Donations and Deposits Collection - Sikh Family History Project

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): DPA/1654 - 1912

Title: Donations and Deposits Collection - Sikh Family History Project

Date(s): 1930 - 1983

Level of description: Series

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 302 items

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): DPA

Administrative/Biographical history: This collection was compiled by field officers, funded by the Manpower Services Commission, who were responsible for conducting oral history interviews with local residents from Manchester's African, African Caribbean and Asian communities between 1979-1983. Information was collected as part of the Documentary Photograph Archive's Black History, Roots Festival Committee History and Sikh Family History projects to address the under-representation of Black and Asian peoples in the DPA's Archive of Family Photographs. Drawing on the research methods of the Manchester Studies Unit (a research unit within the former Manchester Polytechnic that was involved in documenting the history of groups of people whose records were usually excluded from existing archive collections; particularly the records of working class, Black and Asian peoples), volunteers from the Manchester region were visited by the field officers, and permission was sought to record details about, and make copies of, their collections of family photographs. For each participant the field officer recorded the following details:

• Name and contact details of the interviewee/depositor of the photograph collection.
• Date of visit.
• Background information about the interviewee - focussing, in particular, on the country of origin of the first generation of migrants in the family, date of arrival in the UK and length of residence in Manchester, occupation and other biographical details about the individual members of the family.
• A summary statement about each photograph (including names of people, dates and locations for each image), original size and other physical characteristics (e.g. Sepia, Colour or Black and White)
• Sound recording tape number.

After the interview the photograph collection was copied and contact prints and photographic negatives were deposited in the Documentary Photograph Archive at the Greater Manchester County Record Office. Original photographs were returned to the project participants. Negative Sheet Numbers and Item Numbers were assigned to each contact print and linked to the descriptions about each collection in the printed catalogue for the Archive of Family Photographs.

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: This collection comprises 302 photographic images coped from the family albums of local people who participated in the Documentary Photograph Archive's Sikh Family History Project between 1979-1983. Details about the 14 sub-collections (Ref:1654 - 1912) are listed below, with names and addresses of the depositors and their families omitted:

