Links to other archives and sources
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Not all Oxford archives have their own web-site so these pages are designed to give basic information about contacting archives, opening hours, conditions of access, and the things you will and won’t find in each repository. Just click on the name that you need, and you should be linked to the individual page for that archive. There may be another link from that page to the college’s or institution’s own web-site. If a college is not listed, it probably means that its archive is either temporarily unavailable, that the page is in preparation, or that there are no collections likely to be of interest yet to external researchers. If you have problems finding the information you require, please contact OAC on oac@chch.ox.ac.uk.
The Oxford Archivists’ Consortium (OAC) was set up in 2001 to provide a support network for all those working in archives in the city. We hope that these pages will answer any questions you have about archives in Oxford but if the answer you are looking for evades you, please contact OAC and we should be able to point you in the right direction.
The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, was founded by Henry VI and Henry Chichele (fellow of New College and Archbishop of Canterbury) on 20 May 1438. The Statutes provided for the Warden and forty fellows - all to take Holy Orders; twenty-four to study arts, philosophy and theology; and sixteen to study civil or canon law. Today the College is primarily an academic research institution at the University of Oxford, having strong ties to the public domain. Traditionally, there are no undergraduate members.
Address: The Librarian in Charge All Souls College High Street Oxford OX1 4AL
Phone: 01865 279379 E-mail: codrington.library@all-souls.ox.ac.uk Web: www.all-souls.ox.ac.uk/library
Balliol College is one of the three colleges which claim to be the earliest in Oxford. The foundation date is traditionally reckoned as 1263.
Enquiries should be addressed to Anna Sander, Lonsdale Curator. The Fellow Archivist is Dr John Jones.
Address: The Lonsdale Curator Balliol College Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BJ
Fax: 01865 277803 E-mail: archivist@balliol.ox.ac.uk Web: www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/history History: J Jones, Balliol College: a history, (1997)
The foundation stone of Brasenose College was laid in 1509 and the College received its charter in 1512. The founders were William Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton, a lawyer and the first lay founder of a college in Oxford or Cambridge. Both were from the north west, and the College has retained strong links with Cheshire and Lancashire throughout its history. Before the foundation of the College part of the site was occupied by one of the mediaeval Oxford halls. Brasenose Hall was in existence by at least 1270, and probably took its name from a 'brasen nose', a bronze door knocker in the shape of a nose.
The first buildings of Brasenose College are still to be seen in the Tower and lower two stories of Old Quad; the third storey was added in the early seventeenth century. The Library and Chapel were built between 1656 and 1666, making the Chapel one of the very few ecclesiastical buildings to be started in England during the Commonwealth period. New Quad, which extended the College to the High Street, was built between 1880 and 1911. The last major addition to the main College site was built in 1960-1961.
Like most long standing institutions Brasenose has undergone many changes of emphasis and fortune. In the early seventeenth century it had a Puritan reputation, but in the Civil War it was, like the rest of the University, firmly royalist. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 it was Jacobite, supporting the deposed line of James II. The College attracted wealthy benefactors over the years, and by the eighteenth century had the reputation of being one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford; however, much of the wealth rested on agricultural estates, the value of which declined sharply during the nineteenth century. In the late 1700s Brasenose became the college of the country gentry, the place where the sons of gentlemen got a modicum of education and did a great deal of gambling, horse racing and fox hunting. In the nineteenth century it acquired a great sporting reputation, rowing head of the river for many years and at one stage providing no fewer than eight members of the University cricket team.
Many writers have been at Brasenose, the earliest including John Foxe (1516-1587), who wrote 'Foxe's Book of Martyrs', and Robert Burton (1577-1640), author of The Anatomy of Melancholy. Thomas Traherne (?1637-1674), the mystical poet, Richard Barham (1788-1845), of The Ingoldsby Legends, Walter Pater (1839-1894), a key figure in the history of the aesthetic movement, and the novelists John Buchan (1875-1940), William Golding (1911-1993) and JG Farrell (1935-1979) were members of the College.
NB. The Archivist is only in college on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Address: The Archivist Brasenose College Oxford OX1 4AJ
Phone: 01865 277826 E-mail: archives@brasenose.oxford.ac.uk Web: www.bnc.ox.ac.uk/history/index.html History: F Madan (ed.), Brasenose Quatercentenary Monographs, (1909); A new history is currently in preparation
Campion Hall was founded as Clarke’s Hall in 1896 by the Society of Jesus. It was renamed Campion Hall in 1918. Its building is the only example of the work of Edwin Lutyens in Oxford.
Campion Hall has a small archive, containing material from the history of the Private Hall and its Jesuit community since its foundation in 1896. Its major holding consists in the vast majority of the extant non-epistolary prose of Gerard M Hopkins, the Jesuit poet. There are also plans for the Hall's current building, drawn up by Edwin Lutyens. A catalogue of the art works collected for the Hall, principally by Martin D'Arcy (Master 1933-1945), is available on request.
Address: Philip Endean The Archivist Campion Hall Brewer Street Oxford OX1 1QS
E-mail: philip.endean@campion.ox.ac.uk Web: www.campion.ox.ac.uk
Christ Church was founded initially by Thomas Wolsey in 1525 as Cardinal College on the site of St Frideswide’s Priory and Canterbury College. After Wolsey’s fall from grace in 1529, the monarch established King Henry VIII’s College and then, in 1546, Christ Church as both a college of the University and the cathedral for the diocese of Oxford. It is the largest of the Oxford colleges, and its site includes the famous Meadow which leads down to the river. Famous alumni include13 Prime Ministers, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Robert Burton, author of Anatomy of Melancholy, John Locke, and WH Auden.
The archives for Christ Church are extensive and rich, and include the papers of the Dean and Chapter. Unusually, there are excellent records of undergraduate study in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and good runs of account books. Estate records are extensive as Christ Church had an interest in over 180 parishes in England and Wales. There are very few records of Cardinal College, fewer still for King Henry VIII’s College, and none for Canterbury College. The medieval deeds of the Christ Church’s property were deposited in the Bodleian Library in 1927 and are listed in N Denholm-Young’s Cartulary of the Medieval Archives of Christ Church.
NB. Diocesan records, including ordinations and faculties, are kept at the Oxfordshire Record Office (see Links).
Christ Church archives are open Monday - Friday, 9am - 12 noon, and 2pm - 4pm
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The Christ Church archives will be closed
for at least twelve months from the end of June 2007. The Archivist will
still be in post and will endeavour to answer as many enquiries as
possible without the benefit of original source material. The
papers of Hugh Trevor-Roper, Lord Dacre, will still be available for
readers. It is hoped that the archive will once again be available
from the beginning of the 2008/9 academic year, but up-to-date
information will be posted on this site.
