Special Collections

The University of Birmingham holds invaluable and unique collections of approximately 80,000 books, dating back to 1471, and over three million manuscripts. The collections’ particular strengths lie in nineteenth and twentieth century political archives, literary papers and missionary collections.

Highlights are:

• The Chamberlain Collection - the papers of Neville Chamberlain (Prime Minister 1937-1940), Joseph Chamberlain (Founder of the University), and Austen Chamberlain including letters describing Neville Chamberlain’s meeting with Hitler.
• The Avon Papers (papers belonging to and about Anthony Eden, Prime Minister 1955-1957. (includes considerable material on the Suez Crisis)
• The Noel Coward Collection
• The Oswald Mosley papers detailing the political development of fascism in the UK.
• The Church Missionary Society including material relating to the history and anthropology of many African and Asian Countries, often the earliest recorded documents from pioneering explorations into the developing world.
• 4,000 historical works on medicine in general and the plague in particular.
• New Shakespeare Company Theatre archive and the Renaissance Theatre Company.
• Mingana collection of Middle Eastern Manuscripts which has recently been awarded Designated Status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA).
• The Barber Fine Art Special Collections
• Archives of the University of Birmingham and its forerunners from 1828

 

For further information on Special Collections along with our online catalogue please refer to our web pages at http://www.special-coll.bham.ac.uk

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