Intangible histories and the invisible technician

Abstract

It is the technicians in a university science department who often provide the most continuity: they have a permanence and a range of activities that, in the course of their time at a single lab, they often see come and go a series of research groups and instruments. In a fundamental sense, it is these technicians who in fact control the material substrate of university memory. By building on case studies from oral histories with technicians at the University of Cambridge, this paper will explore what their perspectives offer the preservation of university heritage.