Address: Judith Curthoys The Archivist Christ Church Oxford OX1 1DP
Phone: 01865 276171 E-mail: archives@chch.ox.ac.uk Web: www.chch.ox.ac.uk/modules/standard/viewpage.asp?id=241 History: HL Thompson, Christ Church, (1900); EGW Bill, Education at Christ Church, Oxford, 1660 - 1800, (1988; EGW Bill and J.F.A. Mason, Christ Church and reform, 1850 - 1867, (1970 ); D Fletcher, The emergence of estate maps: Christ Church, Oxford, 1600 - 1840, (1995); WG Hiscock, A Christ Church Miscellany, (1946)
Corpus Christi College was founded in 1517 by Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, for twenty fellows and twenty scholars, principally from the counties and dioceses with which he had associations, e.g. owned land or had been bishop (Bath and Wells, Exeter, Durham, and Winchester). The number of places was increased following university reform in the 1850s.
The archives comprise administrative records of the college, its estates, and papers created by a few members. Records of the college proper begin with deeds of the site of the college 1513, accounts 1521, and decisions of the governing body 1748. Records of college estates include deeds, surveys, court rolls and maps, and date from the thirteenth century onwards. The admissions of fellows and scholars are recorded from 1517 but there was no official record of commoners until c.1850.
NB. The Archivist is only in Corpus Christi College on Monday and Tuesday.
Address: Julian Reid The Archivist Corpus Christi College Oxford OX1 4JF
Phone: 01865 276717 E-mail: archives@ccc.ox.ac.uk Web: www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/library/library.htm History: PA Hunt and NA Flanagan, Corpus Christi College Oxford Biographical Register, 1880-1974 (1988); A Nockels, Corpus Christi College Oxford: supplement to the Biographical Register 1974-1991, (1992)
Exeter College was founded in 1314 by Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter. The founder's intention was to provide an education for a limited number of men from the diocese of Exeter (Devon and Cornwall) in order to provide them with an initial training for the priesthood. The area of recruitment was enlarged in the fifteenth century to cover the other south-western counties and the College was substantially re-endowed by Sir William Petre in the late sixteenth century. It maintained a strong connection with the West Country until the mid nineteenth century and a vestigial connection until today. The earliest college building, Palmer's Tower, dates from the mid fifteenth century, and the remaining buildings range from the early seventeenth century, including the fine hall, to the twentieth century.
The archives include the deeds by which the present site was put together, including some from the mid thirteenth century, predating the foundation; account rolls (a broken series for the later middle ages) and account books (virtually continuous from the mid sixteenth century); the minutes of governing body decisions from the mid sixteenth century to the present; copies of successive versions of the statutes from the fourteenth century onwards; deeds relating to college property, especially in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Cornwall; and many miscellaneous papers relating to undergraduate affairs, including the minutes of clubs and societies. There is a typescript handlist of the archives, copies of which are kept on open shelves in Duke Humfrey's Library(Bodleian Library) , and in the College.
Address: Dr John Maddicott Fellow Archivist Exeter College Oxford OX1 3DP
Phone: 01865 279600 E-mail: john.maddicott@exeter.ox.ac.uk Web: www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/index.htm History: CW Boase, Register of Exeter College, Oxford, (2nd ed., 1894) WK Stride, Exeter College, (1900)
Harris Manchester College was founded in Manchester as Manchester Academy in 1786 by English Presbyterians. It was one of the last of a long line of "dissenting academies" established after the Restoration to provide higher education for Nonconformists, who were denied degrees from the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge by religious tests. The principle of religious liberty was fundamental to the new foundation, which was to be open to 'young men of every religious denomination, from whom no test, or confession of faith' would be required. Both lay and divinity students would be enrolled. The College came to Oxford in 1889 and opened its new buildings designed by Thomas Worthington in 1893, housing its students, as now, in the seventeenth-century houses in Holywell Street. The College was granted Permanent Private Hall status in 1990. In 1996 Her Majesty the Queen gave her approval to a new royal charter for the College, granting it full college status within the University. Today the College admits mature students to read for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and is the only college in UK Higher Education dedicated solely to the education men and women mature students.
Address: The Librarian Harris Manchester College Oxford OX1 3TD
Phone: 01865 271016 E-mail: librarian@hmc.ox.ac.uk Web: www.hmc.ox.ac.uk/collegelibrary.html
The College was founded by royal charter in 1571, the only college to be founded in Oxford in the reign of Elizabeth I. It was granted the privileges, site and buildings of a much older academic establishment, White Hall. Its principal function was the education of clergymen, and until the end of the 19th century its character was predominantly Welsh.
The royal foundation charter of 1571is the oldest record relating to the affairs of the College. Series of administrative records do not begin until the 1630s. Both bursars’ accounts and buttery books survive, though with gaps, from this decade; they are useful sources for tracing College members as well as more generally for the College’s history.
There are substantial records of the College’s estates in England and Wales, notably in Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Glamorgan. The records of estates which have been sold have in most cases been transferred to the relevant local authority record office to ease access by local historians.
The College’s best-known alumnus was TE Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1935). The College holds a copy of his thesis on Crusader Castles. Another was the popular historian, John Richard Green (1837-83); some of his private papers are in the archive.
The College’s important collection of literary manuscripts, which includes the Red Book of Hergest, one of the most important Welsh manuscripts of the Middle Ages, is held at the Bodleian Library.
The archivist works one day a week; access can only be arranged by prior appointment. Limited enquiries by post or e-mail are welcomed.
Address: Ms Rosemary Dunhill The Archivist Jesus College Oxford OX1 3DW
Phone: 01865 279761 E-mail: rosemary.dunhill@jesus.ox.ac.uk Web: www.jesus.ox.ac.uk/history/
After the death of the Revd John Keble, one-time Professor of Poetry and the vicar of Hursley from 1836 to 1866, his friends collected money to found a college in his memory. The result is Keble College, founded by Royal Charter on 6 June 1870. Its ideal was to allow ‘gentlemen wishing to live economically’ access to Oxford, and was viewed by some contemporaries as a seminary for High Church ordinands. However, Edward Stuart Talbot, its first Warden, from the very beginning encouraged a wider curriculum, and it has been said that the college’s reputation as an open, friendly, egalitarian and supportive community owes much to his principles.
The architecture of Keble College has always attracted considerable attention. Designed by William Butterfield, a difficult man of decided aesthetic and theological views, the original buildings of the college are now recognized as a triumph of Victorian Gothic. Recent additions to the college, such as the Arco building and the Sloane Robinson building, have won prizes for their own merits as well as blending in with Butterfield’s masterpiece.
Among the records of Keble College held here are minutes of the meetings of the Council from 1870 to 1950 which not only tell of how the college was run, but also include information on financial matters and on freshmen; a good series of accounts and ledgers; minutes of the Boat Club from 1870 to 1956, etc.
One collection of international importance held at Keble College is that relating to John Keble, father of the Oxford Movement. The papers held here include his letters to John Henry Newman, 1829-1863; his manuscripts of poems that became ‘The Christian Year’; and his papers on the lives of Richard Hooker, Anglican divine and Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man.
The College Archives also hold papers for other leaders of the Oxford Movement, such as EB Pusey and HP Liddon.
Please note that the archives of the College are not yet listed in detail. While the Archivist will offer every assistance he cannot be held responsible for drawing visitors' attention to every available item, printed or documentary, on a specific subject.
