Modern Political Papers in the
Bodleian Library
The private papers of British politicians,
public servants, journalists and others
public life, 1840 to the present day.
The extent of the holdings
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The Bodleian holds one of the UK’s
largest concentrations of modern
political papers dating from 1840 to
the present day including the private
papers of six Prime Ministers:
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Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
(1804-1881);
H. H, Asquith, Earl of Oxford &
Asquith (1852-1928);
Clement Attlee, Earl Attlee (18831967);
Harold Macmillan, Earl of Stockton
(1894-1986);
Harold Wilson, Lord Wilson of
Rievaulx (1916-1995) and
James Callaghan, Lord Callaghan
(1915-2005)
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Cabinet colleagues and other
ministers
The papers of over a hundred ministers including :
The Earl of Clarendon (1800-1870)
Sir William Harcourt (1827-1904), and his son Lewis ( later Viscount )
Harcourt (1863-1922)
Sir John ( later Viscount) Simon (1873-1954)
H A L Fisher ( 1865-1940)
Walter ( later Viscount) Monckton (1891-1965)
Frederick Marquis ( later 1st Earl of Woolton) (1883-1964)
Anthony ( later Lord) Greenwood (1911-82)
Sir Geoffrey ( later Lord) Howe ( b. 1926 )
Public servants
Mainly diplomats including:
Archibald Clark Kerr ( later Lord
Inverchapel) (1882-1951)
Paul (later Lord) Gore-Booth (19091984)
Sir Denis Wright ( 1911-2005)
Sir Patrick Reilly (1914-1999)*
Sir Roger Makins ( later Lord
Sherfield) (1904-1996)**
But also the papers of retired UN civil
servants including George Ivan
Smith (1919-1995)* and members
of BAFUNCS
• *Online catalogue
• **current cataloguing project
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Journalists and broadcasters
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Over twenty collections
including:
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Sir Charles de Michele
(1809-1898)
Evelyn Sharp Nevinson
(1856-1955)
Henry Woodd Nevinson
(1856-1941)
Geoffrey Dawson (1874-1944)
Arthur Mann (1876-1972)
Honor Balfour (1912-2001)
William Clark (1916-1985)
Sir Robin Day (1923-2000)
Leonard Miall (1914-2005)
Keith Kyle (1925-2007)
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Current cataloguing projects
The papers of Barbara ( later
Baroness) Castle (1910-2002)
Honor Balfour (1912-2001)
Jenifer Hart (1914-2005)
Francis Hopwood, 1st Baron
Southborough (1860-1947)
Emma Nicholson, Baroness
Nicholson, Lib-Dem MEP
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Accessions and newly-available
material, February- September
2007
Accessions and Newly Material
February –September 2007
Newly available
Alan Lennox-Boyd, Lord Boyd of Merton (1904-1983) 96 boxes of de-restricted material.
New accessions
M.O. Abbott WHO nurse. Further contribution to UN Career Records Project (UNCRP).
Clement Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (1883-1967) Labour Prime Minister. Letter to Mrs Belcher, 1949.
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (1910-1987) Journalist and a former Director-General of the BBC.
Additional papers.
Sir Richard Jolly (b.1934) Development economist, International Civil Servant and historian. UN
Intellectual History Project: The complete Oral History Transcripts from UN Voices
Oliver Knowles International Civil Servant. Additional contribution to UN Career Records Project
(UNCRP). Papers closed.
Keith Kyle (1925-2007) Journalist, writer and historian. Collection closed until catalogued.
Leonard Miall (1914-2005) Journalist, BBC executive, and historian. Collection closed until
catalogued
Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson (b.1941) MEP. Additional Papers. Collection closed.
Alastair Service (b.1933) Writer, historian and campaigner. Additional papers.
St Anne’s College, Oxford. Digital and paper copies of Booklet produced for memorial service to
the historian Jennifer Hart (1914-2005)
Accessing the collections
Online resources:
Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts:
• Modern Political Papers website
• www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/modpol/index.html
• Online catalogues:
• www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/online.htm>
• Special projects:
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/disraeli/disraeli.html
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/entente/entente.html
‘The UN at 60’
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/modpol/uncrp.htm
CAIRO and PARADIGM digital projects
http://cairo.paradigm.ac.uk
Other Bodleian resources
In the Special Collections Reading Room in the New Library:
• Full range of hard copy catalogues, and finding aids to uncatalogued
collections
• Open shelf printed material including biographies and
autobiographies of the men and women who created the collections
• Modern Political Papers in the Bodleian Library (1997), pamphlet, at
X.12.1
• Modern Political Database (MODPOL) for collections acquired up to
2000. Includes information about uncatalogued collections.
In Duke Humfrey’s Library in the Old Library:
Cumulated card index for references to correspondence in smaller
catalogued collections
Other useful Bodleian sources
Conservative Party Archive
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/cpa/index.html
The John Johnson collection of printed ephemera
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/johnson/
The Map section www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides/maps
Bodleian Library of Commonwealth & African Studies at
Rhodes House
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/rhodes
National Archival Resources
For overviews of nation’s manuscript collections:
National Archives Register ‘map’ of resources
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk./nra/default.asp
National Archives Hub for collections in UK universities
and colleges
www.archiveshub.ac.uk