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The Construction History Society - 6th Annual Conference

James W P Campbell opening the Conference
On 5th April I got to present my early research at the Sixth Annual Conference of the Construction History Society at Queens' College, Cambridge.  I was very pleased with the reaction and got a lot of questions and comments following the talk and have a number of angles to follow up.  In particular my characterisation of senior staff in suits and labourers in more humble outfits was challenged with one member of the audience suggesting that suits were almost ubiquitous wear for all classes - something to look into.

Other areas of interest included potential use of progress photos as means of protecting the company from claims by subcontractors or clients when a job took longer or cost more and there was a general sense that research into the social aspects of construction history as demonstrated by some of the Laing photographs would be important.  The paper is published in the Proceedings so I am hopeful that the research will gain wider interest as members of the Society who were not able to attend read the work.

The Conference Proceedings

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