Identify what the document/image/object is – if it is a photograph of an archival document for example, you should include the full record for the document – series, box, folder, etc. and some information about the context – by whom was this document created, for what purpose, and so on. Then in not more than 400 words, explain and interpret the significance of the item.

Task 1: 400-word exercise

  1. Upload one document or image for your topic.
  2. Identify what the document/image/object is – if it is a photograph of an archival document for example, you should include the full record for the document – series, box, folder, etc. and some information about the context – by whom was this document created, for what purpose, and so on. Then in not more than 400 words, explain and interpret the significance of the item.
  3. Successful completion of this assessment requires that you have identified a topic for your archivally-based research project, begun the archival research for it and completed enough contextual reading in existing scholarship to make sense of what you have found.

Assessment criteria:

  • Skill in location of archival material relevant to proposed project. 20%
  • Capacity to explain historical significance and locate the item in historical and historiographical contexts. 60%
  • Presenting your findings in an engaging, coherent, imaginative and thoughtful way. 20%

 

Task 2:An archivally-based research project of 2600 words

It is expected that what you write on this topic will be a narrativeand interpretive accountfocussed according to your judgement and choice. The essay will require at least three illustrative archival or other primary source items of the sort you identified in the first 400-word exercise.

 

You will integrate them in your narrative so that your argument is dependent on the objects you have chosen. Your emphasis is on making a reasoned account informed by the secondary literature and the objects you are using.

 

Assessment criteria:

  • Skill in use of archival primary sources. 20%
  • Capacity to explain historical significance and locate the item in historical and historiographical contexts. 60%
  • Presenting your findings in an engaging, coherent, imaginative and thoughtful way. 20%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course Outline

 

  1. State and Institutional Archives

Arlette Farge, The Allure of the Archives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), pp. 1-17.

 

Achille Mbembe, ‘The Power of the Archive and Its Limits’, in Carolyn Hamilton et al. (eds.), Refiguring the Archive (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002), pp. 19-26.

 

Timothy Garton Ash, The File (London: Harper Collins, 1997), pp. 5-28.

 

 

  1. Radio History

Susan J. Douglas, Listening in: Radio and the American Imagination (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004), pp. 3-13: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=310845

 

Paddy Scannell, ‘Broadcasting and Day to Day Routine: Britain’, Media Information Australia 41 (1986), pp. 11-15.

 

Lesley Johnson, The Unseen Voice: A Cultural Study of Early Australian Radio (London: Routledge, 1988), p. 113-127.

 

Lesley Johnson, ‘Wireless’ in Bill Gammage, Peter Spearritt, and Louise Douglas, eds. Australians 1938 (Sydney: Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, 1987), pp. 365-371.

 

Bridget Griffen-Foley, Changing Stations: The Story of Australian Commercial Radio (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2009), pp. 354-363.

 

 

  1. Digital Archives / Digital History

Tim Sherratt, ‘Exploring Digital History’, Inside History 10 Sept., 2013: http://www.insidehistory.com.au/2013/09/exploring-digital-history-with-nlas-tim-sherratt/

 

Tim Sherratt, ‘It’s All About the Stuff: Collections, Interfaces, Power, and People’, Journal of Digital Humanities 1, no. 1 (March 9, 2012):

 

David Armitage and Jo Guldi, The History Manifesto (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 88-116.

 

Explore online: America’s Public Bible: http://americaspublicbible.org/

 

 

  1. Archival Research, Truth, Reading Archival Documents, Finding People in the Archives.

 

Ludmilla Jordanova, History in Practice (London: Arnold, 2000), pp. 183-189.

Arthur Marwick, The New Nature of History: Knowledge, Evidence, Language (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 152-157.

Richard Pennell “Looking for Azzopardi: A historic and a modern search” Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, 10, (2011): http://prov.vic.gov.au/looking-for-azzopardi

 

The National Archives (UK), “Forged documents – investigation findings released”, press release, 3 May 2008.

 

David Sanderson, ‘Himmler murder claim documents “were forged”’, The Times 2 July 2005, p. 14.

 

Gene Mueller, review of Martin Allen Himmler’s Secret War: The Covert Peace Negotiations of Heinrich Himmler (London: Robson, 2005) in The Journal ofMilitary History, 70, (2006), 860-861.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radio history archival projects

 

Task: research, contextualize, interpret and write about an aspect of the history of radio broadcasting in Australia (preferably Victoria). You need to undertake some archival research in primary sourcesand some contextual research in the digitized newspapers on Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ or the radio magazines at the State Library.

