Our new exhibition on Water and Sanitation in 19th Century London is now open at the UCL Cruciform Hub. It features reproductions of items from our collection that cover the debate over clean water and sanitation in the lead up to, and immediate aftermath of, the 1875 Public Health Act. The Act set out a requirement for local authorities to provide clean water and sanitation to residents.

Reproductions are displayed alongside research from the curators who have worked to put the exhibition together: Alex Careswell, Anna Gonzalez-Fort, and Chelsie Mok. We are planning to install a full version of their exhibition on public health in the UCL Main Library in 2027.

The exhibition is located in the lower ground floor of the Cruciform Building, adjacent to the Cruciform Café. It is open to anyone with a UCL ID card.

Thank you to Alex, Anna and Chelsie for their research and work on this exhibition!

 

 

Year 9 pupils at Kelmscott Secondary School spent six weeks with our Outreach team, learning about the skills and knowledge required to become an effective and forward thinking historian.  As a group, they chose the theme of medical history and they worked on researching one collection items each.  Their hard work culminated in them writing museum label style descriptions, which we present to you in this blog, alongside some brilliant BlueSky posts.

‘Every man his own doctor, compleated with an herbal…’ by John Archer, 1673 (OGDEN A 514)

Lily

John Archer had the idea of people serving themselves with herbal and plant medicine. This book was written with parts and chapters, for example ‘Mushrooms and toadstools’.  It was published 1673 so to this day 352 years ago. The close proximity of the book and the Great Plague Of London suggests that this was possibly made when people’s views of hygiene and health was changing.

Elisha 

Made in 1673, John Archer intended this to be for those that have not patience to “Read Voluminous Authors”. It contains practical information such as quality of the air, diet, sleep and exercise.
It contains common theories at the time like how the body was composed of four primary fluids – blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile – which impacted mood and were all expected to be in balance in the ideal healthy body. It also has remedies for smallpox as there was an extremely high death rate from this at the time.

Horsley – First World War field operations notebooks, 1915 (HORSELY A/1-3 and A/10)

Robert

This is a notebook, written during the Gallipoli campaign when Horsley was colonel, that features his works such as death from intracranial pressure and bullet wounds to the brain. The front cover reads ‘21st General Hospital’ with ‘ARMY BOOK 136’ written in the middle. Inside contains his sketches and annotations of the brain’s cross section. This book reminds us of the struggles and trauma faced by the surgeons working on the battlefield. His reputation was boosted greatly as he brought 20th-century military surgery to a new level.

Jude

Victor Horsley’s pioneering field research notebook was ahead of its time, featuring medical drawings aided from both his work as a surgeon and his experience in war. In 1910, Horsley was commissioned to serve as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, to be deployed on he Western Front. This notebook, however, was produced in 1915 during the British Army’s Gallipoli campaign. One of the highlight features is a hand-drawn cross-section of the brain, building off Horsley’s previous scientific works and his first-hand wartime experience to create a notebook which was especially advanced for its early 20th century origins.

Carswell’s Anatomical Watercolour Illustrations, 1828 – 1831

Leela

Robert Carswell was a Scottish physician and medical illustrator, celebrated for his detailed watercolour depictions of human anatomy and diseases. His works, often combining scientific precision with artistic skill, were used as visual references in medical studies. Notably, Carswell’s 1835 treatise A Description of the Diseases of the Skin featured his highly regarded dermatological illustrations. His legacy as a key figure in 19th-century medical illustration endures, bridging the fields of art and science to provide valuable insights into both human biology and visual representation.

The Medical Museum, 1763 (Rare Science Periodicals)

Patrick

“The medical museum or a repository of cases…” was published in 1776, during the Georgian period in England (1714-1830). This book includes over 60 topics ranging from the nature of honey, the bad effects of tea drinking, bloodletting, several studies about what urine can tell about a person and many more contents from loads of different researchers.

It was printed by W.Richardson and S.Clark and sold by W.Bristow. The artifact I have looked at is the first volume, but there are at least three other volumes.

Marian Ray’s Illustrations for Educational Television, c1948 – 1983

Samuel

Marian Ray created many pieces of artwork on the subject of biology which were used on pieces of educational media in her collection of illustrations on the topics of “The Reflex Arc and Nervous System” or “Circulation”.  These pieces of art were hand painted onto filmstrip. Marian ran a successful business from the 1940s to the 1980s producing artworks such as these selling to schools in Britain and abroad, especially to Sweden.  After WWII Marian began working in the audio visual industry when she began working for the BBC press department.

 

Well done to all involved and for their brilliant research and writing!

Please note that this blog post contains some historic uses of language, which are outdated, offensive, and discriminatory. The language is retained in its original context and does not represent views of UCL Special Collections. We are committed to contextualising and addressing dated and harmful languages in our collecting practice, collection documentation, teaching, and engagement activities. You can read about some of our work in this area as part of UCL’s Liberating the Collections programme here.   

 

To mark this year’s Deaf Awareness Week, we explore the complex histories of sign languages and changing attitudes to their usage, through UCL’s rich collections documenting histories of d/Deaf communities and associated institutions. This blog showcases a few items. 

There are over 150,000 users of British Sign Language (BSL), approximately half a million of ASL – the American Sign Language. Yet widespread, and unsanctioned use of sign languages is a relatively new phenomenon.  Although awareness of sign languages and their uses among d/Deaf communities has a long and established history, little to no  record of their languages exists before the 16th century. There is evidence of manual signs as communication systems among European monastic communities who practiced vows of silence, but these are not linked, of course, to histories of deafness. It was, however, a Spanish Benedictine monk, Pedro Ponce de Leon who was the first to educate d/Deaf children through early forms of sign language.  

Gerald Shea notes that those early attempts to teach d/Deaf to speak were economically motivated. “A central problem for aristocratic families in Europe, as in Byzantium,” Shea writes, “was that Deaf offspring had to be able to speak in order to inherit. These […] considerations led to the growth and influence of teachers of speech and lipreading” who first appeared in Spain, at the height of its global power, followed by similar practices in England and Holland in the 17th c., and emerging in France and Germany in the 18th c., favoring the so-called oralism and attempts to ‘cure’ deafness over manual communication systems.[1]  

The first known work on teaching the d/Deaf, published in 1620 by Juan Pablo Bonet, described the d/Deaf as “inferior […] monsters of nature and human only in form.” Although a proponent of oralism, Bonet did concede the need to teach a manual alphabet in order to assist with spelling and pronunciation. His book offers one of the early printed records of sign language.