NB. The Archivist is only in college on Thursdays and Fridays
Address: Mr Robert Petre The Archivist Keble College Oxford OX1 3PG
Phone: 01865 272797 E-mail: archives@keble.ox.ac.uk Web: www.keble.ox.ac.uk
The Delegacy for Extension Studies was given a permanent home in Oxford -Rewley House in Wellington Square - in1927. In 1971 the Delegacy became a University Department and in 1982, a generous benefaction from the WK Kellogg Foundation, enabled the Department to develop as a major centre for continuing education in Britain. The Department is the only Kellogg Center for Continuing Education outside the United States. This designation underlines the very strong international links which the Department has built up over the years.
In recognition of the growing importance of the work of the Department, the University approved its incorporation as a Society of Entitlement. On 1 October 1994, the 36th College of the University took the name Kellogg College in recognition of the outstanding support given to continuing education at Oxford by the WK Kellogg Foundation, and in honour of Will Keith Kellogg, whose generosity made that possible.
Kellogg College is now responsible for those students who are on part-time courses leading to qualifications such as MSc, MSt, DPhil or PGCE, and are matriculated members of the University. All remaining students fall under the Department for Continuing Education. The name Rewley House lives on and is now reserved for the building in Wellington Square which houses Kellogg College and the Department for Continuing Education.
As such a new college, Kellogg does not yet have an archive which would be of great interest to external researchers and, of course, the vast majority of its alumni are still alive. Information about the college, its close association with the Department for Continuing Education, and its planned move to a new location can be found on its website. Records of the Department and its predecessor, the Delegacy, are kept in the University Archives.
Address: The College Secretary Kellogg College Oxford OX1 2JA
Phone: 01865 270383 E-mail: college-office@kellogg.ox.ac.uk Web: www.kellogg.ox.ac.uk
Lady Margaret Hall (usually referred to as ‘LMH’) was founded in 1878 by a small group of High Anglicans, including the Warden of Keble College, Edward (later Bishop) Talbot, and his wife Lavinia. It was, with Somerville, the first of the Colleges for women and opened in October1879 with nine students under the supervision of its first principal Elizabeth Wordsworth. Among the early students were the explorer Gertrude Bell (1886), Eglantyne Jebb (1895) the founder of the Save the Children Fund, and Maude Royden (1896) and Kathleen Courtney (1897), both prominent campaigners for women’s rights and international relations.
LMH became co-educational in 1979 and now has an undergraduate student body of four hundred, with a hundred and fifty graduate students and over forty tutors and lecturers. In 2004, as part of its anniversary celebrations, it published a short illustrated history Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, the first 125 years, written by its eighth principal Frances Lannon.
The LMH Archive preserves the College’s formal administrative records, including minutes of its governing body and committees, annual reports, accounts, student and staff files, records relating to its buildings and gardens and several albums of photographs and cuttings. Other records deposited by the junior, middle and senior common rooms provide a good picture of College social life. The Archive also holds a smaller amount of privately donated papers and photographs from former students and staff.
The Archive is open by appointment only. Researchers should contact the Librarian in the first instance. The Archivist is only in College on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; also on Thursdays afternoons.
Address: The Archivist Lady Margaret Hall Oxford OX2 6QA
Phone: 01865 274302 E-mail: archivist@lmh.ox.ac.uk Web: www.lmh.ox.ac.uk History: Frances Lannon, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, the first 125 years (2004)
Linacre College in St Cross Road opened for graduate students in Michaelmas 1962. It was named after Thomas Linacre (1460 - 1524), the humanist scholar and medical scientist. It has a small archive in about 250 sq. feet, comprising all student records, financial records, minutes of College committees and the Governing Body, and documents arising from its foundation, transfer from St. Aldates to Cherwell Edge, photographic records and memorabilia. It is particularly useful for the period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the future of graduate studies in Oxford was under discussion.
There are finding aids and a CD of records listed.
Address: The Archivist Linacre College Oxford OX1 3JA
E-mail: colin.newbury@linacre.ox.ac.uk Web: www.linacre.ox.ac.uk History: Colin Newbury, ‘The Origins of Linacre College, 1956-1965', in the Linacre Journal, 1 (1997), 5-28
Lincoln, one of the smaller Oxford colleges, occupies the south-eastern part of Turl Street. It was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, as a bulwark of right belief against Lollardry and in 1478 was further endowed by another Bishop of Lincoln, Thomas Rotherham, the "Second Founder". In 1630 a third Bishop of Lincoln, John Williams, built the Chapel and other additions. The former All Saints church was incorporated into the site and converted into the College library, 1971-75. Best-known among Old Members and Fellows is perhaps John Wesley, Fellow from 1726 to 1751, during which time he developed, in the "Holy Club", the principles of Methodism. Notable among the Fellows of the 19th century was Mark Pattison, reformer (and husband of the future Lady Dilke), Fellow from 1839 and Rector from 1861 until his death in 1884. In the 20th century a strong scientific connection is apparent, including not only Nevil Sidgwick (chemist), but also Georges Dreyer, Lord Florey, Sir Edward Abraham, Norman Heatley, Sir James Gowans, Sir Henry Harris and others, all notably connected with pathology and the development of penicillin, cephalosporin and other antibiotics. On the literary side, Old Members include Edward Thomas, the war poet; John Le Carre (David Cornwell); Sir Osbert Lancaster; and (briefly) Dr Seuss (Theodore Geisel). The archives consist mostly of the College's own business records, principally relating to accounts and administration of estates (C15th onwards). Student records, in the form of matriculation registers, begin in the late C17th. Other administrative records begin in connected series only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The archives also contain photographs, college publications and ephemera. There are also some collections of private deposited papers. The main ones relate to: John Wesley and Edward Thomas (both largely secondary material); Mark Pattison; Nevil Sidgwick; Osbert Lancaster; Warde Fowler (classicist and ornithologist); and a few smaller ones. Please note in particular that the archives contain NOTHING by or relating to Dr Seuss, except for the bare entries in the matriculation register and battels books. The Archivist is on-site one day a week only and this imposes obvious limitations on the amount of research that can be done on behalf of an enquirer. In particular, extensive enquiries relating to the College's estates and properties should in the first instance be referred to the appropriate county record office or other appropriate repository. For the same reason, enquiries should please be made by e-mail or by letter only, and not by telephone. Please also note that access, if necessary, is strictly by prior appointment only, because of limitations on space: I regret that we are not able to deal with callers who have not made appointments. Address: Mr Andrew Mussell College Archivist Lincoln College Oxford OX1 3DR
E-mail: andrew.mussell@lincoln.ox.ac.uk Web: www.lincoln.ox.ac.uk History: V. H. H. Green, The Commonwealth of Lincoln College, 1427-1977 (OUP 1979)
Magdalen College (pronounced “maudlin”) was founded in 1458 by William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. It was one of the largest and wealthiest Colleges in Oxford, supporting many Fellows and scholars, as well as a chapel choir. Its buildings and gardens are among the finest of any College in Oxford. Famous alumni include Cardinal Wolsey, Joseph Addison, Edward Gibbon, Oscar Wilde, and Dudley Moore.
