Blog @ StrathArchives - LibGuides at University of Strathclyde

Last year the Diamond Jubilee of the University of Strathclyde was celebrated. This was the marking of 60 years since the institution officially became a University.

A Royal Charter was officially granted on 23 June 1964, and 'put under seal' when it was signed by Her Majesty the Queen on 14 August 1964. This marked the completion of the formalities in the creation of the University of Strathclyde as successor to the Royal College of Science and Technology.

As the home of the Royal Charter itself, and the custodian of the Institution’s history, Archives and Special Collections were delighted to be involved in the 2024 Jubilee celebrations around campus. This blog post provides a round-up of a few of our Jubilee related activities.

Supporting colleagues

We continued to answer historical and collections related enquiries from around the University. Last year, more of these took on a Jubilee flavour and we were able to supply images, information, and even some archive footage to colleagues within Communications, Events, and Alumni to support their articles, pamphlets, events, and videos. Some examples include:

images and key dates for the official Jubilee landing page
footage for the Jubilee video
an article in the University’s staff newsletter celebrating International Women’s Day
images for press pieces on the Jubilee
an LGBTQI+ workshop and event

Strathclyde at 60 blog post series

To celebrate the Jubilee, we launched a blog series called ‘Strathclyde at 60’ on our webpages. Each post highlights an item from the archives and special collections, creating a breadcrumb trail of the University's history and development. Stay tuned to our blog for more ‘Strathclyde at 60’ posts.

Jubilee summer Fete with guest appearance of the Royal Charter

A highlight of the jubilee celebrations was the summer fete organised by the Events team on 14th August 2024. We were invited to bring the original Royal Charter onto campus, the foyer of Learning & Teaching Building, to join the sunny celebrations, and to let people have a peek at the original document. Our presence was also advertised as an opportunity for staff to “Ask an archivist” any historical questions they might have.

We arranged a special display case to keep the Charter safe and a member of the team was on hand throughout, to engage with fete-goers. It was great to meet with our colleagues around the University and celebrate together!

Oral History Trail

The Jubilee year gave us an excellent opportunity to showcase one of our fascinating oral history collections.

‘The University Experience, 1945 – 1975’ was an oral history project carried out by the Scottish Oral History Centre in 2002-2003. It involved interviews with all manner of students and staff across the institution: professors, cleaners, administrative staff and students from all faculties. Many of the interviewees reflect on what the atmosphere was like as the institution transitioned from a technical college into a University, and also give insights into life in general at Strathclyde in the past.

We worked with our colleagues in the Events team to design and mount a physical oral history trail around the city centre campus. Seven quotes are accompanied by an archival image and the QR code links to where the recordings can be heard. It encourages people to explore the institution, and presents an opportunity to hear Strathclyders of the past reflect upon key moments, and the atmosphere of the institution, at a pivotal time in its history.

Visit the Jubilee Oral History Trail page for details, or dive deeper into our full collection on the University Experience LibGuide page. And if you're on campus, take a stroll and see how many you can spot!

Recent Posts

Exploring the Aldred Collection

We are delighted to welcome David, an MSc Information and Library Studies student on placement with us in Archives and Special Collections this semester. In this guest post, he shares his insights into the Aldred collection.As someone with a research background relating to Holocaust writing and Holocaust memory, the contents of one of the library’s special collections immediately caught my eye. Containing a range of socialist and anti-fascist pamphlets, texts and serials published between 1839 and 1971, the Andersonian library’s Aldred collection is an excellent resource for those looking to gain insight into British and American responses to historical anti-Semitism. It could be of particular interest to those, for instance, who are looking to research periods and perspectives that are not often represented in contemporary writing.Anti-Semitism in British Culture As an example, titles such as A.J. LaBern’s ‘The disease of anti-Semitism’ (London: Woburn Press, 1942) and ‘The Jews: Some plain facts’ (London: Woburn Press, 1942) highlight the undercurrent of anti-Semitism that had begun to creep into British culture and media during the wartime period, with both aiming to counter this by stressing specific Jewish contributions to the war effort. Anti-Semitism pamphlets from the Aldred collection.Holocaust MemoryAs the collection also features materials that were published immediately following the liberation of the concentration camps, it also provides valuable insight into another period that is often under-represented in contemporary Holocaust writing. Specifically, this would be the period that Barbie Zelizer1 has referred to as the “first wave” of Holocaust memory. This period is generally viewed as spanning from the liberation of the concentration camps to the end of the 1940s and is heavily informed by the photographs that featured in British and American media during this time. As such, the emphasis is not yet placed on camps such as Auschwitz, which has come to form a vital part of contemporary Holocaust memory, but on places such as Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald. In this light, Victor Gollancz’s pamphlet ‘What Buchenwald Really Means’ (London: V. Gollancz ltd., 1945) is particularly valuable, as it features a fascinating post-liberation framing of the Holocaust. Importantly, Gollancz emphasises the failure of the British media to capture the reality of the genocide as it was taking place and, correspondingly, he chastises the British government and the British public at large for failing to take decisive action in preventing the genocide. The text also offers a noteworthy discussion of collective punishment and, specifically, Gollancz questions whether the German people can be held collectively accountable for the actions of the German government. As he puts it: “People forget what an unspeakably efficient instrument of oppression is a modern dictatorship...” As with many of the resources contained within this collection, therefore, this document provides a valuable perspective that is specific to the period. This kind of resource can therefore have tremendous value for those who are looking to gain additional insights into specific historical periods or who are looking to understand the immediate framing of certain events. As very few of these documents will have been preserved physically, due to the inherently disposable nature of pamphlets, this collection also offers the chance to closely examine these rare materials. This is very much worth it, as these are rare and often compelling windows into global historical events.1 Remembering to Forget: Holocaust Memory Through the Camera's Eye. University of Chicago Press. 1998....

