{"id":304,"date":"2021-01-22T10:23:48","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T10:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/?p=304"},"modified":"2021-01-22T12:03:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T12:03:57","slug":"listening-to-sussexs-special-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/01\/22\/listening-to-sussexs-special-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to Sussex\u2019s Special Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Esther Gill – UOSH Project Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Sussex Special Collections at The Keep archive holds extensive material relating to 20th<\/sup> century literary, political and social history, as well as the history of the University. In amongst the books, manuscripts and images, are also boxes of open reel and cassette tapes holding oral history interviews, music, performance and incidental sounds. These recordings capture: voices, emotion, laughter, performance, wildlife, and the everyday domestic sounds that are all around us. Some are carefully constructed re-tellings of a life-story, others are audio scrapbooks, collections of sound \u2018jottings\u2019, scraps of recordings fitted onto the end of a tape. All add depth and richness to our reading of the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of these collections have been digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project (UOSH), preserving them for future listening, but also making them more easily accessible to more people. The two collections are the British Australian Migration Research Project oral history interviews (SxMOA25\/UTK001\/84 cassette tapes) and the Copper Family recordings (SxMs87\/UTK009\/59 open reel tapes, 2 cassette tapes, 8 CDs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voices of the \u00a310 Poms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British-Australian Migration Research Project oral history interviews comprises 33 oral history interviews, over 84 tapes, exploring the experiences of the \u2018\u00a310 Poms\u2019: British people who emigrated to Australia for \u00a310 under the Assisted Package Scheme (1945-1982).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image
The ordered cassettes of an oral history research project<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Undertaken by Professor Al Thomson and Dr Lani Russell in 2000\/2001, the research looks at the experiences of people who remained in Australia as well as those who returned to the UK, some coming and going a number of times. The collection explores the experience of migration, women\u2019s lives in the UK and Australia, family dynamics, the challenges of returning to the UK. Interview transcripts and the resulting book \u2018Ten Pound Poms\u2019: Australia\u2019s invisible migrants (Hammerton\/Thomson, 2005) are available to read, but the recorded interviews and hearing the actual voices enable a much deeper \u2018reading\u2019 of the life stories being told. In the extract below, Joan Pickett\u2019s description of how she and her friend decided to take the Assisted Package draws one in immediately with her very visual comparison between the winter of 1959 and the sunny presentation of Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan Pickett talks to Al Thomson about the decision to go to Australia (Part 1)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\nhttp:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/01\/Pickett-part-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\n\n

Joan Pickett talks to Al Thomson about the decision to go to Australia<\/strong> (Part 2)<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A transcript for both audio files can be found in the UOSH additional content<\/a> page on this blog<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running through the interviews one hears the excitement of travel and opportunity; the details of a first sea journey; the sadness at saying goodbye to family and friends; the challenges and sometimes disappointments of arriving in a new land. All the interviews have been cleared by the UOSH team at The Keep to be streamed via a new British Library sounds website, to be launched in July 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making music with the Coppers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Copper Family recordings held by Special Collections is a very different type of audio collection. Whereas the \u00a310 Poms recordings were gathered as part of a structured research project, the Copper Family recordings reflect a more organic approach and were not created as a \u2018collection\u2019. The recordings comprise three distinct types of material: firstly, the 18 professionally recorded master tapes for the Copper\u2019s 1975 release, A Song for Every Season<\/em>. Secondly, interviews undertaken with Bob Copper and folk experts, talking about the role and history of the Copper Family. And thirdly, a collection of open reels and cassettes found amongst Bob Copper\u2019s possessions after he died. The latter tapes capture home recordings, material sent to Bob by aspiring folk musicians, rough recordings of pub performances, recordings of commercial music off the radio. The collection reflects a musician\u2019s life in sound: the clean and clear sound of a professional recording studio to the raucous, distorted sound of a pub recording to what is captured when, in a creative moment, you press the record button on a Saturday night at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image
A beautiful box from the Copper Family collection<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The UOSH team is still cataloguing the Copper Family recordings and are yet to confirm what all the recordings are, but what is already clear is that the content of these tapes are an essential element of the Copper Archive<\/a> (SxMs87). Alongside Bob Copper\u2019s correspondence, writing, song books, sketches and lifetime ephemera, the recordings bring sound to the archive of a man whose life had music and sound at its centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image