The archives contain financial documents from the 1480s onwards, many title deeds, going back to the early 1100s, and estate papers (including maps) relating to the College’s properties, which stretched from Wiltshire up to Lincolnshire. Some title deeds have been published, namely those relating to properties in Oxford (in HE Salter’s Cartulary of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist), Hampshire (WD Macray’s Charters of Selborne Priory), and Sussex (LF Salzman’s The Chartulary of the Priory of St. Peter at Sele). The College has a large collection of architectural drawings relating to its buildings. A catalogue of these has been published as R White and RH Darwall-Smith, The Architectural Drawings of Magdalen College Oxford: a Catalogue. There are very few records relating to old members before the 20th century. However, there are two important published series of biographical registers compiled in the 19th century by JR Bloxam and WD Macray. The Archives include several important collections of personal papers from former Presidents, Fellows, and old members. Other publications: the last history of Magdalen, by HW Wilson, was published in 1899. A new one is currently in production.
Magdalen College should not be confused with Magdalen Hall. Magdalen Hall, which was founded in the early sixteenth century, was situated alongside Magdalen College for many years, but was a totally separate institution. In the 1820s, Magdalen Hall moved to a new home, opposite the Bodleian Library, on a site occupied by the recently-defunct Hertford College, and then, in 1874, following a major benefaction, Magdalen Hall was refounded as a new incarnation of Hertford College, which name it holds to the present day. All records, therefore, relating to Magdalen Hall are kept at Hertford College, and enquiries should be directed there. There are, however, next to no archives surviving from before the Hall moved to its present site.
NB. The Archives are open only on Thursdays and Fridays between 10.00am and 12.45pm, and 1.45pm - 4.30pm. Appointments are essential.
Address: Dr. Robin Darwall-Smith Magdalen College Oxford OX14AU
Phone: 01865-276088 E-mail: robin.darwall-smith@magdalen.ox.ac.uk Web: http://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/college_life/libraries_and_archives.shtml History: see above
Mansfield College was founded in 1886 when the Congregational Churches decided to close their theological college of Spring Hill in Birmingham and move to Oxford. The move was a response to the needs of non-conformist students who had been permitted to become members of the University after the abolition of religious tests in 1871. The building on Mansfield Road was designed by Basil Champneys with George Faulkner Armitage in a Gothic style.
The College holds an archive relating to its history since 1838: minute books and reports for Spring Hill College, Birmingham, 1838-86; press cuttings, fund raising records and minute books relating to the move to Oxford as Mansfield College for the education and training of nonconformist, mainly Congregational, ministers; minute books, reports and details of college societies relating to its history as a theological college until 1955; magazines of Mansfield House Settlement in East London; and records of the College as a Permanent Private Hall and finally as a full College of the University. In addition, there is a certain amount of biographical material relating to former members of staff and former students.
Address: Alma Jenner The Librarian Mansfield College Oxford OX1 3TF
Phone: 01865 270975 E-mail: alma.jenner@mansfield.ox.ac.uk
The college was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester, for twenty fellows, with preference being given to members of his own kin. Undergraduates were formally admitted in the early 1380s, when John Wyliot, a former fellow and subwarden, endowed a number of scholarships, known at Merton as postmasterships. Eminent old members include Sir Thomas Bodley, JRR Tolkien, TS Eliot, Lennox Berkeley, Leonard Cheshire and Sir Roger Bannister.
The archives comprise administrative records of the college and its estates, and papers created by a number of former members. Records of the college proper begin with the foundation statutes of 1264, bursarial accounts, 1277, and decisions of the governing body, 1483. Records of college estates include deeds, surveys, court rolls and maps, and date from the twelfth century onwards. The college owned estates in Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Surrey, Leicestershire, County Durham and Northumberland, among others.
A register of fellows was begun c.1420, and postmasters are recorded from 1660, but there was no official record of commoners until 1881. Information on later members is recorded in Merton College Register, 1900-1964, (1964) and RHC Davis, Merton College Register II, 1891-1989, (1990).
St Alban Hall already existed as an academic hall at the time of the foundation of Merton College in 1264. Merton purchased the hall in 1548 and exerted a strong influence over it, although in principle it remained a separate academic institution. The hall was annexed to Merton in 1881, when the remaining eighteen students were absorbed into the college. The buildings were largely rebuilt as St. Alban Quad between 1905 and 1910, although the Elizabethan entrance onto Merton Street still survives. Eminent Albanians include Cardinal John Henry Newman and Cardinal Henry Manning.
As an academic hall, St. Alban Hall had few financial endowments and no estates. Surviving records include the admission register, 1856-77, with retrospective lists of members from 1661; account books, 1856-79; and buttery books, 1758-1847.
The Archivist is only in Merton College on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10.00-12.45 and 14.00-16.30 An appointment is essential and appropriate picture ID must be produced.
Address: Julian Reid The Archivist Merton College Merton Street Oxford OX1 4JD
Phone: 01865 286315 E-mail: archives@admin.merton.ox.ac.uk Web: www.merton.ox.ac.uk History: GH Martin and JRL Highfield, A History of Merton College, (OUP,1997); A Bott, Merton College: A Short History of The Buildings, (Merton College, 1993); JRL Highfield, (ed.), The Early Rolls of Merton College, (OUP, 1964); HE Salter, (ed.), Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis 1483-1521, (OUP, 1923); JM Fletcher, (ed.), Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis 1521-1567, (OUP, 1974)
The College of St Mary of Winchester in Oxford was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester; known as ‘New College’ then it has retained its sobriquet ever since. The scale of his foundation was without parallel in Oxford, and formed the largest building to be erected in Oxford since the twelfth century. Until the mid-nineteenth century its students were drawn solely from Winchester College, also founded by William of Wykeham as part of a great educational plan to provide scholars who would be well grounded in grammar before coming to Oxford to specialise in the disciplines taught here.
The earliest buildings of New College, situated round the Front Quad, date from 1379 - c.1400. They present the earliest example of a quadrangle in Oxford or Cambridge to contain all the main elements required for a college: chapel (with cloisters and bell tower), hall, library, a fortress-like muniment tower, and lodgings for Warden, Fellows and Scholars. All apart from the Founders Library still serve their original function. Additional buildings and a garden extended the site from the seventeenth century onwards, and the college now stands part inside and part beyond the section of city walls that it still preserves. The Victorian quadrangle built by George Gilbert Scott and Basil Champneys was a major addition which moved the main entrance to the Holywell Street Lodge. Since 1938 this quadrangle has been graced by the new library (which also houses the archive reading room), standing in part of what used to be the ditch outside the city wall.
The archive comprises the administrative records of the college since 1379, title deeds and manorial records of its extensive estates throughout twenty eight counties, and more recent papers and special collections amassed by, or relating to, some of its members. The earlier records have been inventoried in Francis Steer’s Archives of New College Oxford (Phillimore 1974); and Caroline Dalton’s descriptive guides to the older (pre1850) papers, the more recent papers, and to genealogical sources for former members of the college, are also available from the archivist.
