{"id":89,"date":"2021-05-24T11:23:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T10:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/?page_id=89"},"modified":"2024-09-09T14:48:38","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T13:48:38","slug":"special-collections-archives","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/primary-sources\/special-collections-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Collections &amp; Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Special Collections &amp; Archives look after over 150 archival collections, many of which are of local, national and international interest. Please see this <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kent.cloud.panopto.eu\/Panopto\/Pages\/Viewer.aspx?id=7d8dabf1-e633-4732-8353-ac3f00cd4115\">introduction video<\/a><\/strong> to find out more; the<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/\">Special Collections &amp; Archives blog<\/a><\/strong> is also regularly updated with in-depth pieces and news.<\/p>\n<p>For postgraduates, Special Collections &amp; Archives also runs a session through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/graduate-researcher-college\/skills-training\">Graduate School Skills Training<\/a> scheme twice a year.<\/p>\n<p>Collections of particular relevance to history students include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cartoons.ac.uk\/\">British Cartoon Archive<\/a> <\/strong>holds works by over 300 artists with a particular focus on social and political cartooning from the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century up to the present day; new material is added to the <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.cartoons.ac.uk\/\">online catalogue<\/a> Over 300,000 artworks held in the archive can be viewed for free online and there is also an extensive library of cartooning publications, details of which can be found through LibrarySearch.\n<ul>\n<li>The archive of 20<sup>th<\/sup> century cartoonist Carl Giles is one of the largest collections within the British Cartoon Archive. Alongside thousands of artworks the archive contains extensive research files on many contemporary topics and correspondence which includes Giles\u2019 time working for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/theatre\/index.html\">Theatre collections<\/a> <\/strong>are a great source of primary material from the 19<sup>th<\/sup> and 20<sup>th<\/sup> centuries, particularly for social and cultural historians.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/other\/local-history\/index.html\">Local History collection<\/a> <\/strong>contains a variety of books and maps on Kent from the 18<sup>th<\/sup> and 19<sup>th<\/sup><\/li>\n<li>The papers of former <strong>House of Commons Speaker and MP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/other\/weatherill\/index.html\">Bernard Weatherill<\/a> <\/strong>are a great resource for political historians.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/other\/hewlett-johnson\/index.html\">archives and library of Reverend Hewlett Johnson<\/a><\/strong>, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral from 1931 \u2013 1963. Johnson was an ardent Socialist; his papers extensively document his views, activities and support of communism during the Cold War era.<\/li>\n<li>Records, periodicals and books of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/other\/queens-own-buffs\/index.html\">the Queen\u2019s Own Buffs, the Royal Kent Regiment<\/a> <\/strong>from the 18<sup>th<\/sup> \u2013 21<sup>st<\/sup> centuries \u2013 useful for military historians.<\/li>\n<li>Contemporary history is well represented in the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/standupcomedy\/index.html\">British Stand-Up Comedy Archive<\/a><\/strong> which charts the development of alternative and stand-up comedy from the 1980s to the present day.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/other\/crow\/index.html\">Pre-1700s collection<\/a><\/strong> contains several hundred books and primarily focuses on literature and sermons. Highlights include a second edition of Holinshed\u2019s Chronicles (on loan from the Marlowe Society), a first edition of the works of Benjamin Johnson, a 1598 edition of Chaucer\u2019s works and many religious texts.\n<ul>\n<li>A video of The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1598) can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/kent.cloud.panopto.eu\/Panopto\/Pages\/Viewer.aspx?id=c07f6bf8-8ce6-4929-bb5e-ac6400fe3627\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/other\/maddison\/index.html\">library of Dr R.E.W Maddison<\/a> focuses on the history of science<\/strong> from the 15<sup>th<\/sup> \u2013 20<sup>th<\/sup> The collection contains the Library\u2019s only incunabula and is a fantastic resource in charting the development of natural philosophy (particularly chemistry and physics) into the three distinct disciplines of today. The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/theatre\/index.html\">Theatre collections<\/a> <\/strong>support research into interpretation of medieval and early modern literature and performance since their inception; the collections are particularly strong on 19<sup>th<\/sup> century adaptation and drama.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library\/specialcollections\/other\/crow\/index.html\">library of scholar John Crow<\/a>, who focused on Renaissance literature and ballad and song<\/strong>. Many of Crow\u2019s early modern texts are part of the Pre-1700s collection mentioned above, but Crow\u2019s library also contains an extensive number of early modern play facsimiles, books on Shakespeare and ballad and song texts.<\/li>\n<li>Special Collections &amp; Archives works very closely with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canterbury-cathedral.org\/heritage\/archives-library\/\">Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library<\/a><\/strong> to offer teaching, events and collaboration that spans both institutions\u2019 collections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Special Collections &amp; Archives reading room is in Block A, Floor 1 of the Templeman Library near the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/templeman-exhibitions\/\">Templeman Gallery<\/a>. You need to request material in advance and make an appointment to view it. The team also supports a range of education and engagement activities and are always keen to collaborate with history students and staff. If you have any questions or want to talk about all things archives, do get in touch <a href=\"mailto:specialcollections@kent.ac.uk\">via email<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Special Collections &amp; Archives look after over 150 archival collections, many of which are of local, national and international interest. Please see this introduction video &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/primary-sources\/special-collections-archives\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68598,"featured_media":0,"parent":150,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89\/revisions\/91"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}