Archives

All staff and students, researchers and external visitors are encouraged to use the extensive collections and expert assistance available in the Archives - and from our colleagues in the Foyle Special Collections Library.

The Archives support the University’s teaching programme by welcoming group and individual visits by students and staff, including introductory and skills-based sessions, and timetabled teaching with hands-on use of archive documents designed for specific courses or modules. The collections provide an invaluable teaching and learning resource, and faculty members who think their students might benefit are encouraged to contact Archives directly or to submit a form through the Libraries & Collections Teaching Offering Libguide.

Anyone wishing to consult original archive documents and manuscripts is welcome to do so in the Archives Reading Room where we will first register you as a Reader.

Many of these items are unique and irreplaceable, so we supervise the Reading Room to maintain the security and preservation of our collections for the benefit of all our Readers. This means we ask everyone visitors to observe the following regulations:

• Only lead pencils and laptop computers may be used in the reading room
• All coats and bags must be stored in the cloakroom, regardless of their size
• A small clear plastic bag containing valuables is permitted
• Mobile phones must be switched to ‘silent’ mode or turned off
• The use of handheld digital cameras is allowed upon completion of a copyright declaration form and at discretion of staff; flash photography is not allowed
• The use of tripod cameras may be permitted in special circumstances, with advance notice and at the discretion of staff
• Complete one order slip for each item or short unbroken sequence required
• Documents ordered at least a working day in advance will be ready for readers on their arrival unless held in offsite storage which will require seven days' notice
• Document ordering times on the day of the visit are 11.00, 14.00 and 16.00 hours
• No food or drink, including bottled water, sweets and chewing gum, can be taken into the Reading Room
• Document handling guidelines (pdf) are displayed on each table, and readers are asked to study these carefully before commencing their research
• Staff may use their discretion to bring up only part of a large order at one time

Please note that you may be refused entry to the Archives Reading Room and access to original materials if you don't strictly follow the regulations.

Registration 

All researchers must register with us before they are permitted to view the archives, by completing a Reader Registration form (pdf) and presenting two forms of identification, one photographic and one proof of address as listed here. This can be done on the day of your visit.

Find out more about how to register for access to King's Archives

Publishing from the collections

If you wish to reproduce material from the archives in publication, you must obtain permission from us. A publication may be any of the following:

• a printed publication, such as a book, journal article or exhibition catalogue
• a doctoral thesis
• a film, video or television broadcast
• an electronic publication, such as a website or other digital resource
• public display in any form of electronic or hard copy (except for a single copy for use in an academic lecture, conference or seminar)
• use of an image in any form of merchandise

Find out more about reproducing materials from the Archives

Obtaining copies

Readers are welcome to order copies of material for the purpose of private study either in person or remotely.  

We provide the following services:

• Standard copy service - provided digitally in low resolution pdf format. 
• Digital photography – readers are permitted to use handheld digital cameras upon completion of a copyright declaration form and is at the discretion of staff.
• Microform printouts - Print-outs of published microforms may be made by readers.

Please note that copies of copyright material are made solely for the purpose of private study. Readers can make no further use of copied material without first seeking the permission of the copyright holder.

Find out more about obtaining copies of materials from the Archives

Combined research guides

The following Research Guides combine the resources of the College Archives, the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives and the Foyle Special Collections Library. 

 World War One  (PDF)               Medicine and Healthcare (PDF)

© All research guides are the copyright of King's College London and are supplied for private research only.

Victorian Lives

Victorian Lives celebrates the lives of 19th century staff from King’s by offering nearly 200 short biographies. The initial project engaged volunteers from the University of the Third Age (U3A) to research details of academics, domestic staff and technicians, representing a fascinating cross-section of Victorian society. King’s College London Archives preserve extensive collections. Volunteers consulted lists of former staff, correspondence, minute books, College Calendars and other publications.  Plans are to add further biographies soon. 

King’s College London calendars

More than half of the King’s College London Calendars published between 1831 and 1986 have been scanned and are available online to be consulted and downloaded. Currently more than half those published between 1831 and 1986 have been scanned so that their pages can be consulted and downloaded.  The calendars are a valuable source of information about the year-to-year history of King’s including notable events and achievements, lists of students and staff by department and faculty, information on courses and examinations and details of degrees, prizes and scholarships awarded.  As well, the texts of the calendars available have been extracted via OCR (optical character recognition) and are searchable.

The Serving Soldier

The Serving Soldier provides access to thousands of digital copies of diaries, correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs and other unique sources scanned as part of a JISC-funded project.

It provides insight into lives of servicemen and families from the late nineteenth century until World War Two.

Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics

King's College London Archives are one of five external partners to have contributed their collections to Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics, a major digitisation resource from the Wellcome Library.  Key documents from the papers of Professor Maurice Wilkins and the Department of Biophysics at King's can be accessed through the website.

AIM25 

This 123-partner project aggregates the descriptions of archive collections in London institutions. AIM25 is a major research resource and new institutional records are being added regularly, most recently from the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Maritime Museum and Kew Gardens. 

Cicely Saunders cataloguing project

'You matter to the last moment of your life' project catalogued the papers of Dame Cicely Saunders (1918-2005) held at King's College London Archives. Thanks to a research resources award from the Wellcome Trust a full-time cataloguer was employed to catalogue the collection of more than 100 boxes of material assembled by this pioneer of the early hospice movement. For the story behind the project, please see the Archives of Dame Cicely Saunders blog and Twitter at Dame CS Archives.

Scrambled messages

Archives & Special Collections participated in the AHRC funded project Scrambled Messages. This project - jointly led by King’s, the Courtauld and UCL - explored The Telegraphic Imaginary 1857-1900 and the catalogues of the Charles Wheatstone collections were enhanced for interpretation by the project’s researchers.

Celebrating 50 years of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

Staff assembled a blog celebrating the Liddell Hart Centre at 50 between January and April 2014 by selecting 50 items relating to World War One that reflect the richness of our collections. This marked the Centre's 50th birthday as well as commemorating the centenary of the start of World War One. The items were chosen because they are important, poignant, amusing, thought-provoking, arresting or simply strange!

Pioneering Nurses

A website based on the records of the Royal British Nurses' Association, Pioneering Nurses reveals the fascinating personal lives and careers of those who were among the first nurses to sign up to a professional register in 1890. This site was created by the Archives and volunteers from the University of the Third Age.

War Memorials

Archives and the University of the Third Age (U3A) have created 'Lest We Forget', a website commemorating the war dead of King's College and the institutions with which it has merged, including the Medical Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals. The website allows users to search and browse detailed biographies of the war dead, including photographs.

Online exhibitions

A series of online exhibitions provides a rich and colourful introduction to the history of King's and to our unique Archives collections.

Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives annual lecture

Since it began in 1988, the Liddell Hart annual lecture has attracted notable guest speakers on topics which range from the role of intelligence in World War Two, through to the implications of the mass media on modern warfare and the psychiatric effects of war.

The most recent lecture was delivered by Michael S Neiberg, Chair of War Studies at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on Monday 29 October 2018.

Liddell Hart himself said that war was always a matter of doing evil in the hopes that good may come of it. This talk explored the good that he and others hoped they might be able to forge from the evils of 1914-1918. It focussed largely on the new role of the United States, examining America's newly-found power, its attempt to base the peace on principles rather than diplomatic dealing, and its fundamental lack of understanding of the problems the war had unleashed. It ended with a case study on America's surprising and long-forgotten role in the Syria crisis of 1919.