We hold over 15,000 rare books and thousands of archival items on a variety of subjects in our special collections
Our Special Collections comprises 15,000 publications and thousands of individual archival items. You can browse the content of our collections via Library OneSearch.
We also hold over 30 distinct collections of materials which have been given to the Library. An alphabetical list of our accessible collections can be found below.
The historical records of the University are managed separately in the University Archives.
Browse our collections on OneSearchCollection of pamphlets and offprints collected by Sir Frank Ezra Adock (1886- 1968) mostly relating to the history of Ancient Greece and Rome. Includes offprints sent to by Adcock by their authors.
Adcock was an historian of Greece and Rome who was the chair of Ancient History at Cambridge University. He frequently published his research in the Cambridge Ancient History journal, but he rarely published his work elsewhere.
Tags: classics; Roman History; Ancient Greece; Frank Adcock.
See the Adcock Collection Box List for more information.
Research papers from the 'Americanisation and Youth Culture Project' carried out by Adrian Horn during the course of his PhD at the Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University, between 2001-2004. The research looked at the impact of juke boxes on the youth of the 1940s-1950s.
Published in the dissertation: Americanisation and youth culture : juke boxes and cultural fusions, with special reference to northwest England in 2004. The research was later published as Adrian Horn (2009) Juke box Britain : Americanisation and youth culture, 1945-60. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information.
This archive covers the family history of these local architects. The archive contains drawings, plans and photos of local buildings designed by Austin. There are various papers relating to Heversham House and family documentation of the Austin and Langshaw families, including diaries, wills, letters, family trees, records of investments, career documents relating to HJ Austin, documents relating to EG Paley and 1851 plans of Lancaster.
The archive also contains interesting artefacts such as letters, photos and documents relating to Sir Richard Owen, a local celebrity who originated the term ‘dinosaur’ and correspondence with the author Elizabeth Gaskell.
Tags: Architecture; Richard Owen; Sharpe; Paley; Austin; Langshaw; Lancaster; Elizabeth Gaskell
See the Austin, Langshaw & Paley Collection Box list for more information.
Records of the Bailrigg FM, a radio station run by students on the campus of Lancaster University. Dating back to 1969, Bailrigg FM is one of the oldest student radio stations in the UK.
The collection contains various records relating to the history of the station, including photographs, promotional materials, transmitter log notebook, and a physical catalogue of the vinyl records kept by the station.
Tags: student radio; photographs.
See the Bailrigg FM Archive Box List for more information.
The Beetham Vestry Library contains 350 books dating from the sixteenth to early twentieth century. The volumes were mainly collected by the Reverend William Hutton, Vicar of Beetham, 1762-1811 and placed by him in the Vestry in 1795. The collection was subsequently augmented by various donations, especially that of Alfred John Balleine, Vicar of Beetham from 1907 to 1929. They were deposited in the University Library in 1987.
Standard works of Anglican theology form the largest category, but there are also volumes on science and on British antiquities, and works by Latin authors, as well as some volumes by French Protestant theologians.
Tags: Christianity; Theology; History of science; British Antiquities
View Beetham Vestry Library records on OneSearch
Collection of 78rpm records collected by Ernest William Bell donated by his family.
Tags: Music; E W Bell
See Ernest Bell Collection Box List list for more information.
Small collection of annotated scripts collected by Robert W Benson, thought to have been used by the Bolton-le-Sands Players.
Tags: Robert W Benson; Bolton-le-Sands Players; local theatre; scripts; production notes
See the Robert W Benson Theatre Archive box list for more information.
Around 1,000 books dating from the sixteenth to mid-eighteenth century. The greater part of the library consists of books bequeathed by the Reverend Henry Halsted (1641-1728), a member of a prominent local family and a former pupil of the school. Reverend Edmund Townley, Rector of Slaidburn, augmented the library. Although the collection contains works on history, politics, medicine, and the law, as well as works in Latin and Greek, the major part consists of works on religion, and especially the defence of Anglicanism against Catholicism.
Tags: Christianity; Theology; History; Politics; History of Medicine; History of Law; Classics.
