Manuscript Collections

The archive collections, which number in the region of 7 million items in over 800 collections, are principally of nineteenth and twentieth century date, although the earliest items date from the twelfth century.  They focus on political, military, diplomatic and official papers of individuals with a connection with the University’s region, on Anglo-Jewry and on the relations between the Jews and other peoples, on the University itself and on former staff, students and associates as well as acoustics, environmental data and knitting history.

The nineteenth-century political and military manuscript collections

These include the main archives of two British Prime Ministers, the first Duke of Wellington and third Viscount Palmerston, papers of a third Prime Minister, William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne, and encompass the diaries of the Victorian philanthropist and social reformer seventh Earl of Shaftesbury.

The twentieth-century political and military manuscript collections

The principal amongst these collections is that of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Countess Mountbatten of Burma, a multi-media archive of approximately 250,000 papers and 50,000 photographs, which contains material both of national and international significance.

Anglo-Jewish and inter-faith manuscript collections

With hundreds of archive collections, Southampton is an important centre in Western Europe for the study of Anglo-Jewish history in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and for the relations between Jews and non-Jewish worlds.  The Anglo-Jewish Archives contain significant holdings for individuals and families, for organisations and for communities. The inter-faith collections include the archive of Revd Dr James Parkes, a founder member of the Council of Christians and Jews.

Other archive collections

Other collections include archive material of the university itself and its predecessor institutions; archives relating to Basque child refugees; archives for acoustics and the design of buildings; the historic river archive, containing biological and chemical data on the state of rivers; collections relating to maritime archaeology and the Montse Stanley knitting collection.