Donations and Deposits Collection - Roots Festival Committee History Project

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): DPA/1722 - 2379

Title: Donations and Deposits Collection - Roots Festival Committee History Project

Date(s): 1930 - 1983

Level of description: Series

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 141 photographs

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 141 photographic images coped from the family albums of local people who participated in the Documentary Photograph Archive's Roots Festival Committee History Project between 1982-1983. Details about the 12 sub-collections (Ref:1722 - 2379) are listed below, with names and addresses of the depositors and their families omitted:

• 1722 - 7 photographs belonging to a Moss Side resident who migrated to the UK from Kingston, Jamaica in 1958. 4 photographs are studio portraits taken in the Doric Photo Studio, Kingston , Jamaica on the interviewee's wedding day, 1954.
• 1723 - 21 photographs from the family album of a Moss Side resident who migrated to the UK from Nigeria in the 1940s. The depositor was a rally cyclist who toured Europe with the International Motor Cycle Club during the 1950s and 1960s, so images from France, Germany, Belgium and Poland are included in the collection alongside family pictures taken in Lagos, Nigeria and Manchester.
• 1739 -1742- 50 photographs from the album of a Guyanese-born immigrant who settled in Manchester in 1960, worked at the Family Advice Centre in Moss Side and was a founder member of the community organisation, Black Women's Mutual Aid - one of the local groups responsible for the Roots Festival Committee History Project. Approximately 50% of the collection show pictures of the depositor's family, taken in Guyana during the 1940s and 1950s.Others show examples of the community activities run by the depositor, such as conferences and fund-raining events for the Manchester Black Women's Co-operative (later Abasindi Co-operative) during the 1970s.
• 1770 - 11 photographs from the family album of a Nigerian migrant who settled in Manchester in 1937. All the pictures were taken in Sapele, Nigeria, and show family members in traditional Benin robes.
• 1771 - 9 photographs of a Moss Side resident who migrated from Jamaica in 1960. One image shows the first Caribbean Carnival held at Alexandra Park, Moss Side, Manchester in 1970 (Ref: 1771/1 - Negative Number 1/Y27/20).
• 1814 - 15 items from the album of a Jamaican-born couple who settled in the Longsight area of Manchester in the early 1950s. 4 items are photocopies of the following newspaper articles: Alexandra Carnival (The Guardian, Tuesday May 27th, 1975); Moss Side Story (The Guardian, 22nd May, 1971); Black Self Help by Brian Morris (New Society, 25th September, 1975); Moss Side Dossier. Eric Towner continues his four-part investigation into the special problem of Moss Side and the people who live there. His final article in the series will be tomorrow when he raises the question of finding a permanent cure for inner city blight. 'The stigma boosts teenage jobless.' (Manchester Evening News, Wednesday 25th June, 1978)
• 1819 - 5 photographs from the album of a Manchester-born, Hulme resident, showing group photographs of school children in the early 1950s.
• 1820 - 5 items (postcards and newspaper cuttings) from the family album of a Moss Side resident, who migrated to the UK from Trinidad in 1951. The titles of the news articles read: Coloured Girl Mothers Scandal (The People - Sunday 22nd April, 1962. Headline article, p.1); Gaitskell whips the colour-bar Tories (Daily Herald, Friday 17th November, 1961. Headline article, p.1); Continued on p.8 People and Politics. Immigration Debate: The Fascists' first victory, says Gaitskell. Butler accused of colour-bar hypocrisy.
• 1828 - 17 photographs from the album of a Jamaican-born nurse who migrated to the UK in 1955. Many of the photographs date from the late 1950s and early 1960s, showing the depositor in uniform with various nursing colleagues.
  2379 - 15 photographs from the album of a Gambian-born migrant. Several pictures show the depositor with other patrons of the Lagos Club in Moss Side, Manchester during the 1950s.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement: This 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 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 catalogue

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: Black

Specific group: People of African and African-Caribbean descent

Subjects

Black peoples

Photographs

Migration

Family

Ethnic groups

Personal/Corporate names

Black Women's Mutual Aid

Manchester Black Women's Co-operative

Manchester Studies Unit

Roots Festival Committee History Project

Places

Moss Side, Manchester, United Kingdom

Hulme, Manchester, United Kingdom

Longsight, Manchester, United Kingdom