1. Why use this guide?

This guide will help you to find historical government administration and policy records on teacher training which are now held by The National Archives. Teacher training records held here include:

• Local Education Authority files from the early 20th century on training colleges, schemes and courses for teacher training
• Board of Education files on university training colleges and teacher-training departments from the 1960s and before
• central government reports on teacher training centres
• files created by post-war committees, inquiries and advisory groups on teacher training including recruitment, funding and reviews of national teacher training policy

The guide does not cover records of individual teachers or pupils, neither of which are held at The National Archives. Nor does it cover the day to day records of individual training colleges (contact a local record office or school/training college for these) or teacher training certificates (contact the relevant examining body for these).

1.Why use this guide?

This guide helps you find records of nurses and other medical staff who served with the Royal Navy. It includes information about their service, medals, and how the nursing service was organised.

Most service records for military nurses who served after the First World War are held by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). See section 6 for further details.

If the person you’re researching served in a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) during the First or Second World War, contact the British Red Cross Museum and Archives. See section 3.1 for registers of Royal Red Cross recipients.

2. Before you start

Before 1883, nursing in naval hospitals was usually carried out by ex-seamen or marines recruited from shore establishments. These individuals held no formal nursing qualifications.

The Naval Nursing Service was established in 1884 at Haslar (Portsmouth) and Plymouth. It was the first Royal Navy unit staffed by trained nurses. The service expanded to Chatham and Malta in 1897, and to all Royal Naval Hospitals by 1901.

In 1902, it was renamed the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS). A QARNNS Reserve of civilian nurses was created for wartime service only.

Most naval nurses in the First and Second World Wars served in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS) which was established in 1902.

The names of matrons and head sisters can be found in the Navy List from 1884. Copies are available at The National Archives in Kew and specialist libraries. For further details, see our guide to Royal Navy commissioned and warrant officers.

3. Online records

3.1 Campaign Medals and Awards

• Royal Navy Medal Rolls, 1793-1955

Royal Navy medal rolls are available to search and download through Forces War Records (charges apply).

• First World War Medal Index Cards, 1914-1920

Search by name or regimental (service) number for First World War army medal index cards (WO 372) on our website (charges apply). Use keywords like Nurse, Voluntary Aid Detachment, or Queen Alexandra’s with a surname.

• Royal Red Cross Recipients,1883–1994

Search and download entries from the registers of recipients of the Royal Red Cross (WO 145/1-3) at Findmypast.co.uk (charges apply). Covers around 9,000 awards for exceptional nursing service. Includes service number, role, and date published in the London Gazette.

• Campaign Medal Rolls, 1793–1949

For records of medals awarded for service before 1914, search by name on the Ancestry (charges apply) website. Lists names but includes limited personal details. Knowing the campaign and nursing service helps.

3.2 Records of Royal Navy Nursing Staff, 1884–1929

The service registers are part of catalogue series ADM 104. You can download and view them by clicking the links in the table below. Each link will take you directly to the relevant entry in our catalogue.

Date range	Type of record, who it covers and how it is arranged	Details provided	Catalogue reference
1884-1909	Nursing sisters; the original document has an index	Name, rank, date of birth, date of entry and discharge	ADM 104/43
1890-1908	Annual reports of nursing sisters; for each year staff are listed in seniority order	Name, age, hospital where they are stationed, dates of service and very brief comments on character and work	ADM 104/95
1894-1929	Nursing sisters; arranged by dates of appointment; the original document has an index	Name, rank, date of birth, date of entry and discharge, next of kin, annual report marks, sick leave, comments on character and ability, training qualifications, and medal awards	ADM 104/161
1914-1919	QARNNS Reserves, signed up for wartime service only	Name, date of joining service, civilian hospital in which worked, naval hospital in which stationed, date of discharge	ADM 104/162-165
c.1912-1927	Nursing sisters’ and ward masters’ establishment book; contains an index to establishment (hospital or barracks); staff are listed in rough date order	Name, rank, date and cause of appointment, date and reason for discharge	ADM 104/96

4. Accessing original documents

Our online catalogue  displays records using a title, reference number, and brief description. When you search using keywords, you’re searching these descriptions—not the full content of the records. For help using our catalogue, watch our short video guide.

Many records cannot be found using a general keyword search in our online catalogue. To locate the information you need, you may need to consult indexes, registers, or the original physical documents. This often means visiting us in person to carry out the research.

You can visit us in person to continue your research—access to our records is free of charge. Before visiting, please check our website for opening hours and ID requirements. If you can’t visit or would like someone to carry out research on your behalf, you can pay for research.

When you click on a search result, you’ll see whether the record is available online or if you need to view it onsite. You can also request copies directly from the catalogue description page. If a record is held by another archive, you’ll need to contact them directly to find out how to access it.

5. Nurses’ service at the Royal Greenwich Hospital, 1704-1865

Click on any of the reference codes below to open that series in our online catalogue. These records are not available online, so once you’ve found something relevant, you’ll need to visit us in person to view it. See section 4 for more information.

Date range	Information contained in the documents	Catalogue reference
1704-1864	Alphabetical lists of nurses	ADM 73/87-88
1704-1865	Registers of service; all give name, date of entry and date and reason for leaving	ADM 73/83-86
1783-1863	Name, age at time of entry, date of entry, where born, husband’s Christian name, husband’s date of death and in which service employed, amount of pension, whether husband hurt or wounded and on what service, number of children and ages at time of entry; details of husband and family are not completed for early entries	ADM 73/85
1817-1842	Ratings’ widows applying for admission to Greenwich Hospital as nurses	ADM 6/329 and ADM 6/331

6. Service records,1939-present

To request a summary of a service record from the Ministry of Defence, visit the GOV.UK website. These records are not available to the public, but next of kin can apply for access.

7. Policy and administrative history

To explore the policy and administrative history of the Royal Navy nursing service, click on the reference code below to open that series in our online catalogue. These records are not available online, so once you’ve found something relevant, you’ll need to visit us in person to view it.

To narrow your search, try using keywords such as “nursing services,” “medical,” or “hospitals” — for example.

• ADM 116 – Admiralty: Record Office: Cases, 1852-1965

8. Websites

• Scarlet Finders Blog

Browse a curated information about records and related insights about the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS).

9. Further reading

Bruno Pappalardo, Tracing your naval ancestors (Public Record Office, 2003) – this title is also available from our shop.

1. Why use this guide?

This guide provides advice on how to find records (primarily staff records) of the London Metropolitan Police. The National Archives has a substantial collection of Metropolitan Police staff records, but not all have survived.

The most recent staff records we hold are pension records dating up to 1993.

The Metropolitan Police Force, created in 1829, was the first modern police force in England (provincial police forces in England and Wales were not established until after the County Police Act of 1839). Its original area of jurisdiction covered a seven-mile radius from Charing Cross in central London. Today it consists of the 32 boroughs of Greater London, excluding the City of London.

Records of the City of London police are held at The London Archives.

Metropolitan Police records held at The National Archives are identified by the department code MEPO (there are 46 separate record series within MEPO). You can browse the department and its composite series in our catalogue for an overview of what we hold.

2. Staff records – online

Significant numbers of Metropolitan Police staff records are available online both through our own website and those of our commercial partners. In some instances there is a fee to view and download these records but there is free access at The National Archives building in Kew.

