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Mass Observation - Recording everyday life in Britain

Original collections

The best introduction to the papers generated by the original Mass Observation project is provided by the diagram below.

Diagram showing material collected by Mass Observation
This diagram shows how the raw material collected by Mass Observation (personal writing and topic collections) was summarised in a series of File Reports. The material also formed the basis of a number of books. See below for more information.

Start by looking at the base of the diagram. You will see that the raw material collected the original Mass Observation social research organisation falls into two main categories:

  • Personal writing: A national panel of volunteer writers were recruited to reply to regular questionnaires and tasks, including writing diaries. There is more detail below.
  • Topic collections: A team of paid investigators went into a variety of public situations and recorded people's behaviour and conversation in as much detail as possible. Again, there is more detail below.

File Reports

The information collected in these two ways was fed into a series of over 3,000 typed 'file reports' written by Mass Observation staff. These top-level summaries provide a good starting-point for research. You can search through the File Report Series on the Special Collections website at the University of Sussex.

Finally, the material gathered by Mass Observation formed the basis of a number of books published between 1937 and 1950.

Personal writing

The personal writing contributed by the national panel of volunteer writers falls into three types. On the Special Collections website, you can look search through:

Diaries, 1939-65

About 500 men and women kept personal diaries which they sent to Mass-Observation in monthly instalments.

Day Surveys, 1937-38

One day diaries written by people from all over Britain who volunteered to be members of M-O ’s national "panel" of observers.

Directive replies

Answers from members of the national panel to the regular MO "directive" or open-ended questionnaire on a variety of subjects including personal issues.

Topic collections

A team of paid investigators went into a variety of public situations and recorded people's behaviour and conversation in as much detail as possible. On the Special Collections website, you can search through:

Topic Collections, 1937 - 60

The raw material collected by the paid investigators arranged by theme or title of study into a series of over 80 topics.

Worktown Collection

The Mass-Observation study of Bolton and Blackpool 1937-40, known as the Worktown Project.