isn’t the term that was used. There was a two-family house, so we occupied the upstairs, and the owner of the building occupied downstairs. But yes, that is where I grew up. 01-00:01:32 Tewes: That is really interesting, the regional difference between the housing styles. 01-00:01:33 Real: Yes, yes. 01-00:01:35 Tewes: Can you tell me a little bit more about what it was like growing up in Brooklyn in the forties and fifties? 01-00:01:43 Real: Well, on one level it was very ordinary. This was a fairly residential neighborhood, tree-lined streets. We could play maybe not out in the middle of the street, but play on the sidewalk, sometimes even in the street. It was primarily a middle-class neighborhood, and in those days we weren’t even aware of these things, but it was predominantly white. And also, more important to my identification, it was predominantly Jewish—as was a good deal of Brooklyn and a good deal of New York in those days. But again, it was just something that you breathed in with the air. You went to the little shopping neighborhood nearby, and on practically every street there was a Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 2 Copyright © 2022 by The Regents of the University of California kosher butcher, and there was a Jewish delicatessen every couple of blocks. There were elements of a much smaller city. We didn’t feel like we were part of some great, big, huge urban sprawl with all kinds of problems

This is a transcript of an interview between Mimi Feingold Real and Amanda Tewes for the Bay Area Women in Politics Oral History Project. Real was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941, and grew up in a middle-class, predominantly Jewish neighborhood. She lived in a two-family house where her family occupied the upstairs, and the owner of the building occupied the downstairs. Real shares her experience of growing up in Brooklyn in the forties and fifties, where it was an ordinary and residential neighborhood with tree-lined streets, and every street had a kosher butcher and a Jewish delicatessen.

Could you summaries in 200 words the following text: s: This is a first interview with Mimi Feingold Real for the Bay Area Women in Politics Oral History Project. The interview is being conducted by Amanda Tewes on February 9, 2021. And Ms. Real joins me in this remote interview from Mill Valley, California, and I am in Walnut Creek, California. So thank you so much for meeting with me today, Mimi. 01-00:00:23 Real: Delighted. 01-00:00:25 Tewes: Starting at the very beginning: can you tell us when and where you were born? 01-00:00:30 Real: Okay, I was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 31, 1941. 01-00:00:37 Tewes: And did you grow up in Brooklyn? 01-00:00:40 Real: I grew up in Brooklyn, I lived in Brooklyn. I didn’t leave there until I went to college. But basically, I guess right after I was born my parents were living in an apartment, but they moved within the first couple of years to the house that I grew up in. I hesitated at the word house, because it was what in San Francisco would be called a pair of flats, and that isn’t the term that was used. There was a two-family house, so we occupied the upstairs, and the owner of the building occupied downstairs. But yes, that is where I grew up. 01-00:01:32 Tewes: That is really interesting, the regional difference between the housing styles. 01-00:01:33 Real: Yes, yes. 01-00:01:35 Tewes: Can you tell me a little bit more about what it was like growing up in Brooklyn in the forties and fifties? 01-00:01:43 Real: Well, on one level it was very ordinary. This was a fairly residential neighborhood, tree-lined streets. We could play maybe not out in the middle of the street, but play on the sidewalk, sometimes even in the street. It was primarily a middle-class neighborhood, and in those days we weren’t even aware of these things, but it was predominantly white. And also, more important to my identification, it was predominantly Jewish—as was a good deal of Brooklyn and a good deal of New York in those days. But again, it was just something that you breathed in with the air. You went to the little shopping neighborhood nearby, and on practically every street there was a Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 2 Copyright © 2022 by The Regents of the University of California kosher butcher, and there was a Jewish delicatessen every couple of blocks. There were elements of a much smaller city. We didn’t feel like we were part of some great, big, huge urban sprawl with all kinds of problems. 01-00:03:06 There was a park nearby, Prospect Park, which is Brooklyn’s equivalent of Central Park, and we used to go there all the time for a variety of things. In the summer, there was a lake and you could rent paddleboats and go out on the lake. In the winter, there were little hills, and we used to pull our sleds over there and sled down the hills. Prospect Park was one of our hangouts. And then close by to Prospect Park was the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, and we also spent a lot of time there. Gorgeous, gorgeous flowering cherry trees. It was a gift of Japan. It’s still there to this day, and it is still one of the great prides of Brooklyn. But my mother always used to take us every spring when the cherry blossoms were in bloom, and we’d walk up Cherry Lane and admire the beautiful blossoms. That would be about the time—and even earlier than that—some of the very, very earliest of the bulb flowers would come up, little bluebells, and then after that daffodils. And so we’d go to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens to look at those. 01-00:04:35 And then sort of right across the street or very nearby to both of those parks was the Brooklyn Zoo, and I spent a fair amount of time in the Brooklyn Zoo, also. Which I do have to say is—I’m thinking about it now—it may be that some of my earliest social justice feelings were born in that zoo, because I always felt very, very sorry for the animals. And this was a very old-fashioned zoo, so they were mostly—they weren’t in cages, but they were in fairly small enclosures, and it was obviously very artificial. I remember writing a story when I was in elementary school about how a magic spell descended, and the animals all were released, and the human beings were all put in the zoo enclosures. So I obviously felt some stirring of something at the time. 01-00:05:42 And then I went to public school in Brooklyn. Well, I went to a public elementary school. The schools in New York City, at least at that time— thereby avoiding this problem that San Francisco seems to be having with its schools—the New York City schools were not named, at least the elementary schools; they were all numbered. I went to P.S. 241, and there was nothing strange about that. I have very fond memories of that school. And that was, at the time, one of the few remaining K-8 schools in New York. New York was just in the process, at that moment, of transitioning to junior highs. And junior high school in New York at that time was seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, so then you entered high school in tenth grade, which was a little bit weird. But I didn’t go through that because P.S. 241 was K-8, so I graduated from eighth grade and then went into high school in ninth grade. And then, of course, when tenth grade came around, our class just blew up in size—probably more than doubled in size as all the kids from the K-6 schools came pouring in. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 3 Copyright © 2022 by The Regents of the University of California 01-00:07:25 But anyway, I went from P.S. 241 to Erasmus Hall High School, which at that time was one of the best academic high schools in the city. It wasn’t a specialized school. It was just a regular public high school, but in large part because of the demographics of the area that it covered, it pulled from a lot of middle class and also a lot of Jewish neighborhoods. It tended to have a fairly bright student body and it tended to offer a fairly rigorous curriculum. There was a kind of a triangle of three schools: there was Erasmus, Midwood [High School], and Madison [High School], and all three were excellent, excellent regular public high schools. We weren’t talking, at this point, about the Bronx High School of Science or something. These were just regular neighborhood high schools, but they all had great reputations. Kids could graduate from those schools and go to really good universities, and they came out with just a superb education. 01-00:08:46 Erasmus was probably the most diverse of the three schools, because we pulled from a number of different neighborhoods, but it was also—and this again was politically correct, and it was the way things were done in New York at the time—Erasmus was what they called [makes air quotes] tracked. In other words, there was a college-bound academic track, and then there was a kind of an intermediate track, and then there was—I can’t remember what they called it, but it was the kids who took shop and who had no intentions of going beyond high school and going to college. Vocational, that’s the word I was trying to think

