Oral historians have long since been aware of the social good their art can produce. But does that mean museum oral history work should never be an end in itself?
The Museum Practice seminar, Sound Advice: new approaches to oral history, which took place on 19 March at London’s Royal College of Surgeons, seemed to leave this question in mind.
The seminar was chaired by Rob Perks, lead curator of oral history at the British Library and president of the Oral History Society, and he opened with a sobering picture of oral history in UK museums today – not least the loss of specialist curators in Bradford, Southampton and Beamish, among others.
While other conferences tend to look at how to collect oral histories, this seminar asked “what next?”. A practical discussion by Hilary Young, digital curator at the Museum of London, on digitisation took this approach by demonstrating the problem of cassette tapes, DAT tapes, mini-disks and gold-standard CDs, which have all had their day and are now often left languishing in museums, libraries and archives.
Young’s tips on digitisation particularly emphasised the logical prioritisation of collections, and it was good to hear that she did not advocate a scramble to digitise.
Jo Reilly, head of participation and learning at the Heritage Lottery Fund, also walked through the body’s new strategic framework and current priorities, while Tilly Blyth, keeper of technologies and engineering at the Science Museum, explained how oral history will be used in its new communications gallery to provide crucial social context.
Elsewhere, there was a focus on the process rather than just the end product – for example, what possible effect could the act of recording oral history have on the community?
Jemma Conway, community heritage curator at Barnsley Arts and Museums, described how the collection at the new Experience Barnsley museum, which is due to open in June, is intrinsically linked to oral histories taken from people who donated items.
A recording booth in the new Barnsley museum will also enable visitors to record their memories. While this seems to fly in the face of relationship-based community projects, it could entice a differently-minded participant, help source original objects and encourage fresh memories to be shared.
A sense of community and ownership were also evident in the work of two other speakers, Julia Letts and Alex Henry, a freelance oral history producer and a digital storytelling practitioner respectively.
These experiences all pointed to oral history work as a force for social good, whether provoking feelings of pride from the people of Barnsley, bridging young and old communities through schools work or empowering participants as digital storytellers who can choose what to talk about rather than following the interviewer’s agenda.
Oral history has evolved almost beyond recognition from when its practitioners were described as as “voyeurs who stalk the old”. But it is clear that using oral history in a community-minded way will, in part, determine what projects are taken up, the nature of participants and the end result.
I feel there is room for both product and process in the rich landscape of oral history.
Whether for the primary benefit of present-day team members, or future generations in need of a glimpse into past lives, it is clear that oral history is as lively and relevant as ever.
Museum professionals hold a clear and important role in ensuring the discipline’s longevity both physically, via digitisation, and in less measurable ways – as a resource for future researchers, as a tool for community relations and as ever, audible on the gallery floor.
Julia Smith is undertaking a master's in museum studies at the University of Leicester and is an oral history volunteer
The Museum Practice seminar, Sound Advice: new approaches to oral history, which took place on 19 March at London’s Royal College of Surgeons, seemed to leave this question in mind.
The seminar was chaired by Rob Perks, lead curator of oral history at the British Library and president of the Oral History Society, and he opened with a sobering picture of oral history in UK museums today – not least the loss of specialist curators in Bradford, Southampton and Beamish, among others.
While other conferences tend to look at how to collect oral histories, this seminar asked “what next?”. A practical discussion by Hilary Young, digital curator at the Museum of London, on digitisation took this approach by demonstrating the problem of cassette tapes, DAT tapes, mini-disks and gold-standard CDs, which have all had their day and are now often left languishing in museums, libraries and archives.
Young’s tips on digitisation particularly emphasised the logical prioritisation of collections, and it was good to hear that she did not advocate a scramble to digitise.
Jo Reilly, head of participation and learning at the Heritage Lottery Fund, also walked through the body’s new strategic framework and current priorities, while Tilly Blyth, keeper of technologies and engineering at the Science Museum, explained how oral history will be used in its new communications gallery to provide crucial social context.
Elsewhere, there was a focus on the process rather than just the end product – for example, what possible effect could the act of recording oral history have on the community?
Jemma Conway, community heritage curator at Barnsley Arts and Museums, described how the collection at the new Experience Barnsley museum, which is due to open in June, is intrinsically linked to oral histories taken from people who donated items.
A recording booth in the new Barnsley museum will also enable visitors to record their memories. While this seems to fly in the face of relationship-based community projects, it could entice a differently-minded participant, help source original objects and encourage fresh memories to be shared.
A sense of community and ownership were also evident in the work of two other speakers, Julia Letts and Alex Henry, a freelance oral history producer and a digital storytelling practitioner respectively.
These experiences all pointed to oral history work as a force for social good, whether provoking feelings of pride from the people of Barnsley, bridging young and old communities through schools work or empowering participants as digital storytellers who can choose what to talk about rather than following the interviewer’s agenda.
Oral history has evolved almost beyond recognition from when its practitioners were described as as “voyeurs who stalk the old”. But it is clear that using oral history in a community-minded way will, in part, determine what projects are taken up, the nature of participants and the end result.
I feel there is room for both product and process in the rich landscape of oral history.
Whether for the primary benefit of present-day team members, or future generations in need of a glimpse into past lives, it is clear that oral history is as lively and relevant as ever.
Museum professionals hold a clear and important role in ensuring the discipline’s longevity both physically, via digitisation, and in less measurable ways – as a resource for future researchers, as a tool for community relations and as ever, audible on the gallery floor.
Julia Smith is undertaking a master's in museum studies at the University of Leicester and is an oral history volunteer
