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Images of Britain: Mass-Observation 1937-2003
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 June 2016
Abstract
The papers generated by the research organisation ‘Mass-Observation’ provide a unique and insightful account of everyday life in the UK, documenting the years from 1937 until the mid-1950s. Using a variety of research methods (including in the early years photography and painting), Mass-Observation set about recording the lives of people throughout the country. In 1981 a new version of Mass-Observation was launched, based in the original Archive at the University of Sussex. Hundreds of volunteers record their own lives mostly in writing but also sometimes in images, in response to a variety of themes sent to them by the Archive. Research access is possible to both early and recent material.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2004
References
1. Shorter histories include: Calder, Angus. ‘Mass-Observation 1937-49’ in Bulmer, Martin, ed. Essays on the history of British sociological research. Cambridge University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
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