Dr. Indira Chowdhury, who has set up the Centre for Public History at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru was speaking at the annual lecture series on business history instituted by Godrej Archives, in association with Tata Central Archives. Her subject was 'Oral History and the Framing of Institutional Narratives' and the oral history example showed the sort of small, but telling detail that would probably be left out of an official history, which would be more concerned with leading personalities, administrative changes and the concrete facts about creation of campuses. For full story click here.
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CSIRO’s open air insectaries
The CSIRO wants to demolish two heritage-listed buildings once used to study the dreaded Australian blowfly, saying they are derelict and a risk to public safety. The open-air insectaries, believed to be more than 80 years old, were among the first purpose-built facilities at the CSIRO's Black Mountain headquarters, and used for research into issues such as sheep blowfly work and the biological control of weeds. The buildings, known as the Blowfly Insectary No.1 and Blowfly Insectary No. 2, have both been registered on the Commonwealth Heritage List since 2004. For full story, click here.
Queanbeyan Museum’s Oral History Project
A LOCAL barber, a former mayor and priest are just three of the town identities to feature in Queanbeyan Museum's Oral History Project to be launched Saturday, September 7. Project manager John McGlynn and other volunteers have been toiling away for a year conducting and transcribing interviews with ten local characters. For full story click here.
Tasmanian Oral History
Garry Kerr is a very interesting man. He loves telling stories and listening to other peoples stories. A fisherman by profession, Garry has turned his hand to telling some of the history specifically relating to Tasmania. He has self published four books, three featuring oral history of Tasmania including "The Huon Pine Story". For full story including radio interview, click here.
Remembering Andy Warhol
At the time of Andy Warhol’s death in February 1987, there were about 50,000 photographs, many of them Polaroids, in his estate. The Warhol Foundation gave about half of the pictures, which at the time were valued at next to nothing, to small museums in cities like Scranton, Pa., and Portland, Ore. The rest have largely gone unseen. A little over a decade ago, Jim Hedges, a retired investment banker, began aggressively acquiring photos from the Warhol Foundation. He now operates Hedges Projects, a private dealership focused on all things Warholian, out of a West Village brownstone. For full story click here.
Oral History of Apple Design
If there is one thing that CEO Tim Cook doesn't want people to know, it's what dwells behind his company's "signature." As a result, most efforts to explain design at Apple end up reducing a complex 37-year history to bromides about simplicity, quality, and perfection–as if those were ambitions unique to Apple alone. So Fast Company set out to remedy that deficiency. It wasn't easy. Precious few designers have left Sir Jonathan Ive's industrial design group since he took over in 1996: Two quit; three died. (We talked to the two who quit, among dozens of other longtime Apple veterans.) What we found is that the greatest business story of the past two decades–how Apple used design to rise from near bankruptcy to become the most valuable company in the world–is completely misunderstood. For full story plus links to the continuing story, click here.
Workshop weekend – Orange, NSW
An Oral History Weekend Experience Seminar and Workshop has helped to inspire groups around the State to get working on their own oral history projects. The event was hosted by Orange City Library with support from the Oral History Association Australia NSW and their trainers Trish Levido and Sandra Blamey with funding from a Country Arts Support Program grant. For full story click here.
South Sea Islanders 150 years in Australia
This year is a significant one for South Sea Islander descendents – it marks 150 years since their ancestors were blackbirded and brought to Queensland to work in a variety of industries. For full story, including audio, click here.
Print Industry Oral Histories – NSW
Benjamin Thorn has received an $1100 grant from the NSW government to help him continue cataloguing the stories of veterans of the print industry. As the curator of the Museum of Printing Mr Thorn has been collecting the oral history of veterans on the print industry for six years. The money will help his project to further understand the history of printing. For full story click here.
African-American AIDS Activists
Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., people of color have contracted HIV at a disproportionately high rate. And in response, African-American men and women have worked hard to educate their neighbors about the disease and to alert officials to the severity of the epidemic in black communities. "But if you look at what has been written about AIDS in America, you would think that the only AIDS activists were white, gay men," said Royles. "It's time to tell the rest of the story." For full story click here.