It is a great pleasure to be able to congratulate the Social History Project on its 25th anniversary. The SHP’s achievements are many. Its survival over all those years is a wonderful thing. This success makes me particularly happy to associate myself with the original idea for the setting up of the SHP and happy to reflect on the extent to which it has achieved the goals set out in 1979.

The idea for the SHP came from a variety of sources but followed no particular existing model that I am aware of. The nearest was the Philadelphia Social History Project that flourished in the 1970s. Perhaps we stole part of the title. But the Philadelphia version was based very much on an effort to create a large-scale database. The Mona SHP on the other hand saw itself as a kind of focal point for researchers, a centre where they could come to find basic information and guidance, as well as an active collector and curator of material.

So, one of the first projects was to develop an index to published material, starting with magazines of the early twentieth century. I believe the index proved a useful start but, as far as I know, it quite quickly came to a halt. No doubt it was overtaken by new technologies that created more powerful search engines as we now know them. We also went about collecting statistical data, to make the censuses and annual reports easily accessible. I edited the censuses of 1844 and 1861, and those came out as the first publication of the SHP. Since then, the SHP has maintained an impressive record of publication, though I think statistics died with that first booklet. Of better longevity has been the work in oral history; that got going quite quickly and has prospered over the years.
Good wishes to the SHP’s current leaders and long may it continue!