View Burnley Grammar School Library records on OneSearch
Large collection of lantern slides and glass plate negatives which were collected by Burnley Library and donated to the University in 1983.
Thought to date from the later Victorian and Edwardian periods, the slides mostly depict various geographical locations in the UK. The also include slides sets for performances; geological slides largely donated by D H Learoyd. The collection also contains glass plate negatives which correspond to some of the lantern sides depicting scenes in the UK.
Tags: glass plate negatives; Burnley Library; Lantern Slides; photography.
The collection is currently being listed. The Burnley Library Photographic Collection Box List (short) is available. Some materials from this collection are available on Lancaster Digital Collections.
Photographic albums and corresponding negatives created by Fred Butterfield while cycling in the Lake District in the 1920-1930s.
Fred Robinson Butterfield (1905-1999) was the oldest of two sons of Jonas and Annie Jane Butterfield (nee Robinson). He was born 1905 Jan 24 in Keighley. In the years after the first world War, Butterfield took up cycling and became the first secretary of the Keighley Road Club. He was also interested in photography and documented his cycle journeys around Yorkshire and the Lake District. He joined the RAF during World War Two and was stationed in Myanmar (then Burma). He returned home to Farnhill in 1946 where he lived until his death in 1999.
After his death his family donated his photographic collection related to the Lake District to Lancaster. Other materials were also donated to Keithley Library, J B Priestly Library Special Collections, University of Bradford, and Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
Tags: Cumbria; photography; cycling; Lake District.
The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information.
The collection contains approximately 300 books dating from the sixteenth century which formed The ancient library in Cartmel Priory Church. The precise date of the foundation of this library is unknown but is likely to have been before 1629. The greater part of the library was added in 1696-7 on the death of Thomas Preston of Holker. Many of the books contain hand-written notes. The books are mainly theological but there are also a number of Latin and Greek classics, works on natural science and a few English non-theological books.
Tags: Christianity; Theology; Latin and Greek Classics; Natural Science
View Cartmel Priory Collection records on OneSearch
Born Egerton St John Pettifor Catchpool (Jack Catchpool 1890-1971) he lived in Guernsey, brought up as a Quaker. He trained in Social Work and also trained as a first aider. As a pacifist he joined the Friends Ambulance Unit in 1915 volunteering in French hospitals. He returned to London in 1916 and had a tribunal as a conscientious objector. He worked for the Friends German Emergency Committee helping Germans stranded in the UK. In 1916 he helped Russians get to Moscow and became friends with the Tolstoy family. He helped in the hospital at Andreekva and then on to Armenia. During the Russian civil war he returned to Moscow and helped the homeless. He rescued a colleague from Japan and returned via Vladivostok, China and Jerusalem.
He worked at Toynbee Hall which created the Workers Educational Association and Workers Travel Association. in 1927 he visited Germany seeing the hostels over there and set up the first one in Welwyn Garden City and was the first secretary of the Youth Hostel Association. In 1938 he became president of the International Federation of Youth Hostels and retired in 1950 helping create hostels abroad. This archive contains his papers relating to his career.
Tags: Quakers; Russia; World War 1914-1918; Friends Ambulance Unit; Youth Hostel Assocation
An abridged version of the Catalogue: Jack Catchpool Catalogue (short) is available online.
The collection was donated by the family of John Chambers, the chief designer at Pilkington Tiles, who was responsible for all the artistic work carried out in the factory. The collection contains books, journals, pamphlets and designs relating to pottery. The collection complements the bequest to the Peter Scott Gallery, by Miss Mary Chambers, of illustrations, designs, photographs and ceramics.
Tags: Pottery; Design; Botanical; Children’s Literature
View Chambers Collection records on OneSearch
The Changing Faces project tracked policy initiatives stemming from the 1970s Adult Literacy campaign up to the launch in 2001 of the Skills for Life campaign as part of the National Literacy Strategy. Archive items include papers and documents from campaign groups, minutes from meetings, local and national policy initiatives and programmes, media campaigns; dissertations and theses that cover this area and histories that have been written about specific groups, organisations, policy or geographical areas.
