The Papers of Mark Abrams

Mark Abrams was born on the 27 April 1906, the son of Abram Abrams and Anne (née Jackson). He was educated at the Latymer School in Edmonton, North London, then studied at the London School of Economics (University of London). From 1931-1933, he studied at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC. In 1933 he returned to the United Kingdom to the Research Department of the London Press Exchange (LPE), a leading advertising agency. Here Abrams began his pioneering research work by conducting large-scale surveys of newspaper and magazine readership and consumer behaviour and became a pre-eminent authority on market research. Abrams believed in research as a way of describing and improving society.

His contacts with other social scientists working abroad led to his work retrieving refugees from Nazi Europe (in 1939 helping Sigmund Freud make his final move to England). From 1939-1941, Abrams worked with the BBC Overseas Research Department (analysing German propaganda broadcasts) and the Psychological Warfare Board where he carried out government surveys on the population's experience, beliefs and needs. He investigated, for example, the impact of bombings on civilian morale and food consumption.

In 1946, Abrams founded Research Services Limited and worked for the company until 1970, initially as Managing Director then Chairman. He was also instrumental in founding the Market Research Society.

Abrams had strong links with the Labour Party and carried out many of the Party's private polls in the 1950's and 1960's. From 1970-1976, Abrams was Director of the Survey Research Unit at the Social Science Research Council, then, from 1976-1985, he was Research Director of Age Concern, Vice-President of the Policy Studies Institute, 1978-1994, and also advised the Consumers' Association.

In 1931 he married Una Strugnell with whom he had one son and one daughter. The marriage ended in 1951 and he married Jean Bird with whom he had one daughter.

Publications

"Condition of the British People, 1911-1946" (1947); "Social Surveys and Social Action" (1951); "Beyond Three Score and Ten" (1980); and "People in Their Sixties" (1983).

Abrams died on 25 September 1994.

The collection includes reports issued by the organisations for which Abrams worked, including the London Press Exchange and Research Services Ltd, and published articles and papers by Mark Abrams himself. Also present are survey data, BBC Research Unit analyses of foreign broadcasts during the Second World War, and a series of Abrams' working papers on a wide range of subjects including advertising, children and youth, politics and political parties, crime, economics, education, food, housing, media, ageing, race and racial prejudice, social research, and entertainment.

The papers were given to Churchill Archives Centre by Mark Abrams' wife, Jean Abrams, and his daughter, Evelyn Abrams, 1995 and 1996.

The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. Churchill Archives Centre is open from Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. A prior appointment and two forms of identification are required.

Researchers wishing to publish excerpts from the papers must obtain prior permission from the copyright holders and should seek advice from Archives Centre staff.

Please cite as Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Mark Abrams, ABMS

See also http://surveyresearch.weebly.com/mark-abrams.html.

The BBC Written Archives hold a set of the reports and papers of its Propaganda Research Unit.

The National Archives also holds a set of reports in the Ministry of Information's records.

Copies of the partial catalogue and box list are available for consultation on the Janus website http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk, at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, and the National Register of Archives, London.

This collection level description was prepared by Natalie Adams using information from Who Was Who 1897-1996 (A and C Black) and obituaries in the Daily Telegraph (4 October 1994) and the Independent (24 October 1994). Accession 1003 was box-listed by Natalie Adams and Sophie Clapp at Churchill Archives Centre in 1996. The collection was partially catalogued by Jasmine Jansen, December 2008, and retroconverted by Sophie Bridges, February 2009.