Archie Hind Centenary Project Update: Republication, family visits and books groups

We’re delighted to share the latest developments in the Archie Hind centenary project. Recently we’ve been bid-writing, meeting with Hind family and friends, and conducting our first archives engagement event using the collection.If you’re new to the project, our first blog post explores the discovery of Archie Hind’s archive, the significance of his papers, and our early plans for the centenary. You can read it here: The ‘Rediscovery’ of The Dear Green Place: Introducing the Archie Hind Centenary ProjectRepublication launch at Glad Café (22 September 2024)Following the interest generated by the discovery of the Archie Hind papers, the original publisher of Hind’s novel Dear Green Place, Birlinn, agreed it was time to republish the work. It became Waterstones ‘Scottish Book of the Month’, September 2024, with a huge number of copies sold. We celebrated the republication with a launch event at the Glad Café, Shawlands. Around one hundred family and friends attended to listen to a panel discussion about the archive collection, watch footage of Archie Hind in interview, listen to a live music performance and reminisce about their memories of Archie and his work.Meeting Martin Hind (7 January 2025)It was a great pleasure to meet Martin Hind, the son of Archie Hind, when he travelled from Germany to view his father’s papers in January this year. He hadn’t seen the collection for several years and some items he had never caught sight of at all. He was a font of information about the life and work of his father, and he could give us an insight into the experience of the success and acclaim Archie received for his novel, from the perspective of someone within the Hind household! We hope to see Martin again this year.Book group sneak preview (17th February 2025)We were excited to share a preview of the Archie Hind collection for a group visit in February. The Strathclyde Lifelong Learning book group came to hear Eleanor Bell speak about Archie’s novel and give a short introduction to his papers. Attendees were able to see the original manuscript of Dear Green Place as well as one of the scrapbooks Archie’s wife, Eleanor, collated after the success of the novel. The book group were delighted to hear more about Archie Hind, his deep association with Glasgow, and enjoy a preview of the treasures within the archive collection. We have also been working on funding applications so stay tuned for further updates throughout the year. ...

Working lives in Glasgow, and life in a mining cottage: new oral history resources

We are delighted to announce that we have recently published catalogues for two oral history collections.Glasgow Working LivesGlasgow Working Lives oral history project (SOHC 42) includes 28 interviews with men and women who give an insight into job conditions in areas such as: the armed forces, the civil service, education, factory work, farming, fire service, healthcare, insurance and finance, and retail. These interviews provide a window onto the physical and psychological experiences of the working environment in Glasgow from the 1930s right up to 2000s. Several different sectors, and a large range of occupations, are covered. Interviewees reflect on how they found employment, the interview process, career progression, colleagues they met along the way, and everyday experiences in the workplace environment. Explore the Glasgow Working Lives oral history project catalogue.Jean Wark: Life in a Mining CottageAnother fascinating resource, now described on our catalogue, is an interview with Jeanie (Jean) Wark about life in a mining cottage (SOHC 28). Jean speaks about living in South Ayrshire from the 1920s to the 1950s, describing the small and basic interior of the mining cottage, games the children used to play, local customs, and the implications of mining on the health of the miners. Discover Jean Wark's story on the online archive catalogue.Browse our catalogue and get in touch if you would like to listen to these incredible oral histories! ...

