National Life Stories (formerly the National Life Stories Collection) was established in 1987 to 'record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present-day society as possible'. Alongside the British Library Sound Archive oral history collections, which stretch back to the beginning of the 20th century, National Life Stories' recordings form a unique and invaluable record of people’s lives in Britain today.
As an independent charitable trust within the British Library Sound Archive, National Life Stories' key focus and expertise has been oral history fieldwork. Over the past two decades it has initiated a series of innovative interviewing projects funded almost entirely from sponsorship, charitable and individual donations.
Each collection is archived at the British Library Sound Archive and comprises recorded in-depth interviews of a high standard, plus content summaries and transcripts to assist users. Each individual life story interview is several hours long, covering family background, childhood, education, work, leisure and later life. Information about the collections is provided via the Sound Archive's catalogue and listeners can come into the British Library to listen to recordings. A growing number of interviews are being digitised for remote web use through the Archival Sound Recordings website.
National Life Stories projects
Sound Archive catalogue reference numbers are in brackets after the title of the project.
- National Life Stories general collections (C408, C464, C642)
- Architects' Lives (C467)
- Artists' Lives (C466)
- Authors' Lives (C1276)
- Book Trade Lives (C872)
- City Lives (C409)
- Crafts Lives (C960)
- Fawcett Collection (C468)
- Food: From Source to Salespoint (C821)
- Lives in Steel (C532)
- Lives in the Oil Industry (C963)
- Living Memory of the Jewish Community (C410) and Holocaust Survivor’s Centre Interviews (C830)
- Pioneers in Charity and Social Welfare (C1155)
- An Oral History of Barings (C1376)
- An Oral History of British Fashion (C1046)
- An Oral History of British Press (C638)
- An Oral History of the Post Office (C1007)
- An Oral History of British Science (C1379)
- An Oral History of British Theatre Design (C1173)
- An Oral History of the Water Industry (C1364)
- An Oral History of the Wine Trade (C1088)
- An Oral History of Wolff Olins (C1015)
- Tesco: An Oral History (C1087)
Further information
Contact us
Oral History
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7405 (Rob Perks, Oral History Curator / Director of National Life Stories)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7406 (Mary Stewart, Oral History Curator / Deputy Director of National Life Stories)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7404 (Elspeth Millar, Oral History Archive Assistant)
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7441
Email: oralhistory@bl.uk
