Explore the collection

We have substantial manuscript collections relating to the literature, history and culture of the Greek and Roman worlds, as well as a number of important sets of papers belonging to classical scholars. We are also home to one of the most important collections of Greek and Latin papyri in the world.

Our collection includes early printed editions of books on every subject and copies of iconic early books such as the Gutenberg Bible. We also have one of the world’s most extensive collections of incunabula (books printed before 1501).

Our collection of hand-drawn maps, marine cartography, charts and plans is of primary importance for the study of British and west European cartography up to the early modern period. Our topographical collection dates from around the 14th century and the coverage is worldwide. 

Our collection of British and European manuscripts encompasses all fields of knowledge. It includes many finely decorated items and some of the Library’s greatest treasures such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, Magna Carta and the unique manuscript of Beowulf.

We hold a vast collection of handprinted books, newspapers and journals from the 17th and 18th century in Britain, Ireland and the English colonies – everything from the earliest editions of Hamlet to tiny children’s books. We hold some of the world’s most important collections of pamphlets, newsbooks, plays and historic bookbindings. The Burney Newspaper Collection, an unparalleled collection of 17th- and 18th-century newspapers, and the Thomason Tracts Collection of English Civil War-era pamphlets are particularly notable.

We have several collections of 17th- and 18th-century single sheet printing, including playbills, broadside ballads, advertisements, posters and more. Our collections shine a light on everyday life and popular entertainment in the 17th- and 18th- century.

Our 17th- and 18th-century manuscripts and archives range from individual letters and diaries to large archives documenting the lives of particular people, families or institutions. A particularly notable archive is that of the East India Company (1600–1858), complemented by extensive collections of private papers relating to the British experience in India. Other strengths include our archives of British politicians and explorers, rich literary collections and a substantial number of manuscripts relating to philosophy, science, and medicine.

We have a very large collection of maps, sea charts, plans and topographical views, as well as rich collections of drawings, prints, watercolours and other works of art made around the world. Many of these collections reflect 17th- and 18th-century preoccupations with scientific discovery, exploration and empire building.

The Library holds major photographic archives. The Talbot Collection includes correspondence, notebooks and photographs by the British inventor of photography William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877). The Kodak Historical Archive of Kodak Ltd documents the growth of photography and commercial activity between 1885–1990. The India Office collection of photographs documents a range of genres relating to South Asia including the Archaeological Survey of India from c.1850 onwards.

Our titles reflect every aspect of book production and publishing in Britain and Ireland during the 19th century – from technical handbooks to literary first editions. We hold one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of photographically illustrated books and texts relating to the history and development of photography from 1839–1914.

We have extensive holdings of single sheet items include playbills, maps and engraved views. The Evanion collection contains a rich range of material relating to Victorian entertainment and everyday life, including Music Hall posters, tickets for theatrical performances, advertisements, trade catalogues and trade cards.

Our collection includes the papers of British politicians, campaigners, explorers and other public figures, alongside the records of the East India Company 1600–1858 and the India Office 1858–1947. Among our literary collection are manuscript novels, plays and poetry by both famous and forgotten 19th-century writers. The Lord Chamberlain’s Plays include the scripts of all new plays performed in Britain from 1824–1968 as submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for licensing.

We have a vast number of 19thcentury photographs, stamps, prints, drawings and maps. The collection is particularly rich in scientific drawings and manuscript maps, charts and plans with global coverage, and our holdings of printed 19th-century maps and atlases are the strongest in the world for areas of British interest. The India Office collection includes paintings and sculpture and is one of the world’s best sources for photographs of India and other parts of Asia from c.1850 onwards.

Our collection includes the personal archives of writers, translators, actors, theatre directors, companies and agents, as well as the archives of publishing houses, literary societies and organisations. We hold extensive archives relating to figures in public life, including politicians, campaigners, newspaper editors, explorers and scientists.