This is a transcript of an interview with Mimi Feingold Real for the Bay Area Women in Politics Oral History Project conducted by Amanda Tewes on February 9, 2021. Real was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 31, 1941, and grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, which was predominantly Jewish. She describes her childhood as ordinary and notes that they had a park nearby, Prospect Park, which was Brooklyn’s equivalent of Central Park. She mentions that the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens was close to the park, and her mother used to take them there every spring to admire the cherry blossoms. Real also mentions that she spent a fair amount of time at the Brooklyn Zoo, which was old-fashioned and made her feel sorry for the animals.

Real attended public school in Brooklyn, and her elementary school was named P.S. 241. She has fond memories of her time there. Real notes that New York City schools were not named at that time; they were all numbered, and this prevented the problem that San Francisco was having with its schools. The interview provides insight into Real’s childhood and the cultural and social environment in which she grew up.

Could you summaries in 150 words the following text: —and that that must have shaped the stories about your early life. Did your family have stories about this time or what that meant for the community? 01-00:10:09 Real: You know what, that’s an interesting question, because the simple answer to that is no. My parents—my father, [Abraham Feingold], was too old at that point to have been drafted. I think the major impact was something that I never even was consciously aware of, and that is that my mother’s obstetrician, who should have delivered me, was drafted, was sent off to serve in the Army as an Army medic, and so she, [Elizabeth French Feingold], was turned over to another doctor. So it was some other doctor that she didn’t really know who delivered me. And the other thing, because I was too young—I was a baby, you know, I was a toddler—the thing I do remember Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 4 Copyright © 2022 by The Regents of the University of California were the signs. There were signs indicating where there were bomb shelters or—and I don’t even remember now what the signs said, but I can remember various shapes. Like there was one sign that had a big triangle on it, and most of the signs were yellow with black printing, but I was too young to even read. So that’s the only impact that I can remember. 01-00:11:29 Tewes: Well then of course, years later more discussion comes out about the Holocaust, and that part of World War II. Was that something that impacted your family thinking about—as a Jewish family? 01-00:11:44 Real: Again, you know, it’s really interesting—again, the simple answer to that is no. Because we didn’t have any—aha, I know why. We didn’t have any family that lived in Germany or even in Eastern Europe. And to the extent—my father came from—was born in Russia before the revolution, before the Russian Revolution. He was born in the Ukraine, but his family managed to escape when he was only seven years old. So he had family in Russia, but the story had been that during World War II, in anticipation of the German occupation and the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a lot of the people in the Ukraine were relocated to the other side of the Ural Mountains, and that included my father’s family. He had managed to keep in touch with them. He had actually, I think, gone back to visit them in—before he met my mother, back in the 1920s or 1930s. By the time of the war, he had lost touch with all of them, because they had all been relocated. Again, that’s the family lore. 01-00:13:24 And even then, I guess there were mass, mass murders in the Soviet Union, but whether any relatives of mine were victims of that, I don’t know. So I guess I always knew about the Holocaust. I don’t remember it being a big thing that my parents talked about. They were more concerned with what was happening in this country. 01-00:13:56 Tewes: [laughs] Yes, and I do want to get to that. 01-00:14:00 Real: And also, my mother was not Jewish, so—and again, that was—I was always aware of that, but it was never something that was bad. It just was. And interestingly enough, my father’s father, who was an Orthodox Jew to his dying day, when his health deteriorated and his wife had already passed away, he came to live with us. He had three sons, and of the three sons, the only one who would take him in was the one with the non-Jewish wife, which I always thought was interestingly ironic. And so he

In this text, the interviewee is asked about her family’s experiences during World War II and the Holocaust. The interviewee states that her father was too old to be drafted, and the only impact she remembers was seeing signs for bomb shelters as a toddler. Her family did not have any stories or discussions about the Holocaust because they did not have any family in Germany or Eastern Europe, and her father’s family had been relocated to the other side of the Ural Mountains in anticipation of the German invasion. Although she knew about the Holocaust, it was not a big topic of discussion in her family, who were more concerned with what was happening in the United States. Interestingly, the interviewee’s mother was not Jewish, but her father’s father, who was Orthodox Jewish, came to live with their family in his old age, despite his other sons being unwilling to take him in.