Tags: 1970-2000; adult literacy; adult numeracy; ESOL; Adult Education; policies; resources;
View Changing Faces Archive records on OneSearch
The CCINTB Archive comprises materials gathered in the course of a large-scale, ongoing, research project conducted by Professor Annette Kuhn. The project began in 1991 and was funded between 1994 and 1997 by the Economic and Social Research Council. It involved depth interviews conducted with, and questionnaires completed by, several hundred men and women living in various parts of the UK who were cinemagoers during the 1930s, as well as collection and analysis of primary source materials on cinema going and cinema culture in Britain during the interwar years.
Tags: Media; 1930s; Cinema; Movies; Social History; Oral History
The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information. The digital materials can be accessed on the Cinema Memory and Digital Archive website. A selection of materials from the collection are available on Lancaster Digital Collections.
Papers collected by Elsie M Cottom, comprising documentation relating to her training at Rachel MacMillian College; documentation relating to her teaching practice at Bradley Road Nursery; and children's books collected by Cottom.
Elsie M Cottom was a nursery teacher based in Lancashire. She trained at Rachael MacMillian College up to 1942. She was the headmistress of Bradley Road Nursery in Nelson Lancashire.
Tags: Early years education; nursery schools; children's books
See the Elsie M Cottam Collection Box List for more information.
A collection of 3000 postcards, dating from 1900-1910, collected during a research project which examined the importance of postcards as a multimodal communications technology in the Edwardian period. The project highlighted the writing practices, travel, concerns and social networks of the time and use of postcards at their most popular period, and compared them to the current use of postcards and social interaction on social media.
The project was directed by Dr Julia Gillen, Reader in Digital Literacies and Director, Lancaster Literacy Research Centre. The project was begun by Julia Gillen and Nigel Hall, Emeritus Professor of Literacy Education, Manchester Metropolitan University. Former Research Associates were Dr Jane Demmen, Dr Joanne Thistlethwaite and Dr Amanda Pullan. From 2016 onwards we have worked with Dr Adrian Gradinar. There were also undergraduate students working alongside us, such as Sol Rodriguez Lyon and Lara Bland in 2019. The public were also encouraged to take part in the research.
The project was funded by the Bowland Trust, the Friends Programme of Lancaster University, the Lancaster University Public Engagement with Research Leadership Group, the Arts and Humanities Research Council Cultural Engagement Fund, the Arts and Humanities Creative Exchange Programme and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Lancaster University Impact Fund.
The postcards were digitized and are available through Lancaster Digital Collections. The physical collection can be accessed in the Archive Research Centre by appointment.
The collection is also accessible from the original project website.
Foot and Mouth Disease Disaster Archive contains research papers resulting from The Health and Social Consequences of the 2001 Foot and Mouth Epidemic in North Cumbria project carried out by the Institute for Health Research at Lancaster University.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an infectious viral disease which affects cloven-hoofed animals. The outbreak of FMD in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. Cumbria was the worst affected area of the country as 70% of the regions farms had a complete or partial cull of their livestock. The effect of the crisis was felt across the region including tourism and general rural life and practices. The Institute for Health Research carried out a longitudinal study between 2001-2004, which examine how the crisis was a human tragedy as well as an animal one, and how the scale of human distress was far greater than first appreciated.
The diaries were written over a period of 18 months by a diverse panel of 54 rural residents who experienced the crisis in different ways. Their contributions describe how their lives were affected by the crisis and also the process of recovery they observed taking place in their communities. The archive contains the dairies kept by the participants and recordings of interviews and group sessions. The research provides insight into the impact of the epidemic and Cumbrian cultural life in the early 21st century. Further information can be found in the project's website.
Tags: Foot and Mouth Disease; Social history; oral history
Most of the collection is available for research, although some files are closed following the Data Protection Act (2018) with UK GDPR.The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information. Digital copies of the research are also available held by the UK Data Archive.
The collection was the gift of a local railway enthusiast, Mr R. C. Ford of Bentham, in the early days of the University. It contains books and journals on railways, with a special emphasis on railways in the North West of England.
Titles have been added to the collection since it was acquired.