The archive is open, by prior appointment, on Mondays and Tuesdays 10.00 - 1.00 and 2.15 - 4.30
Address: Mrs Jennifer Thorp Archivist New College Holywell Street Oxford OX1 3BN
Answerphone: 01865 279581 Email: archives@new.ox.ac.uk Web: http://www.new.ox.ac.uk and click on College Archives (also click on Visitors for details concerning those parts of the college open to visitors) History: AH Smith, New College Oxford and its Buildings (1952); John Buxton & Penry Williams, New College Oxford 1379-1979 (1979)
The Library holds several collections of unpublished papers, many relating to individuals or projects associated with Nuffield College. They include the personal papers of Lord Nuffield (William Morris), GDH Cole and Margaret Cole, and material relating to the Nuffield College Social Reconstruction Survey. Among the other unpublished papers held by the Library are the personal papers of Lord Cherwell (Frederick Lindemann) and a large number of the papers of William Cobbett. During the 1950s, the library of the late G.D.H. Cole was acquired by the College. The greater part of the collection was incorporated into the main stock of the Library, but, in accordance with Cole's wishes, a number of smaller collections have been kept apart. These include the Cobbett collection. The papers of the Fabian Society were transferred to the British Library of Political and Economic Science in 1995. Anyone seeking access to material in College papers are asked to apply in writing to the Fellow Librarian.
Detailed archive enquiries cannot be answered over the telephone. It is regretted that research cannot be undertaken on behalf of readers.
Address: The Archives Assistant
Nuffield College OX1 1NF
Phone: 01865 278549 E-mail: library-archives@nuf.ox.ac.uk Web: www.nuff.ox.ac.uk
In April 1324 Adam de Brome, an official in the Royal Chancery, obtained a licence to endow a small body of scholars to be called the 'House of Blessed Mary'. Within two years Adam persuaded King Edward II to re-found the college, which the king did on 21st January 1326. Later that year, with the king facing the rebellion that led to his overthrow, the College prudently sought a new patron in the Bishop of Lincoln. The early eighteenth century was marked by disputes between the Provost and the Fellows. This led to a court case on behalf of one of the candidates, who obtained a judgement in 1726 which displaced the Bishop as the College's Visitor and reinstated the monarch for the first time since the year of foundation. The sovereign has been the Visitor of the College ever since.
Oriel was a leader in the intellectual revivals of the nineteenth, when Fellowships were thrown open to competitive examination and the College became something of an intellectual powerhouse, where critical and rational argument was valued. Among the Fellows who benefited from this new regime were those associated with the 'Oxford Movement', such as John Henry Newman, John Keble, Edward Pusey and Richard Hurrell Froude, all Fellows of Oriel.
In 1902, one of the last surviving Oxford halls was united with Oriel College. St Mary Hall was also one of the largest; in 1875 it had 60 undergraduates to Oriel’s 62.
The archives held at Oriel include constitutional, financial and estate records for the College, with administrative and social records of the undergraduates. Items of particular interest include a fine run of College accounts (1409-1525 and 1583 onwards) and the mediaeval records of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in Oxford.
The College has compiled a collection of hundreds of letters, mostly of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection includes letters of Matthew Arnold, John Keble, John Henry Newman, Cecil Rhodes, Gilbert White, William Ewart Gladstone, Walter de la Mare and Sylvia Plath. In addition, Lancelot Ridley Phelps (1853-1936), Provost of Oriel 1914-1930, had an extensive correspondence, and kept virtually all of his letters. Although much of the collection was destroyed in about 1940, a substantial quantity remains. Of particular interest are letters relating to his involvement in Poor Law administration, both locally and nationally.
A larger proportion of the records of St. Mary Hall has survived than is usual for Oxford academic halls. The records include Principal’s log books 1764-1899, buttery books 1715-1874, battels accounts 1773-1898, and papers relating to the Dyke Trust for scholarships 1730-1891.
The Archive is open Monday and Tuesday, 10am -1pm and 2pm -4.30pm. Advance booking is absolutely necessary.
Address: The Archivist Oriel College Oxford OX1 4EW
Phone: 01865 286545 E-mail: archives@oriel.oxford.ac.uk Web: www.oriel.ox.ac.uk
Pembroke College was founded in 1624 by King James I using money given by Thomas Tesdale and Richard Wightwick and was named after William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, who was Chancellor of the University at the time. The College has a Governing Body of 34 Fellows (and 4 Advisory Fellows) with just under 400 undergraduates, 90 graduates and around 40 visiting students from the USA. The archives contain documents relating to the College’s history, buildings and administration as well as papers pertaining to individual ex-staff and alumni of the College, photographs and memorabilia. The archives are typically referred to by various departments within College, external researchers, Pembroke Alumni and their descendants, and others such as purchasers of land or property which once belonged to the College. The material contained in the archives therefore provides both a source of formal records and management information for the College, and a picture of life at Pembroke through the years since its foundation. Enquiries regarding the archives should be made to the Archivist, who can provide basic information, answer straightforward questions and provide a list of material available on a given topic, but who is unable to carry out detailed research on behalf of enquirers. Visitors wishing to consult the archives are admitted by prior appointment only, please contact the Archivist to make arrangements. The Archivist McGowin Library Pembroke College Oxford OX1 1DW
Telephone: 01865 276409 Fax: 01865 276418 E-mail: archives@pmb.ox.ac.uk Web: http://live.pmb.ox.ac.uk/College/Archives.php
The Queen’s College was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield, chaplain to Queen Philippa of Hainault. He commended the patronage to her, thus calling the College Queen’s. The patron has always been the Queen Consort, never a Queen Regnant. Philippa was a true patroness, persuading her husband, Edward III, to make the College the perpetual warden of St. Julian’s Hospital, also known as Gods House, in Southampton. This gave the College extensive estates in and around that city. From the late seventeenth century the entire College was rebuilt, making it unique amongst the older Colleges as built entirely in one style. Famous members of the College have allegedly included Henry V, but certainly also John Wyclif, Jeremy Bentham, and Rowan Atkinson.
The archive only holds records created by, or illustrative of, the College. Any personal papers of College members held by the College are in the College Library. There is a great deal of records relating to the College estates, some dating back before the College was founded in 1341. Most of the medieval estate records can be viewed in the Bodleian Library, but permission to see these must first be sought from the Archivist.
The Reading Room is open to the public (usually Tuesdays and Fridays) by appointment with the Archivist. Please give as much notice as possible as space is limited and not all times or days are possible. The Archivist aims to reply to all enquiries (preferably by letter or e-mail) as soon as possible, but it can take up to two weeks, depending on the complexity of the enquiry. The College charges no fees for access.
