The Birmingham People’s History Archive was founded in 2021 as a publicly accessible resource on the history of working people, with a focus on Birmingham and immediately surrounding areas.
It currently comprises 60 linear metres of materials including pamphlets, manuscript material, archives, journals, photographs sound materials and ephemera. The collections are housed in the upper floor of the Birmingham & Midland Institute on Margaret Street in central Birmingham. The collection has been built up by individuals over twenty years and further materials not yet deposited in the Archive will be incorporated into the collections subject to space and accommodation requirements.
The BPHA aims to promote the education of the public in relation to the history of working-class movements in the West Midlands and internationally by providing access to its research collections and organising events, exhibitions and other public outreach activities.
There are already major collections of working-class history in cities like London, Manchester, Salford, Hull and Glasgow. Birmingham is one of Britain’s great centres of industry and has a rich and distinctive working-class history deeply marked by migration into the city, particularly in the post-1945 period. In the belief that Birmingham requires its own resource for such activities, the BPHA seeks to meet this challenge while complementing the work of other institutions nationally.
Core collections of the BPHA include:
- Archival materials relating to the socialist movement in the early nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- National and international materials from post-1945 BME and immigrant workers’ associations including the Indian Workers’ Association and comprising archives, journals, printed ephemera and sound materials.
- The local history collections of the late George Barnsby, author of standard works on the history of working people in Birmingham and the Black Country.
The BPHA actively collects the following types of material that build upon these holdings:
- Records relating to the development of the working-class movement in Birmingham and the surrounding area.
- Books, serials and other printed materials and ephemera collected by working-class activists from the city and surrounding region and documenting their beliefs and commitments.
- Photographs, posters and original sound recordings and transcripts.
Birmingham People's History Archive 