 

Armstrong observed that the mid-17th century saw the rise of sign-language education for the d/Deaf, which coincided with the emergence of modern science and Enlightenment’s education philosophies. Sign language was, in fact, seen by the French Enlightenment philosophers as ‘natural’, more ‘natural’ than spoken language, and uncorrupted by language’s uses for political oppression.[2] The period saw a proliferation of new theories and language systems, based on signs and gestures. George Delgano’s Didascalocophus or the Deaf and Dumb man’s tutor (1680), which proposed a totally new linguistic system for the d/Deaf, was one prominent example.  

An English doctor and philosopher, John Bulwer (1606 – 1656) saw gesture as the only form of speech inherently natural to mankind. In his Chirologia, or the Naturall Language of the Hand alongside a companion text, Chironomia, or the Art of Manual Rhetoric, he attempted to record hand gestures intended for an orator to memorise and perform while speaking. And although Chirologia and Chiromania did not focus on gestures as a form of d/Deaf communication – Chirologia  makes only a brief mention of deafness – Bulwer’s work became an important foundation of his long-standing commitment to and advocacy for d/Deaf education. He became known as one of the first people in England to propose education for the d/Deaf.  

And what is known as the modern tradition of d/Deaf education and its uses of sign language originated with the foundation of the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the National School for the Deaf, set up in the mid-18th c. by a French priest, Abbe Charles-Michel de l’Épée. He is also credited with initiating a movement that led to the spread of sign language learning in dedicated schools in Europe and North America.  

In their evolution, sign languages were in fact often driven by transformations in d/Deaf education and complex local engagements of d/Deaf communities with their emergent institutions. It was the French Sign Language (FSL), rather than the BSL, that became the foundation of the modern ASL exactly because the American system of schools for the d/Deaf was first set up in 1817 by a d/Deaf French signer and educator. It followed the French model, both in its pedagogic approach and language use. In fact, the FSL, modelled on the French grammar and vocabulary, was initially used in the American school. Gradually, however, a new language emerged, shaped by contact of FLS and existing local signing systems, most prominently perhaps the sign language used by the Martha’s Vinyard community in Massachusetts, which developed its own unique sign language due to high incidence of hereditary deafness in the area.  

Residential schools for the d/Deaf which followed the l’Épée model were popular in Europe and North American in the 19th c., fostering rich signing communities which developed around them. But following the controversial International Congress of the Education of the Deaf held in Milan in 1880, sign language education was internationally suppressed, often actively banned, in favour of oralism, i.e. speechreading and vocal training as the preferred education method. This dramatic shift in attitudes inevitably led to fragmentation of communities and subsequent development of small, highly localised dialects. It wasn’t until the mid-20th c. that significant moves towards greater visibility and acceptance of sign languages took place. BSL was only formally recognised as a language in 2003! And it wasn’t until 2010 the 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf, held in Vancouver, Canada that the motion declaring sign languages inferior to oralism, passed in Milan in 1880 was finally rejected.  

Many items highlighted in this post are part of our RNID Rare Printed Collection and RNID archives, transferred to UCL Special Collections in 2020 from the UCL Ear Institute Library. To learn more about the collection and access to it, see our brief guide.  

---

[1] Gerald Shea, The language of light: a history of silent voices (Yale University Press, 2017), 12. 

[2] David F. Armstrong, Show of Hands: a natural history of sign language (Gallaudet University Press, 2011), 33.  

This post was written by Katy Makin and Kaja Marczewska

Today, on Karl Marx’s 207^th birthday (Happy Birthday Karl!), we look at a couple of his prominent works in our collections, and explore their fascinating histories.

Karl Marx, Le Capital (Paris: Lachâtre, 1872. Traduction de M. J Roy)

Beesly Papers,

UCL Special Collections Reference: BEESLY/48-64/63

Perhaps the most significant item in our collection with a Karl Marx connection is the French translation of his seminal work, Capital, part of Beesly Papers.

Edward Spencer Beesly (1831-1915) was professor of History at UCL from 1860-1893 and Principal of University Hall, a UCL student residence in Gordon Sq, from 1859-1882. A Positivist and trade union activist, he was a friend of Karl Marx and acquainted with other members of Marx’s circle including Friedrich Engels. Despite some philosophical differences they collaborated for many years, with Beesly helping Marx to place his writings with various English publishers and periodicals. During Marx’s later life, he was often a dinner guest of the Beesly’s at University Hall.[1]

UCL Special Collections holds a small archive of Beesly’s papers which were gifted by Beesly’s grandchildren in 1960. They contain some correspondence, lecture notes and a variety of printed material. Included in the latter category are books written or owned by Beesly, such as his copy of the first edition of Le Capital, the French translation of Marx’s Das Kapital.

 

On the title page is the inscription “Given to E S Beesly by Karl Marx. The corrections were made by K. M. himself”. Its source is unclear, but the hand is possibly Beesly’s own. There are also several small corrections to the text throughout the volume which match known examples of Marx’s writing, supporting the assertion made on the title page.

The French edition of Das Kapital was translated by Joseph Roy and published by Maurice Lachâtre, issued in 44 livraisons between 1872 and 1875. That Marx personally sent the French translations to Beesly is confirmed in a 1959 paper by Royden Harrison who had had sight of letters exchanged between Beesly and Marx:

Marx sent the Professor the livraisons of the French translation of Capital. These came in parts and, as they arrived, Beesly acknowledged them with warm thanks, explaining that: ‘I shall take the earliest opportunity of studying it with all the attention it deserves,’ or, ‘I promise myself great interest and pleasure in reading your work as soon as I have finished what I am now busy about –  the translation of Vol. Ill of Comte’s Pol. Positive.’[2]

The letters referenced by Royden were apparently at MELI – the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute – which no longer exists. It was wound up in 1991 and the bulk of its archival holdings transferred to the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, now inaccessible outside Russia.