Could summaries in 200 words the following text: Thank you, that’s good background. I think now is a good time to ask you, for the record: what was your given name, your birth name? Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 5 Copyright © 2022 by The Regents of the University of California 01-00:15:06 Real: Okay, so my birth name is Miriam, and I was named for the biblical Miriam. But I was almost never called Miriam, even as a young child. The only times “Miriam” was ever used was when I was about to be disciplined, and my father would call me over. You know, “Miriam, come here.” And I would associate “Miriam” with being in big trouble about something, so that there was an assortment of family nicknames. But by the time I got to elementary school and high school, I was—actually, the way New Yorkers pronounced M-I-M-I, at least at that time, was “Mihmee,” so I was “Mihmee” all the way through high school. And then the story there is that another girl from my class at Erasmus was also accepted at Swarthmore [College], and her name was also Miriam. And her nickname, of course, was “Mihmee.” And she descended upon me and said that here we were going to this small college, and it was high time that we distinguished ourselves, so one of us had to be— could stay “Mihmee,” and the other one had to be “Meemee.” It was clear, by the way she said it as to who was going to be “Mihmee.” So that’s how I became Mimi. [laughs] So from college on, I was “Meemee” and she remained “Mihmee.” And I don’t know what ever happened to her. [laughs] 01-00:16:56 Tewes: But it seems to have worked out. You already started speaking a bit about your parents and your family, and I was wondering if you could just tell me a little bit more about them and their backgrounds, and then of course their livelihoods? 01-00:17:09 Real: Let’s start with the livelihood, because that’s the easiest one, and that is more or less how they met. My father, at that time when they met and married—and for most of my young childhood—was a high school math teacher. He taught primarily at a school called Manual Training High School—I don’t even know if that’s still in existence—in New York. My mother had majored in college in English, and through a very, very sweet line of reasoning that she went through, she wanted to do something that was useful and that would help people, and at the same use her English background. She made two lists: one of them of how to use the English background, and the other was how to be useful. Apparently, the only element on each—that was on both lists was librarian, so she became a librarian. And then she worked for many years as a high school librarian, also in Brooklyn, and that is how she met my father. I don’t think she was at the same school, although I’m not absolutely positive. But I think they met at a party, you know, some sort of a get-together of teachers. Anyway, they hit it off and decided to marry, much to the distress of both of their sets of parents, but they went ahead with it anyway. 01-00:18:52 The other major important thing to know about them is that from fairly early on, for both of them in their adulthood, they had become very progressive and left wing in their thinking. And I don’t know exactly when they joined the Communist Party, but they were members of the Communist Party, which at Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 6 Copyright © 2022 by The Regents of the University of California that time was not—did not carry the stigma that it carries today. Obviously, they were still very much outsiders and radicals. But what the communists were in that period, where it was a period of pretty much political conformity, the communists were some of the only people who were fighting for social justice, who were fighting for civil liberties and civil rights. Communists founded, or were members of, a whole range of organizations, which would later get smeared with the name of communist front. But they were not trying to overthrow the government of the United States by force and violence; they were not trying to eliminate capitalism. The Communist Party internationally, at that time, as I understand it, had moved away from that agenda, from the agenda of world revolution, to working

In this oral history interview, the interviewee, Real, discusses her birth name, which is Miriam. However, she explains that she was almost never called by her given name, except when her father was about to discipline her. Instead, she was given various family nicknames, but when she attended high school in New York, her classmates pronounced “M-I-M-I” as “Mihmee,” which became her nickname all the way through college. Real recounts a humorous story about how she became known as “Meemee” in college, after another girl from her high school class who was also named Miriam insisted that they distinguish themselves. Real then shares information about her parents’ backgrounds and livelihoods. Her father was a high school math teacher, and her mother was a librarian who had majored in English. Both of them became progressive and left-wing in their thinking and joined the Communist Party, which was fighting for social justice, civil liberties, and civil rights at that time. Real explains that the Communist Party did not have the same stigma as it does today, and they were not trying to overthrow the government or eliminate capitalism.

OHD_RPT_0256 Options for making oral histories accessible

Tech options for making oral history recordings accessible

V1. January 30 2023

Hannah James Louwerse, Archives at NCBS

Making oral history recordings accessible to people has been infamously difficult, with the oral historian Michael Frisch referring to the issue as “oral history’s deep dark secret”. There have been many attempts to solve this problem with some being more successful than others. By analysing the history of oral history technologies one can see how using technology to access to oral history recordings depends on three factors: maintenance, ethics, and user-friendliness. This short report will go through each of these factors bringing examples of oral history technologies to explain what you should look for when seeking a solution to putting oral history recordings online.

  1. Maintenance

Maintenance is often the biggest killer of solutions to the deep dark secret of oral history. Maintenance depends on a continuous supply of money and labour, which is not always easy to get hold of, especially within grant cycles. It is therefore essential to think about the maintenance necessary to sustain a technology which allows access to oral history recordings. How you do this depends on the source of the technology and how it was developed. 

  1. Tailor-made, in house development and maintenance

Creating your own digital oral history archiving system allows it to be perfectly tailor to your collections needs. However, it also means the maintenance of this system is solely in your hands, which can be very risky, especially when working within grant cycles. Projects like the Visual Oral/Aural History Archive (VOAHA) created by Sherna Berger Gluck at California State University, Long Beach and Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project Digital Media Database developed by Doug Boyd built tailor-made technologies specifically for their existing oral history collections, either developing the technology themselves or hired someone to do it for them. At the time they were the height of technology, but when the money ran out there was none left to maintain the archives/databases. Both VOAHA and Boyd’s Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project Digital Media Database were “digitally abandoned” and left vulnerable to inevitable technical obsolescence and online hackers (Boyd and Larson, 2014, p. 7; Boyd, 2014, p. 90). In the end the two projects were absorbed by their respective universities’ libraries.

