The Business Archives Councils of England, Wales and Scotland have joined forces to present a new event series – Business Bites. For this event, we invite everyone with an interest in business archives to this informal event where current challenges, successes and ideas are shared at a lunchtime meeting.
The theme of this event is – Research Using Business Archives
Where: Online – via Zoom
When: Wednesday, 29th April 2023, 12.30pm – 13.30pm
Hosted by Dr Alix Green, Dr Sarah Kenny, Dr Gordon Mayze and Dr Lisa Brown will be joining up to talk about the recent research they have undertaken using a range of different business archives.
Dr Sarah Kenny -
Sarah Kenny is a historian of youth, leisure and commerce based at the University of Birmingham. Drawing on material held in the archives of the Milk Marketing Board at the Museum of Rural English Life, Sarah’s new project is exploring how teenagers and young adults were positioned as a unique consumer body in 1960s Britain. As part of their wider advertising push in the 1960s, utilising the new slogan “Drinka pinta milka day”, the Board used adverts placed in new youth publications such as Honey and Petticoat to reframe milk consumption within emergent narratives of youthful independence and adventure. By examining both the Board’s decision to advertise to youth consumers, and their partnerships with new youth publications, the project uses the Milk Marketing Board to consider the construction and communication of the image of youth in the 1960s.
Dr Lisa Brown -
Lisa Brown has spent the last 18 months visiting, photographing and researching the mural works of Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot.
Throughout their long and prolific careers they produced murals in a variety of media for the retailers Sainsbury’s and British Home Stores, as well as commissions for towns and cities including Cwmbran, Droitwich Spa and Colchester; where they lived for most of their lives.
Henry and Joyce made work that was entirely site specific. They would research the local area and fill their pieces with historical artefacts, buildings, animals and people connected with each location.
In addition to being incredibly charming, their work is relevant from a social, art and retail history perspective.
Lisa shares her photographs of the built environment and public art on her Instagram account @lisa_in_leeds and will be posting updates about her ongoing research on her Substack: @missbrownstowns
Dr Gordon Mayze is an early career researcher with a focus on financial history, crises, and financialization, and is a lecturer at Newcastle University. Prior to this, Gordon worked in industry for two decades.
Gordon’s research project is examining how the debit card emerged in the UK in the late 1980s and established a key part of the modern-day financial infrastructure in the UK. This is important as the (near) real time payment networks which emerged began a shift towards the increasingly cashless society we see today. It also laid foundations for future developments including contactless and mobile payments. However, extensive archival research at all of the UK clearing banks has revealed the emergence of these networks was not without major challenges and setbacks and ultimately led to the intervention of the competition authority.
The next phase of the research will be to explore the archives of related institutions including the Bank of England and National Archives to consider the role of policymakers and regulators during this period, and therefore the BAC bursary award has been invaluable in progressing the next stage of the research’
