With a grounding in anthropological studies obtained in the South Pacific, Tom Harrisson, a middle-class and somewhat eccentric individual, believed that a better dialogue between the classes was necessary, both to learn from the ‘common people’ and to help teach them. He decided that his cannibal-watching experience could be put to good use in observing the working classes, who during the 1930s were as much a mystery to the elite as were the ‘savages’ living on the other side of the world. Bolton was suggested as a suitable location for a study by a Cambridge acquaintance. Harrisson found this particularly apt as it was also the birthplace of William Lever, the founder of Unilever, whose products were amongst the few that found their way to the New Hebrides.
The Mass-Observation project was born in 1936 with Harrisson’s arrival in Bolton. Enlisting the help of dozens of idealists and political activists, the project’s objective was to study the everyday lives of ordinary working people. For nearly four years the team observed all facets of daily life, making copious notes on work, leisure time, communications and transport, home life, sport, commerce and religion; and supported by a photographic record created by Humphrey Spender, an early documentary photographer. Over 850 photographs were taken, most of which are now held in Bolton Library Archives.
Mass-Observation was arguably the largest and most influential sociological study undertaken in the United Kingdom during the twentieth century. It remains a unique record of 1930s Britain, a time when political and cultural differences ran deep on topical and diverse subjects such as the abdication of King Edward VIII, the Spanish Civil War, the economic depression, and the renaissance of Germany under Adolph Hitler.
As a record of Bolton in the late 1930s it has been a rich source of inspiration and context.
Explore the archives on the BoltonWorktown site. I believe Humphrey Spender photographs are still in copyright so I’m not going to reproduce any on this site.