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Everyone can access UCL Special Collections digitally or in person. Our collections of rare, unique and historic archives & books cover themes including history of UCL, education, arts and sciences.
Collection Highlights
Archives
UCL's archive and manuscript collections include the UNESCO registered George Orwell Archive.
Records
Map of Bloomsbury, 1800 College Collection.
Exhibitions
View current and past exhibitions online.
Rare Books
The Ratdolt edition of Euclid's 'Elements', 1482.
Treasures from UCL
View 'Treasures from UCL', available for free online.
Finding Material
- You can search for rare books and other printed material on Explore.
- Archives and manuscripts are found on the Archives Catalogue.
- Search for digitised and digital content on Digital Collections.
For more information and video tutorials on how to use these resources to find material held by UCL Special Collections, learn about Our Collections.
News from our blog
2024 Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize Winners announced!
We are delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize, which was set up to encourage student book collectors at any London university. We received around twenty submissions representing a total of seven institutions, with collection themes ranging from military manuals from the Edwardian period to 20th-century lesbian literature and mountain and polar travel books
Oscar Wilde’s Library at UCL
On April 24th, 1895, the contents of Oscar Wilde’s house at No 16 Tite Street were auctioned off to pay his debt to the Marquess of Queensberry. Included in the sale was Wilde’s library of over 2000 books, alongside drafts, letters, paintings, furniture and his children’s toys.
Student Reflections – IOE’s BA Education Studies
The Outreach team in UCL Special Collections recently hosted two students from the IOE BA Education Studies course. Tasked with creating a pitch for a new after school club, Jiayi and Yunrui spent time getting to know the collections, learning about the Outreach programme and devising an original idea to present to staff at the end of their placement. It was a pleasure to host them, and we hope to implement their project ideas in the next academic year. This blog is written by Jiayi and Yunrui, and shares some of their reflections and learning at the end of their time with us.
New Exhibition: ‘I Planted a Seed’: Childhood, nature and creativity
UCL Library Service’s annual exhibition for 2024, “‘I Planted a Seed’: Childhood, nature, and creativity”, has recently opened in the Main Library!
Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize: Interview with Emma Treleaven (2023 winner)
Emma Treleaven, PhD candidate at the London College of Fashion, won the Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize in 2023 with her collection My Own Two Hands: Books and Ephemera About Making Dress and Textiles Before 1975. She also won the Antequarian Booksellers Association’s National Book Collecting Prize in 2023 with the same collection. She spoke to Special Collections about her experience book collecting and applying for the prize.
Special Collections content in new online collection: Pandemics, Society and Public Health 1517-1925
Posted on behalf of Caroline Kimbell, Head of Commercial Digitisation:
In the aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic, UCL has contributed around 12,000 images of rare books and original documents from our Special Collections to a prestigious new online teaching resource from British Online Archives: Pandemics, Society and Public Health 1517-1925 launched this month (April 2024).
A look at two books from UCL’s James Joyce Book Collection
Post by Daniel Dickins.
UCL’s Student Magazines
On a recent (well, November) trip to the USA to see family, I managed to visit ‘All That’s Fit for Student Print’, a fascinating exhibition of student publications at Binghamton University Special Collections, and meet University Archivist Maggie McNeely and her colleagues – should you happen to find yourself in the Southern Tier of New York State, pop in! So, for this ‘UCL birthday’ post, I thought I might highlight our own student publications.