Address: Mr Michael Riordan The Queen’s College Oxford OX1 4AW
Phone: 01865 279118 E-mail: michael.riordan@queens.ox.ac.uk Web: www.queens.ox.ac.uk History: JR Magrath, The Queen’s College (Oxford, 1921); RH Hodgkin, Six Centuries of an Oxford College (Oxford, 1949)
The Angus Library at Regent's Park College is a rich library and archive of printed and manuscript material relating to the Baptist denomination dating from the 17th century to the present day. It incorporates the former libraries of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Baptist Historical Society and holds the deposited archive of the Baptist Missionary Society (now BMS World Mission) from its formation in 1792. It also houses the records of many individual Baptist churches from the 17th century onwards, the personal papers of a number of prominent Baptists and the archives of the college dating back to the early nineteenth century. Containing a wealth of unique nonconformist material it has participated in several international and government funded projects, including the English Short Title Catalogue and the Mundus project, and has become a recognised national centre for Baptist historical research. Over 400 visitors and over 600 enquiries are usually received by the Angus Library in a year.
Address: Mrs. Susan J. Mills, MA, MCLIP Librarian Regent's Park College Pusey Street OXFORD OX1 2LB
Phone: 01865 288142 Fax: 01865 288121 E-mail: sue.mills@regents.ox.ac.uk Web: www.rpc.ox.ac.uk under Centre for Baptist History & Heritage (Angus Library); www.mundus.ac.uk under Angus Library, Regent's Park College, in browse search of contributing institutions; www.ad.bham.ac.uk/revelation/sd.asp
St. Anne's College, founded in 1952, can trace its origins back to 1878 and the formation of the Association for the Education of Women in Oxford, later known as the Society of Oxford Home Students. Today it is one of the largest of the Colleges and Halls which admit undergraduate and graduate students to read for degrees within the University of Oxford. It is fully co-educational, with a near equal mix of men and women both in the student body and on the teaching staff.
The small collection of archives, kept within the Library, is listed under 8 sections: Johnson : Letters, papers, press cuttings, draft documents, and photographs by and relating to Mrs Bertha Johnson (1846-1927), first Principal of the Society of Home Students. Much of this material relates to the “degrees for women” discussions in the 1880s and 1890s. Rogers : A similar collection (but without photographs) on similar themes, by and about Miss Annie Rogers (1856-1937), one of the founding Tutors. Includes drafts and completed version of her book Degrees by degrees. A.E.W. : Various papers of the Association for the Education of Women, including a complete set of annual reports 1879-1920. W.S. : Papers of the Delegacy for Women Students, 1908-1921, and some later oddments. Includes incomplete set of the magazine The Fritillary. S.A. : Assorted papers and memorabilia of St Anne’s Society and St Anne’s College, 1946 onwards, including some photographs. O.U. : Bits and pieces (reports, regulations, some correspondence) to do with Oxford University, particularly regulations concerning women students. 1919 onwards. A.& A. : Art and architecture. Pictures and plans of College buildings, and a collection of artistic representations of Saint Anne. General : Photograph album, and miscellaneous published snippets about St Anne’s.
Address: Librarian and Archivist Dr David Smith St Anne’s College Oxford OX2 6HS
Phone: 01865 274810 Fax: 01865 274899 E-mail: david.smith@st-annes.ox.ac.uk Web: http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/ History: Ruth Butler and MH Prichard, Saint Anne's College : a history, 1879-1956. (1957); Marjorie Reeves, St Anne’s College, Oxford : an informal history,1879-1979 (1979)
Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony's College, Oxford. The Middle East Centre Archive, founded in 1961, is a specialist collecting Archive that preserves and makes available for research the papers, both personal and official, of individuals who have served in the Middle East as senior Government representatives, members of the armed forces etc. - or whose main concern as bankers, businessmen, missionaries or travellers - was the Middle East. We collect mainly English language materials, from 1800 to the present day. Our holdings include the papers of over 350 individuals or organisations, with particularly good coverage of British Mandate Palestine. Please note that we do not hold St Antony's College records.
Access is by appointment only. Researchers should either bring with them a valid Oxford University card or a letter of introduction and photo ID (for example a passport). Access for researchers with disabilities should be discussed with the Archivist - please note that there are seven steps going down to the Archive.
Address: Miss Debbie Usher Archivist Middle East Centre Archive St Antony's College Oxford OX2 6JF
Phone: 01865 284706 Fax: 01865 274529 E-mail: debbie.usher@sant.ox.ac.uk Web: www.sant.ox.ac.uk/areastudies/meca.shtml
St Cross College was formally set up by the University in 1965, and admitted its first graduate students (five in number) in the following year. Its location from 1965 until 1981 was on a site in St. Cross Road, immediately south of St Cross Church. In 1976 negotiations began between the College and the Governors of the Dr. Pusey Memorial Fund, to consider the possibility of St. Cross moving to share Pusey House's site in St. Giles. In 1981, the College moved from St Cross Road into St Giles, taking up a 999 year lease for the entire site, with the exception of the chapel.
The archives extend back to the decade preceding the establishment of the College, and include materials relating to the establishment of the St Cross as well as Iffley (now Wolfson) College. There are also architectural records of constructions at both the St Cross Road site and on St Giles. The papers of a number of the founding or early Fellows are also deposited with the College.
Address: Dr Emilie Savage-Smith Archivist St Cross College St Giles Oxford OX1 3LZ
Phone: 01865-278481 / 278193 E-mail: emilie.savage-smith@oriental-institute.ox.ac.uk History: Kenneth Hylson-Smith, A History of Holywell and St Cross College/Brasenose; College Residential Site, (1996); Kenneth Hylson-Smith, David Sturdy & Brian Atkins, A History of St Giles and the St Cross; College/Pusey House Site, (1993); WE van Heyningen, The Founding of St Cross College, Oxford: An Interested Account (1988)
St. Hilda's was founded in 1893 by Dorothea Beale, a major figure in the fields of women's education and female suffrage. It was established in Cowley House on the banks of the River Cherwell. Subsequently the College acquired Cherwell Hall and Milham Ford School on adjacent sites, and further building has created an attractive riverside site. This includes the Jacqueline Du Pré Music Building, a concert hall of professional standards, opened in 1995.
St. Hilda's has
been the only remaining women's college in the
The College archive includes: - a substantial collection of letters of Dorothea Beale; administrative records, including Principals’ correspondence, College committees, constitutional records, officers and departments; records of the three common rooms (Senior, Middle and Junior); - records of the alumnae body N.B. That is spelt correctly - there are no men!; - photographs, news cuttings, obituaries, written reminiscences and recorded interviews; - papers of the composer Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994).
