Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick

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Archives rich in social and political history from the late 19th century onwards. Follow the MRC for highlights from our collections, details of our online resources and more! https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc

Digitisation assistant at work, copying a volume using an overhead camera. The volume is supported by a split cradle and there are lights along three sides of the A1 scanner.
LONDON TRADES' COUNCIL. REFORM BILL in DANGER TO THE WORKMEN OF LONDON. Your attendance is urgently requested in support of the GREAT REFORM DEMONSTRATION On MONDAY, JULY 21st, 1884. The Trades will form a distinctive portion of the Procession, and from the outlying Districts will assemble in order on the Thames Embankment at TWO o'clock. All Workmen are cordially invited to fall in with the Trade to which they belong, as it is greatly to their interest that the Procession of the Trades should be as large, representative, and characteristic as possible. THE TRADES' ORGANISING COMMITTEE: Abrey, J., Carpenters Harford, E., Railway Servants Powell, T., Machine Rulers Adams, E., Bakers Jones, W, Cabinet Makers Smyth, T., Plasterers Coulson, E., Bricklayers King, H., Bookbinders Smith, J. R., Cabinet Makers Cottrell, E., Polishers Mitchell, J., Portmanteau Makers Steadman, W. C., Barge Builders Drummond, C. J., Compositors Morrison, E. Bookbinders Woods, E., Ironfounders Fernie, J., Farriers Noon, E., Shoe Makers Willson, I. J., Shipwrights Humphreyson, C., Cabinet Makers Poole, J., Shoe Makers GEORGE SHIPTON, Secretary.
Copy letter written on behalf of Manuel de Irujo, former head of the Basque government and a representative of the Spanish Republican Government in exile, to Stanley Rous, Secretary of the English Football Association. Irujo asks for a match to be arranged between Republican footballers and a British team. The majority of the Republican players played for French teams, having fled Spain following Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The exception was Coventry City's striker Emilio Aldecoa, who became the first Spanish player in the English league when he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1943. Included in a file on 'Spain, 1945-1948', from the archives of the Trades Union Congress; document reference: MSS.292/946/2.
Advertisement for Ovaltine Cold. Features a drawing of a woman drinking a glass of cold Ovaltine. Caption reads 'A delightful Summer drink - nourishing and health giving'.
Screenshot of two poems written by Barnsley teenagers about their town and views on education.
Title slide for presentation on 'The Big K: The Pit that shaped a community'.
Pair of boots with dates that the owner worked at Kellingley Colliery painted on the toes.
July 1942 edition of French Resistance bulletin 'Combat', including column on '14 Juillet 1942'.
List of some of the processes involved in work at steam laundries in 1922, including sorting, washing, calendaring, drying and mangling, machine ironing and hand ironing.
A cartoon which shows how people spend their train journeys: eating from hampers, throwing bottles out of windows, dodging missiles thrown at train windows, defacing the carriage and practising the 'three card trick'.
'Black list' of stonemasons who remained at work during a strike at the Army and Navy Club House, Coal Exchange and at Mr - Yard, Bell Lane, Spitalfields, in 1848.
Booklet entitled 'Football - how to succeed'. Published for the National Union of Teachers it shows a drawing of a footballer circa 1930s.
Photo of the board game 'Wheeling - A New and Exciting Game For Cyclists'. A sequence of squares numbered 1-99 feature various hazards - police, rough terrain, an unsuspecting older woman, a heavily laden cart, some sort of farm machinery, etc. The winner of the game is the first to get their counter to the pub, specifically late 19th century cycling magnet 'The Anchor' at Ripley, Derbyshire.
Photograph of a miner in the first half of the 20th century. He has come up from a shift below ground and has coal dust coating the lower half of his face.
'Our handiwork page' from the Young Women's Christian Association's 'Our Own Gazette'. Illustrations of two suitable tennis dresses for the 1920s. The text includes tips on suitable material to use. Patterns for the dresses were available for ninepence and you had to remember to include the pattern number and your waist size in the order.
