Recording of the week: Efe honey gathering in the Ituri Forest

This week’s selection comes from Catherine Smith, Audio Project Cataloguer for Unlocking our Sound Heritage. For about two months a year in the Ituri Forest, it is honey gathering season for the Efe people of north eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. This season is an important and exciting time…

Recording of the week: On architecture and identity

This week’s selection comes from Giulia Baldorilli, Reference Specialist. In these extracts from an oral history interview, architect Edward Jones talks about his approach to architecture, and what it means to build houses in both London and the rest of England. The interview was recorded in 2012 by the National…

Recording of the week: The first recording of a complete piano concerto

This week’s selection comes from Jonathan Summers, Curator of Classical Music Recordings. Lockdown has given us the chance to listen to music while working from home and revisit well known recordings that we may not have had the opportunity to hear for a while. Recently I listened again to the…

Eid Mubarak: Celebrations marking the end of Ramadan and the beginning of a new month

In today’s blog, Charlotte Wardley, Project Support Officer for Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), shares some recordings from our sound archive related to Eid. Charlotte is joined by Saba Syed, Chair of the British Library’s BAME Network, to talk about Ramadan and Eid. Today is Eid, marking the end of…

Recording of the Week: ‘We showed them that we could do it as good as them’

This week’s selection comes from Dr Rob Perks, formerly Lead Curator of Oral History. Women of Steel (2017), Barker’s Pool, Sheffield. Women of Steel is a bronze sculpture that commemorates the women of Sheffield who worked in the city’s steel industry during the First World War and Second World War….