 

 

Some key histories of radio in Australia (on reserve in the High Use Collection at Baillieu):

 

Bridget Griffen-Foley, Changing Stations: The Story of Australian Commercial Radio (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2009).

  1. S. Inglis and Jan Brazier, This Is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission,1932-1983 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983).

Lesley Johnson, The Unseen Voice: A Cultural Study of Early Australian Radio (London: Routledge, 1988).

Alan Thomas, Broadcast and Be Damned: The ABC’s First Two Decades (Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1980).

 

 

Radio broadcasting changed a lot about social, cultural, political, religious, sporting life in Australia. There are some histories written (see below), but many focus more on Sydney than Melbourne. You are free to choose any topic in radio history, if you can locate some archival and contextual material as described above.

 

Interviews could also be with listeners – the history of radio listening is an interesting field. The early radio magazines at SLV will illustrate this theme. See for example this work on American radio listening:

 

Susan J. Douglas, Listening in: Radio and the American Imagination (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004) http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=310845

 

 

Australia has a hybrid broadcasting system – a national public broadcaster (the ABC) since 1932, and a range of commercial and later community stations. From 1924 there were A class stations, supported from listener licence fees, and B class stations, which were funded by sale of on air advertising or private means. In 1928 the federal government took control of technical services of A-class radio stations, providing programs for the Australian Broadcasting Company. In 1932, the Australian Broadcasting Commission was formed, taking over the A class stations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below are some suggestions for materials. This is by no means exhaustive and if you can locate other archival material and check with your tutor, that is also fine to use – this could include study of more recent radio history.

 

The following references archival collections in the National Archives of Australia (NAA), the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA) and the State Library of Victoria (SLV):

 

UMA, the University of Melbourne Archives http://archives.unimelb.edu.au/ Most of the suggestions below have the call number provided for you. You can also search for other material in the Archives here: http://gallery.its.unimelb.edu.au/imu/imu.php?request=search

The UMA Reading Room is shared with Special Collections and is conveniently located on the 3rd floor of the Baillieu library. Check hours and how to order material ahead of your visit here: http://library.unimelb.edu.au/readingroom

 

NAA, the National Archives of Australia http://www.naa.gov.au/ They have a Reading Room at 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne.You need to irder material ahead and it takes at least 48 hours for them to bring material in from storage facilities to the Redaing Room. You search for and order material in the Record Search screen  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/ on their website – you’ll need to create a free account in order to request material. The guide below makes a number of specific suggestions about relevant collections but is by no means exhaustive. You can also therefore search for yourself. I recommend using the advanced Search function, choosing Items as the search goal, and then setting the ‘Location of Items’ entry to Melbourne (there are of course many interesting records in Canberra, Sydney and elsewhere but more difficult for you to access). This is the screen you want to start with:

 

SLV, the State Library of Victoria https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/  – hopefully a familiar institution to most of you.

 

 

Radio magazines at SLV:

3LO, 3AR, and Dominion Broadcasting Pty. Ltd. Broadcasting Programmes: Week Ending … / 3LO and 3AR, Dominion Broadcasting Pty. Ltd. Melbourne: United Press PtyLtd. Ceased in 1929. http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER1018651

 

3AW. Brother Bill’s Monthly: The Monthly Magazine for Members of “The Unseen Fellowship” and the “Radio Church” of 3AW, Melbourne.Fitzroy, Vic.: McLaren and Co, 1936-43.  http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER986342

 

Listener In. Melbourne: Listener In, 1925-55. http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER983624

 

Wireless Institute of Australia. Radio Broadcast (Melbourne, Vic.), Radio Broadcast. Melbourne: Wireless Institute of Australia, 192AD.  http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER991887

 

Radio Times (Melbourne, Vic.), Radio Times: Radioprogram. Melbourne: Radio Times, 1934 – 1950. http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER1016768

 

The Australasian Electrical and Radio Times. Melbourne: Australasian Electrical and Radio Times, 1936.http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER1023477

 

The Radioprogram. Melbourne: Radioprogram, 1934-36.http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER1965350

 

ABC WeeklySydney: ABC 1939 – 1959 http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER1031743

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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