City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has helped launch an appeal to find people’s mementoes of studying or working at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) or any of its predecessor institutions including the Colleges of Art and Technology and Leicester Polytechnic.
March 2020 will mark 150 years since the founding of the Leicester School of Art, the forerunner of DMU. The appeal aims to collect archive materials and histories from former staff and students to help create an exhibition to celebrate the occasion.
Sir Peter, who studied at one of DMU’s predecessors, the City of Leicester College of Education at Scraptoft, brought along his own mementoes of his time as a student teacher – student newspapers from the late 1960s and early 1970s - which he shared with DMU PVC Dean Academic, Professor Jackie Labbe.
He said: “De Montfort has always been part of Leicester and its courses responded to the changing needs of Leicester. In my case it was the need for teachers, for others it was the need for technical skills. That relationship, that interconnectedness between DMU and the city continues to this day.
“Its roots are here in Leicester. I’m delighted to be part of this appeal and I urge others to bring in their ephemera, or more substantial documents, to be part of this archive and tell the story of DMU and of Leicester.”
Gig tickets, posters, student memorabilia, photographs, official documents or other mementoes can all be brought in to the archive or to the university’s Heritage Centre inside Hawthorn Building. The team are happy to photograph or scan items if a donation is not possible.
The #DMUHeritage team are keen to hear from people who might be willing to be interviewed about their DMU memories for an oral history archive, or who would like to contribute written material or fill in a questionnaire via their blog
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DMU archivist Katharine Short said: “We want to make sure we fully cover the spectrum of people’s experiences, not just their academic life but social activity, sports, activism, clubs and societies too. If anyone has some treasures in their loft, events tickets, photographs, anything that reflects their time here we would love to see it.”
Posted on Tuesday 20 November 2018