The holdings of St. Hilda's College Archive are open to researchers, subject to the needs of the College. Preliminary enquiries can be taken by post, e-mail or telephone. Researchers may visit the Archive on Thursdays, but only by prior appointment with the Archivist. Address: The Archivist St Hilda’s College Cowley Place Oxford OX4 1DY
Phone: 01865 276882 E-mail: archives@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk Web: http://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/information/ History: ME Rayner, Centenary History of St. Hilda's College, Oxford, (1993) [copies available from the Development Office, St. Hilda's College, Oxford, OX4 1DY]
St. Hugh’s was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth, the great niece of the poet, William Wordsworth, and daughter of Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln (1868-85). She had been Principal of Lady Margaret Hall since 1879 but realised that there was a need for further education for young women, especially daughters of the clergy, who could not afford the fees charged by the various Halls in Oxford and Cambridge and were thus forced to attend non-religious places of instruction. She therefore founded St. Hugh’s Hall, using money left to her by her father to rent 25, Norham Road and calling it after Hugh of Avalon, who had been consecrated Bishop of Lincoln 700 years earlier, in 1186. Her purpose was “to open a small home-like house… as the nucleus of what we hope may eventually prove a more important undertaking… Students will attend the same lectures and go through the same academic course as the Halls already in existence… The religious teaching will be on the same lines as at Lady Margaret Hall”.
St. Hugh’s differed from Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville in that it was a private venture, not founded by a committee of those who supported the cause of women’s education, but simply to make it possible for less well-off women to live and study in Oxford. That it went beyond this is a great tribute to those running it in its early years. It is now a thriving community, occupying a fourteen-acre site in North Oxford, with some 420 undergraduates and about 240 graduates.
The College archive contains much material relating to the early days of women’s education in Oxford and a particularly rich vein of primary source material is the set of reminiscences produced in response to a questionnaire for the book celebrating the centenary of its foundation, St. Hugh’s: one hundred years of women’s education in Oxford. There are also copies of early College magazines and various collections of letters from the First World War period. One collection of particular interest is that relating to Mary Renault. The archive contains numerous letters written by her to two of her College contemporaries, Phyllis Hartnoll and Kathleen Abbott, both of whom shared her literary interests, and the working papers, notes and tapes which formed the basis of the biographies of Mary Renault by David Sweetman and Caroline Zilboorg.
The College was requisitioned as a military hospital during World War II and is privileged to hold not only reminiscences by staff, patients and relatives but also the original medical records of the majority of those who were treated at St. Hugh’s and the Radcliffe Infirmary by Sir Hugh Cairns and his team of neurosurgeons. Much pioneering work on head injuries and the use of penicillin was done at this time and has formed an extremely valuable basis for further research. Since some of those treated still form part of a study group, keeping the records at St. Hugh’s has meant that they can be added to and studied readily by those working in the field.
Fuller details of archival holdings can be seen on the library section of the St. Hugh’s College web-page. Most archival items are available for consultation but at least one week’s notice must be given to the Librarian. During busy periods of term it may not be possible to consult the archive.
Address: The Librarian St Hugh’s College OXFORD OX2 6LE
Phone: 01865 274938 E-mail: library@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk History: P Griffin (ed.), St. Hugh’s: one hundred years of women’s education in Oxford, (1986)
The College was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas White, Alderman and one time Lord Mayor of London. As a member of the Merchant Taylor’s Company he made a link between the College and the Merchant Taylor’s School and most of the College’s Fellows were students of that school. In 1573 the College bought St. Giles Field, and in the 1860s started to develop it. Over the next fifty years it grew into the suburb now called North Oxford. Famous members of the College have included Edmund Campion, William Laud, Robert Graves, Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis, and Tony Blair.
The archive only holds records created by, or illustrative of, the College. Any personal papers of College members held by the College are in the College Library. There is a great deal of records relating to the College estates, including North Oxford, some dating back before the College was founded in 1555.
The Reading Room is open to the public (usually Wednesdays and Thursdays) by appointment with the Archivist. Please give as much notice as possible as space is limited and not all times or days are possible. The Archivist aims to reply to all enquiries (preferably by letter or e-mail) as soon as possible, but it can take up to two weeks, depending on the complexity of the enquiry. The College charges no fees for access.
Address: Mr. Michael Riordan St. John’s College Oxford OX1 3JP
Phone: 01865 277405 or 01865 277336 E-mail: michael.riordan@sjc.ox.ac.uk Web: www.sjc.ox.ac.uk History: WH Stevenson & HE Salter, The Early History of St. John’s College Oxford (1939); WC Coston, The History of St. John’s College Oxford, 1598-1860 (1958); T Hinchcliffe, North Oxford (1992)
Somerville was one of the earliest colleges for women in Oxford, founded in 1879 under the title of Somerville Hall to provide a non-denominational alternative to the Anglican Lady Margaret Hall. The name was given in honour of the mathematician and scientist Mary Somerville (1780-1872), and the arms and motto of her family were adopted, with their permission, by the Hall. In 1881 the Hall was registered under the Companies Act as an Association not intended for profit; and in 1894 its name was changed from Somerville Hall to Somerville College. Until 1920, when women were admitted to membership of the University, its staff and students were registered as members of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (AEW). In 1926 the joint stock company was wound up, and Somerville was incorporated by Royal Charter as “The Principal and Council of Somerville College”. In 1951 its statutes were amended to restrict membership of the Governing Body to the Principal and Fellows, and in 1959 it was finally admitted, with the other Women’s Societies, as a full College of the University. In 1992 the statutes were again amended to open the College to men. The first male fellows were admitted in 1993, and the first male junior members the following year. The College Archives are a valuable source for the early history of women in Oxford and for the process by which, after 1920, the women’s colleges became fully integrated into the University. In addition to the administrative and financial records of the College, holdings include records deposited (somewhat haphazardly) by the junior, middle and senior common rooms; collections of photographs, obituaries, news-cuttings, and memoirs; records of the Association of Senior Members; and a number of deposited private collections of letters and papers. Basic biographical material relating to former members is contained in the printed Somerville College Register 1879-1971. The Archives may be consulted by prior arrangement with the Archivist. Address: Miss Pauline Adams Librarian & Archivist Somerville College Oxford OX2 6HD
Tel: 01865 270694 Email: pauline.adams@some.ox.ac.uk Web: www.some.ox.ac.uk
History: Adams, (P): Somerville For Women: An Oxford College 1879-1993 (O.U.P., 1996)
Trinity College was founded by Sir Thomas Pope in 1555. A devout catholic with no surviving children, Thomas Pope saw the Foundation of an Oxford college as a means of ensuring that he and his family would always be remembered in the prayers and masses of its members. He came from a family of small landowners in Oxfordshire, trained as a lawyer, and rose rapidly to prominence under Henry VIII. As Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations he handled the estates of the monasteries dissolved at the Reformation, and amassed a considerable personal fortune. Pope was a discreet and trusted privy counsellor of Mary Tudor, and it was from Mary and Philip that he received Letters Patent and royal approval for his new foundation. Pope died in 1559. The College Statutes set out rules for a simple monastic life of religious observance and study. The Garden was an informal grove of trees, mainly elms, amongst which the members of the College could walk and meditate.
No new buildings were erected in 1555, for Thomas Pope had purchased the site and buildings of an earlier monastic foundation, Durham College, which from 1286 until the Reformation provided a place of study in Oxford for a small number of monks from the Benedictine Cathedral Church at Durham. Its buildings comprised a single quadrangle which provided hall, chapel, library and rooms. The only surviving Durham College building is Trinity's Old Library, which was completed in 1421. The name Trinity is thought to echo the original dedication of Durham College: to the Trinity, the Virgin and St Cuthbert.