Page from Canonbie Cycling Club Chronicle, vol. 2, no. 6. It's headed 'Our MAP Page' and contains a profile of CCCC member 'Miss A'. A photo of 'Miss A' on her touring bicycle has been pasted into the volume. Document reference: 1043/27/1.
Photograph of the Princess Street Offices Ladies’ Cricket Team, from ‘The Bombshell’, August 1922. The cricketers are lined up in two rows (six standing and five sitting) and are dressed in loose 1920s clothing. Most have bandanas or scarfs round their heads to tie back their hair. The two women at each end of the back row are leaning on cricket bats and the woman sat in the middle of the front row is wearing pads.
Printed photograph of workers having a picnic in a large field with trees in the background. The caption says, ‘The Workers’ Union picnic at Bournville’.
Cover of the 'Women's Employment' newspaper featuring the quote "The benefit to be expected from giving to Women the free use of their faculties by leaving them the free choice of their employment and opening to them the same field of occupation as to other human beings, would be that of doubling the mass of mental faculties available for the higher service of humanity". The paper advertises jobs for "educated women" and includes the 'Journal of the Students' Careers Association'. This edition is dated November 15 1912.
Leaflet: 'To Working Men & Women. "The Anti-Saloon League" of the United States - which has now changing its name to "The World League Against Alcoholism" has sent a number of skilled organisers and specious speakers to our country to help the misnamed "Temperance" Associations to ROB YOU OF YOUR BEER. ... Will you allow these Aliens to: DICTATE TO YOU, INTERFERE WITH YOUR LIBERTIES, CLOSE YOUR PUBLIC HOUSES, HUSTLE YOU INTO COMPULSORY TEETOTALISM"...
Blood is the Price of Coal: Coal Communities, Health & Welfare in Britain & Beyond from the 19th Century to the Present This free one day conference aims to bring together researchers from higher education, libraries, archives, museums and community and campaign groups to explore the history of health and welfare in Britain’s coal mining industry. Conference programme: Panel 1: Disasters, safety and commemoration Oaks Colliery Disaster, 1866 Paul Darlow, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Paul Hardman, former NUM National Executive Officer The Safety Men: the Colliery Deputies union in the British Coal Industry Professor Peter Ackers, Loughborough University (Emeritus) Welcomed to Wrexham Sarah Castagnetti, The National Archives The 1959 Auchengeich Disaster: class, community and commemoration in Scotland’s coalfields Professor Jim Phillips, University of Glasgow Chair: Dr Jörg Arnold, Universität Augsburg Panel 2: Health The Violent Realities and Multiple Temporalities of a Miner’s Life Liv Robinson, Northumbria University ‘A wonderful difference to the home life’: pithead baths, pitwomen, and disability in twentieth-century British coalmining communities Lucy Jameson, Durham University Pneumoconiosis, Environment, and the Politics of Coal Miners' Health in Twentieth Century Britain Dr Andrew Seaton, University of Manchester A Special Case? Miners’ Health, Wage Relativities and the Fall of Heath’s Government Robert Rayner, University of Birmingham Chair: Professor Mathew Thomson, University of Warwick
Photograph and biography of W J Bassett as featured in 'The Sportfolio' - Portraits and Biographies of Heroes and Heroines of Sport & Pastime, 1896
The Modern Records Centre 'Archivercise' video, demonstrating an agile member of staff working out in one of our strongrooms.
Drawing of a judge in a wig with the caption 'Have the YMA behind you'
Sketch of miners' lamps (a Davy lamp and Marsaut lamp) and a piece of gauze over a bunsen burner, with notes about how they worked.