1.2   Use existing specialist oral history software

By using specialist oral history software, the maintenance is no longer your responsibility, which is both a risk and a benefit. The benefit is how it is a cheaper option in comparison to hiring someone full time to take care of the technology. But the risk is that the software developer stops maintaining the software, which is what happen in the case of Stories Matter, an oral history software developed by the Centre of Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University and a software engineer from Kamicode software (High, 2010; Jessee, Zembrycki, and High, 2011). The Kamicode website still has a page on Stories Matter, but the software is not downloadable. The reason for this is unclear, however it is easy to imagine the maintaining of such niche software is unlikely to be a high priority for a software company.

A more successful example of specialist oral history software is Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS), developed by Doug Boyd after his reflections on Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project Digital Media Database. OHMS has been in existence for some years and is a popular way for oral history projects and archives to organise their oral history metadata and link the video/audio file to a searchable text. Unlike Stories Matter, OHMS is developed and maintained by people who are interested in oral history and use it for their own projects. Maintaining OHMS is therefore in their own interest.

1.3 Use existing mainstream third party platforms

Another cheaper option is using more mainstream platforms such as Soundcloud or Spotify. These are less niche technologies and therefore do not have the benefits more specialised software has, but the maintenance is pretty much guaranteed since these platforms are universally used. Certain projects have created Spotify playlists and other have Soundcloud versions of their recordings alongside the original files in the brick-and-mortar archive.

  • Ethics

The internet is an ethical nightmare and putting someone’s personal story online in an ethical manner is not an easy task. The starting point will always be clear communication to the interviewees on how people will be able to access their recording, and thorough paperwork which accompanies the recording. Following this there are a couple of other things people have done to support the ethical handling of oral history recordings.

2.1 Extracts

The simplest of ethical practices is to only make certain extracts available online. This means you can avoid putting online more sensitive information but still give an example to the archive visitor of the kind of content the oral history holds. If the archive visitor wishes to hear more, they can request the full recording via email. A possible consequence of this might be people only using the online extract and not bother enquiring any further because it is deemed as “too much effort.”

2.2 End user agreement

Archives like Trove and Centre for Brooklyn History have “end user agreements” the archive visitor must agree to before they are allowed access to the oral history recording. These end user agreements contain information on basic copyright and data rights, a disclaimer about the opinions expressed in the recording, and outline the archive user’s obligations. These obligations include correctly citing the recording, adhering copyright law and data protection law. These end user agreements are a way for archives to hold users accountable in case of misuse or rights violations.

  • User-friendliness

People have a low tolerance of bad user-experience design. The software Interclipper, championed by Michael Frisch was reviewed during the development of Stories Matter and VOAHA and was deemed difficult to use in both instances (Jessee, Zembrycki, and High, 2011; Gluck, 2014). It no longer exists. OHMS offers both a backend metadata synchronizer and a viewer, the latter however is often left in favour of an in-house interface design. Project Jukebox developed by the University of Alaska in collaboration with Apple Computers Inc. in the 1990s, is still available online but still looks like it was made in the 90s, even though at the time it was described as “a fantastic jump into space age technology” (Lake, 1991, p. 30). It is therefore important the user experience and interface are updated as fashions and taste evolve across the wider internet.

List of examples

Bibliography

Boyd, D.A. (2014) ““I Just Want to Click on It to Listen”: Oral History Archives, Orality, and Usability” in Oral History and Digital Humanities. pp. 77-96. Palgrave Macmillan: New York

Boyd, D.A. and Larson, M. (2014) “Introduction” in Oral History and Digital Humanities. pp. 1-16. Palgrave Macmillan: New York

Gluck, S.B. (2014) “Why do we call it oral history? Refocusing on orality/aurality in the digital age” in Oral History and Digital Humanities. pp. 35-52. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

High, S. (2010) “Telling stories: A reflection on oral history and new media” in Oral History. 38(1), pp.101-112

Jessee, E., Zembrzycki, S. and High, S. (2011) “Stories Matter: Conceptual challenges in the development of oral history database building software” In Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 12(1)

Lake, G.L. (1991)  “Project Jukebox: An Innovative Way to Access and Preserve Oral History Records” in Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists. 9(1), pp.24-41

Smith, S. (Oct 1991)Project Jukebox: ‘We Are Digitizing Our Oral History Collection… and We’re Including a Database.’” at The Church Conference: Finding Our Way in the Communication Age. pp. 16 – 24. Anchorage, AK

OHD_LST_0244 Links to archives and online fun

Podcasts

BBC Radio 4 – A History of Ghosts Ep. Did You Hear That?

BBC Radio 4 – The Patch

BBC Radio 4 – Under the Cloud

BBC Sounds – Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket, Ep. 4 – Baby X

Puskin – The Last Archive

Reply All – #168 Happiness Calculator vs. Alex Goldman

Reply All – #171 Account Suspended

This American Life – The Room of Requirement

Documentaries

Dirty Streaming: The Internet’s Big Secret

The Great Hack

The Social Dilemma

Shirkers

Archives

1947 Partition Archive

Alternative Toronto

Ambleside Oral History Group

The Arab Image Foundation

British Library Sound Archive

City of Memory

The Citizens Archive of Pakistan

Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution

Deep Store

Forgotten Heritage

The Internet Archive

John Peel Archive

Nakba Archive

The Parachive Project

Rinascente Archives

Sternberg Press

The Travelling Archive

The Warhol Archive

Online Things

Activist Archivists

The Affective Computing Research Group

Archive It built by the internet archive

Axiell Software developers

CC Search

Center for Humane Technology

Citizen DJ

CoHERE 4 – Futurescaping and the Deletion Bureau

Expire-Span

Dadbot

Europeana

Festival of Maintenance

The Green Web Foundation

Hereafter.ai

The John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage

Magic Tate Ball

The Maintainers

mnemoscape

National Digital Stewardship Alliance

Networks of Dispossession

Participatory Grant Making

Rhizomes

Save our Sounds by The British Library

Sheep Tales

Sites of Conscience

The Things We Did Next

Yarn

Talks

Impossible Archives, Infinite Collections by Carles Guerra

Shklovski, I. (2021) AI as relational Infrastructure during the Not Equal summer webinars