2.1 Metropolitan Police registers in Discovery

Many of the personnel records are in the series MEPO 4 and can be searched by name (using the keyword search box at MEPO 4) and downloaded from Discovery, our catalogue.

Name details were added to our catalogue from an incomplete index created before records were transferred to The National Archives, so not all records can be found by name searching. If you do not find a record by name searching you can still browse the various types of register listed below in Discovery, find an appropriate register, based on dates of joining or leaving, and download a digital copy to look through.

Some of these records contain more information than others and some information may be duplicated in different records. A summary of the typical contents of each sort of record is below.

Registers of joiners, 1830-1857 and 1878-1933, MEPO 4/333-338

The catalogue descriptions for each register entry contain more information than the registers themselves (information has been added from other records) and in most cases include, along with the full name:

• warrant number (useful to distinguish between officers with the same name)
• date of joining
• date of leaving

Registers of leavers, 1889-1947, MEPO 4/339-351 

The details included are:

• warrant number
• rank
• dates of joining and leaving

Attestation ledgers, 1869-1958, MEPO 4/352-360 

These registers of joiners contain:

• warrant number
• signature of the new recruit
• the division to which they were assigned

Certificates of service, 1889-1909, MEPO 4/361-477 

These records contain:

• a physical description
• date of birth
• trade
• marital status
• residence
• number of children
• name and place of last employer
• previous public service
• surgeon’s certificate
• postings to divisions
• dates of promotion or demotion
• cause of removal/departure from the force

2.2 Other downloadable records in Discovery

Some other records can be downloaded from Discovery but are not name searchable. These are

• Death returns for Metropolitan Police, 1829-1889, MEPO 4/2
• Numerical registers of police warrant numbers, September 1829-March 1830, MEPO 4/31-32. These are in ranges of warrant numbers.

2.3 Metropolitan Police pension registers, 1852-1932

Search Metropolitan Police pension registers by first and last name at Ancestry.co.uk (charges apply). The original records are held in series MEPO 21, whose contents stretch all the way up to 1993 – but records from 1932-1993 are not available online (see section 3.1).

2.4 Abbreviations in the records

You may find the following abbreviations in some of the above records (such as registers of leavers):

• RP – resignation permitted
• RR – required to resign
• CO – Commissioner’s Office

3. Staff records – beyond online records

There are still many Metropolitan Police Force records that are not available online. Searches for these records begin in our catalogue which contains descriptions of each record with its document reference. This section of the guide provides instructions on how to target your catalogue search to specific parts of the collection so that you can locate a document reference with greater ease.

For more speculative or broader searches you can try an advanced search of our catalogue using keywords (for example, the name of an officer or a police station, or broader terms such as ‘discipline’ or ‘promotion’) and dates, ensuring that you include MEPO in the reference field.

To see these original records you will either need to visit us or, where you can identify a specific record reference, order a copy (charges apply).

3.1 Metropolitan Police pension records, 1932-1993

Browse our catalogue in MEPO 21/67-210 for records of Metropolitan Police officers’ and officers’ widow’s pensions after 1932, arranged by date of retirement and pension number. Unless you know a pension number, you should select the record you need by date of retirement.

Records from 1957-1993 (MEPO 21/100-139) are closed and you will therefore need to submit a Freedom of Information request to have a chance of seeing them.  Click ‘Submit FOI request’ on the catalogue details page for the closed record.

3.2 Metropolitan Police register, 1829-1836

HO 65/26 is an alphabetical register of metropolitan police officers between 1829 and 1836.

3.3 Selected police files of distinguished officers in the Metropolitan Police Force, 1858-1933

Joining papers of a number of distinguished officers are at MEPO 3/2883-2922. The covering dates are for dates of service.

3.4 King’s Police Medal records, 1909-1951

The King’s Police Medal was awarded to officers for gallantry or distinguished service. It was introduced in 1909 and replaced by the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal in 1940, itself replaced by the Queen’s Police Medal in 1954.

There is a register of officers under consideration for the King’s Police Medal in MEPO 22/2 and files relating to the award of the medal in HO 45 (search with the term “King’s Police Medal”).

See also MEPO 2/1300 and MEPO 7 for mentions of officers who received the medal.

The London Gazette published notifications of awards of the King’s Police Medal – search The Gazette website.

3.5 Metropolitan Police orders, 1829-1989

Browse our catalogue in MEPO 7 for police orders.

Items included are:

• staff news
• promotions
• awards
• retirements
• dismissals

Note that the records are closed for 50 years. If you already know the date of a particular event these might give you more information. The series includes some index volumes.

3.6 Nominal rolls of local constables appointed by Commissioner who hold warrants, January 1875

MEPO 2/143 contains returns, by division, of local constables sworn in and issued warrants. It gives names, date of appointment, place of work as a constable and name of sponsor. Appointments are to parishes, workhouses, canals, dockyards, parks and other places.

MEPO 2/141 contains correspondence relating to the appointments of individual local constables.

1. Why use this guide?

This guide will help you to find records of medieval and early-modern taxation (13th century to 1689). These records contain information on central government’s taxation process (assessment, collection, accounting and auditing) but also provide valuable insights into the population of medieval and early-modern England and Wales.

The primary source of information, and the focus for the advice in this guide, is the E 179 database, a resource created by The National Archives to provide detailed searching of series E 179.

1. Why use this guide?

This guide tells you:

• what the state papers domestic 1714-1782 are, and what information they contain
• how to find state papers at The National Archives and elsewhere
• which finding aids and websites can help you search the state papers

For any state papers domestic for other dates, refer to these guides instead:

• State papers domestic 1547-1649
• State papers domestic 1642-1660
• State papers domestic 1660-1714

For state papers regarding foreign and Irish affairs see the guides:

• State papers foreign 1509-1782
• State papers Ireland 1509-1782

For state papers regarding the Jacobite risings see this guide:

• Jacobite Risings 1715 and 1745

For papers after 1782 when the Home Office was established, browse record series within the HO department (especially record series HO 42 which is a continuation of the main correspondence of the Secretaries of State after 1782). For more guidance on Home Office correspondence, see the guide on Home Office correspondence 1782-1979.

2. What are the state papers domestic, 1714-1782?

The state papers domestic are the accumulated in-letters and working papers of the secretaries of state, relating to home affairs. They contain information on almost every aspect of the business of government in the eighteenth-century in the form of letters, petitions,  intelligence reports, memoranda, orders in council, warrants and newsletters.

State papers are arranged by reign with the date coverage of the records in brackets:

• George I (1714-1727)
• George II (1727-1760)
• George III (1760-1783)

There are also other relevant record series which cover the whole or part of the period.

3. How do I search the records?

Most record series for the period can only be accessed by manuscript calendars and the published List and Index Society volumes held at The National Archives and you can search descriptions for some record series in our catalogue. The period 1760-1775 has been calendared. See below.

3.1 Online records

The descriptions are searchable by keyword on State Papers Online (institutional subscription required or free to view onsite at The National Archives at Kew), and this website provides digitised images of the documents.

