The Department of History and Archaeology,
Mona operates a Social History Project (SHP), which was established
some 25 years ago. The SHP is administered by an executive committee
consisting of staff members and graduate students in the Department
of History and Archaeology. The positions of Director, Finance Officer
and Newsletter Editor are held by persons appointed by the Head of
the Department of History and Archaeology, and are held normally for
a period of three years. Other positions are held by persons co-opted
by the Director. The work of the SHP executive is voluntary. That
the SHP has thrived over the past twenty-five years attests to the
commitment of all who have given service in their various positions.
When it was first established, the SHP was seen primarily as an
instrument to guide and support postgraduate research into Jamaica’s
social history beginning in the immediate post slavery period. Accordingly,
much of the SHP’s efforts in its early years were concentrated
in making more accessible research material, and included the collection
and preservation of documentary and oral material pertaining to
Jamaica’s social history.
Specifically, the SHP very early in its history was able to compile
a major index of some 25,000 entries, of periodical material covering
the period 1868 to 1980; purchased and repatriated microfilmed documents
of the Governor’s Despatches (C.O. 137 series) from the Public
Records Office in London, starting with Volume 185 (1832) to volume
513 (1885). |