A tiny open reel of Bob and John Copper singing Come write me down<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once complete, the digital recordings will be stored at the British Library for preservation and listed in the British Library\u2019s Sound and Moving Image (sami.bl.uk<\/a>) catalogue. People interested in listening to them should email the Special Collections team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two collections have been digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Project (UOSH) based at The Keep and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The recordings were identified from the British Library\u2019s 2015 audit of sound collections across the UK as being unique and important, but also being at risk due to the loss of playback equipment and the risk of tape decay and CD rot. However, Special Collections also holds other sound collections, including interviews from the University\u2019s 50 Voices project<\/a>, celebrating its 50th<\/sup> anniversary and the oral history interviews of the Archive of Resistance Testimony<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on Unlocking Our Sound Heritage, follow @KeepSounds<\/a> on Twitter or the Keep Sounds blog www.keep-sounds.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Esther Gill – UOSH Project Manager The University of Sussex Special Collections at The Keep archive holds extensive material relating to 20th century literary, political and social history, as well as the history of the University. In amongst the…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":339,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[26,252,191241],"tags":[130783,41,192470,267,191785,192171],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":421,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/04\/16\/collections-reading-group\/","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":0},"title":"Collections reading group","date":"16 April 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"By Richard Wragg - Collections Manager For the last few months, the Collections Team have been meeting for a reading group. The texts we have chosen to discuss have all had a focus on decolonisation, equality and diversity. The reading group formed in response to the events of Summer 2020\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":522,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/09\/24\/listening-to-the-most-hated-man-in-america-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":1},"title":"Listening to the most hated man in America - Part 1","date":"24 September 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A glimpse into the audio archive of Harvey Matusow By Duncan Harrison - UOSH Audio preservation engineer The Sound of Mr. Matusow As with everything else in the last 18 months, the work of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) project has had to adapt around the restrictions of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Collections"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":251,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2020\/12\/14\/chloe-dobson-my-favourite-online-collections\/","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":2},"title":"Chloe Dobson: my favourite online collections","date":"14 December 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"By Chloe Dobson - Collection Development Librarian Part of our role in Collection Development is to find online resources which support the teaching of the University. I am going to be highlighting two of my favourites in this week's blog post (to discover your own search our Online Resources A-Z\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Collection Development"","img":{"alt_text":"Screenshot of the University of Sussex's Library online resources homepage","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2020\/12\/Screenshot-2020-12-18-090345.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":502,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/07\/02\/listening-to-maureen-colquhoun\/","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":3},"title":"Listening to Maureen Colquhoun","date":"2 July 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"By Esther Gill - Hub project manager - Unlocking our Sound Heritage It is Monday 1st February 2021, the UK is in lockdown and I am working from home, listening to a radio interview (UTK006\/498) from 1973 with a councillor from Shoreham Urban District Council being interviewed by journalist Ivan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Keep"","img":{"alt_text":"Image of poster with white background and red writing, advertising Maureen Colquhoun speaking for the Save the West Pier campaign.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/07\/RPMT-hatmp004960_1_d01.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":789,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2023\/11\/03\/the-power-of-poetry-and-living-libraries-for-decolonial-dialogue\/","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":4},"title":"The Power of Poetry and Living Libraries for Decolonial Dialogue","date":"3 November 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Reposted on from Decolonial Maps of Library Learning blog\u00a031 October 2023\u00a0by\u00a0Alice Corble. As Black History Month draws to a close (yet\u00a0Black History must continue to be shared) and I adjust to the turn of the season and new positions, I want to reflect today on The Power of Poetry and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Black History Month"","img":{"alt_text":"Jenny Mitchell and Erin James in conversation at The Power of Poetry and Living Libraries event","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2023\/11\/230928-PowerOfPoetryEvent-6-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":793,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2023\/11\/06\/unboxing-and-mapping-black-history-in-sussex-library-legacy-collections\/","url_meta":{"origin":304,"position":5},"title":"Unboxing and Mapping Black History in Sussex Library Legacy Collections","date":"6 November 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Reposted from Decolonial Maps blog\u00a0by\u00a0Alice Corble. This summer the Library was blessed to host its first\u00a0Junior Research Associate (JRA): Myisha Box (History and International Relations BA student, now in her final year). The project was supervised by Gavin Mensah Coker and Anne-Marie Angelo, with a support team in the library\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Black History Month"","img":{"alt_text":"JRA Myisha Box with her poster: Mapping Sussex University Library\u2019s Black History Archives","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2023\/11\/231106-JRAblog-MyishaBox-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/339"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}