With near comprehensive coverage of UK publishing as well as publications purchased selectively from around the world, our printed materials are extremely diverse. They include all genres of fiction and poetry, as well as artists’ books and chapbooks, little magazines and the output of small presses. Our periodicals and journals include scholarly, trade and professional journals. Many are held digitally. As well as graphic novels and alternative comics, we have an extensive collections of zines – from football fanzines, through punk and riot grrrl to contemporary zines on diverse issues.

Our 20th- and 21st-century printed maps include a comprehensive Ordnance Survey collection, and we also collect and maintain contemporary geospatial data and cartographic applications.

Medieval songs and settings of the liturgy are amongst the earliest manuscript music in the collection, which also features a rich array of manuscript sources for the study of English music from the 15th century and later. There are original manuscripts of the greatest composers in the Western tradition, with a particular strength in autograph manuscripts of 20th- and 21st-century British composers. The Royal Music Library, with its Handel manuscripts, and the collection of Stefan Zweig, are of great importance too. You will also find the archives of music publishers and the private papers of composers and performers, as well as field notes and documentation from ethnomusicologists.

At the heart of the printed music collection is the material received under legal deposit, which constitutes the most comprehensive archive of music published in the UK since the 16th century. In addition, our collection of music published in other countries is often surpassed only by the national library of the country in question. Other major printed resources include the music library of Paul Hirsch, which includes important first editions of music by composers of the first Viennese school, opera scores and theoretical works, and a substantial collection of printed music received from the musicologist Alan Tyson.

From classical to pop to world music, our recorded music collections cover all genres and comprise both audio and moving image materials. Our collection of ethnographic field recordings is unparalleled, from wax cylinders made by pioneering anthropologists to new recordings from all over the world. We provide the only public access to the BBC sound archives, including radio sessions, interviews, documentaries and live performances and we have a broad selection of independent radio broadcasts.

Recordings include poetry and prose in performance, talks and discussions, and all kinds of theatre – from Shakespeare to Forced Entertainment. The collection comprises commercial releases, private collections, radio and TV broadcasts, and unique material from our own live recording programme. Our extensive collection of spoken voice recordings can be used for a variety of research purposes, including linguistic analysis and for exploring English accents, dialects and language variation and change.

We hold a large collection of oral history recordings covering diverse aspects of British life, work, culture, memory and experience. We continue to collect audio and video interviews through our programme of life story fieldwork recordings, National Life Stories.

Our comprehensive and scientifically documented collection of recordings of sound-producing animals covers every zoogeographical region. In addition, we hold atmospheric and environmental recordings from various habitats and sound collections used for major zoological research projects.

Our newspaper collection covers international, national, local and special interest publications from the 17th century to the present day. We hold a virtually complete collection from 1869 onwards, whilst around 1,200 new issues are taken in each day or week. Historic collections include The Burney Collection of Early English Newspapers and the Thomason Tracts collection of news-books and pamphlets from the period of the English Civil War. Published materials and research resources include media directories, biographies and newspaper histories. We are publishing increasing amounts of data derived from our digitised newspapers on the Research Repository.

Since 2010, our Broadcast News service has recorded and delivered daily access to television and radio news from free-to- air UK channels, including BBC, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, CNN, France 24 and RT. On site, innovative searching across subtitles makes programmes word-searchable and opens them up to a wide range of research enquiries. We hold the verbatim texts of BBC Radio and TV news bulletins from 1937–1983, with the original news desk annotations intact.

We also now record a variety of other types of TV programmes, beyond news. Within the Sound Archive, our extensive radio collection features output from the BBC and other UK and international stations from the 1920s to the present day. 

We hold UK official publications and documentation from governments worldwide. UK material dating back to the Middle Ages, includes electoral registers and covers Westminster, devolved administrations, local authority and EU material. We are a depository library for international organisations such as the United Nations.

We have comprehensive coverage of law reports for UK jurisdictions, selected historical overseas case law, and extensive collections of legislation, government publications, text books and academic law journals. Archival sources include medieval charters and yearbooks, private papers and oral histories of historical legal figures, and records of the administration of justice in India. The wider collection offer pictorial and other cultural representations of law and diverse perspectives on its social impact.

