Online resources

A number of documents from LSE Archives have been digitised and are available online.

Resources marked * are freely available for teaching and learning purposes by LSE staff and students without any special permission, including use in study packs, lectures, conferences, assignments, dissertations, presentations and workshops, and online display via a secure network, such as Moodle.

19th Century British Pamphlets

LSE Library contributed over 6k pamphlets to this RLUK-funded project, and these are available online via JSTOR|, along with another 20k pamphlets from universities around the UK. All the great political, social, intellectual and economic debates of the age are covered, including politics and political developments, social policy, public health, transport and foreign policy. Access to the pamphlets is free to UK researchers, teachers, students and members of the public. For further information and research guides, including useful guidance on the best way to use the JSTOR site, visit 19th Century British Pamphlets Online|. We hope in the near future to make the LSE pamphlets available via our main Library Catalogue.

*Charles Booth

Information on working class living and working conditions was collected by Charles Booth and others for the 'Survey into Life and Labour in London', 1886-1903. The working papers relating to this survey are held at LSE Archives. Images of some of these documents are available on the Charles Booth Online Archive|:

Twelve Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, 1898-9, covering an area of London from Hammersmith in the west, to Greenwich in the east, and from Hampstead in the north to Clapham in the south.
Police notebooks were compiled by social investigators while accompanying the police around their beats, 1897-1902 (BOOTH/B/346-376).
Stepney Union casebooks (BOOTH/B/162-168)
Jewish notebooks (BOOTH/A/19, BOOTH/B/108-109, BOOTH/B/197)
The Colony: seven volumes of a family journal that aimed to represent high-standards of social conscience and discussed issues such as universal suffrage and religion, 1866-1871. The originals are held at the Senate House Library (MS 797 II/24).

Co-operative societies rule books

160 rule books from co-operative societies across Britain and Ireland are available online via the archives catalogue|. The books (COLL MISC 0359), dating 1877-1921, were collected by Beatrice Webb as part of her enquiries into the co-operative movement (the Webbs published their book, "The consumers’ co-operative movement" in 1921). Information included in the rule books includes: the objects of the society; rules of admission of members; members’ rights and responsibilities; shares and capital; the societies' government and administration (its officers, committees and meetings). For further information see our blog post| about the collection.

Exhibitions

1967 and all that|. Exhibition created as part of the project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which partially decriminalised homosexuality. Featuring documents from the Hall-Carpenter Archives| and press cuttings from the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive|, the exhibition puts the campaign for law reform in its historical context, charts the progress of reform proposals through parliament and illustrates the impact the change in law had on the gay rights movement.

'A poor thing, but our own': the Webbs and the Labour Party|. Exhibition illustrating the links between Beatrice and Sidney Webb and the Labour Party, particularly from 1918 to 1931. During these years Sidney helped draft Labour's constitution, including 'Clause 4'; he was Labour MP for Seaham, 1922-29; and, he served in the first two Labour governments, 1924 and 1929-31.

Anthropology at LSE: the first 40 years.| Exhibition illustrating the establishment and development of the Anthropology Department at LSE, from its beginnings as part of the LSE's Sociology courses, to the consolidation of its reputation as a centre of excellence in the 1930s.

Beginnings: The history of education in Bloomsbury and Westminster|. Exhibition created as part of the 2005 national Archive Awareness Campaign. The site includes a virtual exhibition on LSE's first 30 years using documents and images from LSE Archives. Items featured include an architect's drawing of the School's first building in the Houghton Street area, a painting of the coat of arms and a staff-student group photo from 1924. The LSE collections page| on the website highlights treasures from LSE Archives, all chosen along the Archive Awareness Campaign theme of 'beginnings'. These include a woodcut image of a public beheading in the run-up to the English Civil Wars of the 1640s, James Mills' minutes of the first meeting of the Political Economy Club in 1821, and a letter marking the start of a friendship between two men in Edwardian England.

CND: The story of a peace movement|. Exhibition of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament documents, created in 2008 as part of a project to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of CND.

Foyle Foundation exhibition on Europe and international relations|. Begins with an overview of the Foyle Foundation project to catalogue the archives of eight politicians, public servants and organisations. The main focus of the exhibition is to use documents from these collections to illustrate the theme of Europe and international relations. Pages are available on the following topics: European Parliamentary Union, Congress of Europe/Council of Europe, Conservatives for Europe, Common Market, Federalism and the United Nations.

One hundred years of Labour|. Exhibition to mark the centenary of the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1906. The LSE Archives part of the exhibition includes a letter from Emmeline Pankhurst to Keir Hardie about campaigning in Merthyr Tydfil, Sidney Webb photographed during the 1931 political crisis and Barbara Castle's campaigning literature from the 1945 General Election.

Turning points|. Exhibition of documents relating to three key elections of the 20th century: the 1906, 1945 and 1979 general elections. The featured documents are from the archives of the three major political parties which are held at LSE Archives (Liberal Party), the Bodleian Library (Conservative Party) and the New People's History Museum (Labour Party). The exhibition is sponsored by the History of Parliament Trust.

Fabian Society Online Archive

The Fabian Society Online Archive| contains around 580 Fabian Tracts as well as a number of early minute books of the Society. The tracts date from 1884 to 1997 and cover a great number of topics. For example, the earlier tracts debate the nature of socialism, campaign for better working conditions (such as an eight-hour working day) and detail hopes for better living conditions through increased local government. Many of these early tracts were written by LSE founders George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb.

