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Identity statement

Reference code(s)

GB0100 KCLCA 1993 KDH; 1998 KDH; KDH/GRA; KDH/PH

Title

KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: Department of History Records

Date(s)

[1876]-1992

Level of description

Sub-fonds of King's College London Archives

Extent and medium of the unit of description (quantity, bulk, or size)

30 boxes

Context

Name of creator(s)

King's College London Department of History

Administrative / Biographical history

Courses in English Literature and Modern History were provided in the Senior Department from 1831 and in the Department of General Literature and Science shortly afterwards. English and History were separated in 1855. The installation of Samuel Rawson Gardiner as first Professor in 1876 marked the beginning of a focus in the department on the political and constitutional history of Tudor and Stuart England. The department underwent considerable enlargement in staff and in the breadth of its teaching from around 1912 under Professor Fossey John Cobb Hearnshaw, especially with the establishment of the Rhodes Chair of Imperial History in 1919. The department became part of the Faculty of Arts in 1893 and the School of Humanities in 1989.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

King's College London Department of History.

Content & structure

Scope and content

Department of History records at King's College London comprises minute books, correspondence, committee papers, student and staff records, sound recordings of lectures and photographs, [1876]-1988. These notably include departmental minute books, 1956-1991; University of London Board of Studies in History minutes and papers, 1973-1989; correspondence relating to the examining of postgraduate degrees in history, 1960-1987; correspondence concerning history lectureships and chairs, 1969-1988; staff committee and working party administrative files, 1979-1985; papers relating to the proposed merger of King's College with Bedford College, 1981-1982, and Westfield College, Hampstead, 1984-1987; papers relating to conferences and colloquia on imperial history, 1981-1992; departmental personnel files, 1963-1989 (closed); register of marks, 1934-1992; sessional examination papers, 1947-1988; reading lists for students, 1951-1974; BA History examination papers, 1960, 1962, 1968-1986; lecture lists, 1962-1986; supervision lists, 1979-1989; photographs of students and staff, [1876]-1990; gramophone records of lectures and talks on the subjects of the British Empire and the League of Nations, [1928]; glass photographic slides depicting portraits and antique maps illustrative of the history of the British Empire [1950-1970].

System of arrangement

Boxed in order of accession.

Conditions of access & use

Conditions governing access

Administrative records are generally closed for 30 years except for published material and some committee and other minutes. Student and staff records are subject to an 80 year closure period after the date of leaving, but may be consulted by Departmental and other College staff with permission from the Head of Department.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services.

Language/scripts of material

English

Finding aids

A hand list of the contents of the collection is available in the College Archives reading room.

Allied materials

Existence and location of originals

King's College London College Archives

Related units of description

King's College London Archives: History Department student files (Ref: KCLCA KDH/FP, KDH/FPC, KDH/FPPG, KDH/FPPGC); examination question papers (Ref: KCLCA K/EX); Secretarial series (Ref: KAS/AC2). Private papers at King's include those of Professor Peter James Marshall (Ref: KCLCA K/PP 8), Professor Fossey John Cobb Hearnshaw (Ref: K/PP 13), Professor Howard Hayes Scullard (Ref: KCLCA K/PP 35). There are photographs of students and staff in King's College London Department of History, 1929-1955 in the Coleman papers (K/PP88).

Description control

Archivist's Note

Sources used: King's College Calendars and prospectuses. Entry compiled by Geoff Browell.

Rules or conventions

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

This catalogue is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. This catalogue may be updated from time to time in order to reflect additional material and/or new understandings of the material.

Date(s) of descriptions

January 2001