Social welfare at the Library offers information on all aspects of social welfare in the UK and overseas, with a particular emphasis on policy development, implementation and evaluation.

Online resources include digitised materials relating to the Silk Roads available through the International Dunhuang Programme (IDP), materials digitised through the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP), the Qatar Digital Library and other major collections of digitised manuscripts and early printed books from Asia and Africa.

Particularly strong in relation to English-speaking countries in Africa, but also covering the continent broadly and in a variety of languages, with a wealth of historical material as well as a rich collection of government publications from many African countries.

Comprising manuscripts, printed books, newspapers, drawings and photographs from countries in today’s Middle East as well as from Turkey, Iran and Central Asia, and featuring religious and secular works spanning from the 5th to the 20th centuries.

Featuring vast collections of manuscripts, printed books and both contemporary and historic newspapers and journals and a wealth of information relating to medicine and health in South Asia.

Ranging from oracle bones to propaganda posters, government publications and ‘grey’ literature, our historic and contemporary materials from China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia are complemented by English-language studies of the countries and cultures of the region.

Comprising manuscripts, periodicals, printed books, drawings, newspapers and official publications, highlights include richly illustrated folding books in Burmese and Thai, court chronicles in Malay and Javanese, 19th-century mission imprints, and provincial newspapers from North Vietnam relating to the Vietnam War.

One of the world’s richest archives of photographs, prints and drawings alongside ephemera, fine art and furniture collected by the East India Company relating to South Asia and neighbouring countries. A dedicated Print Room is located inside the Asia and Africa Reading Room and open by appointment.

Our collection includes manuscripts and early printed books, edited collections of documents, and modern academic monographs, conference proceedings, Festschrifts, serials and ephemera. We have particularly extensive primary research material on the French Revolution, the two World Wars, the Russian Revolution and the Spanish Civil War, as well as clandestine and Samizdat publications from various countries, alternative press from the late Soviet Union, and the Yugoslav Wars of 1991–1995.

Our world-class collection in all the major and national languages of Europe is complemented by extensive minority language collections. We hold both material in these languages and studies of them (often in English). Our collections include all critical editions of Europe’s canonical literary authors, good coverage of modern authors, and popular and folk literature in many languages. Our serials range from academic journals to niche literary magazines.

We hold and collect material in all formats published in all the countries of Europe and by European diaspora groups elsewhere, with coverage of all communities and language groups, including ethnic minorities, and itinerant and dispersed peoples.

Our collection includes academic monographs, conference proceedings, serials, exhibition catalogues and art sale catalogues. The art of the book is particularly well represented. For the 20th century, we have a strong collection of avant-garde books and periodicals from Russia, Italy and other, including lesser-known, centres of avant-garde activity.

We have a world-class collection of historical European newspapers in hard copy and on microfilm, as well as offering access in our Reading Rooms to current media aggregators and digital newspaper archives. As a European Documentation Centre until 2020, we acquired publications of the European Union and its predecessors from their inception in the 1950s. Official and statistical publications from all over Europe were collected comprehensively in the past, while now we connect to digital versions. We also offer on-site access to bibliographic and statistical databases, and selected digitised collections of archives and documents.

Our research collections on Australia, Aotearoa, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands cover all formats and range from manuscripts and early colonial texts to philatelic collections, official publications and sound recordings.

We hold one of the world’s largest collections of North American books– including rare literary first editions, manuscripts, journals, little magazines, pamphlets, musical scores, and maps, ranging from the colonial period to the 21st century, as well as recordings and digital resources. We hold unique material on First Peoples groups, 19th-century immigration, and late-19th and early-20th century photography. Our archival collections contain literary manuscripts by T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath, among others.

Spanning the 16th century through to the present day and covering the English-, French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America, our collection includes materials on exploration, conquest, slavery, natural history, art, religion, independence movements, and all aspects of 20th- and 21st-century society in these regions. Our literary collections hold fiction, poetry, essays and literary magazines from across Latin America and the Caribbean. You will find Caribbean and Latin American-related archival digital collections through the Endangered Archives Programme.