3.2 Using Discovery, our catalogue

You can also try searching by keyword(s) in our catalogue. Try searching by:

• name of person, such as ‘Francis Atterbury’
• place, such as ‘Scotland’
• subject, such as ‘South Sea Company’

Once you have identified possible document references, you can view the records online at The National Archives or request a copy.

4. Reign of George I (1714-1727)

The main series is SP 35, covering 1714 to 1727.

The reign of George I was notable for the development of Cabinet government. Most notably these series include:

• records of the Atterbury plot, 1722-1723
• material on the aftermath of the first Jacobite rebellion
• records of early Cabinet meetings
• papers on finance and trade affairs (including the South Sea Bubble)

4.1 Using our catalogue

You can search our catalogue using keywords within SP 35.

4.2 Searching by topic, person or place

Additional descriptions can be found in the four-volume typed calendar published by the List and Index Society (volumes 136, 144, 155, 165 and 173, 1977-1981) with an index of persons and places covering SP 35/1-76 only.

4.3 Searching for ministerial meetings

You can search for records relating to ministerial meetings in the reign of George I in List and Index Society, volume 224, 1987.

It provides lists of office holders and lists of meetings (giving the date, type, those present and chief topic), with references to documents in The National Archives.

It includes documents in SP 35, SP 43, SP 44 and SP 45.

5. Reign of George II (1727-1760)

The main series is SP 36, covering 1727-1760. All aspects of government are reflected in the contents, including:

• papers concerning the Jacobite Rising of 1745 (SP 36/65-104 cover the period 1745-1747, while SP 36/105 covers 1747-1748; see also SP 36/162-163 for later activity)
• domestic intelligence
• law and order
• some orders in Council and some Cabinet minutes

 5.1 Using our catalogue

You can search our catalogue using keywords within SP 36. See How do I search the records? for more guidance.

6. Reign of George III (1760-1783)

The main class is SP 37, covering 1760-1783 only. For material relating to George III’s reign after 1783, consult the relevant Home Office record series.

Subjects covered include:

• finance and trade
• colonial policy (especially with regard to America)
• law and order (including the Gordon riots)
• John Wilkes and Liberty
• correspondence with the Treasury
• Irish and Scottish affairs

6.1 Using manuscript calendars

In addition to the standard list, SP 37 is calendared (for 1760-1775 only). Consult the Calendar of Home Office papers of the reign of George III, eds. Joseph Redington and Richard Arthur Roberts, 4 volumes (London, 1878-1899) for a summary of the records. The calendars incorrectly refer to the Home Office in the title. You may need to use the handwritten list (see below) for SP 37 found in our reading rooms to convert the references in the calendar into orderable document references.

Military commissions are omitted, except those issued to commanders in chief, governors of colonies, etc.

The calendars include document references to relevant documents in SO 1, SP 41-42, SP 44, SP 47, SP 54, SP 63 and CO 5.

6.2 Using manuscript lists (after 1776)

For the period after 1776 documents can be traced in the handwritten lists (in our reading rooms at The National Archives) which also include document references to material not in the calendars.

7. Other relevant records

Other series cover the whole or part of the period, some are described online and some in the calendars mentioned above.

• SP 43 contains the correspondence between the secretaries of state written from Whitehall and Hanover during the absences of George I and George II
• SP 44 contains entry books. These include copies for out letters (royal and secretarial), warrants, reports, licences, etc. They cover all aspects of policy including naval and military, legal and ecclesiastical affairs
• SP 41, State Papers Military, covers military policy and expeditions – consult An alphabetical guide to certain War Office and other military records (PRO Lists and Indexes, LIII, 1931) which list many items in SP 41
• SP 87, Military Expeditions
• SP 42 covers naval policy
• SP 54 covers Scotland
• SP 55 covers Scotland, descriptions can be searched using keywords on our catalogue

Georgian Papers Online allows access to a catalogue and digitised images of documents held at the Royal Archives and the Royal Library at Windsor, including personal letters, diaries, account books and records of the Royal Household from the reigns of George I to William IV.

8. Further reading

Search The National Archives’ bookshop to see whether any of the publications below may be available to buy. Alternatively, look in The National Archives’ library catalogue to see what is available to consult at Kew.

See the paper Introductory Notes to each record series list in the Map and Large Document Room at The National Archives.

C M Andrews, Guide to the materials for American history, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain, volume I (Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1912)

J M Beattie, The English Court in the Reign of George I (CUP, 1967)

J C Sainty, ed, Officials of the secretaries of state, 1660-1782 (University of London, Institute of Historical Research, 1973)

H Smith, Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture, 1714-1760 (CUP, 2006)

1.Why use this guide?

This guide tells you:

• what the state papers domestic 1660-1714 are, and what information they include
• how to find state papers at The National Archives and elsewhere
• which finding aids and websites can help you search the various state papers domestic

For state papers domestic for other dates, refer to these guides instead:

• State papers domestic 1547-1649
• State papers domestic 1642-1660
• State papers domestic 1714-1782

For state papers relating to foreign and Irish affairs see:

• State papers foreign 1509-1782
• State papers Ireland 1509-1782

2. What are the state papers domestic, 1660-1714?

The state papers domestic are the accumulated papers of the secretaries of state relating to home affairs.

They contain information on every aspect of early modern government, including social and economic affairs, law and order, religious policy, crown possessions and intelligence gathering as well as some references to foreign policy.

They may also include private and official letters, musters, reports, commissions and instructions, council orders and correspondence, proclamations, memoranda and draft parliamentary bills.

3. How do I search the records?

State papers for this period are only searchable by date on Discovery, our catalogue. The main finding aids instead are published calendars which can be used to trace a particular individual, place or subject.

The easiest way to search the calendars is to carry out a keyword search on State Papers Online (institutional subscription required or free to view onsite at The National Archives at Kew). This not only searches the calendars but also display digital scans of most (but not all) of the documents described in the calendars.

The calendars are also available online at British History Online (£). If you do not have access to these online sources, you can consult the printed version of the calendar of state papers available at The National Archives and in many major reference libraries.

The printed versions have the added benefit of detailed indexes which can provide additional identifying information to help with your search.

More guidance is given below on how to use the printed calendars for records arranged by monarch’s reign.

Some records of state papers exist in other archives; see below.

4. State papers domestic for the reign of Charles II (1660-1685)

Most of the papers of this reign are in SP 29 with many warrants, licences, commissions, pardons, etc. in SP 30 (1660-1688).

State Papers Domestic for Charles II in SP 29 contains:

• letters and orders relating to naval policy (including Navy Board Papers 1664-1673)
• post civil war resettlement
• many papers on domestic security and intelligence (including material on the Rye House Plot)

4.1 Calendars

Use the calendars to locate summaries of the records. Most of the papers are calendared in the Calendar of State Papers Domestic Charles II, eds. M A E Green, F H B Daniell, F Bickley, 28 volumes, (London, 1860-1947).

Remember to check the final Addenda volume 1660-1685 too.

Bear in mind that the calendars also refer to documents in the Colonial Office and Admiralty record series, the state papers foreign, the state papers interregnum, docket books and proclamations among others.

Fuller details can be found in the keys pasted into the front of each volume.

As a general principle, where items are numbered in the calendar they are in the main series of letters and papers; this includes those numbered items which include ‘Adm paper’ in square brackets at the end.