OHD_WRT_0243 The digital needs of the Research Room

The Research Room digital infrastructure is set up in this way 

The Research Room digital infrastructure is not there to support permeant preservation. It is possible that we might need to build in a system where the contents of the research room is reviewed in order to keep the volume of contents under control

1. SharePoint 

This is where files go where the National Trust does not have full copyright. In order to access these files you need to contact a National Trust member of staff. These cannot be very large files, for carbon neutrality reasons.

2. Secure SD cards

These are SD cards or hard drives which hold files where the National Trust does not have full copyright. In order to access these files you need to contact a National Trust member of staff. These can be very large files. 

3. Research Room SD cards 

These are SD cards or hard drives which hold files where the National Trust does have full copyright. You can access these files by putting them into a device available in the research room. These can be very large files. Moving stuff onto these SD cards is not smooth yet. 

4. Third Party Websites

This is where files go where the National Trust does have full copyright and is happy for a wider audience to have access. These can be very large files and because they are not part of the national trust network they do not effect the trust’s carbon neutral aims. Ethically questionable. Moving stuff onto these website is not smooth yet. 

5. Research Room devices (tablets)

This is where smaller files go and larger more popular files where the National Trust does have full copyright. For the easiest of access. Moving stuff onto these on these devices is not smooth yet. 

—————————————————

Research Room volunteer training programme

Every one goes through the process but you dont have to do all of it 

OHD_DSF_0239 Regional annual NT IT workshop

After the success of last year Regional NT IT Workshop it was decided that we must do it again. Of course nothing is perfect on the first try so we have made some changes. The schedule is a little less full and we have extended an invite to the volunteers.

Arrival – 8:30

Tea and coffee available 

Lunch orders taken

Welcome – 9:00

The regional It manager will welcome everyone, do some housekeeping, and run through the schedule.

Morning Sessions 

Session one: Surrogate Collections development plan – 9:30

Regional curator will present the current progress on the Surrogate Collection and future plans. And will end this session by opening up the floor to questions and ideas. 

Break – 10:45

Session Two: Show and Tell Exhibitions – 11:00

This session is all about sharing ideas between sites by doing a ‘show and tell’ of the different exhibitions, that have taken place this last year , which utilise digital technology to engage visitors. 

Lunch – 12:30

Afternoon Sessions

Session Three: Digital Hygiene training – 13:30

This session will cover SharePoint updates, newly approved hard drives and the new and improve digital hygiene training for staff and volunteers. 

Break – 14:45

Session Four: Future of NT IT Workshop – 15:00

The workshop leads will run a series of activities which allow all to express their hopes and desires for the future of NT IT. 

Round off and networking – 16:00

OHD_BLG_0034 21st Century Ghost

Have you ever heard of the twenty-first century ghost? You have definitely seen it and heard it. It hides in many places, but its favourite spot is in the pocket of your trousers, next to you on the table or in the palm of your hand. The ghost of the twenty-first century lives in the interactive rectangle that is your smart phone. This ‘digital urn’, as described by Kirsty Logan in the podcast series A History of Ghosts, is filled with your voice, your face, your ideas, your questions, your life. Every day we work on growing our own twenty-first century ghost by feeding it incredibly personal information and preserving it in our digital urn. But our twenty-first century ghosts’ range is not limited to our smart phones, they spread across the world, roaming around social media servers and traveling in the inboxes of other people’s digital devices. The average person has no control over what can be found in their digital urns, what past lives the ghost can expose and havoc it can cause. 

Some people have a different type of ghost, one that is a little more timid and introverted. If you have ever taken part in an oral history project you probably have such a ghost; a recording of your life’s story told by you living in an archive staying put until someone calls on it. In order to put an oral history interview into an archive and create an archival ghost, one has to fill in what seems endless ethical approvals, consent forms and permission slips. These documents are there to highlight the potential “dangers” of having something in an archive: how you privacy might be violated or how someone could misuse your testament and twist your words. Social media sites do a similar thing, only they condense the stacks of paper into one tick box. Clearly the archiving process is more transparent in comparison to the methods use by those in the Silicone Valley, which at best are questionable and at worst violate basic human rights, however transparency does have its drawbacks. 

The reaction people have to this transparency is similar to that when you ask some people to travel by air. People are terrified of flying because they are fully aware of how wrong it can go, but statistically it is a lot safer than walking to the corner shop. Just like the designing an aeroplane, archiving an oral history has to follow certain rules from the start, because those involved, aerospace engineers and oral historians, are fully aware of the chaos and pain it could cause if the systems fail. Having these restrictions is seen as more ethical, but it also inadvertently puts disproportionate emphasis on the dangers of archiving (and flying). In opposition, walking, like the ticking of the terms and conditions box, is easier and it delivers blissful ignorance to the high probability of being hit by a car or having one’s data stolen. Unlike the oral historians and archivists, the developers of the uncomplicated tick box view their users as nothing more than data sets and potential profit. Some could say that this has led them to be dismissive of a human’s right to privacy and be vague when it comes to revealing the true cost of using one of their platforms. However it seems that by not drawing attention to terms and conditions, people have become very happy to hand over their personal information.