Trinity College's administrative archives date from the foundation of the college in 1555. Statutes and charters and annual accounts are in Latin until 1733. Trinity holds various documents relating to its estates, including court rolls and some maps. A series of Order Books (Governing Body minutes) begins in the early Eighteenth Century. The College holds the literary papers of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944). The College also has a large collection of twentieth-century undergraduate ephemera, including photographs, diaries, memoirs, letters, lecture notes, term cards and programmes. Trinity College has prints of the buildings from 1675, and of members from 1889. Building plans are also held. Portraits exist of former Presidents, some Fellows and some former members.
NB. The Archive is only open on Thursdays, 10am - 5pm. Enquiries are accepted only by post.
Address:
The Archivist
Web: www.trinity.ox.ac.uk/college/archive History: a new college history is currently in preparation
University College (popularly called “Univ.”) traces its origins back to 1249, making it a claimant for the title of the oldest College in Oxford. In spite of its age, it was also one of the smallest and poorest for many years. Until the 19th century, it had very strong links with the north-east of England: most of its Fellowships and Scholarships were only open to candidates from Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland. Famous alumni include Clement Attlee, Bill Clinton, Percy Shelley, CS Lewis, and VS Naipaul.
The archive includes accounts and other financial documents from the 1380s onwards. The College’s accounts for 1381/2-1596/7 have been edited by ADM Cox and RH Darwall-Smith and published as volumes 39 and 40 (new series) of the Oxford Historical Society. Title deeds, going back to the 1190s, and other estate papers (including maps) on the College’s properties in Oxfordshire, Essex, Yorkshire, Montgomeryshire, Newcastle and elsewhere. There are several papers, including architectural drawings, relating to the College’s buildings. Admission Registers for college members have been kept continuously since 1674. The college archives does not have many collections of private papers.
NB. The Archive is only open on Mondays and Tuesdays 10.00 - 1.00 and 2.00 - 4.30 (by appointment only).
Address: Dr. Robin Darwall-Smith University College Oxford OX1 4BH
Phone: 01865-276952 E-mail: robin.darwall-smith@univ.ox.ac.uk Web: http://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/collegelife/history.html History: The last history of University College, by W Carr, was published in 1902. A new one is being produced at the time of writing. Also, see above.
Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham. The most detailed and recent account of the foundation is the article by CSL Davies AA Woman in the Public Sphere; Dorothy Wadham and the Foundation of Wadham College, Oxford, English Historical Review, vol. 118 (2003), pp. 883-911.
The archive largely comprises internal college documents, and records of college estates, of which the largest collection are in Essex. A Catalogue of the Muniments of Wadham College was produced by Lawrence Stone for the National Register of Archives in 1962, and reproduced in limited numbers. This is especially useful for the historic college estates, providing an extensive calendar of the documents and sometimes complete transcripts. An updated version is held in the college. For members (of the College (fellows and students) up 1871, see RB Gardiner, Registers of Wadham College, 2 vols., (1889-95). Attention is also drawn to Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses (1887-91) for the years up to 1886. Recruitment in the 17th Century was very largely, although not exclusively, from Somerset, Dorset, and Devon. While I am aware that these works are unlikely to be easily accessible, and would welcome enquiries, it would help if enquirers could indicate what, if any, works they have already consulted. While Gardiner's Register is almost complete as far as the college records are concerned, I can often provide additional information on those recorded from later publications, or from information provided by previous enquirers. Those claiming relationship to the founders should note that Mr and Mrs Wadham were childless, and that Nicholas Wadham's nearest kin were the children of his three sisters, who do not therefore carry the name Wadham. Jackson's Wadham College, includes an extensive family pedigree; I would be happy to provide copies.
Enquiries are welcome and should be directed in writing or by e-mail to the address below. If a visit to the archives is necessary, that can be arranged for a mutually agreed time by prior appointment. I endeavour to deal with enquiries speedily. Please note, however, that we have no full-time staff, that my position is an honorary one, and that I am sometimes away from Oxford for periods of up to three weeks. It is inadvisable to turn up unannounced; and best not to telephone unless necessary.
Address: The Keeper of the Archives Wadham College Oxford OX1 3PN
Phone: 01865 277900 E-mail: cliff.davies@wadh.ox.ac.uk Web: www.wadham.ox.ac.uk
History: TG Jackson, Wadham College, (1893); Joseph Wells, Wadham College, (1898) - especially valuable on the buildings; CSL Davies and Jane Garnett (eds.), Wadham College, (1994); RB Gardiner, Registers of Wadham College, 2 vols., (1889-95)
In 1964 the University, seeking to enhance the opportunities for graduate students and to increase the availability of college fellowships, decided to establish two new colleges, Iffley and St. Cross. Thirty-six fellows aligned themselves with Iffley and set about transforming the College that existed on paper into a living community. Sir Isaiah Berlin was invited to become the College’s first president. With a building grant from the Wolfson Foundation and an endowment grant from the Ford Foundation, Wolfson College came into being on 26 July 1966. Powell & Moya were chosen as the architects of the new buildings to be built at the recently acquired site between the end of Linton Road and the River Cherwell (formerly the home of Professor JS Haldane). While these were under construction, Wolfson College had its headquarters at 15, 47, and 60 Banbury Road. The ‘Long March to Linton Road’, to use Isaiah Berlin’s phrase, ended in 1974, when the new buildings were formerly opened by the Chancellor, Harold Macmillan. The College now possessed a hall capable of seating 200, common rooms, seminar rooms, offices for administrative staff, a library, a buttery, a cellar-bar, a games room, teaching rooms for fellows, living accommodation for single and married graduate students, and six penthouses. Since then, the College has grown with the addition of a day-nursery, family houses at Garford Road and two new accommodation blocks.
The College Archives holds material relating to all aspects of the Wolfson’s history, from the earliest days of Iffley College to the present. Administrative documents, architectural drawings, photographs and ephemera make up the collection. The Archives also has a full run of the College Record and the two College magazines, Lycidas and Romulus. The Archives do not hold student records, however.
Researchers are welcome upon application to the Fellow Archivist.
Address: Dr Ellen Rice The Fellow Archivist Wolfson College Oxford OX2 6UD
Phone: 01865 274117 E-mail: archives@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
Wycliffe Hall was founded in 1877 to train men for the ordained Anglican ministry. It became a Permanent Private Hall of the University in 1996 and now admits men and women for all University theology courses.
The archive relates to the college history since 1877, and includes material from the 1929 study tour of the Holy Land, when students enlisted as special constables under the British Mandate to keep the peace in a time of serious Arab-Jewish disturbances.
Address: The Archivist (contact through central college offices or by e-mail) Clare Wenham Wycliffe Hall Oxford OX2 6PW
Phone: 01865 274200 (main college office) or 01865 274204 (library) E-mail: enquiries@wycliffe.ox.ac.uk
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