From 1667 most references to volume numbers in SP 29 appear in square brackets at the end of the extract. Where ‘Case’ appears in a calendar entry it is referring to an item in SP 30.

5. Reign of James II (1685-1688)

Papers covering 1685-1688 are in record series SP 31.

5.1 Calendars

Consult the Calendar of State Papers Domestic, James II, ed. E K Timings, 3 volumes, (London 1960-1972).

The calendars provide modern references to a variety of documents (apart from volume one which contains a key at the front of the text).

As in the calendars for the previous reign they include references to related material in ADM 77, SO 1, SP 44 and the state papers Ireland among others.

5.2 The Stuart Papers

The Royal Collections Trust holds the Stuart Papers 1579-1823 (the papers of the Old Pretender, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart and of his sons, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, and Prince Benedict). These can be viewed online via State Papers Online (institutional subscription required).

6. Reign of William and Mary (1689-1702)

The main series of papers is SP 32 and SP 33, covering the same dates.

Both classes refer to many aspects of government, including:

• finance
• military and naval policy
• Ireland
• intelligence on Jacobite activity

6.1 Calendars

The content of SP 32 is described more fully in the Calendars of State Papers Domestic, of the reign of William and Mary, ed. W J Hardy, E Bateson, 11 volumes, (London, 1895-1937).

For entries before 1698, look for references for relevant entries in the square brackets at the end of each entry. For entries after 1698, look for document references that follows the following format: SP 32/456.

The calendars refer to many record series including:

• SP 42 – State Papers Naval (1689-1782)
• SP 44 – State Papers Entry Books (1660-1828)
• SP 45 – State Papers Office and other Bodies: Various Administrative Records, Precedents and Proclamations (Edward VI – 1862)
• ADM 77 – Royal Greenwich Hospital: Secretary of State’s Newsletters to Lord Derwentwater (1673-1696)
• ADM 78 – Royal Greenwich Hospital: Entry Books of Secretary of State’s Newsletters to Lord Derwentwater (1681-1695)

They may also cross-refer to the Calendars of Treasury Books.

SP 33 is not calendared and includes duplicate Exchequer assessments from 16 counties for grant in aid to the crown in 1692 (a key is provided in the paper version of SP 33 held at The National Archives.

7. Reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714)

The main series of letters and papers is in SP 34.

7.1 Calendars and other published sources

The main series of letters and papers is in record series SP 34, and various supplementary series are described more fully for 1702-1704 only in Calendars of State Papers Domestic, Anne, ed. R P Mahaffy, two volumes (London, 1916 and 1924) and Calendars of State Papers Domestic, Anne, ed. C S Knighton two volumes (Woodbridge, 2005 and 2006).

The last two volumes contain lists of official passes for individuals traveling abroad and for the protection of ships.

For entries before 1698, look for references for relevant entries in the square brackets at the end of each entry. For entries after 1698, look for document references that follows the following format: SP 32/456.

A detailed, indexed list of SP 34, covering the whole reign, is available in the printed version of SP 34 held at The National Archives.

You can also consult List and Index Society vols 258-260 (1995), which contains a published list of SP 34.

8. Supplementary material for the reigns of Charles II and Anne

For relevant records, consult:

• SP 41 for State Papers Military, 1640-1782 (not yet available online)
• SP 42 for State Papers Naval, 1689-1782 (not yet available online)
• SP 44 for State Papers Domestic Entry Books, 1661-1828
• SP 45 for State Papers Domestic Various, Edward VI to 1862
• SP 46 for State Papers Domestic Supplementary, 1361-1829 – for a fuller description of the miscellaneous series see the printed catalogue version of SP 46 at The National Archives

Supplementary material is also in:

• PRO 30/32 Leeds papers, 1661-1717
• PRO 30/70 Hoare (Pitt) 1667-1946
• SO 7 Signet Office King’s Books 1661-1851
• SO 8 warrants for King’s bills, series I, 1661-1800

8.1 Calendars of Treasury books and papers

See the Calendars of Treasury Books and Papers and Calendars of Treasury Books for general information on all aspects of government in the late 17th century, especially military and naval policy.

9. Records held in other archives

The state papers were frequently treated as private property by secretaries of state, many of whom incorporated them into their private collections on leaving office. Therefore, you may find state papers held elsewhere.

Try searching our catalogue to see if there are any relevant listed entries held in other archives or private collections.

What are these records?

These are a selection of service records of ratings who served in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) between 1860 and 1955.

There are over 148,000 records for this period. Predominantly these cover the First World War (1914-1918).

The records include Mercantile reservists, Shetland Royal Naval Reservists (service numbers which include L) and reservists in the Royal Naval Reserve Trawler Section (RNR [T] – service numbers which include DA, E, SA, SB or TS). RNR seamen’s records are prefixed or suffixed with these and other letter codes – for further details on RNR service numbers read K J Douglas-Morris, The Naval Long Service Medals (pp.282-283).

The RNR was established with the Naval Reserve Act of 1859 as a reserve force of seamen, extended to include officers in 1862, and men from deep-sea merchant ships who could be called upon during times of war or crisis to supplement the forces of the Royal Navy. By 1890 there were 20,000 men in the RNR.

These records are held by The National Archives in series BT 164 and BT 377.

A small percentage of these records, in BT 377/7, are for seamen born less than 100 years ago, including reservists who saw service in the Second World War, and are therefore not open to public inspection. These closed records can still be identified using the search below but they cannot be downloaded. More records are made available for download each year as the 100 years since date of birth passes.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 you can request a review of a closed record either by writing to our Enquiry Service, The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU or by using our online contact form.

How do I search the records?

You can search and download the records of seamen born over 100 years ago in Discovery (£) by filling in the form below.

You do not need to fill out every field to search these records. When searching by service numbers which include letters, leave a space between the numbers and the letters if you are unsure whether the letters should be a suffix or a prefix.

What information do the records contain?

The information in these records can include:

• name
• date of birth as given by the seaman
• address
• parents’ full names
• physical description
• date of enrolment
• training undertaken
• names of ships served on, with dates of joining and discharge from each ship (may also give details of service on merchant vessels)
• period of time actually served
• any engagements not completed and the reason for this
• retainers paid

Seamen with more than one record

Each record covers a five-year term of service in the RNR, so there may be more than one record for a person. A reservist will have a different service number for each term.

For service cards from 1908-1955 (BT 377/7), a reservist’s preceding or subsequent service numbers may be recorded on the card.

Consult associated indexes (BT 377/ 1-6 and BT 377/ 8-27), which are not online and are only available in the reading rooms at our building in Kew, as they may show the multiple service numbers of a reservist. For example, indexes show John Cooper (b1874) has service numbers: x1878, QA 1737, QA 1454, QB 1328, QB 2347, C 1355 and D 2439. The letters indicate his enrolment term and position. These indexes also contain references to reservists who do not appear in BT 377/7.

Read K J Douglas-Morris, ‘The Naval Long Service Medals’ (pp.282-283), for further details on interpreting these service numbers.

What do the records look like?

For 1860-1908 the records were kept either in volumes or on cards. There is also some miscellaneous correspondence in this collection. For 1908-1955 the records are on cards only, some of which can be difficult to read.