The existence of these two ghosts, the restricted and timid archival ghost, and the free and uncontrollable twenty-first century ghost, makes the people’s relationship to their privacy seem incredibly distorted and ill-informed. It seems odd to trap the archival ghost with paperwork in order to protect their corresponding human, when that exact human is completely content with sharing every single part of their lives with strangers on the internet. However, it is this sharing that is key to success of social media. By giving up their privacy the users of social media are granted access to a huge network of listeners and viewers. After all a story is not a story if there is no one to listen to it. By the same logic if the oral history is never reused, the archival ghost is never called upon and the story is never listened to, its very existence becomes void. So this raises the question: should we even bother archiving oral histories in the first place if the paperwork blocks it off from listeners? For the sake of my research we’ll say yes, in which case let’s follow it up with the question: should we be more like Silicone Valley and be a little less pedantic when it comes ethics? 

For now I am going to go with yes and no. The current process around ethical archiving does need updating but because I also fundamentally believe that Silicone Valley is wrong and I think people are starting to catch on. People are becoming increasingly aware of what their twenty-first century ghost might expose. For example, a growing number of people are being ‘cancelled’ because the public have dug through their digital urn and found a tweet they sent when they were twelve and used a term that is now considered very derogatory. There is also a generation of people, who are unhappy with their parents relentless ‘sharenting’. Sharenting is the practice of posting everything your child does online, which results in the child having a data presence before they can even speak and therefore give consent to its existence. This faint atmosphere of mindfulness around posting, uploading and sending is descending over the digital world. People are reflecting on the ghosts they have created and are now trying to do damage control. 

Currently the archival ghost and the twenty-first century ghost are two extremes on the scale of privacy and its corresponding ethics. However, the increased awareness around the rabidness of the twenty-first century ghost is pushing it along the scale in the direction of the archival ghost. I believe it is now the turn the archival ghost to make a similar move towards the centre. There needs to be more innovation when it comes to the ethics of archiving because at present it is stopping people listening back and that is truly a shame. People bond over sharing stories, they create communities around the most random of things and social media proves this. However social media also showcases perfectly the consequences of condensing very complicated ethics into one tick box for the sake of ease. Changes need to be made on both sides of the scale. By observing the current situation on each side, investigating the pitfalls, challenges and opportunities, and reviewing how different people in the respective fields are attempting to solve these problems, we can start seeking an equilibrium and find a balance between private and public. This managing of our ghosts is a strange and distorted process that is only in its infancy, but hopefully by the end we will be able to free the locked up archival ghost and calm the twenty-first century ghost. 

OHD_WKS_0204 THINKING CARDS: How would you archive this?

How would you archive this?

– a interview that is closed off for 30 years but is digital 

– with transcript 

– with photographs analogue

– about gender

– about race

How would you access this?

TASK: 

Start conversations around how we archive things 

AIM:

Collect experts’ opinions on strange archiving situation 

TYPES OF CARDS

ARCHIVE 

– KGB archive 

– British Library 

https://www.alternativetoronto.ca/archive/about

https://creativememory.org/en/archives/

– TWAM

– Black archive  

ARCHIVE ITEM 

– A wax cylinder recording of an aboriginal voice 

– Australian housewives

– Sex workers

– Transperson 

– UN oral history 

– Lady at the races 

– The Edwardians

– With photographs 

CHANGE 

– Terrorism 

– Fire

– Flood

– Earthquake 

– Malware

– Ethnic cleansing 

– 

fire, accidental 

fire, arson 

flooding, from outside flooding, from inside earthquake 

other ‘natural causes’ 

armed conflict 

removed by occupying forces civil disorder 

terrorism 

inherent instability 

bacteria, insects and rodents mould and humidity 

dust 

pollution 

bad storage 

lack of restoration capacity bad restoration 

neglect 

while moving offices administrative order unauthorised destruction theft 

use 

INTERPRETERS

– Podcasters

– Journalist 

– Artist 

– Writers

– Film makers

– Creators 

– Investigators

– Historians

– Family 

– People in search of identity

OHD_DSF_0183 Intangible and Digital Heritage Consultant

Intangible and Digital Heritage Consultant

The National Trust looks after one of the world’s largest and most significant collections of art and heritage objects set within their historic context. As ideas around heritage change enveloping not only the tangible but intangible heritage. We realise our duty of care extends beyond objects to the non-physical heritage such as folklore, traditions, and language that make our sights so unique. In addition we recognise the increasing amount of born digital material that will one day become the heritage of the future. We are therefore looking for a person to help us collect, manage, and curate the intangible and digital heritage of our sites in the region.

We expect this person to be experienced in collecting, managing and curating intangible heritage such as oral histories and be confident in their digital skills.

What it’s like to work here

The National Trust Consultancy is home to specialists in every field of our work. It’s a place where resources are shared across disciplines and boundaries, and it’s a great repository of skills, talent and experience. The diversity and quality of expertise within the Consultancy enable our properties and places to benefit from creative and innovative thinking, as well as deep expertise in all matters relating to our twin purpose of caring for the nation’s heritage and landscapes and making these accessible to all. The Intangible and Digital Heritage Consultant role sits within the Consultancy.

What you’ll be doing

You will be advising sites on their collecting and managing of intangible and digital heritage, supporting them during their intangible heritage projects and organising the collection of object metadata for surrogate collections. You will work between regional IT and the sites to ensure the needs of sites are considered, while simultaneously ensuring IT is able to keep a secure and stable digital infrastructure. You will also manage relationships with third party archives, to help guarantee access to material for staff and volunteers.

You will also provide tactical and strategic advice to the sites on how move modern opperation files to the archive, while also ensuring sites adhere to the National Trust policies around climate friendly storage. 