By the time the French translation was published, Marx had already given Beesly one of a handful of presentation copies of the first German edition of Das Kapital, published in 1867, and asked for his help in having a review of it published in the Fortnightly Review, of which Beesly was a founder. Although Beesly was amenable, the review was ultimately rejected by the editor-in-chief, John Morley.[3]

The fact that the chapters of the French translation arrived in separate pieces explains why there is no dedication from Marx inside this volume of Le Capital; they would have been bound later. Beesly’s copy of the first German edition of Das Kapital, inscribed to him from Marx, was not part of the archive donated by Beesly’s family and was last seen at auction in 2010.[4]

---

Karl Marx, Capital (London: J.M. Dent, 1930)

Orwell Book Collection

UCL Special Collections Reference: ORWELL N 10 MAR

 Among other works written by Marx held by UCL’s Special Collections is a rather unassuming, later English translation of Das Kapital, published in two volumes as part of the popular Everyman’s Library in 1930. While the first edition of Capital was received poorly, selling only 1000 copies in the first four years of circulation, by the time Dent chose it for its series of reprinted classics, it achieved a canonical status. It was published in response to a new wave of interest in Marx, following the Russian Revolution and related proliferation of political writings. That is, by 1930 Capital – the foundational work of anti-capitalism – turned out to have commercial potential.

The Everyman’s edition was important in that it popularised the new translation by Cedar and Eden Paul, based on the 4^th German edition of Das Kapital, produced for another publisher, Allen and Urwin two years earlier. But its relative novelty stemmed also from its affordability. The book was promoted as the first truly inexpensive edition of the work, somewhat cynically, perhaps, flaunting the socialist cause as a marketing tool.  It was advertised by Dent as one of the books “hitherto within reach of collectors and the comparatively well-to-do bibliophile…for the first time appropriately issued at a ‘Socialist’ price.”[5]

But our copy is also important because of its unique provenance. It is part of George Orwell’s book collection, consisting of rare and early editions of Orwell’s works, translations of Orwell’s publications, as well as books from his own library, of which we hold ca. 350 volumes. These represent part of Orwell’s library at the time of his death in 1950 and were purchased from Orwell’s executor, Richard Rees.

Orwell had a complicated relationship with Marxism, but Marx’s writings played a significant role in his own political thinking as well as fiction writing. Predictably, Marx’s works would have assumed a central place in his library. This particular edition offers a glimpse at Orwell’s engagement with Capital. It includes in the first volume two annotations, in pencil, which we believe to be by Orwell. The handwriting here is consistent with other samples of author’s hand, as represented in Orwell Papers, also part of UCL’s Special Collections.

 

---

[1] HARRISON, ROYDEN. “E. S. BEESLY AND KARL MARX (Continued).” International Review of Social History, vol. 4, no. 2, 1959, pp. 208–38: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44581406. Accessed 30 April 2025.

[2] p.226 of HARRISON, ROYDEN. “E. S. BEESLY AND KARL MARX (Continued).” International Review of Social History, vol. 4, no. 2, 1959, pp. 208–38 https://www.jstor.org/stable/44581406. Accessed 30 April 2025.

[3] See: https://www2.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/201007/auction-1.phtml. Accessed 20 April 2025.

[4] See: https://auctionpublicity.com/2010/06/09/world-records-set-at-bloomsbury-auctions-important-books-and-manuscripts-sale/. Accessed 30 April 2025.

[5]  Quoted in Terry Seymour, A Printing History of Everyman’s Library, 1906-1982. AuthorHouse, 2011, p. 182.

The Special Collections Outreach Team has been fortunate to host two students on a placement from the IOE’s BA in Education Studies. As their time comes to a close with us, they’ve written a blog post about their experiences. In this post, Joann Zhang reflects on her experience.

 

As part of my placement module this term, my colleague Elena Yu and I had the opportunity to work closely with the Outreach team at UCL Special Collections. This experience not only deepened my understanding of how the collections operate behind the scenes but also gave me a new perspective on how historical resources can be used for educational purposes.

This wasn’t my first time engaging with the UCL Special Collections. In Year 1, during the module The Worlds of UCL, Professor Georgina Brewis introduced us to various selected materials from the collection as part of our classwork. As a BA Education Studies student, I also often wonder how these resources could be used in school teaching. So, I was very excited when I knew that I was allocated to the Special Collections team—and even more so when I found out we would be developing a series of GCSE History learning materials.

However, using collection items in a taught class and actually working as part of the team that selects and prepares those materials are very different experiences. In classes, items are pre-selected, but the process behind this is far more complex. First, our topic this year focused on Commonwealth immigration—something I had very little prior knowledge of. Also, I was unfamiliar with archive search engines and didn’t know how to begin locating relevant materials. In total, everything felt new to me at the beginning.

Luckily, with the support of Vicky Price and Sarah Pipkin, Elena and I were able to start with a presentation on the history of Commonwealth immigration, which gave us a basic understanding and helped us set a direction for our research. We then learned how to navigate UCL Library Services and use the archive catalogue to search for materials. Finally, we booked the Reading Room to check items in person and arrange our findings into a spreadsheet.

Throughout this process, I was impressed by the diversity of items held in the collection. Beyond published rare books, there were small press materials like magazines and newspaper clippings, as well as personal letters and ephemera. My favourite item among all my findings was a videotape called Motherland, found in the Marina Foster collection. It was a play created by a group of female students at Vauxhall Manor School, based on the real-life stories of 23 Caribbean women who migrated to the UK in the 1950s. It might be particularly inspiring for GCSE students to learn about what students of the same age were creating more than 40 years ago.

This research experience felt like a treasure hunt: starting with almost no knowledge and slowly digging deeper to uncover hidden gems with teamwork and guidance from our supervisors. There were times of disappointment, especially when items didn’t quite match what I was looking for. But there were also rewarding moments brought by unexpected findings. Over the last four months, I was glad to see my confidence grow with each visit to the Reading Room, and I have developed new research skills that I can apply in other contexts.

At the end, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Amy Howe, Becky Sims, Chelsie Mok, Colin Penman, Liz Lawes, Sarah Pipkin, and Vicky Price, who supported me throughout the placement with patience and kindness. I’m truly grateful for this opportunity and hope to see you in the future, both in and beyond the Special Collections.

Thank you so much to Joann for her hard work and her reflection on her placement!

The Special Collections Outreach Team has been fortunate to host two students on a placement from the IOE’s BA in Education Studies. As their time comes to a close with us, they’ve written a blog post about their experiences. In this post, Elena Yu reflects on her experience.

 

Introduction

I chose the Education Placement Module this term, and it is so lucky for me to spend 50 wonderful hours with warm-hearted staff members in UCL Special Collection team and my classmate Joann Zhang, working on a project around the topic of “Commonwealth Migration”. We hope that our research and work will offer some help for GCSE students’ history study. Our placement started in late January with an initial online meeting with Vicky Price and Sarah Pipkin. Over the following weeks, Joann and I gained insight into the various aspects of the team’s work — including archiving, cataloguing, digitisation, and the outreach efforts related to the collection.