Cards (1860-1955)

Some service records have been recorded on a single card. The image you receive will contain both the front and reverse of the card. The top of the card includes:

• rating’s name
• date of birth
• place of birth
• physical description
• date of enrolment names of his mother and father

The lower section of the card entry records a list of ships served on, retainer pay and any training undertaken.

In some instances medal entitlement is also noted on the records.

To get an idea of what the records look like, see the record of Thomas John Sedgman below.

Service record of Thomas John Sedgman (PDF, 0.53MB)

Volumes (1860-1908)

A volume entry covers two pages and has a similar layout and contains much the same information as the card records. In some instances medal entitlement is also noted on the records. To get an idea of what the records look like, see the service record of William Sharp Cobb below.

Service record of William Sharp Cobb (PDF, 0.85MB)

Miscellaneous (1860-1908)

The records held in BT 164/23 form a collection of correspondence and have not been individually indexed. Instead, we have made the whole piece available to download. You can scroll through the document to locate the information you require.

Why can’t I find what I’m looking for?

If you cannot locate a record it could be that:

• the record is in an index only. Some names appear in indexes but there is no card. The indexes are in BT 377/1-6 and BT 377/ 8-27 and can be viewed at the National Archives at Kew
• the record did not survive
• the 1860-1908 record is not among the selected sample
• the record is held in another series
• the record is amongst merchant seamen service records

Books

K J Douglas Morris, ‘The Naval Long Service Medals’ (London: privately printed, 1991)

1. Why use this guide?

Use this guide for advice on how to search for specific items or for specific subjects within the State Papers Domestic, 1547-1649. The State Papers Domestic are the accumulated papers of the secretaries of state relating to the business and affairs of government at home, as opposed to matters abroad. They contain information on every aspect of early modern government, including:

• social and economic affairs
• law and order
• religious policy
• Crown possessions
• intelligence gathering
• some references to foreign policy

2. About the records

State Papers Domestic are made up of a wide range of document types, including private and official letters, musters, reports, commissions and instructions, council orders and correspondence, proclamations, memoranda and draft parliamentary bills.

The main series of state papers for this period (by reign) are:

Tudor dynasty

• Edward VI (1547-1553): SP 10, SP 15
• Mary (1553-1558): SP 11, SP 15
• Elizabeth I (1558-1603): SP 12, SP 13,  SP 15

Stuart dynasty

• James I (1603-1625): SP 14, SP 15
• Charles I (1625-1649): SP 16, SP 17

Most of these documents are written in English, although some are in Latin or other European languages. They are written in secretary and italic hands which may be difficult to read. You can find help on reading the documents in our palaeography tutorials.

Dating the documents may be problematic as some mention dates and months but not the year. Names may be illegible or omitted from the text of letters, but may have been included on the reverse by clerks when they were filed.

State papers were frequently treated as private property by secretaries of state, many of whom maintained them in their own private collections on leaving office. You may, therefore, find state papers held elsewhere, most notably the Lansdowne, Harleian and Cottonian collections of The British Library and the Cecil Papers held at Hatfield House.

3. How to search for records

To locate a specific subject, place or individual within the State Papers Domestic you will need to use the published calendars. The calendars provide detailed summaries of the records and are often sufficiently detailed to make consultation of the original documents unnecessary. Some sections of the calendars group together particular types of documents in a tabular form; for example army and naval papers, grants and dockets. The summaries are printed in chronological order, hence the term ‘calendar’, but this convenient organisation does not necessarily reflect the order in which the original documents are filed. The calendars are available online and in printed form.

The calendars help you to establish document references. Once you have these references, you can request the documents themselves using our online catalogue. You can also use the catalogue to search for documents but by date only.

3.1 Using online calendars

The easiest way to search the calendars is to carry out a keyword search at State Papers Online (institutional subscription required or free to use onsite at The National Archives at Kew). Using this resource, you can search the calendars and view online versions of most of the documents that they reference – the state papers themselves.

The calendars are also available online at British History Online (£).

3.2 Using printed calendars

The printed versions of the calendars are available at The National Archives and in many major reference libraries.  The printed versions contain detailed indexes with additional identifying information to help with your search – in that respect they offer an advantage over the online calendars.

See sections 4 and 5 for more guidance on the printed calendars and how to use them.

3.3 Using our catalogue to find records held elsewhere

As well as searching at the The British Library for the aforementioned Lansdowne, Harleian and Cottonian collections, and at Hatfield House for the Cecil Papers, you can try searching our catalogue for records held in other archives, including private collections. Our catalogue lists not only our own records but the records of over 2,500 archives across the UK.

4. The printed calendars

The original printed calendars have been published over the course of many decades and are not all completely uniform in their formatting, though the broad principles are the same. Available at The National Archives and in many major reference libraries, we recommend using the following versions:

4.1 For papers from the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I

If you are searching for records from the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, use the 12 volumes of the:

• Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth I and James I, ed R Lemon and M A E Green (London, 1856-1872)

4.2 For papers from the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I

Consult the new versions of the calendars for the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I – these versions provide the full National Archives document reference:

• Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, Edward VI, 1547-1553, ed C S Knighton (London, 1992)
• Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Mary I, 1553-1558, ed C S Knighton (London, 1998)

4.3 For papers from the reign of Charles I

For records from the reign of Charles I, covering the years to 1649, use the 23 volumes of the:

• Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I, ed J Bruce, W D Hamilton, S C Lomas (London, 1858-1897)

The later papers of the reign of Charles I become less comprehensive with the breakdown of traditional government and reflect the change in authority, becoming the archives of the Parliamentary government as the English Civil Wars developed. When Charles I left London, he transferred his government with him. As a result the ‘royalist’ papers are not complete, and those that survive may be in private collections elsewhere (see section 3.3).

All these calendars omit references to foreign, Irish and Scottish papers, which have their own calendars.

5. How to use the printed calendars

As the summaries of the records in the calendars are usually quite detailed you may find that you can get all the information you need from the calendar itself, making consultation of the original documents unnecessary. Nevertheless, the originals do contain some additional material and can be revealing in other ways too. In some instances the original documents may not actually be available to view and in those cases you will have to view the online versions – though the information from the printed calendars will be useful to find those online versions.

To get from the calendars to the papers you will need to know how to convert references – this section of the guide provides instructions on how to do this (as the calendars for Edward VI and Mary already provide the current National Archives document references no conversion is necessary when using these calendars).

5.1 Converting standard references from the calendars for Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I

Step 1: Locate a calendar entry

Each volume contains an index, allowing you to locate a subject or name in the calendar.

Once you have located an entry of interest you will need to convert the entry into a National Archives document reference. The reference contains a minimum of two parts: the series reference and the piece number.

Step 2: Establish the first part of The National Archives reference: the record series reference

Use the following table to establish the record series reference for most calendar entries:

Reign	Record series reference
Edward VI	SP 10
Mary I	SP 11
Elizabeth I	SP 12
James I	SP 14
Charles I	SP 16 (the calendars refer to a number of other state paper record series, including some interregnum papers in SP 21 and SP 23)

Step 3: Establish the second part of The National Archives reference: the piece number

At the top of every page in the calendar is a volume number expressed in Roman numerals. The volume number is equivalent to a National Archives piece number. Convert the Roman numeral to a standard cardinal number. For example, the piece number for an entry on a calendar page headed ‘Vol. CX’ will be 110.