Who we’re looking for

  • excellent communications skills: verbal, written and presenting
  • developing and delivering an internal communication (or similar) strategy and plan
  • proven experience of communicating appropriately with a wide range of colleagues in different roles
  • being a brilliant networker and influencer
  • great project management skills, ideally including some experience of event management
  • extensive experience of successfully managing diverse and varied workloads with tight timeframes and budgets
  • being an excellent multi-tasker and self-starter
  • excellent IT skills, including a good working knowledge of Microsoft, Sharepoint

Update meeting on Intangible and Digital heritage at Seaton Delaval Hall

26/09/2028     

13:00

Seaton Delaval Hall

Participants

General Manager

Regional Curator

Project Lead

Intangible and Digital Heritage Consultant

Agenda

Introduction

Status Update

Discussion Topic 1: Dialect dictionary

Discussion Topic 2: Auction Items

Decision 1: Film Archive

Agenda for next meeting

Summary

Everything is ready to go with Storyland. Three institutional oral history recordings taken. Student project for a dialect dictionary is on track. Possibly will lose out on Garden Painting at Auction but metadata collected. Need to revisit somethings in Film Archive arrangement.

  1. Institutional Oral History
    1. Interview done with retiring cafe staff member
    1. Interview done with Gardening volunteer and Research group volunteer
      1. Possible follow up needed for gardening volunteer
      1. Not got copyright yet from research group volunteer
    1. Need to organise Oral history sessions with recent student project
  • Storyland
    • Everything is ready for 1st October
    • Food trucks have been booked
    • Storyteller was asking for some extra tickets
  • Dialect dictionary
    • Student has managed to get funding for archive visits
    • Need to grant access to on site oral history recordings
    • Need to find illustrator
      • Rainham used a good illustrator
  • Auction items
    • Mahogany chairs
      • Photographer has been arranged
      • Curator says likely to win chairs
    • Garden Painting
      • Unlikely to win
      • Meta-data already been collected
  • Film Archive
    • IT very enthusiastic
    • Do we want to donate all material?
      • Unsure about footage taken by volunteer
    • Another meeting with General manager and Intangible and Digital Heritage Consultant
  • Agenda for next meeting
    • Update on Film archive
    • Oral history interviews with students secured
    • Progress on Dialect Dictionary
    • Summer project 2029
    • Adaptive release plan

Decisions

DecisionNotes
Dialect Dictionary IllustratorUsing the illustrator Rainham
Donating (some) items to Film ArchiveDefinitely happy to donate some material but unsure about some footage take by volunteer.

Actions

ActionPersonDeadline
Contact students for Oral History interviewProject LeadWithin the next three months
Check with interviewer of gardening volunteer if they think another interview is requiredGeneral ManagerAs soon as possible
Send extra tickets to storytellerProject LeadBy the end of the week
Talk to volunteer about archiving film footageGeneral ManagerBefore meeting with film archive
Arrange another meeting with film archiveIntangible and Digital Heritage Consultant  Within a month

OHD_WRT_0179 Summary of thinking Spring 2021

Summary of thinking 

In this rather tumultuous world I think that this CDA currently addresses three points of change: the digital invasion, the history review and collaboration fever. When I refer to the digital invasion I am specifically talking about the digital’s influence in the GLAM sector, which pre-pandemic was already making its mark through pressure to digitise collections but now has had a rather large boost due to many of the brick-and-mortar buildings being closed for long periods of time causing institutions to move everything online including exhibitions. The second point of change encompasses several discussions people are having about how we represent our history today. Contemporary issues, like the Black Lives Matter movement, the #metoo movement and climate change have caused people to demand a review on how we represent the past, wishing for it to be more inclusive and better reflect the stories of minorities. The final point of change, collaboration fever, addresses the increasing interest in interdisciplinary projects both in- and outside academia. 

Within each of these points of change there are conflicts, clashes and collisions that are happening. These often take place around the symbols and languages we used to communicate in each sphere. For example in the digital invasion we can find a clash between the symbols and languages used by the digital realm and the archival realm. Where the digital is fast and shiny, the archive is slow and dusty. When searching the digital the user relies on pre-inputted keywords while archival searching relies on the creative knowledge of the archivists. What each sphere returns from a search is also in opposition; the order digital list versus the somewhat messy archive box of stuff. Here I believe the challenge is to soften and slow down the invasion of the digital as I am pessimistic that it will be able cure all the problems that brick-and-mortar archives presently experience. 

The conflict found in the history review is clearly based around the symbols and language we use to discuss our history and what affect it has on modern society. Where one sees a symbol of the Great British Empire another sees a symbol of the slave trade. Where one generation sees coal as a symbol of a way of life that was destroyed, another views it as a symbol of pollution and an unsustainable industry. The problem here is that currently people approach this discussion in two very extreme ways; either they ignore it completely or they turn it into a war of identity. The challenge inside this point of change is to create a space for a more nuanced discussion.  

The clashes that happen within the last point of change I have experience first hand many times. Every field of research has its own accompany culture, language and habits. When people collaborate across disciplines they bring this baggage with them. This can lead to clashes and confusion as symbols can mean completely different things in different fields. However, this clash of cultures is not the only problem within this point that I am concerned about. My biggest qualm with this point, and why I refer to it as collaboration ‘fever’, is that there is a growing romanticism around the language used in the area of collaborative projects. The gimmicky jargon, the token gestures and the ritualistic methods can, in my opinion flatten, and mute the collaborative process. This is an issue that is being picked up on by different people in the field of design. They are critical of how people are packaging their ‘methods’ into toolkits and selling them on to non-designers, which reduces the process into a tick-boxing exercise instead of a critical, thoughtful and difficult collaborative process. 