Ionian Bank

Minute books of the Court of Directors of the Ionian Bank, 1839-1917, are available online|. The Court of Directors was responsible for the formulation and development of bank policy and strategy. The minutes (reference IONIAN BANK/3/1-12) record resolutions on matters such as the appointment of directors and managers, the opening of new branches and agencies, and changes in the administrative structure of the bank.

In addition the following documents regarding the bank's foundation (IONIAN BANK/1/1) are available for download via the archives catalogue|:
Prospectus, 17 January 1839.
Regulations and by-laws for submission to the Senate of the United States of the Ionian Islands, 15 February 1839.
Resolution of the Senate of the United States of the Ionian Islands that the bank be established, Corfu, 23 October 1839.
Memorial for Sir Howard Douglas concerning the Ionian Bank on his departure from Corfu in June 1841.

LGBT exhibitions

Three web pages featuring images from the Hall-Carpenter Archives and other collections. The timeline| features highlights in UK LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) history since the publication of the Wolfenden Report in 1957. The employment rights exhibition| contains images from the archives of some of the groups who fought for improved working conditions for LGBT workers from the 1970s onwards. There is also an exhibition of images celebrating the work of the UK Gay Liberation Front| in the 1970s.

LSE: A history in pictures

Over 1000 images from LSE Archives relating to the history of the School are available via Flickr|. They include a wide range of photographs relating to life at LSE, such as pictures of staff, students, buildings and events, dating from the 1890s through to the 1990s. The resource uses Flickr to provide easy access to those unfamiliar with traditional archive catalogues and users are encouraged to use Flickr's interactive facilities to share related knowledge and comments, thus adding their own notes and reflections to the 'official' history of the School. The project is funded by LSE alumni via the Annual Fund.

LSE Anthropology photographs

LSE anthropology photographs available online|. Over 400 photographs taken by academics from the anthropology department at LSE. The photographs were digitised as part of the DART project (Digital Anthropology Resources for Teaching), exploring the potential of digital resources for the teaching of undergraduate anthropology.

David Low cartoons

LSE Archives holds a set of cartoons by Sir David Low, 1891-1963. These have been digitised and are available online via the website of the British Cartoon Archive|.

*Malinowski photographs

Among the papers of anthropologist Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski, 1884-1942, are 1,000 photographs taken during his fieldwork on the Trobriand Islands between 1915 and 1918. The images provide a vivid insight into the lives of the islanders and include fishing, dances, village life and agriculture. All the photographs are available online via the Archives Catalogue| (reference MALINOWSKI/3).

*Pamphlets

As well as the 6000 19th Century British Pamphlets mentioned above, over 600 pamphlets have been digitised as part of a project by the Higher Education Digitisation Service based at the University of Hertfordshire, and funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). These are all available online as pdf files (to view them you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. This software is already installed on many computers. However, if you do not have it, you may download it for free from the Adobe website|.)

Many of our older social policy and transport pamphlets are available online. For further details and links to these pamphlets see the following guides:

In addition, many other pamphlets are also available online (via their library record on the Library catalogue|):

BP160336-BP160412. Pamphlets on 19th century British political history, including some political cartoons.
BP161320-BP161372. Includes pamphlets on transport, Society of Friends, Anti-Corn Law League, Robert Owen and the early trades union movement.
BP165776-BP165835, some gaps. Pamphlets by 19th century English socialists.
BP203110-BP204645. Includes pamphlets on women's suffrage, India and public health.

These date from the 18th century onwards - one of the earliest being 'Proposals for imploying [sic] the poor in and about the city of London, without any charge to the publick' by Daniel Defoe, 1713 (HV/644). There are many other famous authors in the collection, including Annie Besant, Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox, W E Gladstone, H M Hyndman, William Lovett, John Stuart Mill, William Morris, David Owen and Beatrice Webb.

*Posters

A number of collections of posters have been digitised and are available online via the Archives catalogue:

Coll Misc 0519|: Political and Tariff Reform Posters, c1892-1910. Over 90 posters by political parties and organisations. Main themes include the Second Boer War (1899-1902), Tariff Reform, Irish Home Rule and Immigration.

Coll Misc 0660|: British Labour Delegation to Russia, 1920 (13 posters collected by the delegation).

Coll Misc 0719|: Russian Child Care posters, 1930 (16 posters).

Coll Misc 0840|: London County Council Election 1907 (22 posters).

Round about a pound a week

Fifty eight household account books are available via the archives catalogue|. The notebooks (COLL MISC 0847) show the weekly expenses of a group of working class mothers and housewives in Lambeth, 1909-13. Their names and addresses are given, and in some cases, information about their health and family circumstances. This collection appears to be the raw data for Maud Pember Reeves's Fabian Tract, 'Family life on a pound a week|' (1912) and her book, 'Round about a Pound a Week' (1913).

Shaw photographs

George Bernard Shaw was not only a prolific playwright, writer and social-political commentator and thinker but an avid amateur photographer: taking and collecting around 20,000 images between the 1870s and 1950. In collaboration with the National Trust, LSE Centennial Fund| and the Society of Authors, Shaw's collection will be catalogued and around two thirds will be digitised (those images he took himself). For more information about the project, see Man and Cameraman - revealing the photographic legacy of George Bernard Shaw|. For an online exhibition featuring highlights of the Shaw photographs see: Snapshots from Man and Cameraman|.

Street Life in London

Digitised version| of the 1877 book featuring a series of articles by the journalist Adolphe Smith and the photographer John Thomson. The pieces are short but full of detail, based on interviews with a range of men and women who eked out a precarious and marginal existence working on the streets of London, including flower-sellers, chimney-sweeps, shoe-blacks, chair-caners, musicians, dustmen and locksmiths.

Quick links

Email: document@lse.ac.uk|