Working as a team   

While working through the archives, a number of staff members generously shared their expertise, guidance, and advice—all of which greatly inspired me and contributed to the development of my research. Colin Penman from the UCL Records suggested several useful items from the Records collection. Becky Sims, Liz Lawes, and Chelsie Mok kindly offered valuable advice on locating materials, and Amy Howe patiently demonstrated the digitization process (as shown in the photo). Their support was instrumental in deepening my understanding of archival work and contextualizing it within the scope of my research. 

The most exciting collection item  

After keyword searching in the catalogues of online library and looking at them in the UCL Special Collections Reading Room, GA/9/2/4 is a part of most intriguing material that I found. These colourful leaflets and booklets are from 1970-1987, and perfectly show activities that were done by the Commonwealth Institute to provide better service to both immigrants’ lives. Leaflets included multiple types of activities offered, such as school visits to exhibition art galleries, educational services, quiz pamphlets featuring fun facts or knowledge of commonwealth nations’ culture, teaching packs, workshops and library services. The content of the activities covered wide range of commonwealth nations and communities. They are suitable for assisting students with GCSE History learning, as they used harmless language with easy vocabularies, with interesting illustrations and contents created for children in similar age groups.  

What I have learned   

This placement has provided me with not only practical work skills but also meaningful life experience. As a student who began with little background knowledge in either archival work or the topic of Commonwealth migration, I initially felt overwhelmed and uncertain. Thanks to the helping hands from Vicky, Sarah, and Joann, I gradually developed a clearer understanding of the research topic, along with the ability to navigate specific catalogues to find relevant materials, and it is truly cheerful when I can see my progress. I still remember Vicky’s words: “It’s human instinct to push away from daunting tasks but give yourself the courage to climb over the mountain and take the first step. That’s the hardest part of the process—once you’ve made that move, you’re already making progress.” Her encouragement stayed with me throughout the journey and continued to motivate me whenever I felt discouraged.  

 

Thank you so much to Elena for her hard work and her reflection on her placement!

 

The Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize celebrates and encourages student book collectors who are passionate about any type of book, printed, or manuscript material. It is open to any student studying at a London-based university who has a collection of printed and/or manuscript material focused on a cohesive theme.  

The winner will receive £600 as well as an allowance of £300 to purchase an item for UCL Special Collections. The prize will also include the opportunity to give a talk on your collection as part of the UCL Special Collections events programme.

Your collection should be based around a theme which has been deliberately assembled and that you intend to continue growing. Past shortlisted and finalist collection themes include post WWI Jewish experiences, transgender authors, and Arabic voices in science fiction and graphic novels.  

Your collection does not need to include items that are valuable, old, or historically important. Instead, your collection can include anything from comic books to postcards, 19th century novels to modern YA fiction. As long as it has a dedicated theme, you are welcome to apply! 

To apply, you must:

• Be a current undergraduate or postgraduate studying for a degree at a London-based university. Both part-time and full-time students are encouraged to apply. 

• Have a cohesive collection of at least 8 items.   

• Fill out our online application form by April 25th.  

• Shortlisted applicants will be asked to present their collection to the prize judges on May 19th. 

Below are several resources that can help you plan your application. However, please feel free to contact library.spec.coll.rarebooks@ucl.ac.uk with any specific questions you might have about the prize. 

To apply or to learn more about the eligibility criteria: 

• The Anthony Davis Book Prize webpage. 

 For advice on what a collection can look like: 

• How to be a student book collector (and apply for the Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize) 

• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize: Collecting with Intention 

• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize: Interview with LSE Library 

 Conversations with previous winners and finalists: 

• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize: Interview with Emma Treleaven (2023 winner) 

• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize: Books that built a zoo 

• Q&A with Erick Jackaman, 2021 Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize Runner Up  

Announcements of previous winners: 

• 2024 Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize Winners announced! 

• Winners of the 2023 Anthony Davis Student Book Collecting Prize 

• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize 2022: results announced 

• Announcing the winners of the 2021 Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize 

• Results announced for Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize 2020 

The New Curators Project is an annual programme run by UCL Special Collections. It offers 10 young adults in East London the chance to develop the skills and experience needed to start a career in the cultural heritage sector.

Update: applications are now closed, but you can register your interest to hear when we begin recruitment for The Curators Project 2026.

Previous applicants have gone on to work for organisations such as Toynbee Hall, Tate, The Roundhouse and UCL.  It is a friendly, fun way of learning about the cultural heritage field and taking your first steps towards a career in the sector without needing a degree.

What is Cultural Heritage?

The cultural heritage field is an area of work focused on preserving history and culture and making it available to the general public. Among other things, it includes:

Museums.
Arts organisations and charities.
Libraries and Archives.
Historic Buildings and heritage sites.
Archaeology.

What will the project entail?

Successful applicants will receive training from industry experts in key areas such as:

Carrying out historical research.
Using archives.
Creating an exhibition.
Running events and campaigns.
Communications in the cultural heritage sector.

Participants will gain real work experience by creating an exhibition that will tour Newham’s public libraries, using historical material from UCL Special Collections, the Archives and Local Studies Library in Stratford and beyond.

The programme also offers employment support such as advice on applying for jobs, writing applications and being interviewed.

Participants who attend all the workshops will receive up to £665.

Who can apply?

Applications are open to people who:

Are aged 18 to 24 at the time of making their application.
Are living, studying or working in Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.
Are not a university graduate or currently studying at university.
Have less than 6 months paid experience in the cultural heritage sector.

When and where is it happening?

Workshops will be ‘in person’ on Tuesday evenings from 5pm to 7pm, beginning on March 4 2025 and ending June 24 2025. There will also be three full day workshops on:

Friday 21 March
Friday 4 April
Friday 13 June

Workshops will take place at the UCL’s brand new East London campus:

UCL East
Marshgate
London
E20 2AF

Do applicants need to have any specific A Levels or GCSEs?

Absolutely not. We want to recruit participants who have a passion for local history, regardless of their qualifications.

How do I apply?

Update: applications are now closed, but you can register your interest to hear when we begin recruitment for The Curators Project 2026.

Delivered in partnership with Newham Heritage Month.

UCL Library Service’s annual exhibition for 2024, “‘I Planted a Seed’: Childhood, nature, and creativity”, has recently opened in the Main Library!  

This exhibition explores how children’s imaginations are inspired by nature in their storytelling, exploration and creative world. The exhibition starts with the classroom and how nature supports creative learning in children. It then moves on to examine children’s own creative output and how nature is reflected in music, dance, play and textiles.  