So how do we tackle the challenges within each of these points of change? My current proposal is replacing these clashes of cultures and frustrating discussions with dialogue. In his book On Dialogue David Bohm describes discussion as a game on ping-pong where the focus is on defending ones truths against another’s. In contrast dialogue is focussed on creating a collective culture and an overall shared meaning. I imagine that creating this collective culture is far more sustainable for our points of change than the current discussions that are happening.

In case of our first point of change dialogue can be used to slow down the invasion of the digital. Where currently the digital is imposing its culture onto the archive, through search bars and keywords, dialogue offers the opportunity for the culture of the archive to inform the digital. Having this exchange of ideas instead of one field dictating to another opens the door to creating new creative technologies, rather than having this constant battle between cultures. We instead create a new set of cyborg symbols and languages, that in addition offers the opportunity to make both areas more inclusive. Where currently the digital sphere is for nerdy techies and the archive is for nerdy academics we can create a new space for all nerds. 

Transforming heritage sites into places of dialogue is already happening with ventures like the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience founded by Liz Ševčenko. In her paper on the subject of the Sites of Conscience, Ševčenko emphasise the need to implement dialogue into the management of heritage sites as a way to not suppress conflict but instead view it as something that should be “embraced as an ongoing opportunity.” This should be one of the targets in order to make it sustainable beyond the timescale of the project. 

The role that dialogue can play within collaboration fever is creating a space where we are aware of each person’s cultural baggage, but also make a space where we constantly question the process of collaboration. Hopefully we will then we able to harvest a more holistic picture of the collaborative process rather patting ourselves on the back for completing certain tasks and achieving specific outcomes. 

So how do we create a sustainable dialogue that address all three points of change? Currently my suggestion is make things, together, all the time. In my opinion we should make things because it makes the dialogue more tangible and easier for those who were not there to understand the thought process. It also causes people to buy into the process more, make them feel like they are part of something and are being heard. This making needs to be constant, because every time we make something it is essential that we reflect on it in order to fully understand the process and avoid this project becoming an exercise in ticking boxes.

Now there comes a point where we need to capture this ongoing process. At the end of the three years we can show the results of our making in a conclusive way through an exhibition or oral history project or an archive. However, it is of utmost importance, as I have previously touched upon, that we analyse this constant collaborative making in a way that allows it to live beyond the three years of this project. Otherwise all the preaching about sustainable dialogue is completely undermined.  

To summaries this project deals with three points of change: the invasion of the digital into the GLAM sector, the conversation surrounding changing attitudes to our past and the increasing interest in collaborative work. Each of these points of change have areas of conflict based around symbols and language that in my opinion can be combated by creating a sustainable dialogue through constant collaborative making. Hopefully this process will result into something that lives beyond the time limit of this project and can be adopted by other parties who wish to embark on a similar venture in the future.

OHD_WRT_0177 NT oral history experience

To date I have collected ten oral history interviews with a wide range of people associated with Seaton Delaval Hall, from former residents to National Trust staff and volunteers. Overall, the experience has been positive for both myself and those I have interviewed. I have enjoyed listening to their stories and many have told me after the interview how much they enjoyed the experience. It is important to note I am recording under Newcastle University and not the National Trust. This means I need to follow the university’s ethics and data protection policies. However, during my three-month placement at Seaton Delaval Hall and my efforts to get the recordings archived, I developed a better understanding how recording oral history within the National Trust works.

If you type oral history into Acorn you get “the guide to setting up an oral history project.” Although sadly many of the links to other Trust oral history projects are dead-links, the guide gives a good foundation to recording oral history. The emphasis of working with The British Library and getting training from the Oral History Society which can be paid for by the Sir Laurie Magnus Bursary is great. I have come across many oral history projects where archiving is very much treated as an afterthought, so it is refreshing to see how the guide encourages working with an archivist throughout an oral history project. However, both the guide and the current permissions and copyright assignment form, which is to be used for archiving the recordings at the British Library, are not completely up to date with regards to data protection and the copyright assignment. There is little to no mention of GDPR and the copyright assignment looks a little too simple if compared to what copyright, data protection and licensing experts, Naomi Corn Associates, currently advise.

It is also important to point out that in the guide there is no mention of the ethical issues you need to consider when recording oral history, only a small paragraph on what to do in case the interviewee gets upset. Because I am recording oral histories via Newcastle University I had to go through thorough ethical approval. There is no such process within the National Trust.

Another slightly out of date element is the storing of the oral history recordings before they are archived. The guide focuses on an electronic cascading file system, which is fine. But it does not discuss the devices where these files need to be stored and I am pretty confident that the way the National Trust stores its files has clearly changed since the writing of this guide. I contacted the data protection office and they informed me that an oral history recording and its accompanying metadata needs to be stored on SharePoint for data protection reasons. This seems completely logical, only I was also informed by IT that they would prefer it if people did not have large WAV files on SharePoint because this interferes with the Trust’s carbon neutrality aims. I would also like to note that the archivists I have talked to emphasise that a digital file only exists if it is stored in three different places with at least one of them not being cloud based. There is therefore a slight conflict between data protection and IT, although I was later offered to upload my WAV files to the Seaton Delaval Hall SharePoint, after I mentioned this issue to a member of staff.

In addition to dissecting the Trust’s guide to oral history I have become familiar with the British Library’s cataloguing system – cadensa. It is definitely not the most user-friendly interface and the software company that developed it seems to no longer support cadense, which is slightly worrying. The National Trust audio collection at the British Library is their biggest collection with over 1000 entries but access to these recordings is limited due to the cadensa software. From the contact I have had with the British Library they are aware of their limitations and understand they might not be able to offer the best access to archived recordings. They are after all also working with limited resources.

What I believe I am able to concluded from my experience doing oral history recordings on a National Trust site, is that the foundations are there but they just need updating. By bringing together oral historians, IT support, the data protection office, archivists, and copyright experts one could easily update the guidance to make the process safer and more ethical.