Tags: Railways; Trains; Maps
The Collection is available on Floor C of the Library. View Ford Railway Collection records on OneSearch
These are microfilm copies of the original archive which is housed in Westminster Archives in London covering the Gillows firm from 1731-1932. Gillows was a local furniture makers trading in Lancaster. They took advantage of the wood coming in to Lancaster as ballast on the ships coming from the West Indies. The Archive includes Waste books, cash books, bill books, ledgers, mill books, salaries, orders, estimate sketch books, upholstery and decoration estimates, cabinetry sketch books, account books, letter books, memos.
Find the Gillow Archives on OneSearch or view the Gillows Microfilm Collection list.
Personal papers of educationalist, Frederick Crossfield Happold (1893-1971). Includes his own writings and other papers relating to Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury.
Frederick Crossfield Happold, (1893–1971) was an educational pioneer, headmaster, and author. He was a supporter of child-centred education and often wrote on methods of teaching history. He spent most of his career as the headteacher of Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury which achieved a reputation for pioneering educational work during his time there.
Tags: Bishop Wordsworth's School; child-centred education; progressive education; social reform; democracy; world citizenship; sourced-based history teaching
For more information see the Frederick Crossfield Happold Papers box list.
Jack Hylton was born in Great Lever, Bolton on 2nd July 1892. He came from a working class background and, as a boy, performed as the "Singing Mill-Boy".
After the First World War he went on to play with the Queen's Dance Orchestra where he wrote arrangements of popular songs. In the 1920s the band developed into an orchestra, under Jack Hylton’s name, and toured America and Europe. It continued until the 1940s when the orchestra disbanded due to members being called up for war service.
He then became an impresario discovering new stars and managing radio, film and theatre productions. He dominated the London theatres with shows including "The Merry Widow", "Kiss Me Kate" and "Kismet".
Some of the stars he managed, who appeared in his productions or whom he discovered include Shirley Bassey, Maurice Chevalier, Ernie Wise, Eric Morecambe, Arthur Askey, the Crazy Gang, George Formby, Diana Dors, Thora Hird, Liberace, Noele Gordon and Sid James.
Jack later went on to work in TV as the Advisor of Light Entertainment for the new ITV channel, Associated-Rediffusion, where he was able to promote his stage discoveries as TV stars. He worked in this role until 1959, producing stage shows at the same time. He was instrumental in organising various Royal Command Performances and continued producing theatre until his final show, “Camelot”, which he was working on when he died in 1965.
The archive contains Band Parts, Press Cuttings, Programmes, Photos, Scripts, Stage Designs, Flyers, Posters, Adverts, Recordings, and other memorabilia relating to Jack Hylton.
Tags: Music; Media; Theatre; 1920-1965; TV; social history
The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information.
The Lancashire Textile Project contains an oral history of spinning mills in Lancashire, predominately those of Bancroft Mill in Barnoldswick and Spring Vale Mill in Haslingden. Local and personal histories are featured as well as details of spinning, weaving and machine maintenance. Interviewees also contribute details on both general mill life and the home-life of the period. The collection consists of 6 volumes of photos, index cards, oral history tapes and tape transcriptions.
Tags: Barnoldswick; Mills; Spinning; Weaving; social history
The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information.
The records produced by the project can also be accessed via the Lancashire Textile Project website.
Records of the Lancaster Art & Music Club, 1946-1972.
The Lancaster Art & Music Club was formed after a public meeting on 12th March 1945. The objective of the Club was to provide concerts, recitals, visits of touring drama companies and art exhibitions in Lancaster as a means of fostering an appreciation of music and arts in general. By 1969, the Club had arranged 153 events across the region. The Club was also involved in the development of a music department at the new Lancaster University.
The Club paused its activities in 1969 as it did not want to conflict with the first music season arranged by the University. The Club was subsequently wound up in 1971 as its activities would now be carried on by the University. The Club arranged one final event for their members at Duke’s Theatre on the 15 May 1972.
Tags: music; concerts; local arts; music club; music department
For more information please see Lancaster Music and Art Club Collection box list.
Stan Lawrence was a headmaster and local historian in the Burton-in-Lonsdale area. He collated materials relating to the history of Burton-in-Lonsdale from various sources including maps, tithe maps, and manor records. He donated his collection in 2000 and it was added to over the years by himself.
