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The University has a number of special collections of books and other materials:
British and Foreign School Society Archive
The archive of the British and Foreign School Society is housed at Runnymede. The archive contains school records, annual reports, the Salmon Collection of early nineteenth century books on elementary education and student and staff records from Borough Road College. The collection may be consulted by appointment.
Use the link below to access the BFSS website and catalogue: British and Foreign School Society Archive
Burnett Archive of Working Class Autobiographies
The Burnett Archive of Working Class Autobiographies includes photocopies of over 230 autobiographies, arranged by number. It is kept at the Uxbridge Campus Library, in a cabinet behind the issue desk. To consult the material, please ask at the issue desk. Material in this archive is available for reference use only; it cannot be borrowed or supplied on interlibrary loan. A complete list of holdings is available in the Index to the Burnett Archive of Working Class Autobiographies.
The usual copyright regulations for unpublished materials apply: single photocopies of up to 5% of an autobiography for private study. If you wish to make more extensive use of particular items, you will need to obtain permission from the present copyright owners.
This archive of working class autobiographies was gathered together by John Burnett, David Vincent and David Mayall whilst compiling their three volume annotated bibliography, "The Autobiography of the Working Class" (Harvester Press, 1984-1989), which can be found in the Quick Reference section: HD8388.B88. This book indicates the locations of these unpublished autobiographies. Excerpts from some of the autobiographies have been published in "Destiny obscure: autobiographies of childhood, education, and family from the1820s to the 1920s", edited by John Burnett (Routledge 1994 and A. Lane 1982).
The authors "sought to identify not only the large numbers of printed works scattered in various local history libraries and record offices, but also extant private memoirs, many of which remain hidden in family attics, known only to the author and a handful of relatives" (Introduction to vol.1 p.xxix). The criteria for inclusion in the Burnett Archive were that the writers were working class for at least part of their lives, that they wrote in English and that they lived for some time in England, Scotland or Wales between 1790 and 1945.
The collection may be consulted by appointment. Please contact the Subject Liaison Librarian for English for further information.
Channel Tunnel Library
The first proposal for a tunnel to link England and France came in 1802. Napoleon Bonaparte was interested, but the scheme came to nothing as nobody knew the geology of the seabed or suggested a method of construction. The idea didn’t go away though, and in 1878 tunneling was begun on both sides of the Channel, at Sangatte in France and at Shakespeare Cliff near Dover. Work was halted in 1882, mainly for reasons of defence – military strategists imagined a French army marching through the tunnel and invading the South Coast!
In the 20th century the idea was revived and, though world wars intervened, it took hold. Millions of words were written about a possible link, ideas rejected and new schemes proposed, right up to the eventual opening of the link in 1994. Many of these books, articles and letters were collected by the Channel Tunnel Association to form their library and this, and the Association’s archive, have been given to Brunel University Library. They will join the Transport History Collection and broaden our archive of material on 19th and 20th century railway history with a fascinating perspective on the major transport initiative of recent times.
The Channel Tunnel Library contains books and published reports, pamphlets, government publications, lectures, letters to the press and articles in newspapers and journals. The archive of the Channel Tunnel Association contains correspondence and papers, cuttings and articles, proposals and papers of the Parliamentary Channel Tunnel Committee. Much of the material concerns the 1930 tunnel scheme which was defeated in the House of Commons by seven votes. Unfortunately most of the Company’s early papers were destroyed in a fire in the their office at London Bridge in 1941.
The collection is held at Runnymede in the Haywood Building and can be consulted by appointment with the BURA/Research Manager.
Maria Grey College Archives
Maria Grey was a campaigner for both the professional education of teachers, particularly women teachers, and the establishment of education as a field of study. She created the first national union for improving the education of women of all classes, which was known as the Women’s Education Union, a pressure group formed to state a case for women’s rights to professional recognition. This group enabled the formation of the Teachers’ Training and Registration Society. The Society founded a training college in 1878, which, in 1888 adopted the name of Maria Grey College.
The last home of the college was on the University’s former campus at Twickenham. The college was incorporated into the West London Institute of Higher Education in 1976, which was subsequently merged with Brunel University in 1995.