• 1654 - 33 items from the family album of a Sikh migrant from Lahore, Pakistan, who came to the UK in 1934 and settled in Manchester in 1947. In addition to family photographs, several items are copies of certificates and licenses relating to the depositor's clothing manufacturing company, whilst others are newspaper cuttings reporting Baisakhi celebrations held at the Sikh Temple in 1954 (Ref: 1654/15-16) and the visit of Mrs Vijay Lachme, younger sister of Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister of India, 1947-1964), to Manchester in 1956. (Ref 1654/28 - Negative Number 1/S23b/12)
• 1655 - 17 items from the collection of a Manchester resident who migrated from the Punjab to Manchester in 1949. The collection contains several group photographs taken outside the first Sikh Gurdwara in Manchester in the early 1950s. There are also copies of news cuttings from the Manchester Guardian and Manchester Evening News featuring stories about the first, turbaned Sikh to join the GMC as a bus conductor, dated 12th and 15th February 1967, respectively.
• 1656 - 79 photographs from the album of a Sikh migrant from Lahore, Pakistan, who migrated to Manchester in 1949. Many photographs show pages from the depositor's father's passport showing the places where he served during the Second World War. Others are the wedding photographs of the interviewee taken in Moss Side, Manchester, in 1962.
• 1657 - 5 photographs showing the family of a Sikh immigrant from Amritsar, India, who migrated to the UK in 1949 as a child to join his father who had migrated in 1932.
• 1658 - 10 photographs of a Sikh family who first settled in Manchester in 1938. 5 pictures show the depositor's family members who were famous wrestling champions in both India and Britain.
• 1659 - 34 items from the family album of Sikh immigrants who settled in Manchester in the 1940s. In addition to family photographs the collection includes letters, money orders sent from England to India, scripture notes, identity cards, pedlars licences and membership cards for the Manchester Sikh Temple (c.1950s-19660s).
• 1660 - 30 photographs of a Sikh family who migrated to the UK in 1949. Most of the photographs were taken at family weddings but, as the depositor's father served as the high priest of the Manchester Sikh Temple in Moss Side during the late 1950s and 1960s several pictures were taken inside the Gurdwara: e.g. Item 1660/6 (Negative Number 1/U19a/40) shows a group of Sikh children attending a Punjabi lesson inside the Gurdwara, taken at the time when Granada TV were filming a documentary about the Sikh community, entitled 'Our Neighbours'.
• 1661 - 25 items from the collection of a Sikh family who first migrated to Glasgow from India in 1947 and moved to Manchester in 1956. In addition to family photographs taken in Glasgow during the early 1950s there are copies of passport pages, photographs of a 'Burma Evacuee Identity Certificate', dated 1945-46, and letters of commendation written by officers of the North Africa 65th division of the Artillery Regiment about the depositor's husband.
• 1721 - 2 photographs from the collection of a Sikh migrant who settled in the UK during the 1930s. Item 1721/2 (Negative Number 1/W37/17) is a copy of a photograph of children playing in Bark Street, Hulme, which appeared in the Hulme Library photograph exhibition, Hulme Sweet Hulme.
• 1736 - 3 photographs of Sikh children with their class mates, taken at St Marks Primary School in 1955 and 1957 and Holland Street Secondary Modern School in 1961.
• 1743 - 19 items from the family album of a Sikh immigrant who migrated to Manchester from Pakistan in 1950. The collection includes a newspaper cutting from the Punjab Times, dated 5th November 1972, documenting the visit of Sant Fatha Singh, a prominent Sikh leader, to a Huddersfield Sikh Temple. The depositor attended the event as the representative of the Manchester Sikh Temple and is shown in a group photograph with Sant Fatha Singh.
• 1744 - 11 items from the collection of a Sikh family who migrated to Britain from Amritsar, India, in the early 1930s. Items include photographs of passport pages, money orders and family photographs taken in Edinburgh and Manchester.
• 1892 - 16 photographs from the album of a Sikh family who migrated to Britain in 1965. The depositor served as a high priest at the Monton Street Sikh Temple from 1972-1980 and several photographs show groups involved in fund-raising events to build the new temple after the original was demolished in 1972. This collection also contains a group photograph of early Sikh immigrants living in London, taken outside the Shepherd's Bush Sikh Temple in 1939 (Item 1892/6 - Negative Number 2/B40/9+28).
• 1912 - 18 photographs from the family album of an Indian migrant who settled in Manchester during the 1950s. The photographs were taken in Moss Side between 1959 and 1972.
  Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
  Accruals:
  System of arrangement: The series of records were collected as part of the Donations and Deposits Collection, under the Archive of Family Photographs section.

  CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA
  Conditions governing access: The collection may be viewed by prior appointment with the Archivist, who can be contacted on 0161 247 1765.
  Conditions governing reproduction: For each set of photographs copyright vests with the original depositor. Anyone wishing to reproduce material that is still under copyright must first seek permission from the original depositor and then pay a reproduction fee to the DPA.
  Language/scripts of material: English
  Physical characteristics: Photographic negatives and contact prints (mainly black and white)
  Finding aids: Printed catalogues

  ALLIED MATERIALS AREA
  Existence and location of originals: Retained by the depositors
  Existence and location of copies:
  Related units of description:
  Publication note:

  DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA
  Recorder's note:
  Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
  Date(s) of descriptions: 25 October 2001

Interest: Asian

Specific group: Sikh peoples

Subjects

Sikhism

Religions

Photographs

Oral history

Migration

Family

Ethnic groups

Personal/Corporate names

Manchester Studies Unit

Nehru, Jawaharlal, 1889-1964

Places

Pakistan

India

Moss Side, Manchester, United Kingdom

Hulme, Manchester, United Kingdom