Step 4: Note the item number from the calendar

You will see that each entry in a calendar has an item number. Take a note of this number as it will allow you to locate the respective item in the state papers themselves.

Step 5: Locate the full reference either at State Papers Online or in our catalogue

Let’s say you have found a calendar entry from the reign of Elizabeth I, under the Volume CX section of the calendar. This gives you document reference SP 12/110. With this reference you can either look up an online copy of the original document at State Papers Online (institutional subscription required or free to use onsite at The National Archives at Kew), or request the original document itself using our catalogue.

Step 6: Locate the item number in the papers

This can sometimes be tricky as the papers often contain multiple numbering systems, in use at different times over the years. An item number is likely to be handwritten rather than stamped, and it may cover several pages.

5.2 Converting references without an item number from the calendars for Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I

In a few cases calendar entries are not preceded by an item number but instead end with a reference in italics and square brackets, for example [Warrant Book, II, p.189]. In these instances, refer to the following table key to establish The National Archives document reference (these keys also appear at the beginning of each volume). Where no piece number is specified (replaced by ‘x’ below), browse or search the series listing in our catalogue by date to find the appropriate file.

Old document reference	National Archives document reference
Adm. Warrant Books	SP 12/258
Affairs Etrang, transcripts of	PRO 31/3/x
Border Papers	SP 59/x
Cases, Eliz.	SP 13/x
Cases A-H Charles I	SP 17/x
Coll Procs Car I	SP 45/10
Coll Sign Man Car I Vol.	SP 39/x
Colonial Papers	CO 1/x
Conway’s Foreign Letter Book	SP 14/214
Conway’s Letter Book	SP 38/x
Co[uncil] Reg[isters]	PC 2/x
Docquet(s)	SP 38/x
Domestic Addenda	SP 15/x
Domestic Addenda, Case H / Case Addenda	SP 13/H
Dom. Interregnum / Interregnum	SP 18/x
Domestic Correspondence	SP 46/x
Dom. Jac I	SP 14/x
Dom. Miscell.	SP 9/12
Dom. (Trade)	SP 12/x
Flanders Corresp.	SP 77/x
France [Entry Book]	SP 104/162
French Correspondence	SP 78/x
German Correspondence	SP 82/x
Grants of Arms	SP 9/1
Grant Book	SP 14/141
Holland	SP 84/x
Interregnum E	SP 21/x
Interregnum G	SP 23/x
Ireland, Irish Corresp.	SP 63/x
Levant Company	SP 105/x
Newspaper Collections	SP 9/245
Nicholas’s Letter Book	SP 14/215
Spanish Corresp.	SP 94/x
SP Dom. Car I	SP 16/x
Transcripts from Rome	PRO 31/9/x
Trinity House Certificates	SP 16/16-17
Warrant Books	SP 40/x

6. Related material

Related material may be in:

• State Papers Scotland, in SP 50– 53
• Border Papers for the north of England to 1603, in SP 59
• State Papers Ireland (see our guide State Papers Ireland, 1509-1782)
• Carew papers, in PRO 30/5 and SP 45
• State Papers Domestic Various, in SP 46
• State Papers Domestic Supplementary, in SP 38-39 and SP 40 (referred to in the calendars mentioned above)

For Parliamentary Council of Sate and parliamentary committees, see our guide on State papers domestic 1642-1660.

7. Further reading

G E Aylmer, The King’s Servants: the Civil Service of Charles I, 1625-1642 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974)

G R Elton, The Sources of History: England 1200-1640 (Hodder & Stoughton, 1969)

Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources, ed. by Laura Sangha and Jonathan Willis (Routledge, 2016)

1. Why use this guide?

This guide will help you to navigate the State Papers Ireland, the key resource at The National Archives for researching the social and religious history of Ireland between 1509 and 1782. All communities are represented in these records, including the Gaelic and Catholic Irish, Ulster Scots, Protestant English settlers and the descendants of the 13th-century Anglo-Normans. State Papers Ireland are also essential for tracing Irish ancestry back to the 16th century.

8. Records of Hanoverian Ireland until 1782

The State Papers Ireland run from SP 63/372-480 until the Home Office was created in 1782. For the period 1715-1760 there are no published finding aids but the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland holds typescript calendars. From 1760-1775 the State Papers Ireland are included in the Calendars of Home Office Papers via British History Online (£).

By the 18th century, it was established practice for the Lord Lieutenant’s secretary to send ‘public’ dispatches – such as formal acknowledgements and requests or routine military matters – to the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, which was responsible for Irish affairs. The Lord Lieutenant himself would send ‘private’ dispatches, often in his own handwriting, to the Secretary on policy and political issues, sometimes endorsed as ‘secret and confidential’ or ‘most secret’ and this is the correspondence now in SP 63.

Entry books of letters sent from the Secretary of State to the Irish administration are in SP 67 for 1681-1783 with separate warrant books in the same class for 1713-1776 (before 1713 warrants were noted in the entry books).

As with previous reigns, unindexed images of the Privy Council Registers (PC 2/85-128) are available to read on the Anglo-American Legal Tradition website.

Other useful sources include:

• On financial matters, the Lord Lieutenant corresponded directly with the First Lord of the Treasury and this correspondence is not included in SP 63, although letters to the Treasury often duplicated those to the Southern Department. Correspondence with Treasury officials may be found in T 14 and is calendared to 1745 in the Calendar of Treasury Papers and Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers
• Records of Irish Customs Board and the Irish Revenue Commissioners are found in CUST
• Irish parliamentary bills to be approved by the English Privy Council before presentation to parliament are available in C 183

9. Related materials

• The Irish Manuscripts Commission has published all known royal proclamations related to Ireland in a five-volume set: Proclamations of Ireland: 1660-1820 (Dublin, 2013) drawing on numerous sources at The National Archives and elsewhere.
• Throughout the early modern period, numerous Irish people took cases to the English Court of Chancery. You can name-search our catalogue for cases, and the records are particularly rich in land-holding, financial and genealogical detail.

10. Records in other archives

• The Carte Papers at the Bodleian Library are comprised mainly of the papers of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond (1610-88) that were gifted to the Bodleian Library in 1728-29 and added to when Thomas Carte himself departed Kilkenny Castle, the Butler seat, with numerous additions. They sit naturally alongside the State Papers Ireland and often provide the other side of government correspondence to Dublin from London. See the Carte Manuscripts website for finding aids and calendars from 1660-88.
• The Carew Papers are housed in Lambeth Palace Library and were collected by Sir George Carew during his period in Ireland as President of Munster for the purpose of writing the history of the island from the reign of Henry II to that of Queen Elizabeth. Printed calendars are available, as are further transcriptions that were not included in the calendars in PRO 30/5.
• For other archives containing Irish material until 1641, see British Sources for Irish History 1485-1641. A guide to manuscripts in Local, Regional and specialised repositories in England, Scotland and Wales edited by Brian Donovan and David Edwards (Dublin, 1998).
• See also Sources for early modern Irish history, 1534-1641 edited R W Dudley Edwards and Mary O’Dowd (Cambridge, 1985).

