Fifty years ago Glasgow based Strathclyde Theatre Group created a landmark theatrical production which is to be celebrated this year with an exhibition at the Edinburgh Festival.
Archives and Special Collections hold the archive of the Strathclyde Theatre Group. Copies of items from The Golden City production files feature in the Edinburgh exhibition to tell its story. Originals can be seen in our latest archive exhibition on level 3 of the library.
Strathclyde Theatre Group was an initiative of the Department of English Studies and more broadly the University of Strathclyde; it was active from the 1970s until the early 2000s.
The archive collection includes: posters; leaflets; production photographs; scripts; and correspondence and covers productions dating from 1969 – 2009.
The anniversary exhibition in Edinburgh will be open from 1-31 August 2024 in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh - the venue for the original production's Edinburgh run.
Discover more information about the exhibition and the celebrations on the Golden City 50 Exhibition website.
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.
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:
Further information:
Contact us to make an appointment or enquire about the collection.
Feature image: Ban asbestos campaign badges (LKA/6/11)