History

Archives can be used for research, learning, and practical purposes.

Archives can help you with a wide variety of investigations including the history and development of:

•   communities
•   buildings
•   the physical environment
•   social and economic landscape
•   politics of the past
•   families and individuals

Why do archives matter?

Archives can help us to unlock the past: they tell the story of our local and national communities that extends beyond the reach of living memory.

Archives form the personal and corporate memory of individuals, families, institutions and organisations. They can be preserved indefinitely whereas human memories fade and pass away.

• ARCHITECTURE - University Archive; Paley, Austin Langshaw Archive; Architects Journal; Lune Valley Architectural Project
• ART - John Chambers Collection (pottery design); Paley, Austin, Langshaw Archive (Architecture); Burnley Slide Collection; Edwardian Postcards;
• CONTEMPORARY ARTS - Special Collections (art of the book e.g. Crombie and William Blake); Jack Hylton Archive (Music, Theatre, TV, Entertainment); Cinema Memory Archive (Film); Redlich Collection (Music)
• DESIGN - John Chambers Collection (pottery design); Paley, Austin, Langshaw Archive (Architects); Edwardian Postcards; Gillows Archive (Furniture design)
• ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION - Historical Consequences of the Foot and Mouth outbreak in Cumbria 2001; Paley, Austin, Langshaw Archive (Richard Owen)
• EDUCATION - Changing Faces Archive (Adult education 1970-2000); Robert Fitzgibbon Young (Czech republic and education policies); Jack Catchpool (YHA)
• ENGLISH - Paley, Austin, Langshaw Archive (Elizabeth Gaskell;); Stanley Lawrence Archive (Brontes; Robert Binyon); Edwardian Postcards; Humphrey Davy Notebooks
• ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE - Historical Consequences of the Foot and Mouth outbreak in Cumbria 2001; Paley, Austin, Langshaw Archive (Richard Owen)
• EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION - Changing Faces Archive (especially Windrush and disability adult education from 1970-2000); Satterthwaite Letter books (Lancaster-West Indies trade 1700s); Gillows Archive (Lancaster-West Indies 1700s); Socialist Pamphlets; Redlich Collection (Jewish Refugee WWII)
• FILM - Cinema Memory Archive; Jack Hylton Archive; Benson Theatre Archive; Gerald Tyler Theatre Archive;
• GEOGRAPHY - Ordinance Survey Namebooks - Grasmere; Stanley Lawrence Archive (Burton-in-Lonsdale); MacFarlane Papers (Kirkby Lonsdale); 
• HISTORY -
  • BOOK COLLECTIONS:
    • 1500-1800: Cartmel Priory Collection; Burnley Grammar School Library; Beetham Vestry Library; Ribchester Porch Library 
    • 1800-1950: Patten Second World War collection; Socialist Pamphlets (1815-1997); Ford Railway collection; Quaker collection (1600s-);
    • 1900-: John Chambers collection (Pottery design and children's books); Changing Faces Archive (Adult Education history) (1970-2000); Ninian Smart Archive (1965-2000)
  • ARCHIVES:
    • Pre 1900: Satterthwaite Letter books (Lancaster-West Indies 1700s); Stanley Lawrence Archive (Burton-in- Lonsdale area); MacFarlane Papers (Kirkby Lonsdale area); Paley, Austin, Langshaw (Local Architects); Gillow Archive (Furniture and Lancaster history);
    • 1900-1960: Edwardian Postcards; Burnley Library Photographic collection; Jack Catchpool (WWI; Russian Revolution; Youth Hostel Association); John Welch (WWI, France-Lancaster) Letters; Robert Fitzgibbon Young (Czech Republic & Education); Redlich Collection (Music editor and Jewish refugee in WWII, Father Austrian government interwar years); Jack Hylton Archive (Jazz band, Entertainment theatre, TV, music 1920-1965); Trinity College Cambridge Collection;
    • 1960s-: University Archive;  Cinema Memory Archive (cinemagoers 1930s); Foot and Mouth outbreak 2001;  Lancaster Textile Project (oral history Lancashire mill workers 1970-2000);   SS Uganda (Falklands Conflict 1982); Benson Theatre Archive; Gerald Tyler Theatre Archive;
• MEDIA AND CULTURE STUDIES - Cinema Memory Archive; Jack Hylton Archive; Edwardian Postcards;
• POLITICS - Socialist Pamphlets (1815-1997); SS Uganda (Falklands Conflict); Patten World War II Collection; Jack Catchpool (Russian Revolution); Left Book Club publications; Robert Fitzgibbon Young (Czech Republic presidents); Satterthwaite Letter Books (Lancaster-West Indies 1700s); Quaker Collection; John Welch Letters (France-Lancaster WWI); Redlich Collection (Jewish Refugee WWII and father Interwar years in Austrian Government)
• RELIGIOUS STUDIES - Ninian Smart Archive; Trinity College Collection; Cartmel Priory Collection; Burnley Grammar School Library; Beetham Vestry Library; Ribchester Porch Library; Jack Catchpool (Quaker); Quaker Collection; Redlich Collection (Jewish refugee in WWII)
• THEATRE - Cinema Memory Archive; Jack Hylton Archive; Benson Theatre Archive; Gerald Tyler Theatre Archive;