1. Why use this guide?

This guide covers records related to art and artists for the 19th,  20th and 21st centuries. It focuses on how to find central government records held by The National Archives but also lists other useful archives.

Archival records are arranged according to the department that created them rather than by subject. Some art related records are held in discrete collections but others are scattered among a variety of written records and many may be undiscovered.

Record descriptions won’t always indicate the presence of art related material so you will need to be prepared for a degree of speculative searching and detective work.

If you find art related records (particularly original artworks) in our collection that you think we are unaware of use the feedback form in our catalogue to let us know. You can find this at the bottom of any catalogue description at record series reference, piece or item level.

2. What can I view online?

• Search  for records of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe in record series T 209. Our research guide on Looted Art 1939-1961 explains more about this collection
• Search, or browse categories of our image library for visual collections including drawings, photographs, paintings, designs and posters
• View The Art of War; our online exhibition of war artists’ paintings and illustrations produced for the Ministry of Information. These are from record series INF 3 and were produced for propaganda and publicity purposes during the Second World War
• Browse by name of artist within the Tate Archive Collections for selected online artists’ archives digitised as part of the Archives and Access project
• Search the Visual Arts Database which contains selected listings of collections from a variety of archives and special collections
• Search or browse the Government Web Archive (see section 3)
• Search newspaper archives for reports of exhibitions and interviews with artists. Try the British Newspaper Archive, and The Times digital archive. Some newspapers are also available on Findmypast (£) and Ancestry (£)

3. The Government Web Archive, 1996 to present

The Government Web Archive contains government videos, tweets, and websites dating from 1996 to present.  You can browse or search for specific websites or twitter accounts such as those for Tate, Heritage Lottery Fund or particular government departments. Alternatively you can search by a keyword, such as ‘exhibition’ or an artist’s name, such as ‘Tracey Emin’.

Another way to find information on the Web Archive is to start in our catalogue. The records of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the British Council are good sources of information about cultural matters, but other departments can also have useful records as explained in other sections of this guide.

In our catalogue you can:

• browse entries for departments like the Department of Culture, Media and Sport or the British Council
• use Advanced search and search by keyword within department code reference (such as PF for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport or BW for British Council)

Where you find websites, videos or tweets that are available on the web archive there will be a link to click through to the relevant listings.

4. What does The National Archives have in its collection?

Like other records in our collection, those relating to art and artists have been created or inherited by government departments, agencies and courts of law as part of their everyday business. Those that were selected for permanent preservation became part of The National Archives’ collection.

In general, records relating to artists and artworks at The National Archives appear where an artist was working for the government; either directly or through an agency. Examples of this include where government departments worked with artists on exhibitions or publicity and propaganda material.

There are also non-commissioned artworks in the collection, such as sketches within war diaries or Colonial Office records. In these cases, the artist is not always attributed.

The National Archives also holds records relating to the establishment of many national museums and art galleries as well as various public bodies which have been set up to watch over art education and the export of works of art.

You can sometimes find references to records held in The National Archives within published works. If you are able to visit us you can use our reference library.

5. Searching Discovery, our catalogue

5.1 Using keywords

Search Discovery, our catalogue, to find records from The National Archives and over 2,500 archives across the UK. If you only want to search records held in our own collection you can select ‘Held by The National Archives’ below the main search box.

Try searching for:

• names of artists or artworks such as ‘Barbara Hepworth’ or ‘Contrapuntal Forms’
• names of exhibitions such as ‘Venice Biennale’
• the medium of artwork such as ‘painting’ or ‘sculpture’
• the type of work, committee or project such as ‘Italian Art and Archives Rescue Committee’
• combinations of the above

Bear in mind that the names of artists and art works can be listed in various ways. Try not to restrict your results by entering too much detail at the start. For example, a search (within The National Archives collections only) for ‘Cuneo‘ gets 66 results; ‘Terence Cuneo‘ gets 40 and Terence Tenison Cuneo gets 35.

Artists’ names are not always included in catalogue descriptions, so it is worth searching by an artwork’s name or by the exhibition it featured in as well.

Read the relevant sections below to help you identify document references that you can use when searching.

5.2 Using filters to narrow search results

The search results page allows you to filter your results in various ways. If you select the filter ‘Held by The National Archives’ at any point, you will see other filters become available such as collection and subject.

You can also apply filters such as record series and department code at the start of your search by using the Advanced search option of our catalogue.

On the Advanced search page, you can use taxonomy subjects to refine your searches. If you enter a key word in the ‘find these words’ section; then select search The National Archives in the ‘Held by’ section you will open up ‘taxonomy subjects’. Select ‘Art, architecture and design’ and then search.

For more advice on searching effectively, see Discovery help.

5.3 Understanding the catalogue descriptions

Records are arranged in a hierarchy of departments, series, sub-series pieces and items. Sometimes you will need to look at the descriptions at various levels of the hierarchy to understand more about who created a record, why they created it and what it might contain.

More guidance on how to use our catalogue, see Discovery help.

6. Festival of Britain 1948-1952, and other exhibitions

The National Archives holds administrative records relating to the organisation of exhibitions such as:

• Great Exhibition of 1851 in record series WORK 6 and BT 342
• Festival of Britain 1951 in WORK 25
• Venice Biennale (relating to British exhibitors) in records of the British Council

The Festival of Britain records in WORK 25 contain original graphic designs by Abram Games and others that were submitted for the festival itself as well as for publicity. There is also an extensive collection of photographs of the exhibits at the Southbank site, Battersea (Festival Pleasure Gardens) and elsewhere. A small selection of digital images from WORK 25 are available in our Image Library. The records include correspondence and minutes of the Festival Council, plans and drawings, printed matter and copyright documents. Other archives may hold records of the festival that complement our own.

To search our catalogue more broadly around exhibitions,  use the Advanced search option. Enter the name of an artist or exhibition, or just ‘art’ or exhibition’; enter dates where appropriate; and in the ‘search within references’ boxes enter department codes such as:

• BW for British Council
• WORK for Ministry of Works
• FO for Foreign Office  or FCO for Foreign and Commonwealth Office  (see section 13 for more information)
• INF for Ministry of information
• BT for Board of Trade

You might find records relating to international artists, or exhibitions of British artists held abroad, within Foreign Office files; and where government worked with other organisations, you could find records in local and business archives.

7. Government surveillance of artists

If the government took an interest in an artist or their work there might be mention of it in official records. For example, artists who were suspected communist sympathisers were monitored by the secret service.

Search record series KV2 for surviving personal files. You can search for a specific artist; or try a general search for ‘artist’ and browse the results. For instance, a search for Julian Trevelyan finds two files; KV 2/3931 and KV 2/3932.  For more information on these records, see our guide on Intelligence and security services.

8. Copyright records 1862-1911

To protect their work under copyright legislation, artists would submit a registration form to Stationers’ Hall in London. Photographs or sketches of the work being registered were attached to the forms which are now held at The National Archives in record series COPY 1. Our research guide Copyright records of the Stationers’ Hall explains more about these records.

Sometimes a copyright proprietor registered a photograph of an artwork rather than the artwork itself.  For example, William Francis Mansell registered copyright for his photograph of Rembrandt’s painting of Jean Pellicorne with His Son Caspar (COPY 1/456/86).