On display are items from the IOE Archives and the Folklore Society collection, as well as material from outside of Special Collections including the IOE Rare Books collection and the IOE Curriculum Resources collection.  

‘I Planted a Seed’ is located in the Main Library Stairwell and 1st floor. It is free and open to the public. External visitors can book a ticket on the exhibition webpage. You can also access the exhibition catalogue and digitized collection items online.  

Posted on behalf of Caroline Kimbell, Head of Commercial Digitisation:

In the aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic, UCL has contributed around 12,000 images of rare books and original documents from our Special Collections to a prestigious new online teaching resource from British Online Archives:  Pandemics, Society and Public Health 1517-1925 launched this month (April 2024).

UCL content from 6 named Special Collections, the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (SSEES), rare books from Stores, and the archive of Edwin Chadwick forms around a quarter of the new resource, alongside records from the National Archives, the British Library and London Metropolitan Archives.

Spurred by an all-too-understandable upsurge in research interest in pandemic history, the project focuses on primary sources relating to outbreaks of 4 diseases in British history – plague, cholera, smallpox and influenza. The academic call-to-arms for the project is summed up by editorial advisor Emeritus Professor Frank M Snowden of Yale: “Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning… To study them is to understand [a] society’s structure, its standard of living and its political priorities”.

The online resource starts with documents relating to the first state-mandated quarantine in England, in 1517, but the earliest UCL items in the collection is a 1559 edition of William Bullein’s A newe boke of phisicke called ye gouernment of health. The project ends with the Spanish Flu epidemic which followed the First World War, on which UCL contributes a Ministry of Health Report on the pandemic of influenza 1918-1919 and a 1920 typescript Report on mortality among industrial workers, in relation to the influenza epidemic. UCL sources reflect the university’s preeminent focus on medical history, the development and application of vaccinations, and UCL sources are strong in campaigning, statistical and investigative works. Named Special Collections included in the selection include the Hume and Lansdowne Tracts, London History, Mocatta and Ogden collections, and material from our Medical History, Rare Books and SSEES collections are also included.

The main UCL archive represented is that of Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890), who began his career as secretary to UCL spritual founder Jeremy Bentham and was a lifelong campaigner for public health. He believed strongly that poverty was often the result of poor health, and poor health in turn was the result of poor living and working conditions, in particular sanitation. His lifelong campaigns, many focused on cholera, resulted in the passing of the first Public Health Act in 1848 and the establishment of the Board of Health, which he chaired until 1854. This digitisation programme includes selected reports, memos, statistics and 120 letters from his collection, with correspondents including Florence Nightingale, Lord Palmerstone and agriculturalist Philip Pusey.

The online collection is available now, and UCL library members will have access to the entire collection, which groups source materials into five themes: economics and disease, control measures, international relations, medicine and vaccination and public responses.

If you are a member of UCL Libraries, the new resource can be accessed by visiting our online Databases page and searching for ‘British Online Archives’. 

Leah Johnston, Cataloguing Archivist (Records), shares details of a newly catalogued collection of student ephemera.

The Student Ephemera collection is a curated collection of manuscripts, publications, artwork, photographs, and objects, relating to the lives of UCL students, the Student Union, and members of UCL staff. The material dates from 1828 to 2002.

The collection was accumulated by UCL alum Dr Mark Curtin and donated to the Student Union, who in turn have deposited the material with UCL College Archives. Over the past year the collection has been fully catalogued and is now all available to view online.

The items within the collection are a representation of student life that complements and expands upon the institutional records held in the College Archive. It consists of a wide range of material, such as correspondence, programmes, tickets, newspaper clippings, leaflets, books, periodicals, photographs, and artwork. The collection also contains a significant number of objects including academic and sporting medals, and both UCL and Student Union branded memorabilia. A small number of items relating to the history of the university are also included, such as correspondence relating to its establishment, centenary publications, commemorative objects, and artwork.

The first series in the collection consists of manuscripts and records and contains items such as correspondence to and from students and staff, theatre and music production programmes, ephemera related to students’ sport, music and social events, newspaper clippings, a medical student’s notebook, and a University College Hospital [UCH] Socialist Society poster.

Series two in the collection consists of publications either written by, or related to, past students and staff. There are also a couple of books which relate to the history of the university, along with some university produced publications. A small sub-series of articles taken from Pi Magazine, which were previously framed, are also included.

The third series comprises photographs and artwork related to UCL, the Student Union, and UCL students and staff. Included are some of the earliest photographs of the Wilkins building, portraits of Student Union presidents and officers, photographs of sports teams, plus various student association performances and events.

The remainder of the collection includes a large series of academic, sporting, commemorative and military medals, and a small series of objects. Included is a Botany Laboratory microscope, a silver cup awarded for first place in the UCH Athletic Club pole jump, a variety of UCL and SU branded memorabilia, such as a car bumper badge, silk tie, union badges and miniature ceramic models. One particularly interesting object in this final series is a Royal Doulton tyg cup which was awarded for first place in the UCH Athletic Club’s ¼ mile handicap race (pictured below). A tyg is a drinking vessel with three or more handles and is traditionally used for sharing a celebratory drink!

A considerable amount of the collection has formed part of the current Octagon Gallery exhibition, ‘Generation UCL’, which explores the lives of UCL students over two centuries and the foundational part they play to the story of the university. Mounted in the run up to UCL’s bicentenary celebrations in 2026, the exhibition also marks 130 years of Student’s Union UCL.

If you would like to further explore the collection it can now be viewed online at https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/ and by typing ‘Student Ephemera Collection’ into the search bar.

To make an appointment to view the records, or for any queries regarding the collection or the catalogue, please contact us at spec.coll@ucl.ac.uk.

To read more about the Generation UCL exhibition visit the exhibition project page.

By Martin Woodward, Cataloguing Archivist, Lester Papers

The Project to catalogue the Papers of Anthony Lester, Lord Lester of Herne Hill (1936-2020) is now complete. Lester was an eminent barrister (QC), Special Adviser to Labour Home Secretary Roy Jenkins in the 1970s, and for twenty-five years a Liberal Democrat peer. During his time in the Lords, Lester’s Private Member’s Bills and tireless political work on behalf of human rights, equality and free speech helped bring about the Human Rights Act 1998, the Civil Partnership Act 2004, the Equality Act 2010, and the Defamation Act 2013.

Lester held visiting professorships at UCL, and we are very pleased that the Lester Papers are now available for research at UCL Special Collections.

