A big thank you to everyone that came and spoke to us at @ihr.bsky.social yesterday! We loved chatting to everyone about all the different ways MO materials could be used in all manner of research!

Well, have you? 🗃️

For those that weren't able to make our webinar with @patcollier.bsky.social and Jim Connolly, you can now catch up on YouTube! Learn more about the Everyday Life in Middletown archive as well as how the writers in archive write about comprehend crisis www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... 🗃

Come and spend Christmas with Nella Last, our most famous diarist! We'll be reading diary extracts from Nella, as well as some of our other early MO diarists. Wednesday 17th December, 2-4 at The Keep. Tickets are free, but limited, book yours here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/christmas-...

Do we trust politicians less now than in previous years and decades? @nickclarkegeo.bsky.social and @drjennings.bsky.social make use of MO materials to consider the extent to which we trust politicians and the factors which influence our opinions. blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

Are joining us for our event today? Make sure you've signed up to receive your link to the webinar!

In autumn 2000, fuel protests brought Britain to a standstill - just as record floods swept the country. David Tomory and Timothy Cooper explore what ordinary people made of oil, climate, and crisis at the dawn of the new millennium.

So pleased to be presenting our work to the excellent scholars at and around Mass Observation & with Ben Highmore, whom we so admire, hosting. bsky.app/profile/mass...

Our next event, 'Everyday Life and the Crisis Ordinary in Middletown, U.S.A.' is now open for booking! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/everyday-l...

We've been having a look through some of the photographs from when the papers from Mass Observation arrived at @sussex.ac.uk! We won't lie, it makes very glad we're working with the materials now that they're boxed up and catalogued...

We’re delighted to publish a new Policy Paper today by Jonathan Moss & @emilyrobinson.bsky.social. They suggest that Mass Observation @massobsarchive.bsky.social - founded in the 1930s - can help us understand the reasons behind contemporary voter apathy. historyandpolicy.org/policy-paper...

The Mass-Observation Critical Series documents and archives the everyday lives, thoughts and attitudes of ordinary Britons. Found out more https://bit.ly/4lPM60w

This next week! Join Professor Lucy Noakes for her talk 'War and Peace: Mass Observers and the end of the war in Europe, May 1945' & Yves Fradier, Director of Survey and Methods (@veriangroup.com) for his talk 'Living through war: Insights from displaced Ukrainians'. 🗃️

The third part of our current directive is all about kitchens 👨‍🍳 We enjoyed this anecdote about the dangers of open plan kitchen/dining!

Event Announcement! 'Documenting disruption: Everyday life during times of war' We're collaborating with Verian to bring you an online webinar to look at the ways that everyday experiences of war are recorded. Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1602048774...

The thing with MO is, sometimes you read what a writer has sent and it all makes sense... but other times, you just have to try and figure out...

These documents are from our topic collection 'Dogs in Wartime'. Suzanne, our Engagement Manager, often uses these materials with school groups as a way to demonstrate both the surprising materials we have in our care, but also how war impacts all areas of life. 🗃️

If you haven't heard Jessica on Radio 4 yet, now's your chance!

What did you dream last night? Were you in a sports hall? Were the colours and textures of paper merging with words to create a complete experience of reading? And did the strange lady in the cupboard slowly turn into very small snakes? No? Reference: SxMOA2/1/73/2/1/124

If you tune in to Radio 4 next week you'll get to hear our archivist Jessica being interviewed about all things mantelpieces! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... #history #socialhistory

In our most recent directive, we wanted to give our writers a chance to reflect on good news they, or people they know, had read, experienced or heard about. It was a task that lots of writers actually found quite challenging!

When people ask us what the material in Mass Observation is like, we're just going to start showing them this now

We've got another wonderful blog post up from a visiting PhD researcher! This time Natalie Wood (@manchester.ac.uk‬) considers the what questions early MO raises for anthropology today massobs.org.uk/2025/06/16/w...

We guess it's nice to be warned that what you're about to catalogue is boring....🤔

In 2008 we asked our writers about the 'ups and downs of friendship'. This heartfelt response to directive always moves us! We were lucky to have this writer respond to our directives for nearly two decades!

Our next webinar is this Wednesday! 'Covid-19 Five Years On' will look at the ways that Covid has been researched and written about and how Mass Observation material and methods have been used to do this. You can book your free space here: www.eventbrite.com/e/1311475210...

Cataloguing has begun on our 12th May diaries! So far, we've received over 250 diaries, all in differing forms, including this watercolour we received in the post yesterday 🎨 Not sent us yours yet? Don't worry. There's no deadline for sending your diary!

