Donations and Deposits Collection - Black History Project

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): DPA/912-918

Title: Donations and Deposits Collection - Black History Project

Date(s): 1920 - 1983

Level of description: Series

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 149 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 collection 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 149 photographic images coped from the family albums of local people who participated in the Documentary Photograph Archive's Black History Project between 1979-1983. Details about the seven sub-collections (Ref: 912 -918) are listed below, with names and addresses of the depositors and their families omitted:

• 912 - contains 9 photographs belonging to an elderly, male resident who migrated to the UK in 1914. Originally settling and working in Liverpool, he was a qualified electrician who moved to Manchester in 1939 and set up an electrical goods shop in Hulme, until it was demolished in the 1970s. Background information about the interviewee also states that, whilst in Liverpool, he was taken into protective custody during the 1919 'Race Riots'.
• 913 - contains 2 photographs of a Manchester resident who migrated to England in 1907. He and members of his family were active members of the Manchester branch of the Universal Coloured Peoples Association (later the Black Unity and Freedom Party) and Item 913/2 (Negative Number 33/29) is a photograph of Manchester activists participating in the UCPA demonstration, held in London in 1968.
• 914 - 2 photographs of African Caribbean residents of Moss Side in the 1950s.
• 915 - 3 photographs from the family album of a Ghanaian migrant, who ran hostels for African seamen in Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff and Hull and is listed as a financiers of the Pan African Movement, 1928-1958.
• 916 - 35 photographs and a log book compiled by a Manchester resident, of African descent, while a prisoner of war in Milag POW Camp, Germany, during the Second World War.
• 917 - 65 items from the album of a Sierra Leone migrant who served with the Kings Royal Rifles from 1918 to 1919, settled in the UK after the Fist World War and worked as a seaman during the 1920s. Most of the items are photographs of the certificates of discharge issued to seamen by the Board of Trade, dated 1923-1928. In each case the depositor is described as a Man of colour.
• 918 - 33 family photographs belonging to a female resident, of 'dual heritage' (African and European descent). The collection contains school photographs (c. 1930s), pictures of the depositor and work colleagues in nursing uniform (c.1940s), wedding photographs (c.1950s), pictures of Ghanaian relatives, and group photographs of the depositor with her family and friends taken in both Ghana and the UK (c.1960s-1970s).

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 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: Black

Specific group: Peoples of African and African-Caribbean descent

Subjects

Black peoples

Photographs

Migration

Family

Ethnic groups

Personal/Corporate names

Manchester Studies Unit

Universal Coloured Peoples Association

Black History Project

Places

Moss Side, Manchester, United Kingdom

Hulme, Manchester, United Kingdom