There were two main elements to the project: appraisal and cataloguing. A careful process of appraisal has seen the reduction of an original deposit of 59 banker’s boxes of files to thirty smaller archive boxes of papers. The priorities during appraisal were to retain anything written by Lester, such as publications and correspondence, and records of House of Lords Written Answers where Lester asked the question. Accompanying documents, such as official publications, reports, and policy statements, in which Lester had no involvement, were generally not retained.

 

This process led to three main classes of material for cataloguing.

The first of these was Lester’s Written Answers, principally in the form of an apparently comprehensive chronological run of six files of Lester’s questions to Government Ministers covering the years 1993-2005, and a scattering of similar records elsewhere. One cannot fail to be amazed at the sheer number of questions put by Lester in the House of Lords during this period.

The second category of material was Lester’s publications: book chapters, articles, speeches, lectures, letters to the press, and so on. Here also there was a very carefully arranged chronological run of papers by Lester in nine files covering the years 1964-2011 (the index lists 335 items). The publications demonstrate all Lester’s main concerns in Parliament: race relations, human rights, equality, constitutional matters, Northern Ireland, European law, and free speech. Lester’s written output is immense, as is the depth of his legal knowledge. There are also several other files of Lester’s articles and speeches, which are recorded separately in the catalogue. Lester’s Jewish origins are often reflected in his writings, such as when he refers to his father’s witnessing the activities of Sir Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts in the East End of London in the 1930s.

 

The third category was the subject files (such as papers on international Human Rights), reduced by appraisal largely to Lester’s own correspondence. Here again there was an original alphabetical subject file classification between LESTER/1 (Blasphemy) and LESTER/149 (Venice Commission), which has been followed in the online catalogue; thereafter the papers are not arranged in any recognisable order. The records of Lord Lester’s Office are in general extremely well kept. The subject files illustrate Lester’s work on behalf of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the early 1980s and the Liberal Democrats in the 1990s, and (principally) his political interests in the House of Lords between 1993 and 2015. The files contain letters, amongst many others, from Tony and Cherie Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Jack Straw, Shirley Williams, and Lord Scarman. Some of the correspondence is more personal in nature, such as a letter from Lester to Mohamed Al Fayed in 1994, thanking him for allowing Lester and his wife, Katya, to stay at Al Fayed’s Scottish estate.

The correspondence is notable for the evident warmth and respect in which Lester was held by his many contacts in the legal profession, politics and the media.

Nor is humour lacking: a letter from the Parliamentary Group for World Government addressed to ‘Lord Anthony Leicester’ prompted the response: ‘Incidentally you might wish to note the spelling of my name because the Earl of Leicester would be upset’. Again, when Lester was asked his name and professional background by an interviewer in 2007 he replied: ‘Well, that’s not so easy because I changed my name when I became a member of the old people’s home but I was born Anthony Lester and I am now Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC’. And then there are the doodles. There is a scattering of these throughout the papers.

 

 

Government legislation on equality and human rights has produced enormous social change in this country since the Roy Jenkins era. It is my belief that the Lester archive will be a very important resource in future in understanding how that change occurred. The catalogue is available on our archives catalogue

 

 

On the 25^th September a new exhibition, ‘Generation UCL: 200 Years of Student Life in London’, opened in UCL’s Octagon Gallery. The exhibition explores two centuries of student life at UCL, placing them at the centre of the university’s history. Mounted in anticipation of UCL’s bicentenary celebrations in 2026, it also marks 130 years of Students’ Union UCL, one of the largest student-led organisations in the world. Material has been contributed by UCL Special Collections, UCL Museums, Students’ Union UCL, and UCL alumni.

The exhibition is part of the wider Generation UCL research project, which looks to explore the lives of UCL students and present them as the real ‘founders’ of the university.

Over the past 9 months, members of the Special Collections team have been working alongside Professor Georgina Brewis and Dr Sam Blaxland, of the Generation UCL team, to select and prepare material for display. Fifty of the items featured in the exhibition are taken from the University College and IOE archive collections, making it one of the largest Special Collections exhibitions in recent years.

Items included range from official UCL publications and records, such as student record cards, files and calendars, to union and society magazines and posters. Thanks to a recent donation by Students’ Union UCL of the collection of UCL alum, Professor Mark Curtin, we have had the opportunity to display a number of objects too. These include a 1940s blazer and silk scarf worn by Geography student Enid Sampson, a UCL Botany department microscope, academic medals and union badges.

Other objects were uncovered in the process of putting together the initial longlist. A visit to the College Archives silver store back in April resulted in the discovery of a full set of 1950s cutlery (including fish knife!) that had been used by students at Bentham Hall.

With a vast amount of material to choose from the process of shortlisting was tough! However, some clever design on the part of Polytechnic studio meant that we have also been able to display material that would otherwise have been left out. The two arches that lead into the gallery have now been covered in digitised copies of publications, posters, adverts, and invitations, which were created for, or by, UCL students. If you are in the space, see if you can spot a Student’s Guide to Computers from 1996, an advert for a 1960s Pink Floyd gig and a 1981 Student Survival guide with the title ‘Don’t panic: it’s too late anyway!’.

The exhibition is open now until August 2024 and is free for all to attend. For more information about the creation of the exhibition visit the exhibition project page.

In our previous blog post we introduced our project to catalogue the archive of Moses Gaster, and looked at some of the letters sent to Gaster on topics as diverse as Sunday trading and Hebrew braille. In the second of our two posts relating to the project, Gaster Project Cataloguer Israel Sandman discusses Gaster’s charitable activities.

From the Gaster Archives: A Glimpse into Moses Gaster’s Charity Activities

By Dr Israel M. Sandman, Gaster Project Cataloguer

Moses Gaster was a multifaceted person. He was the chief rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London, and, by extension, of all Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ congregations under the British Empire. He was a polymath academic scholar, with strong focuses on comparative folklore and linguistics. He was a key figure in the emergence of modern Zionism. And he was a go-to person for Jews worldwide, for help with their various needs and wants.

Charity Appeals to Gaster:

Daily, Moses Gaster received multiple charity appeals, some in the post, and some in person during his reception hours. While he donated from his personal funds to Jewish and other worthy causes, as seen in receipts, lists of donors, and gentle reminders to honour his pledges, what he could do from his own funds was a mere drop in the ocean of need.