Extract from typescript version of the 1811 rules of the Wakefield Friendly Associated Coal-Miners, showing rule no.19: 19. If any Member of this Society, after having received his Wages earned at his Colliery, shall in a boasting manner, publish to other people the Amount of his Earnings in a short time; (which hath been too often done to the great Injury of Coal-Miners in general) such Member so offending, shall forfeit two shillings to be paid to the Delegate of the Colliery at which such Member shall be employed: And if the offending Member shall neglect or refuse the same on demand, the Delegate shall report his Conduct to the Committee, who shall thereupon make a Demand thereof; and if the offending Member shall afterwards for one Calendar Month neglect or refuse to pay the same he shall be expelled this Society and forfeit all the benefits thereof.-
First page of the articles, rules, orders and regulations of Wakefield Friendly Associated Coal Miners, written on two sheets of very large parchment (sheep skin) in 1811 and tightly folded ever since.
First page of article on 'Self-protection on a cycle' ('How you may Best Defend Yourself when Attacked by Modern Highwaymen'), including three photos of two men throwing unconvincing punches over a bicycle.
Front cover of 'The Wheelwoman' (incorporating the 'The Cyclist' and 'The Sportswoman'), 4 December 1897. It includes an engraving done in the style of Aubrey Beardsley, showing a women in a very long clingy dress looking at a bicycle on a plinth, with the caption 'Can she ride?'. The list of contents includes information about fashions and an article 'For wheelwomen who vote'.
Title page from the October 1905 report of the Howard Association, including a list of patrons and information about the chief contents of the report.
Front page of the minutes of the 8th meeting of the Biscuit Names Committee of the Cake and Biscuit Manufacturers' War Time Alliance Ltd., held on 3 February 1949 (archive reference: 646/7/4).
Copy of a poster featuring a picture of a hot cup of tea (plus saucer and spoon) followed by the caption 'and BISCUITS. BISCUITS KEEP YOU GOING'. The illustration features in the 1946 report 'Combined operations by the biscuit industry - how wartime experience can produce peacetime prosperity', published by the Cake and Biscuit Manufacturers' War Time Alliance Ltd. (archive reference: 646/10/8).
Drawing of a cup of tea with the word 'and biscuits: biscuits keep you going'
Page from 'Our Own Gazette', May 1892, featuring 'Lady Adelaide: A story of the Siege of Kenilworth in 1266'. The illustration shows the Queen talking to Lady Adelaide and Lord Albert on the battlements of Kenilworth Castle. Part of the Young Women's Christian Association archive.
Printed photograph of 'The Residents of the Homes for Working Girls in London at Dollis Hill, Willesden', on August Bank Holiday in 1887. The women are mostly sat on the ground, wearing a variety of hats. Some look enthusiastic about the outing, others look actively cross.
Advertisement for Debenham & Freebody featuring illustrations of two women. Captioned 'bathing & swimming suits and beach wrappers'. The woman on the left is wearing a smart taffeta bathing suit. The woman on the right is wearing a sleeveless two-piece swimming suit and new beach cape.
Screenshot from 1963 film 'The chosen few', showing a middle aged white woman talking to two students, both men, one black, the other white. It shows a scene when a landlady agrees to rent a room only to the white student.
Screenshot from short film 'The chosen few', 1963, produced by the Campaign for Education. It shows a young white man in suit and glasses chewing a pen, while two other young white men in suits write notes behind him.
Photograph of 3 young women in bathing costumes, holding hands in the sea. The woman in the centre is Eileen Younghusband. The photograph was taken c.1920.
Advert for boots from W. Barratt & Co. Ltd. of Northampton, headed 'That's the boot'.
Full page advert for the wares of F. Blundell of Lewisham, purveyors of musical instruments, phonographs, cameras and cycles. The advert, published in The Postman's Gazette on 30 April 1904, leads with the slogan 'As welcome as the flowers in May', and advertises bicycles, pianos, organs, a variety of cameras and photographic equipment, violins, mandolins, bronze ornamental horses, phonographs, melodeons, banjos and 'Muller's Erato Autoharp'. The goods come recommended by a cartoon gent in a dinner jacket and Comrade T. Sweeney of Coachford.
