Manx Folk Life Survey Typewriter
Date made: 1950s
Maker: Imperial
Description: An Imperial 'Good Companion' no.6 manual typewriter in hardtop carrying case. A sage green metallic finish metal typewriter used to type up the interviews and index cards for the Manx Folk Life Survey. The typewriter was found in the Folk Life Survey room (basement floor of Library Stack at Manx Museum) in July, 2009.
The carrying case contains an instruction leaflet, a duster and brush for cleaning the type writer.
The aim of the Folk Life Survey was to 'record as much as possible of the life and crafts of the Manx community before the present century' (Manx Museum & National Trust Report, 1950). The Survey was to 'build up a picture of Manx traditional life as it survived fifty years ago, and earlier. We aim to gather a mass of unrecorded information about buildings, crafts, tools and utensils, agriculture and fishing, dress and ornament, customs and beliefs, together with details of the people then alive and incidents in their life. Following the lead of pioneer workers in Scandinavia, we have adopted the name 'Folk-Life' as the best compendious term to define the scope of this Survey. We are not concerned with the formal and official aspect of the Island's past history, with the laws and constitution, public events and historical figures. This is material that has been adequately collected and written about already' (Manx Folk-Life Survey: Its scope and outline of material, FLS).
Mr Leslie Quirk undertook the beginning of this systematic collection, with approximately thirty recruited volunteers. The volunteers would meet at intervals to discuss their work with Museum representatives, and an eight-page prospectus defining the scope of the Survey was issued in November to help the collectors. The voluntary team of collectors travelled the Isle of Man interviewing contributors, making field notes and occasional tape-recordings, and then indexing to create an archive of memories and stories about the Isle of Man. Notable collectors included Charles Clarke, Eric Cregeen, Mrs Catherine E. Flanagan, Mr Neil Mathieson, Miss J. Margaret Stevenson, Mrs Grace Quilliam, Ms J. Quilliam, and Miss I. Margaret Killip.
Measurements: overall: 13 cm x 34 cm x 36 cm
Materials: metal
Object name: typewriter
Collection: Social History Collection
ID Number: 2009-0094
Subject tags : #MM100