Blog @ StrathArchives - LibGuides at University of Strathclyde

We are delighted to announce the publication online of a full item-level catalogue of a small but important collection - the papers of Colin Kirkwood, writer, academic and psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and Gerri (Geraldine) Kirkwood, adult and community educator, community activist and English teacher.

The papers document the work and thinking of this passionate and engaging couple, and some of their collaborators and friends, over 50 odd years from the mid 1960s to 2020, in the fields of community activism, writers' workshops and adult educational work in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the North Midlands in England. One highlight of their work was the successful establishment of the community newspapers ‘Staveley Now’ and ‘Castlemilk Today’, in which they encouraged ordinary people to speak out directly in their own voices. Another was the establishment of the long-running Adult Learning Project in the working-class Gorgie Dalry area of Edinburgh, where they implemented the ideas of the Brazilian adult educator, Paulo Freire. It is no exaggeration to say that Colin and Gerri were hugely influential. Their work changed the shape of adult education in Britain.

The collection includes the couple’s working papers, copies of many of their published articles and books, complete sets of the community newspapers ‘Staveley Now’ and ‘Castlemilk Today’, many Writers' Workshop booklets, as well as several letters and poems from friends, amongst whom were the Scottish writers and poets Tom Leonard, Bob Tait, Edwin Morgan and Ian Hamilton Finlay.

Colin himself has written a fascinating account of the couple’s lives and work, which is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the full background to this collection (archives reference: KIR/7/16 ‘The Kirkwood Papers’ by Colin Kirkwood).

Explore the full catalogue of the Kirkwood papers on the online archive catalogue.

Recent Posts

Visitor from Alicante: a week with Ricardo

This week we hosted an Erasmus staff visitor from the University of Alicante archives. Ricardo Jose Lillo Giner spent the week here at the Andersonian Library shadowing our work in archives and meeting Library colleagues. Ricardo learned about our accessioning procedures, how we re-package photographs, our digital preservation workflows, and our Special Collections of books. He also learned about Customer Service Excellence award within the Library, research data management, reading list software, wellbeing initiatives, and copyright and compliance. Its fair to say that Ricardo had a busy week around the library! He has also found time to explore Glasgow and the surrounding areas. He took a boat trip on Loch Lomond, a train trip to Largs (for fish and chips, and ice-cream), and a bus to Edinburgh. When asked to sum up his week-long visit, Ricardo said:“It’s been a very good experience, I’ve felt very, very welcome and I have a very good impression of people from Glasgow. The most important for me, is that I could understand most of the things people have said to me! My English is not that bad!”Adios for now Ricardo, and perhaps one day we can return the visit to find out more about the archives of the University of Alicante!...

New collection catalogue available: Laurie Kazan-Allen papers on asbestos

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the catalogue for the papers of prolific ban asbestos campaigner Laurie Kazan-Allen. This opens up over 75 archive boxes of materials to all researchers. Laurie Kazan-Allen is a hugely significant figure in the ban asbestos movement. She spent over 30 years researching, writing about and campaigning internationally to eradicate the asbestos hazard. In 1990, she was founding editor of the British Asbestos Newsletter: a quarterly publication distributed worldwide to solicitors, victim support groups, academics, medical personnel and research bodies. The British Asbestos Newsletter (BAN) was a vital tool to share information about asbestos, its effects and the plight of victims of the deadly substance, particularly in the days before the World Wide Web was at its height. At that time asbestos information was in the hands of multinational corporations, government agencies and other vested interests, most of whom were determined to keep tight control over key documents and information. Laurie Kazan Allen at a trade union conference in Australia, 2019 (Photograph courtesy of Laurie Kazan-Allen)Kazan-Allen was also the founder and coordinator of the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS), established in 1999 to work towards a global asbestos ban and to support victims of asbestos-related diseases. From the very beginning, IBAS made common cause with trade unions, labour federations, environmental campaigns, human rights organisations and other like-minded civil society groups. The links forged were vital for progressing the international coalition which motivated and sustained all IBAS activities.The bulk of the collection is material gathered by Kazan-Allen on various aspects of asbestos, its uses, dangers and effects. Journal articles, correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, case documentation, leaflets and statistics have all been filed under thematic headings including: countries; international agencies; asbestos companies; scientific and medical developments; legal cases; individuals involved in historical and scientific research; and others.Laurie Kazan-Allen used these research files to write articles, speeches, and reports which are also represented within the collection and on the website of the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat.This collection joins our growing and popular corpus of asbestos-related materials: some of our most frequently consulted collections. We look forward to welcoming researchers to access this new and important collection. Asked for her comments on the launch of the on-line catalogue, Kazan-Allen said:“I am delighted that the IBAS and BAN resources will be freely available to researchers at the University of Strathclyde archive in years to come. I chose to place these papers there as I knew that many of my esteemed colleagues had already done so including Alan Dalton, Nancy Tait, Geoffrey Tweedale and Michael Lees. We all stand on the shoulders of giants and remembering all those who encouraged us, I hope that these resources will serve to inspire and inform future generations.” Further information:Catalogue for Laurie Kazan-Allen papers on asbestosResource guide for asbestos collectionsInternational Ban Asbestos Secretariat websiteContact us to make an appointment or enquire about the collection.Feature image: Ban asbestos campaign badges (LKA/6/11)...

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. ...

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The Kirkwood papers: 50 Years of Community Activism and Adult Education

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