This collection records social history in South Africa from circa 1880-1970.

The Wits History Workshop in 1978 introduced what would result in a series of conferences. Their focus was to present and discuss historical, sociological, political, literary, economic and anthropological aspects of the lives and experiences of the ordinary people mainly on the Witwatersrand and the larger region of the Transvaal. Initially these conferences were spaced at an interval of three years, and subsequently took place in 1978, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1999.

This collection seeks to consolidate the programs and papers that were presented at each of the thematic conferences.

Sets of slides with taped commentaries, received from the Multi-media library in July 2003.

These shows were made for the History Workshop in the late 1970s and 1980, some in association with the American Social History Project.

There is a detailed description of each show in the History Workshop Media Centre catalogue (hard copy only), stored in Room 2.

This collection consists of approximately 368 tape recordings of interviews, conducted in the course of oral research projects, undertaken by the History workshop in the Department of History at the University of the Witwatersrand. They were donated to Historical Papers in 2005.

No background information for most of the projects is available and no audit sheets have been received. A list of interviewees is available with the hardcopy inventory and notes about the collection.