Royal Asiatic Society
22, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
346
March 15, 1900
Received from Dr. Gaster the sum of One Guinea as a donation to the Medical Fund.
£1-1-0
[Signed] Secretary

Charitable Funds on a Community Level:

Addressing the vast needs faced by people in fincial hardship required charitable funds on a community level. Charitable funds established in the Jewish community enabled Gaster to help the Jewish individuals and worthy institutions that turned to him from Palestine, North Africa, elsewhere in the Near East, India, West Indies, Eastern and Central Europe, the East End of London, the length and breadth of Britain, and elsewhere. We shall examine two such funds, one of which was well established, and another of which was an ad-hoc fund set up to meet a specific need.

Case 1: Gaster Helps S. Edelstein via the Board of Guardians of the Poor of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue:

Shalom Edelstein was a Romanian Jew residing in London’s East End, which at the turn from the 19^th to the 20^th century was the first place of settlement for many Jews from Central and Eastern Europe. Reading between the lines of Edelstein’s 21 March 1899 postcard to Gaster, written in ornate Hebrew full of allusions to classical Jewish literature, and in which he mentions his ill health, one gets the impression that Edelstein was more a man of the mind than a man of the body, and that he shared interests with his “landsman” Gaster.

London 21/4/99 כבוד הרב החכם הבלשן סופר מהיר בלשונות החיות, רב ודרשן לעדת הפורטוגעזים, בעיר הבירה לונדן, והמדינה וע”א כש”ת מו[“]ה ד.ר. גאשטער נ”י. הנני בזה לכתוב למ”כ את רשומתי, כמו שבקש מאותי, אולי יאבה לכבדני במכתבו, ומפני כי מעת ראיתי פני כ”מ, לא נתחדש שום דבר, – רק שאני חלש מאד, ואנני בקו הבריאה, עד כי בכבדות אוכל לקום ממשכבי, – לכן אקצר ואומר שלום. והנני מוקירו ומכבדו כערכו הרם. פ”ש, כשמי, – שלום הן תוי ונוי S. Edelstein 17 Winterton St. Commercial Road, E.

London 21/4/99 His honour, rabbi, sage, linguist, speedy scribe in living languages, rabbi and preacher to the congregation of Portuguese [Jews] in the capital city London and the [entire] country, and furthermore [possessor of] the ‘crown of Torah’, our Master Rabbi Dr Gaster, may his lamp shine! I am hereby writing my address [Hebrew: רשומתי or רשימתי] to his honour, as requested by him. Perchance he will desire to honour me with a letter? On account of the fact that since I have seen his honour’s face, nothing new has occurred – aside from my being very weak: I am not keeping in good health, so much so that it is only with difficulty that I can arise from my couch – I will therefore be brief, and say ‘farewell’ [Hebrew: Shalom]. I hereby hold him precious and honour him, in keeping with his lofty worthiness, Greetings of Shalom, in keeping with my name, Shalom [Peace], being my mark and my charm S. Edelstein 17 Winterton St. Commercial Road, E.

[Image, Transcription, and Translation of S. Edelstein’s 21 March 1899 Mostly Hebrew Postcard to Gaster. UCL Special Collections, Gaster Archive, GASTER/9/1. Formerly file 117, item 9]

Multiple Communications Between Edelstein and Gaster:

This was not their first communication. In the postcard, Edelstein refers to their having had a face-to-face meeting; and he notes that Gaster had asked him for his reshuma / רשומה [or: reshima / רשימה], presumably meaning his address. Presumably, this indicates that Edelstein had asked Gaster for assistance; and that Gaster was going to try and help him. Three days later, on 24 April 1899, Edelstein sent another postcard to Gaster, this one in Romanian. Apparently, to help Edelstein, Gaster turned to the charity board of the synagogue of which he was rabbi, the Board of Guardians of the Poor of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.

The Board of Guardians’ Approval:

Nine days later, on the 3^rd of May, Gaster received a memo from the Board of Guardians. They would cover Edelstein’s train fare from London to Liverpool, and his boat fare from Liverpool to New York. However, that cost £5, and they did not have anything additional to offer Edelstein. Although that would mean that Edelstein would arrive penniless in New York, the Board had reason to believe that Edelstein would nonetheless be admitted to the USA. It seems that Edelstein was permitted to enter the United States, for we have a long letter, in Romanian, which he sent to Gaster from New York. Towards the end of that letter, he updates Gaster about a certain D. Gottheil. The Gaster Archive contains letters to Gaster from a Professor Richard Gottheil, relevant to the writing of Jewish Encyclopedia articles and possibly to Zionism; but it is unclear whether there is a link from Richard to D. Gottheil.

London May 3^rd 1899

Dear Dr. Gaster,
re – S. Edelstein
With difficulty I succeeded in securing a passage for this man per “Tonfariro” which will sail from Liverpool on Saturday next. The fare came to £5 which includes railway fare to Liverpool so that I have nothing to hand over to the man. I am informed that by this line it is not necessary for him to have a certain sum of money in his pocket on arrival in New York.
Yours faithfully,
J.Piza

The Board
would do nothing
for Haham Abohab
J.P.

[UCL Special Collections, Gaster Archive, GASTER/9/1. Formerly file 118/11]

The Limitations of Working Through the Board of Guardians of the Poor:

In addition to the limits of what the Board felt capable of doing for Edelstein, at the end of their memo, the chairman adds an apologetic side note. He mentions that the Board did not approve a different request, for funding for a certain Hakham (rabbi/sage) Abohab. It is noteworthy that Edelstein was a Central / Eastern European Jew, while the name Abohab indicates a Jew from the Islamic countries. Although the Spanish and Portuguese tradition is more aligned with the traditions of the Islamicate Jews, the Spanish and Portuguese Board approved Edelstein’s request, not Abohab’s. This seems to indicate an objectivity on the part of the Board. It appears that the reason for the Board’s limits in giving was the fact that the Synagogue was experiencing financial difficulties; and in order for Gaster to carry out his wide range and full scale of charitable activities, he needed additional sources of funding, beyond those available through his own congregation

London E.C., 29th March 5660 1900

Dear Sir,
The Gentlemen of the Mahamad [executive committee] invite your attention to the Statements of Accounts of the Synagogue, and the Report of same for the year 1899, which have been circulated amongst the Yehidim [members] of the Congregation, & I have particularly to point out that the result of the year’s working shews a deficit of £595.-, and that the Elders have been compelled to sell out Capital Stock to meet this & other deficiencies accrued since 1895, amounting in the aggregate to £1608.-
This position, which is a very serious one, was duly considered by the Elders at their recent Annual Meeting, and they requested the Mahamad to take such steps as they might think necessary, to call attention, in the first instance  …

 

The Ad Hoc Fund for “Our Poor Roumanian Brethren”:

The Crisis of Romanian Jewry:

One additional source of charity funds, independent of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue and its Board of Guardians, is an ad hoc fund that Gaster seems to have created himself. The fund is for ‘our poor Roumanian Brethren’, as described in Benjamin Ritter’s letter to Gaster, accompanying a cheque from a collection taken up in Vine Court Synagogue. At this juncture (around 1900), Romanian Jews were experiencing an unusual level of persecution, and were seeking to leave Romania. From all directions, individuals and institutions were turning to Gaster for solutions and financial help; and Gaster did respond.

