Archives and Special Collections

IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society holds collections of archive materials ranging from 1797 to the present day. They provide a rich resource for the history of education and educationists.

• Address and contact details

Archives are unpublished, primary source material created during the life of an individual or an organisation. They are usually paper-based, but can also be film, sound, photographic and electronic materials.

The IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, holds collections of archive materials ranging in date from 1797 to the present day. These archives are intended to reflect the broadest possible range of issues and concerns surrounding teaching and lifelong learning in past, present and future societies. This includes all levels of education from pre-school and school through to further, higher, teacher and adult education, in formal, informal and experimental settings. It includes research, practice, policy and thought in education and related areas. They provide a rich resource for the history of education and educationists both in this country and abroad.

We hold:

• Deposited Collections, given to us by people and organisations related in some way to education. There are over 100 of these, ranging in size from one box to over 300.
• The Institute Archive, comprising the records of the IOE itself, dating from its creation in 1902.

The Newsam Library holds 27 Special Collections of books and pamphlets relating to education. These are discrete, mainly historical, collections of published books and documents.

The Special Collections vary in size and coverage. Some collections such as the History of Education Collection have been built up from a variety of sources. Others, like the Brooke Collection and the Hayward Collection, are the personal libraries of individual scholars. There are also historical collections that concentrate on a particular discipline - for example, the Grenfell Collection on physical education.

Most Special Collections are closed in terms of further acquisitions, but a few, such as the Official Publications Collection and the Historical Textbooks Collection, are still added to on a regular basis.

Address and contact details

• Address: Newsam Library and Archives, UCL IOE, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
• Email: ioe.arch-enquiries@ucl.ac.uk
• Tel: 020 7612 6983
• Access and location