Tags: local history; Burton-in-Lonsdale; maps; historical research
For more information please see the Stanley Lawrence Archive Catalogue (pdf 0.3 MB).
Records of the Burton-in-Lonsdale League of Nations Union, 1935-1947, including minute book; accounts; receipts; and correspondence related to League of Nations Union stamps.
Founded in 1918, the League of Nations Union (LNU) was a membership organisation which based itself on the ideals of the League of Nations. The LNU lobbied for an international agreement which would serve as a basis for permanent peace. The organisation coordinated campaigns and educational programmes as well as working with local branches which opened from the 1920s. The popularity of the organisation waned in the late 1930s when the international situation worsened.
The LNU also had regional branches which were established across the UK from the 1920s. The Burton-in-Lonsdale League of Nations Union branch was formed in 1935 at a time when the main organisation was in decline. A public meeting was held in the Sunday School on 11th January 1935 which passed a resolution to form the regional branch. Canon R Stowell, the parish vicar was elected the chairman and C Skeat acted as the branch secretary. In its first year, the branch enrolled 77 members.
For more information see the Burton-in-Lonsdale League of Nations Union Papers box list.
Collection of financial records maintained by Henry Longbottom from 1931-2002, covering his daily expenditure.
(Ernest) Henry Longbottom (1914-2002) was a teacher who was born in New Brighton, Wallasey, who worked in schools in the UK as well as Sierra Leone and Zambia.
When he opened his first bank account in 1931, he kept detailed records of his expenditure in cashbooks. In 1994, after the death of his wife, Henry began to collate his financial records as he began to arrange his accounts in theme order rather than chronological. He decided to arrange the account records so they could be archived to preserve information about his life. The collection provide an overview of the financial history of one man's life.
Tags: Longbottom, Henry; Financial records; school teacher; Sierra Leone; Zambia.
For more information see the Henry Longbottom Collection Box List.
Collection of papers relating to the history of the Kirkby Lonsdale area collated by Professor Alan Macfarlane (1941-).
Tags: Local history; Kirkby Lonsdale; historical analysis.
The catalogue for the collection can be found on the ArchivesHub website.
Tom Milne was a highly regarded film critic who joined the British Film Institute as an associate editor. His collection was donated to the University Library by Nigel Algar, Senior Curator (Fiction) of the British Film Institute. They are novels of mainly 20th-century Fiction and Crime Fiction.
Tags: Popular 20th Century Fiction; Crime Fiction; Westerns;
The Tom Milne collection is available on the ground floor of the Library. View Tom Milne Collection records on OneSearch
The majority of the collection consists of pamphlets issued by government ministries during the Second World War. These informed the public, members of the Forces and volunteers of how to cope on rations, what to do in an air raid etc.
Tags: World War 1939-1945; home front; informative publications
View Patten Collection records on OneSearch
Lancaster and Lancashire were prominent in the early history of the Quaker movement. As such, many Quaker materials have been donated to the Library from the Society of Friends and various other donors to form a large extensive collection on the subject. These can be found in the main library and Special Collections.
Tags: Society of Friends; Quakers; religious societies.
The majority of the collection is available on B floor in the Library. Older publications and original documents are accessible by appointment. View entries for the Quaker Collection on OneSearch.
Hans Ferdinand Redlich (1903-1968) was the son of Professor Joseph Redlich who was Finance Minister, Privy Councillor and University professor of Law in Austria. He studied music with Paul Weingarten, Hugo Kauder and Carl Orff. He was conductor and repetiteur at Charlotteburge Opera House in Berlin then Mainz Stadttheatre. He was a freelance composer, conductor, critic and article writer. He emigrated to UK in 1939 due to being a Jew and lectured at Cambridge and Birmingham.
Tags: Music; Austria policies pre-1939; Social history
The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information.
In 1684, Mr Hayhurst, Minister of Macclesfield, left his library to St Wilfred’s, the Parish Church of Ribchester. The remains of this library consist of 8 volumes dating from 1544-1811 of a theological nature.
Tags: Theology; Ribchester.
View the entries for the Ribchester Vestry Library on OneSearch.
