Mary Stewart
2025
Mary Stewart is the Lead Curator of Oral History at the British Library and Director of the oral history fieldwork charity National Life Stories (NLS). Mary and her colleagues’ mission is to add diverse voices to the national collection of oral histories in the Library’s Sound Archive. The NLS team with University of Exeter has been recording life story interviews to explore life histories of agriculture and the environment across the UK – demonstrating why listening to our pasts matters today.
My Sessions
The power of oral histories of agriculture and ecology
Oral histories inspire and provoke, while reminding us to listen to others as we form our own, new ‘life stories’ in agriculture. In this interactive session the audience are invited to listen and respond to audio clips from life story interviews with farmers, ecologists and agricultural advisers recorded over recent years by National Life Stories […]