Join Dr Justyna Robinson and Dr Rhys Sandow for a methods training session that may well be helpful for those working with MO materials! You can find out more and book your space here: www.ncrm.ac.uk/training/sho...

Us again! We were just wondering what you got up to yesterday? There's no deadline to take part in our annual diary day, so if you fancy writing, drawing or collaging your day yesterday we'd love to have it! You can submit your diary here: universityofsussex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

What are you up to today? Anything interesting? Or are you just at work, and actually it's quite a run-of-the-mill day for you? Either way, we want to hear about it! Today is our annual diary day where we ask people to record their day and send it to us! 🗃 #writing

These extracts are observations and interview responses collected by our Observers on, and in the lead up to, VE day. The materials we hold from VE day do of course feature celebrations and parties, but the vast majority demonstrate people's exhaustion, grief and continuing anxieties 🗃 #History

New book spotted in the wild ( well, Waterstones on Gower Street). Thanks to Atlantic for the beautiful cover. And to all those Mass Observers who kept such lovely diaries.

Anyone else jealous of this day? Drawing flowers, having a lemon and lime snow cone, and turning your slide into a waterslide sounds pretty idyllic to us!

In 1937 @massobsarchive.bsky.social called for people from all parts of the UK to record everything they did from when they woke up in the morning to when they went to sleep at night on 12th May. They revived the project in 2010 and it continues. Want to take part? massobs.org.uk/the-archive/...

It’s day two of #britsoc2025 and we’re back on our stall ready to take all things MO and also give out some of our lovely notebooks! We’ll be here all day so do pop by if you have a chance

In our latest directive we asked our writers about any good news they might have received or heard recently. H260, who has been writing for us since 1981, was in no short supply of good news from her 16 great grandchildren!

Up on the MO blog is a new article from Khaleda Brophy-Harmer (from @unisouthampton.bsky.social) exploring the emotional landscape of VE day as recorded by our writers. massobs.org.uk/2025/04/09/o...

“Valuable”, “Cathartic”, “Powerful”, “Therapeutic”. We recently hosted a workshop with of mothers who gave birth during the pandemic, facilitated by doctoral researcher Katie White (Sussex). Stories & photos from the Covid collection were used to prompt memories and generate further material.

Sometimes recording everyday life takes the form of long, eloquent, reflective handwritten diaries. Sometimes it's a photo of putting your bins out, the 7.30am commuter train from Watford Junction and defrosting a fish pond. Either way, we love them all.

It’s fifteen years since we revived 12th May as an annual diary day! 📝 It’s almost that time of year again where we ask you to tell us what you got up to on the 12th May. Diaries can take any form, written, typed, drawn or photographs. Whatever feels most fun and interesting to you!

We're so pleased to feature in this article by @tiffwattsmith.bsky.social which uses our material to consider what we should do about our 'toxic' friends www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m... (P.S. the heating at The Keep is now fixed! Hats and gloves can be left at home!)

Spring is slowly coming and as it does have you noticed the slimy frogs and spotted toads? Once the weather is warmer will you be taking your hamper and rolling and playing about on the grass? This poem was written by a school student from Bolton in 1938 and is part of our 'Worktown' collection

Next Thursday material from the University of Sussex Special Collections and Screen Archive South East will be screened as part of an exciting event, 'Harvey Matusow Films Himself: Cinematic Exploits of an American ‘Witness’! You can book your (free) space here: www.eventbrite.com/e/harvey-mat...

The deadline for this is next week (25th Feb)! If you're interested don't miss your chance to apply.

Following on from our last post, the same writer provided this response to our 2001 Directive on dating. Beware meeting people through e-mail discussion lists!

This LGBTQ+ history month, we wanted to share one of our team's favourite responses in the archive. In this directive response the writer, aged 24 and who identifies as a lesbian, tells the story of finding out that she has a great-aunt (72) who is also gay.

My @politicalquarterly.bsky.social article on WASPI women is out! It uses new @massobsarchive.bsky.social data to explore older women's complicated material situations and their even more complicated feelings about those situations. Read it for free here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

An exciting (funded!) opportunity! Be part of a new project using Mass Observation material to look at how political understandings develop over the life course 📝 Deadline February 25th ⌚

In 2022 I worked w/ @massobsarchive.bsky.social (who seek the views of ‘ordinary’ people to understand everyday life in Britain) on a directive on drones. New in @thegj.bsky.social, I examine the 124 responses, exploring how correspondents understand drone incidents & misuse doi.org/10.1111/geoj...

MO is supporting Katie White with her research into early parenting during Covid. Katie will be using MO materials to start and facilitate discussions around experiences of pandemic parenting. If you might be interested taking part please email Katie! First workshop is 15th February.