Black and white photograph showing Rowland Barrett, a white man aged 30, with shortish hair and clean shaven, wearing glasses and a solemn expression. He is in his prison cell wearing prison uniform. He stands in front of a heavy iron door and next to a small shelf which is his desk which has a candle in a brass candlestick on it. In front of the shelf is a hard wooden bench. Next to his feet is his latrine bucket.
Photograph of 1926 General Strike bulletins, including strike editions of The British Worker, The British Gazette, Evening News, Daily Mail, Financial News, Sporting Times and Daily Telegraph.
Front page of The Scottish Worker, General Strike newspaper of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, published on 11 May 1926. It includes an editorial headed 'The people are with us!' (extract: "We enter to-day upon the second week of our struggle. The past week has been one of intense excitement, and events have moved so rapidly that everyone has been carried along in the stream. The tremendous response of the workers to the call of the General Council took our opponents by surprise, and caught them absolutely unprepared to cope with the emergency. They have been making frantic efforts since to improvise those services which we were assured were all arranged long ago to meet any emergency."), articles on 'Train tragedies', 'Conservative move for peace reported', 'Strike extends', 'A Coatbridge raid' and 'Blackleg students'.
Form supplied by the British Inter-Aid Committee for the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany to people who wanted to take in a refugee child through the Kindertransport.
Part of a page of minutes of the Administrative sub-committee of the Basque Children's Committee, listing attendees at the meeting on 15 November 1938: MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE BASQUE CHILDREN'S ADMINISTRATIVE SUB-COMMITTEE held at 4, Great Smith Street, London, S.W.1. on Tuesday, November 15th, 1938 at 5 p.m. PRESENT: Dr. Ellis ( Chairman) Dame Janet Campbell Lady Layton Mrs. Attenborough (representing Leicester) Mrs. Pennyman (representing Middlesborough) Miss Vulliamy Mr. Leaker (representing Birmingham) Sr. Uranga Mr. Kavanagh Sr. Omegna (representing Worthing) Dr. Morgan Miss Smith Miss Denner
National Council of Labour leaflet calling for support for "four thousand Spanish children ... brought to safety from war-stricken Basque villages and towns" to Britain.
Extracts from bulletins broadcast and published during the 1926 General Strike.
Collection of speeches from the archives of Alwyn Machen.
Posters, leaflets and other publicity material relating to the campaign against pit closures in the early 1990s.
National Union of Mineworkers' banner with the motto 'The past we inherit, the future we build'.
Page from an article called 'How we may Travel in the Future: Some Startling Progostications' by Hiram S. Maxim, published in the 1897 magazine 'The Rambler' [document reference: MSS.328/C/5/RAM]. It includes an engraving of 'An Aerial Train' (an unsafe looking cable car, speeding along a cable strung high over London) and the author's attempt to calculate the speed and potential purpose of a futuristic flying machine.
Poster produced by the Transport and General Workers' Union to mark Workers' Memorial Day April 28, 2005. 'Mourn the dead...fight for the living'. Poster shows scaffolding with a hard hat on one of the posts. Captioned 'Safe work is a right, not a privilege'.
Group of audio cassettes from the National Union of Mineworkers' archives, including one called 'On the Yorkshire Mining Heritage Trail: Barnsley, Wakefield', with Ian McMillan and Martyn Wiley.
Screenshot of the home page for 'From Easter Rising to Civil War: Ireland, 1916-1922', part of Warwick Digital Collections. It includes a photograph of Dublin, partly in ruins, with trams and carts crossing a bridge, and people gathering.
Illustrated cover of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', printed from the acting copy. Performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, 1816.
Still from recording of interview with Jayaben Desai, treasurer of the Grunwick strike committee in 1976-1978. The recording was made in 2007.
Advertisement for 'Keapot Urns' made by Sumerling & Co., Ltd. Features a drawing of a wheeled trolley with an urn, mugs, milk jug and bowls.
Photograph of MRC exhibition space, with four cases containing original archives relating to the 1926 General Strike.
Photograph of archive boxes on shelves in one of our strongrooms.