Women Educating and Inspiring Generations

This year, Women’s History Month (March 2025) celebrates ‘Women Educating and Inspiring Generations’. To mark both Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (8 March), we are highlighting three women who trained generations of teachers at Strathclyde’s antecedent institution: the Glasgow Provincial Training College, known from 1959 as Jordanhill College of Education. Those featured are:Miss Janet Gallie, Mistress of Methods (1916-1950)Dr Anne McAllister, Principal Lecturer in Speech Training (1919-1958) and Director of the Glasgow School of Speech Therapy (1935-1964)Miss Joyce Moffett, Lecturer in Speech Training (1941-1958) and Dean of Women (1958-1971)Significantly, Miss Gallie and Dr McAllister both taught Joyce Moffett, who qualified as a teacher in 1933 and subsequently lectured at the College alongside her mentors. The transcript of an oral history interview with Joyce (reference: Acc 95/07), conducted in the 1990s reveals the esteem in which she held Miss Gallie and Dr McAllister and the knowledge and inspiration she gained from each of them.Dr Anne McAllister, centre of the second row; Miss Joyce Moffett, second row third from the right (reference: JCE/22/1/9)Janet GallieDuring her 34-year career, Miss Janet Gallie taught thousands of women students the practical techniques of primary school teaching. Through lectures in the College and demonstrations lessons in its practicing school, she showed the students how to maintain classroom discipline, convey information clearly, and present themselves confidently and authoritatively before a class of children. This basic, but essential training was forever appreciated by Joyce Moffett, who described Miss Gallie as “an excellent teacher” from whom “I got most help in the practical business of teaching”.“I was very fortunate in being assigned to a Miss Gallie [,] who was one of the outstanding lecturers in the Methods Department at that time. From her I learned the basics that were so comfortable to people going out to teach, and who had never faced a class before: organisation of the class, pitfalls to avoid, how to handle them and maintain discipline, the techniques of marking registers and so on.”Miss Joyce Moffett, recalling her experience of Methods training under Miss Janet Gallie.Anne McAllisterAs well as pioneering specific courses for the training of speech therapists, Dr Anne McAllister taught phonetics to aspiring primary and secondary school teachers at the Glasgow Provincial Training College. Her expertise and enthusiasm inspired many of them, including Joyce Moffett, who acknowledged that she first became interested in phonetics thanks to Dr McAllister’s classes. In 1941, several years after Joyce gained her teaching qualification, Dr McAllister, who knew of her interest in the subject, invited Joyce to join the staff of the Speech Training Department on a temporary secondment. Thus began a long and fruitful career, attributable to Dr McAllister’s influence and encouragement. “Dr McAllister . . . was a great stimulus and I found myself constrained of my own wishes to take an LRAM [Licentiate of the Royal College of Music] and a course of study in phonetics at London University because she made me so interested in speech. Also, she was doing work in an outpatients’ clinic in speech therapy, and I became involved in that too. So, I found myself caught up in a new area in which I had had no particular interest before but thereupon I identified myself with it, studying for and acquiring the LCST [Licentiate of the College of Speech Therapists]”. Miss Joyce Moffett, recalling the inspiration she gained from Dr Anne McAllister:Joyce MoffettThe temporary secondment became permanent, and Joyce Moffett ultimately succeeded Dr McAllister as Principal Lecturer in Speech Training in 1951. Seven years later, Miss Moffett was appointed Dean of Women, serving as counsellor and advisor to all the women students - over 2,000 each year – who entered the College. It was a demanding and frequently exhausting role, but also very rewarding. On her retirement in 1971, the student magazine, Spectrum, observed that Miss Moffett ‘has served the students popularly and well, giving advice and direction where required, not only in the academic sense but in the personal field as well.’ She was, and is, remembered with gratitude and affection by former students and colleagues alike.“[My role as Dean of Women was] on the human side. With the numbers of students who needed help with their courses and with their background problems. The Special Recruitment Scheme people [mature students accepted for training due to a post-World War II shortage of teachers] often had problems. They might have marital problems – invalid husbands, alcoholic husbands, they were deserted, they had families. I had a lot of work to do finding places for their children in schools in Glasgow, making contacts with nursery schools or agencies that would look after their children. That was a big part of my work. I would say my work was very largely pastoral and personal, medical and domestic. It was very rewarding but very demanding. I realise how busy I was from morning to night. But it was so absorbing and so worthwhile, I felt, that I was very sorry when the college ceased to have that kind of post.” Joyce Moffett, recalling her experience as Dean of Women at Jordanhill College of Education.Visit our Women's History Month display on Level 3 of the Andersonian Library throughout March 2025, during Library opening hours. Details of more activities and events can be found on Strathclyde's Women's History Month webpage....

Information Services Andersonian Library Guides

Celebrating the University’s Diamond Jubilee

Supporting colleagues

Strathclyde at 60 blog post series

Jubilee summer Fete with guest appearance of the Royal Charter

Oral History Trail

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