Special Collections Subject Guides

These guides provide overviews of relevant printed and archive collections for our key subject strengths. They are intended as a starting point to help you find resources for your studies or research.

An image from Campi Phlegraei by Sir William Hamilton

History of Science

The History of Science is one of the greatest subject strengths of UCL Special Collections. Our material in this area dates from the early modern period onwards with particular focus on the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Page from Geometria theoretica practica by Samuel Charles Kechel

Mathematics

UCL Special Collections holds one of the largest and most comprehensive printed mathematical collections in the UK, as well as several important archival collections from the 19th and the 20th centuries.

An iluminated medieval manuscript fragment.

Medieval & Early Modern Collections

UCL Special Collections holds a significant collection of books from the early modern period as well as several small but important collections of manuscripts predominantly dating from the medieval and early modern periods.

An image from 'An Anti-Suffrage Alphabet' by Laurence Housman Leonora Tyson

Politics and Social History

UCL Special Collections holds a wide range of printed and archival material that documents political and social history, with a particular focus on 19th and 20th century reform movements.

Hebrew & Jewish Studies

Hebrew & Jewish Studies is a key subject strength of UCL Special Collections. Relevant material dates from the medieval period onwards with particular focus on printed books and pamphlets from the 16th to 19th centuries, and archival material concerning Anglo-Jewry from the 19th to 20th centuries.

Please see our dedicated IOE Archive subject guides page for guides on the strengths of the IOE archive collections.

These guides are continually being added to. To suggest a topic for a new guide, please contact us.