Alan Bowness and Artists’ Lives
Cathy Courtney reflects on Sir Alan Bowness’ life and contribution to the oral history project Artists’ Lives. read more
Author Archives: British Library
Recording of the week: Friction drum song from Botswana
This week’s selection comes from Dr. Janet Topp Fargion, Head of Sound and Vision. This song, based on the lyric ‘The children of the traditional doctor can kill the medical doctor’, is performed by Sebata on the sevuikivuiki friction drum and other Mb… read more
250,000 sounds preserved by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage
By Katerina Webb-Bourne, Communications Intern for Unlocking Our Sound Heritage. Time is running out to preserve some of our most endangered sound recordings. The Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) project is now four years into an ambitious, National… read more
Recording of the week: Breathe in
This week’s selection comes from Giulia Baldorilli, Reference Specialist. Born in 1885 in a small town in the Free State province of South Africa, Tromp Van Diggelen had an unfortunate childhood. He suffered from various respiratory-related illnesses, … read more
Remote oral history interviewing at the British Library during the Covid-19 pandemic
An update on National Life Stories projects read more