In 1967 Ninian Smart (1927-2001) founded the First British Religious Studies Department at Lancaster University and his archive was donated by his widow on his death. This includes a detailed bibliography of all his publications and his original research papers.
Tags: Religious studies; world religions.
Information on the publications in the Ninian Smart Archive are available on OneSearch. The remaining collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information.
This collection comprises three letter books written by Benjamin Satterthwaite (1718-1792) and his son John Satterthwaite (1743-1807). The volumes contain copies of letters written by the men largely while they were resident representatives or factors in the Caribbean for their family’s firm and a group of Lancaster merchants. The Letter Books are important examples of very early business documents relating to the development of Lancaster's transatlantic trade.
Tags: Transatlantic trade; Benjamin Satterthwaite; John Satterthwaite; Lancaster
The letter books have been digitized and are available on Lancaster Digital Collections. The physical volumes are available by appointment.
Large collections of publications and pamphlets related to the Socialist movement, including an almost complete set of publications published by the Left Book Club.
Find the Socialist Pamphlet Collection on OneSearch.
The SS Uganda was a Cruise liner built in the 1950s which was a schools cruise ship till the 1980s and then commandeered by the government and converted into a hospital ship for troops during the Falklands conflict in 1982. This archive consists of photographs, diaries and other materials collected from the time by the 2nd chef of the SS Uganda.
Tags: Cruise ships; hospital ship; Falklands war 1982;
The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information.
This collection was received from Trinity College Cambridge in 1978 due to negotiations with the Religious Studies department at Lancaster. They are mainly pre-World War I theological books.
Tags: Miscellaneous religions; history; geography; classics
View Trinity College Collection records on OneSearch
Papers of Thomas Edward Tyler (c1908-1984), known as Gerald, who was involved in the promotion of children’s theatre and produced many shows for or featuring young people.
The collection contains records related Tyler's work with the Brighouse House Children's Theatre, the British Children’s Theatre Association (BCTA), and the ASSITEJ International (the International Association of Theatres for Children and Young people). It also contains a collection of over 400 theatre programmes collected by Tyler from the 1920s-1980s.
Tags: Children's Theatre; theatre programmes; Brighouse Children's Theatre; British Children’s Theatre Association.
The collection is currently being listed. Please contact us for more information.
John Welch (1884-1966) was a Lancaster solicitor who joined the Officer Training Corps in January 1915 and served in the 4th (T.) Battalion King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment during World War I. Welch regularly corresponded with members of his family while he was training and on active service. This collection comprises the letters he sent home dating from 1915-1919.
Tags: Correspondence; World War I; Lancaster; John Welsh.
The collection has been digitized and is available on Lancaster Digital Collections.
Original technical drawings which were published in the ‘Architects’ Working Details’ feature of the Architect’s Journal between 1989-2007.
The feature examined detailing in buildings and construction. It presented new and innovative features alongside tried and tested methods of construction. ‘Working Details’ were also published in an occasional compendium by the Architects' Journal. The collection was donated by Susan Dawson who was the editor of the feature from 1989-2007.
Tags: architectural design; technical drawings; building details.
More details can be found in the Working Details Technical Drawings Box list .
Robert Fitzgibbon Young (1879-1960) was the only son of an Architect from Belfast. He spoke fluent French, German, Czech, Italian and Latin.
Young studied history at Oxford and later worked at Leeds University. When World War I started, he became Lieutenant for the Royal Navy Reserve. After the war he acted as the Secretary to the diplomatic mission to Czechoslovakia. At Prague he saw the shaping of the new Republic and became friends with presidents Masaryk and Benes. He wrote various publications on the history of European scholarship and was an expert in Comenius. Young was also Secretary of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education from 1920-1940. He was also Honorary Secretary of the Czech Society of Great Britain. He was given a doctorate degree in 1936 at the Masaryk University of Brno
The collection comprises materials collected by Robert Fitzgibbon Young including his papers, scrapbooks and book collection.
Tags: diplomatic service; Czechoslovakia; Czechia; Czech Society of Great Britain.
View the entries for the Robert Fitzgibbon Young collection on OneSearch.
