Accession ACC/2011/05
The Calder deposit
Field notebooks, a rota table, one dictated tape and two letters from the working papers of Thomas Calder, Ph.D., FSA Scot, accepted at the North House in September 2011.
The deposit came in a single fibre case with the notebooks in order and a typed list on top, the list corrected twice in pencil by the depositor and once in ink by somebody else. The covering letter asks only that the interviewees remain unnamed, which they are.
Calder worked on what institutions and small societies actually do when somebody dies, as distinct from what they say they do. The papers here concern one burial society in an upland parish, observed across five years from 1979, with a return visit in 1991.
The parish is not named in the deposit and is not named here. The society's own minute books remain with the society, which still meets. The Institute has not approached it and does not intend to.
What is not held: the interview tapes but one. Eleven were recorded, and Calder erased ten of them himself in 1985, in accordance with what he had promised the speakers. The eleventh is a note he dictated to himself and is published with its item.
Items held
- CALDER/79-01
Field notebook, first season.
- CALDER/82-03
Table of the bearing rota, five years.
- CALDER/84-06
Dictated note, made in the car.
- CALDER/85-02
Interview extract, approved by the speaker.
- CALDER/98-04
Letter declining to give an explanation.
Access: Open. The deposit is held at the North House. The Institute holds no rights in the depositor's papers and can grant none. The society described is not named, was not approached by the Institute, and is not connected with it.
The deposit is listed separately and is otherwise found through the catalogue at large.