Lately, historical research has highlighted the importance of oral sources to the grassroots writing of history. Personal testimonies and narrations constitute a key resource as far as industrial history is concerned. Working men and women, artisans and crafts people are carriers of memory and cultural identity, a constitutive element of which is their work and their workplace. Highlighting anything that is unwritten on any record or archive and constitutes the history of the non-dominant classes is made possible through an oral history archive: the use of machinery, technical skills, secrets of the trade, personal attitudes, prejudice, social networks, leisure and everyday culture. Industrial records, oral testimonies, photographs and posters command and assume new value as priceless archival material for the documentation and historical research of the industrial history.
Crucial to the work of the CTC is the constitution of an Oral History Archive. Since 1999, an extensive field recording and interview programme has been carried out, centering on working men and women, artisans and business people employed in the industrial sector of Syros. Up to now, 35 testimonies have been recorded in digital video and audio. These testimonies are being annotated and published gradually since February 2011.
From the Archives
Pelekanos Michael (Biography)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-GTXLVcmDI
Pelekanos Michael (Family)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5AZS9bQCiI
Pelekanos Michael (Profession)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ7rsISW-s0
Pelekanos Michael (Industry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzCg1QkiuPk
Pelekanos Michael (Processes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LTVvm–yS4