The Vine Court Synagogue:

The Vine Court Synagogue was a congregation of Eastern European Jews, in the Whitechapel section of London’s East End. As noted, the East End was the first place of settlement for many Eastern European Jews. Thus, this congregation would have had particular sympathy for the Romanian Jews, as did Gaster, who was a Romanian Jew, and who received many charity appeals from the community of his origin. Gaster’s relationship with the Eastern European immigrant Jews of the East End came to good use in his finding the best ways to help his Romanian brethren.

53 Parkholme Rd
Dear Dr Gaster
I am forwarding you a cheque for 23/- which I have collected at a meeting of the Vine Court Synagogue for our poor Roumanian Brethren. I have also paid 7/- for two weeks rent for a family. I have also arranged for the rent to be paid until she is sent away. I hope that will meet with your approval.
I remain
Yours faithfully
B Ritter

The Blaustein (Bluestein) Family and their Relocation from Romania to London:

Another Romanian Jewish party helped through Gaster’s efforts is the Blaustein (Bluestein) family. (The surname seems to have been anglicised from Blaustein to Bluestein.) While it would take further research to try to discover the source of the funds Gaster used to help them, and to piece together this family’s full story and the relationship between all the family members, the partial story that emerges from the documents below is worthwhile in and of itself.

Mrs. Ch. Bluestein was a Romanian Jewish widow. One of her sons had a disability. Gaster had helped the family, and now they were established in London. The son with the disability was gainfully employed. Another son, who was to be married, ‘also earns a nice living’. Mrs Bluestein writes to invite the Gasters to the wedding, and to express her gratitude to Moses Gaster.

2 Virginia Place
Lower Chapman Str.
Commercail [sic] Rd E
London March 20 1900
Reverand [sic] Sir

I beg to enclose your invite for my son’s wedding. I hope you will come, as you was always a good friend to me when in need so I am happy to let you know of my joy thank God my son is doing a respectable match – and I hope you will live to see joy by your dear children in happiness with your dear wife I am the widow whom you helped to bring over the crippled son from Bucherst, he is grateful to you as he thank God earns £2 – 0 – – weekly – and is quite happy – and my son that is to be married also earns a nice living. We often bless you for everything & I am pleased to tell you of my joy as well as I did my trouble. With best respect, yours gratefully,

Mrs Bluestein

Printed Wedding Invitation Addressed to the Gasters, Sent by Mrs Ch. Bluestein. The Hebrew line at the top is from the prophecy of restoration in Jerimiah 33:11, and is used in the Jewish wedding liturgy: ‘A voice of joy and a voice of gladness, a groom’s voice and a bride’s voice’.

In Summary

Gaster was heavily involved in charity work, on a scale that required communal funding. Although the Board of Guardians of the Poor of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Gaster’s congregation, provided funding for those beyond their own community, they were too financially limited to finance the full scope of Gaster’s work. Thus, we see that Gaster raised charity funds elsewhere, too. One example of this is Gaster’s ad hoc fundraising network on behalf of Romanian Jewry, which at the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century was undergoing strong persecution. We see how Gaster met this challenge, and we see the sweet fruit of his labour.

Blog post by Israel M. Sandman

Leah Johnston, Cataloguing Archivist (Records), shares details of the Galton Laboratory archive.

Content warning: This blog includes details of records and objects that relate to racist, ableist and classist beliefs. The ideas within this material do not reflect the current views of UCL.

 

The Galton Laboratory Records form a collection of archives recording parts of the laboratory’s history, from its creation in 1904, up to the late 1990s. Much of the material was donated to UCL Special Collections in 2011, with some smaller accessions added since then. Over the past year the collection has been fully catalogued and is now all available to view online.

The origins of the Galton Laboratory at UCL can be traced back to 1904 when Francis Galton established the Eugenics Record Office in Gower Street, Bloomsbury. Although the laboratory was not officially part of the university at that time, a connection was formed with Galton endowing UCL with an annual £500 Fellowship of National Eugenics. In 1906 Professor Karl Pearson took over Directorship of the Eugenics Record Office, while still informally working alongside Galton. After Galton’s death in 1911, the residue of his estate was bequeathed to the university, under the condition that it was used to establish a Chair of Eugenics, whose role would be to direct research into ‘those causes under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or morally’.

This early history of the laboratory is recorded in a series of administrative papers within the collection. Included is early correspondence between Galton, Pearson and P J Hartog (the then Academic Registrar), regarding their proposed scheme for a laboratory at the university, plus copies of Galton’s will and related planning for the establishment of a Chair of Eugenics. While these files include high level planning, other papers record more practical decisions, such as plans for the proposed new building. Below is an estimate for blinds to be supplied by James Shoolbred & Co. Ltd, including a small sample of green cloth.

Other series include papers accumulated by the laboratory, records of laboratory publications (such as the Annals of Eugenics, The Treasury of Human Inheritance and Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs), and research working papers.

The remaining series consist of photographs, artwork, audio-visual material, and objects.

Artwork in the collection includes portraits of individuals connected either to Galton, or to the laboratory, alongside early watercolours of scientific specimens and samples. It appears from related annotations that they were either displayed in the laboratory or were used in their publications.

A series of photographs are similarly varied and were also used in publications, displayed in the laboratory, or kept as reference material. Included below is an image of Francis Galton seated on his porch, with his servant standing behind him and holding his pet Pekingese puppy.

This is contrasted against a more recent addition to the collection, which is one of three photographs showing women working in the laboratory in the early 1900s.

Alongside other UCL Library and Culture collections, the Galton Laboratory Records help to form a fuller record of the history of the laboratory and in turn, its legacy at UCL. If you would like to further explore the collection it can now be viewed on our online archives catalogue and by typing ‘Galton Laboratory Records’ into the search bar.

To make an appointment to view the records, or for any queries regarding the collection or the catalogue, please contact us at spec.coll@ucl.ac.uk.