History Day

Items

• Royal Albert Hall Archives
  The Royal Albert Hall Archives exists to capture, preserve and make accessible the Hall’s history of performance, the iconic Grade 1 listed building and the organisation itself.
• Royal Astronomical Society Library and Archives
  The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science.
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
  Kew’s Library and Archives collection spans 2,000 years of plant knowledge and discovery. With information on the naming, classification and uses of plants, plant ecology, conservation, and the wild plants of the world, it's a treasure trove of plant stories. If you’re a researcher, a garden lover, or simply an avid reader, our collection offers plenty of resources on botanic gardens and herbaria worldwide, the history of gardening and garden design, and biographical materials on botanists and gardeners. The oldest item in the collection dates back to the 1370s, while our copies of ancient works of botany invite you to journey even further back in time.
• Royal College of Nursing Library and Museum
  The Royal College of Nursing Library and Museum mission is ‘to support the nursing profession and inspire everyone to explore nursing and its history’. Based in the RCN London HQ, our Museum runs a dynamic programme of exhibitions and events which explore the past, present and future of nursing in the UK. We hold a growing collection of nursing related objects that feature in our busy programme of exhibitions. We are committed to developing our collection so that it reflects the varied and expansive nature of the nursing profession today.
• Royal College of Physicians (Archive, Heritage Library and Museum)
  The Royal College of Physicians was founded over 500 years ago by a Royal Charter from King Henry VIII. During the early 1500s, medical practise in England lacked formal regulation. Self-proclaimed ‘physicians’ would treat patients without adequate training or medical knowledge. Distinguished scholars and physicians, including Thomas Linacre, the king's physician, saw that these unregulated practitioners were undoubtedly doing more harm than good. By 1518, six leading medical men, including Linacre, persuaded King Henry VIII to establish a College of Physicians. The founding charter allowed these six men to grant licenses to those qualified to practise and to prosecute those that engaged in malpractice. At that time, there were three main branches of medicine: physic, surgery and pharmacy. These men strived to regulate and improve the practise of physick. From that moment, the college has continued to play a pivotal role in raising standards and shaping public health. On 23 September 1518 the College of Physicians was formally founded, receiving a Royal Charter. This was affirmed by an Act of Parliament in 1523, extending its powers from London to the whole of England.
• Royal College of Surgeons of England
  Come and explore the Royal College of Surgeons of England’s Library and Archives collections. Research strengths include: History of medicine Military and social history Surgery, anatomy and dentistry Lives and works of surgeons Comparative anatomy and zoology Family history Art in surgery
• Royal College of Surgeons of England’s Voices of Surgery: Our New Oral History Project
  In this video from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Mr Navnit Shah, Professor Averil Olive Mansfield, and Ruth Lester, OBE, briefly speak about their experiences working in surgery as a part of RCS England’s wider oral project on surgeons.
• Royal Historical Society
  Founded in 1868, the Royal Historical Society (RHS) is a successful learned society, membership organisation and charity with a 150 year history. Today, the RHS is the UK’s foremost society working for historians and history. In 2024 over 6,500 historians belong and contribute to the Society — as Fellows and Members active in the UK and worldwide. This makes the RHS the UK’s largest membership organisation for historians of all kinds, and from all walks of life — held in high regard by historians internationally, and a partner to many similar organisations overseas. These national and international connections are led by the historians who make up the RHS Council (Trustees), and the small central team based at University College London, which is the home of the Society. Each year, the Society supports four PhD Fellows and other recipients of its Research funding programme.
• Royal Holloway, University of London Archives and Special Collections
  Our archives contain some of the earliest records relating to the history of higher education for women. We hold institutional records of Bedford and Royal Holloway Colleges from the 19th century to the present day. We also have personal papers of prominent individuals with links to the Colleges as well as special collections, many of which relate to theatre history. A full list of our collections is available here or you can search the catalogue. Our rare book collections are searchable via the library catalogue.
• Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library
  The Royal Horticultural Society has had a library for more than 200 years and their collections reflect this longstanding passion for gardens and garden plants. Today, their collections are a treasure trove for anyone interested in learning more about the history and art of gardening.
• Royal Museums Greenwich
  Royal Museums Greenwich comprises the Royal Observatory, Cutty Sark, National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House. We are also home to The Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre and the Caird Library and Archive. Together we’re dedicated to enriching people’s understanding of the sea, the exploration of space, and Britain's role in world history.
