Abstract
This study demonstrates the significance of voluntary and community action in the preservation and interpretation of industrial photographs in Teesside. It presents a unique and timely case study on the Heritage Lottery-funded Head Wrightson Photographic Archive Project in Stockton-on-Tees, to reveal how its digital heritage volunteers contribute to both the revival and the re-interpretation of this valuable cultural resource. A secondary study on the community-generated archive of the former Remembering Thornaby Group illustrates through personal intervention both the significance and precarity of this collection, showing how it contextualises the industrial and social history which underpins the former main location of the Head Wrightson’s works in Thornaby-on-Tees. The thesis also illustrates how photographs created and encountered by former industrial workers in the region reveal a more multi-faceted archive of industrial photography, through which the legacy of both industry and loss can be better understood. Consequently, it suggests how the potential precarity of these culturally valuable photographic collections can be tackled through engagement, revival and contingency planning.This dissertation contributes to literature which describes the preservation of Teesside’s industrial history, and also adds to wider discussion on heritage as a process, in which peoples’ perspectives and motivations contribute greatly to its outcomes. It shows how at a time of accelerated industrial transition in the region, overshadowed by the Covid-19 pandemic, photographs become surrogates for the loss of industrial landmarks, and social objects which facilitate the processing of change and the accessing of memory. By focussing on participants’ individual experiences, this study captures perspectives which enhance our understanding of this engagement, adding to debate on voluntary contribution and agency in archives and other heritage-related activities. Furthermore, it contributes an apposite study which shows how and why industrial photographs are becoming a key factor in the remembering and processing of the region’s industrial past.
| Date of Award | 4 Sept 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Natasha Vall (Supervisor) & Roisin Higgins (Supervisor) |