The collection contains the records of the college from its origins to incorporation (1876-1976). The records can be consulted by appointment. Please contact: Brunel archives
Murray Collection of Early Children's Books
Elsie Riach Murray (1861-1932) was a lecturer and the first vice principal of Maria Grey College (which was incorporated into the West London Institute of Higher Education in 1976, and merged with Brunel University in 1995). Murray was a highly respected Froebelian scholar, educator and author, whose works included "Infant Schools & Kindergartens" and "Froebel as a Pioneer in Modern Psychology".
The collection, which is not catalogued, was inherited from Murray's personal library and the library at the former Maria Grey College, when it was situated in Brondesbury. It contains many children's books published in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, including some ornately illustrated editions. The collection is housed at Runnymede and may be consulted by appointment. Please contact the Phaedra Casey for further information.
National Jazz Archive
Duplicate books and journals belonging to the National Jazz Archive are housed in the Library's Special Collections Room. The emphasis of the collection is on British publications, but non-UK works, particularly American, are also held. Items cover all types of jazz, and range across biographical material, history and discographies.
The journal collection includes titles that date back to the 1930’s, offering a fascinating contemporary view. The collection is growing, both at the NJA and at its outpost at Brunel, and first copies of any material are always held at the NJA.
The National Jazz Archive (established 1988) aims to be the national repository and research centre for printed material, photographs and memorabilia relating to jazz. Many unpublished documents are also held there. More information is available at their website http://www.nationaljazzarchive.co.uk/
The collection may be consulted by appointment. Please contact the Subject Librarian for Music for further information.
Transport History Collection
The Transport History Collection is located with the University Archive at Runnymede. Material may be consulted by appointment with the BURA/Research Manager.
Coverage: The collection consists largely of two substantial bequests relating to British railway history: the Clinker collection bequeathed by Charles Clinker in 1983, and the Garnett collection bequeathed by David Garnett in 1984. Other notable material includes:
- Stuart Kear's "Railway structures", together with his research notes and photographs
- Leslie James's "Chronology of the construction of Britain's railways, 1856-1922"
- John Palmer's research notes on 19th century railway journals and the Eastern Counties Railway in its formative years
- H.V. Borley's papers on the history of railways in London
The books represent a British railway history collection from earliest times to the early 1980s. The journal collection is smaller but there are some substantial runs of major titles. Comparatively little has been added subsequently, except for a few selective purchases of new books about British railway history, especially the Great Western Railway and railways in the London area.
There is a also collection of early railway maps including Airey and Railway Clearing House maps; also Ordnance Survey maps and railway junction diagrams; a substantial collection of Bradshaw guides; and working and passenger timetables.
The collection also includes several separate collections of railway photographs. Some of these (Mowat, Wookey, and Locomotive Photographs) have been catalogued and Mr Warwick Burton (of 3 Fairway, Clifton, York, YO3 6QA) offers a print service and can supply catalogues. Archive material includes Charles Clinker's notes and correspondence concerning his "Register of closed stations", and papers relating to his revision of MacDermot's "History of the Great Western Railway".
Finding items: Nearly all books, all journals, many maps and some timetables are included in the library catalogue. To limit your search to books in the Transport History Collection, link to <Advanced Search> and then select <Transport> beneath the drop down arrow adjacent to “Library”.
The material in the collection is catalogued to at least the same standard as the rest of the material in the Library, with the addition, where appropriate, of the item number in Ottley's "Bibliography of British railway history". Some indexing of unsorted material has also been done by a number of railway history researchers, and thanks are due to them for giving their time and expertise in this way.
Shakespearean Collections
The collection comprises materials including books, plays, poetry, journals and ephemera written by and about Shakespeare and his time. The collections were donated by both the De Vere Society and the Shakespearean Authorship Trust.
Those Shakespeare collection materials which are openly accessible can be searched for using the library catalogue and can be found on floor 2 of the Library in the red zone.
The rest of the collection may be consulted by appointment only. This material is available for reference use only; it cannot be borrowed. When making requests to view non openly accessible materials please allow at least 24 hours for retrieval in order that the materials may be ready for your consultation. A complete list of these materials is available from the following:
For further information and access contact the Subject Liaison Librarian for English
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