• Sanitary Ramblings in Bethnal Green by Hector Gavin, 1848
  Sanitary Ramblings is a graphic description of the dreadful living conditions for many of the residents of Bethnal Green in 1848, written by Hector Gavin (1815 – 1855), a Scottish physician. Gavin details the environments people lived in, street by street and how these situations are reflected in their health and mortality.
• SAS Digital Humanities Hub
  The Digital Humanities Research Hub (DHRH) at SAS supports a variety of digital approaches to the Humanities across the UK and beyond, and promotes the Digital Humanities community both nationally and internationally.
• Scott Polar Research Institute
  The Scott Polar Research Institute, established in 1920, is part of the University of Cambridge, the Institute is the oldest international centre for Polar Research within a university. SPRI is a centre of excellence in the study of the Arctic and Antarctic. The Institutes polar archive holds one of the largest collections of manuscript and photographic material relating to British activity in the Arctic and Antarctic, and to many persons who have lived and worked there. It provides a documentary record of all aspects of life, travel and work in the polar regions.
• Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
  The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It has a collection of around 2 million rocks, minerals and fossils, spanning a period of 4.5 billion years. It is the oldest of the eight museums which make up the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) consortium. The Sedgwick Museum also contains over 2000 boxes of irreplaceable records, from exquisite 17th century drawings of fossils to unique historic geological sketches and letters from the frontline in World War 1. The Archive includes the papers of the famous 'Sedgwick Club', started in 1880 in memory of Adam Sedgwick after whom the Museum is named as well as records charting decades of exploration in Svalbard from the late 1940s.
• Seized Books! An online exhibition
  On 10 April 1984, Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise raided Gay’s The Word bookshop in London’s Bloomsbury. 'Operation Tiger' saw officers seize over 140 titles, worth thousands of pounds. Bookshop staff and directors were charged with conspiracy to import so-called ‘indecent or obscene’ material. But Gay’s The Word and their supporters fought back...'Seized Books!: LGBTQ+ Books and Censorship in 1980s Britain' explores the 'Operation Tiger' raids by focussing on the books that were seized, supplemented with contextual blogs and links. The books are all held in Senate House Library, primarily in the Haud Nominandum special collection.
• Senate House Library
  Located at Senate House in Bloomsbury, Senate House Library is the central library for the University of London and the School of Advanced Study. Members have access to beautiful study spaces in Central London, outstanding Arts, Humanities and Social Science, Special Collections, Archives, and digital resources. Find out more about the research strengths of our collections. Senate House Library co-organises History Day with the Institute of Historical Research.
• Shakespeare's Globe Library and Archive
  Shakespeare’s Globe Library and Archive preserves and documents objects, records and research into early modern theatre and theatre practices today. Our Library offers a unique information resource of over 7,000 books and 500 rare books focused on Shakespeare, his contemporaries and dramaturgy. The Archive contains material relating to the productions, the building of the Globe Theatre and Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as well as institutional working of the Trust. Our Moving Image Archive also contains recordings of productions and events held in our theatres and lecture spaces. Our objects collection ranges from building materials to fine art and costumes.
• Sheltered from laymans’ eyes’: sex in the RCP library
  Rare books and special collections librarian, Katie Birkwood looks at a once controversial book that relates to LGBT+ history and explores changing attitudes in society and the medical profession.
• SIGMA Research collection
  Sigma Research is a social research group specialising in the behavioural and policy aspects of HIV and sexual health. Collection includes grey and published literature on the impact of HIV on the sexual and social lives of a variety of populations
• Slideshow introducing the IBCC Digital Archive
• SOAS Library
  One of only five National Research Libraries in the UK, with over 1.5 million volumes, periodicals and audio-visual materials in 400 languages, as well as special collections of manuscripts, rare books and archives – all focusing on Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
• SOAS Library Book Display Video: 'Beyond a Ban: Queer Voices Uncensored'
  In celebration of the Queer History and Heritage Trail, this video showcases how SOAS Library recently promoted its Gender Studies collections through a banned book display: 'Beyond a Ban: Queer Voices Uncensored'.
• Society of Antiquaries of London
  The Library at Burlington House is the largest antiquarian library in the country, with an outstanding collection. The collection focus’ on history of material culture, the library covers British and European archaeology, architectural history, art history and the decorative arts, heraldry, and British local history.
• Special Collections at SOAS University of London
  Video introducting special collections at SOAS.