Kingston University London - Information Services

Archives News

Please check this page for the latest developments in the Kingston University Archives, including new collections becoming available.

October 2011

We are pleased to announce that the Kingston University Archives and Special Collections Blog is now live at http://blogs.kingston.ac.uk/asc

The aim of the blog is to introduce readers to our Archival Collections, which range in subject from theatre and literature to publishing, Eastern European history and the history of the University itself. We also hope to highlight a few hidden gems which you might not expect to find here! We will be describing the work that takes place behind the scenes to ensure that our Collections are ready to be used by researchers, and we will make any announcements relevant to the Archives, from closure periods to new collections.

I hope you find the blog interesting. If you’d like to make an appointment to view any of our collections please email archives@kingston.ac.uk.

April 2011

We are extremely pleased to announce the acquisition of the David Heneker Archive.  David Heneker was a composer of a number of musicals including Half a Sixpence, Charlie Girl, Irma la Douce and Expresso Bongo. The papers include working drafts of scripts and musical numbers, correspondence, memorabilia, and some recordings. The collection is an insight into the work of this talented musical composer and how he would take a show from initial idea to stage production and beyond. The Collection is currently in the progress of being sorted and catalogued.

Another collection for which cataloguing is well underway is the Publishing News Archive. Publishing News was a magazine created for the publishing industry which ran from 1979 to 2008. In the collection we have back copies of the magazines, other relevant publications, photographs, research compiled by the editors on individuals and companies in the book industry, and other items. In all the collection provides a fascinating glimpse into the publishing and book trades of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

As records from both collections are catalogued they will start appearing on our archives catalogue at http://kuadlib.kingston.ac.uk. If you would like to make an appointment to view records in either collection, or have any questions, please email us at archives@kingston.ac.uk.

October 2010

We are pleased to announce that Kingston University Archives and Special Collections are now open for researchers after our summer closure.  The building project gave the Archives a new location within the LRC at our Penrhyn Road Campus, with greatly improved facilities for researchers and the collections.  We look forward to welcoming you to our new space.

To make an appointment to view any records from the Archives please email archives@kingston.ac.uk.  We ask for 24 hours notice of appointments.

May 2010

We are delighted to announce that the archives of the Orange Prize for Fiction have been acquired by Kingston University Archives and Special Collections. The Orange Prize for Fiction is a major literary prize which was first awarded in 1995 and which celebrates the work of women writers. More information on the prize can be found at http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/

We anticipate that it will be some months before any documents are made available to researchers. Please check this page for further news and in the mean time do please contact us if you have any questions.

Important announcement

During the summer of 2010 a major building project will take place at our Penrhyn Road campus. This project involves widening the main corridor through the campus and also significant changes to the ground floor of Penrhyn Road LRC. While the work takes place, the Kingston University Archive will be closed and will re-open at the end of the project in a new location within the LRC.

The Archive will close on 14 May 2010 and will re-open in October 2010.

We will continue to answer telephone and e-mail enquiries from users and you will be able to check on the progress of the project at our web site www.kingston.ac.uk/informationservices

If you had planned to visit us during the summer, please e-mail us at archives@kingston.ac.uk and we will explore with you whether we can accommodate your visit. We apologise for any disappointment and inconvenience this may cause but we look forward to welcoming you to our new archive reading room later in the year.

Archives and Special Collections
Information Services, Kingston University
archives@kingston.ac.uk

June 2009

We are pleased to announce that our Archive catalogue is now available online:

Search the Archive catalogue

From the new catalogue you can search the research papers and correspondence from the Iris Murdoch Collections, and Archives from the Sheridan Morley Theatre Collection. More records will appear as more are catalogued, so do please keep checking back! The books from the Iris Murdoch, Sheridan Morley and Ivanovic collections can still be searched via the Library Catalogue.

The Sheridan Morley Theatre Collection is being officially launched in July, and to celebrate this we are putting on an exhibition of highlights from the collection in the Archives and Special Collections room, based within the LRC at our Penrhyn Road campus. The exhibition will be open 11am-3pm on 7, 8 and 9 July. Entry is free so please drop in to learn more about the theatre and this fascinating man. Please contact the Archives for more information.

February 2009

Our main news is that the books of the Sheridan Morley Theatre Collection are now available for use by researchers in the Archives and Special Collections room, something that has been enabled by moving many of the collections in the archive into our new storage area. The books give a fascinating insight into the interests of renowned theatre critic Sheridan Morley, and many of them contain inscriptions by the authors. There are still some books awaiting cataloguing but they are a very small percentage of the whole and will be added to the Archives room as soon as they are ready. The books can all be searched on the Library Catalogue by highlighting ‘Sheridan Morley Theatre Collection’ under the Collection drop-down.

The archives from the Morley collection have been sorted prior to their cataloguing. We hope to have this completed by the summer, and we are currently working towards putting the archives catalogue online in the near future. Please check here for further updates.