9. Second World War propaganda and publicity 1939-1946

Original paintings and drawings were produced for propaganda and publicity purposes during the Second World War. Search the Ministry of Information records in series INF 3 by name of artist or title of artwork. Some of these records are available in our online exhibition, The Art of War.

Some of the publications in which the art work was reproduced are in record series INF 2.

A selection of posters, booklets, leaflets and promotional material produced by the Ministry of Information, and later Central Office of Information, are in INF 13.

10. Art for railways and public transport

Artists were sometimes commissioned to create public artworks and publicity material for public transport bodies. You can find information relating to these commissions in records from the British Transport Commission and British Railways Board (department code AN) and in transport periodicals (department code ZPER).

Use the Advanced search option in our catalogue and enter AN and/or ZPER in the box for ‘search for or within references’. In the ‘Find words’ box you can enter ‘sculpture’ or ‘art’ and so on. Alternatively you can search using an artist’s name such as Cuneo or Gill.

11. The Government art collection

Search our catalogue for “government art collection” to find associated records from various archives. Those from The National Archives are mostly within department code WORK and particularly in record series WORK 54.

The Government web archive contains snapshots of the Government Art Collection website (see section 3 for more information about the Government Web Archive).

12. Treasury records

Every area of government action involved the Treasury department at some stage. This would include organisation of exhibitions and commissioning of public artworks.

For advice on using Treasury records in your research consult our research guides on Treasury Board letters and papers 1557-1920 and Economic history in the 20th century.

For records after 1920,  you can use the Advanced search option in our catalogue and search by keyword within reference T (the department code for Treasury).

13. Foreign Office records

Correspondence from Foreign Office officials in the UK to their counterparts overseas could cover all sorts of things, including cultural matters. Try searching these records for information about British artists’ exhibitions or visits abroad, as well as foreign artists’ exhibitions in the UK.

See our guides to Foreign Office correspondence 1906-1919 and  Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office correspondence 1920 onwards for a more detailed explanation of how to search these records.

14. Looted art

Foreign Office and Treasury documents concerning looted art have been identified and digitised in partnership with the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. To search them use the form in our research guide Looted art 1939-1961.

15. Parliament’s Art Collection

Parliament has its own art collection, separate from the Government Art Collection. Parliament’s Archive Collections include records of Parliament’s Curator of Works of Art department and committee records relating to Parliament’s works of art.  The Parliamentary art collection itself can be searched on the Parliamentary Heritage Collections website.

16. Other online archive catalogues

As well as using our catalogue, to search for records held in over 2500 archives you might find the following useful:

• The Archives Hub provides a single point of access to descriptions of archives held in UK universities and colleges. At present these are listed mainly at collection level, although where possible they are linked to complete catalogue descriptions
• Archives in London and the M25 area – AIM25 – is a major project to provide electronic access to collection level descriptions of the archives of over 50 higher education institutions and learned societies within the greater London area
• Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) – the project aims to revolutionise access to Scotland’s archives by providing a single electronic catalogue to the holdings of more than 50 Scottish archives

17. Other archives and repositories

These repositories and institutions listed below hold major collections relating to the history of art and artists.

17.1 General repositories

British Library, Manuscript Collections

The British Library holds papers of many of Britain’s foremost artists including William Blake, John Flaxman, William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, William Morris and J M W Turner. The British Library catalogue for manuscript collections is available online.

17.2 Specialist repositories

Bankside Gallery holds the archives of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour, founded in 1804, and those of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers.

The British Cartoon Archive is dedicated to the history of British cartooning over the last two hundred years. The BCA holds the artwork for more than 150,000 British editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons, supported by large collections of comic strips, newspaper cuttings, books and magazines.

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute’s Book Library holds manuscript collections including the papers of a variety of collectors and patrons, researchers and artists. Many of these were donated to the Institute.

Federation of British Artists holds the records of its constituent societies: the Hesketh Hubbard Society, the New English Art Club, the Pastel Society, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Society of Marine Artists, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Society of Wildlife Artists.

Fitzwilliam Museum Collections of the Department of Manuscripts and Printed Books include: manuscripts of Sir Joshua Reynold’s Adaptation of Talents; and William Morris’s The Earthly Paradise; correspondence and literary papers of John Flaxman; correspondence and papers of Sir Edward Burne-Jones and George Romney; literary manuscripts of William Blake and correspondence and papers of many other artists.

Glasgow School of Art Archives are an excellent resource for art, design, architecture, art education and development of these disciplines along with the many influential people who have taught and studied there. The Archives include the School’s institutional records and a number of archive collections deposited by former staff, students and related organisations. Information on the collections is available online.

Henry Moore Institute The Henry Moore Institute houses and maintains the Leeds Museums & Galleries archive of sculptors’ papers including Henry Moore. Covering the 18th century to the present day, it has a particular emphasis on the 20th century and contains a diverse range of papers relating to British sculptural practice. Information on the collections is available online.

Kettle’s Yard Museum and Art Gallery holds the correspondence between Jim Ede, the founder of the gallery, and contemporary artists. It hosts ‘Recollection’, an expanding oral history archive that reflects how people of all ages think and feel about Kettle’s Yard.

Leighton House Museum The former home and studio of the leading Victorian artist, Frederic, Lord Leighton, is now a museum holding his papers, including correspondence with family and friends.

National Gallery Libraries and Archive The collection includes papers connected with the history of the picture collection and official records of the Gallery.

Scottish National Gallery Research Library The Gallery maintains research files on all items in its collections of pictures, drawings and sculptures. Information on collections held in the National Gallery of Scotland Library is available online.

National Library of Scotland, Manuscript Collections Among the extensive personal collections held by the Library, there are papers of numerous artists, painters and sculptors. The information about the manuscript collections held by the National Library of Scotland is online.

National Library of Wales holds several important collections of papers of artists relating to Wales, including Augustus John, Gwen John, Lord Leighton, Ceri Richards and Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

National Museum of Wales maintains files on artists represented in the collections of the Museum.

National Portrait Gallery Archive is concerned with the history of the Gallery and the history of British portraiture. Amongst the collections are papers of Thomas Phillips, Sir John Everett Millais and George Romney. Information on the papers is available online.

Royal Academy of Arts The Library, established in 1771, holds the archives of the Academy as well as a collection of Summer Exhibition catalogues, the records of the Society of Artists 1759-1807 and the papers of various past members of the Academy. This includes the papers of Sir Thomas Lawrence, sitters’ books of Angelica Kauffmann and Sir Joshua Reynolds and papers of Thomas Gainsborough, Alma-Tadema, Lord Leighton and Walter Sickert. Information on the collections is available online.

Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce also referred to as the Society of Arts and the Royal Society of Arts (from 1908), holds the Society’s records from its foundation in 1754, including minutes and correspondence, original design material and donated papers of members. There is a catalogue available online.

Ruskin Library holds correspondence, literary manuscripts and family papers of John Ruskin, together with many items of Ruskin’s correspondence with prominent figures in the Victorian art world. Information on the collections is available online.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art holds personal papers of a number of modern Scottish artists. Information on the collections is available online.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery holds a small collection of personal papers relating to Scottish portrait painters and maintains a reference archive of portrait works held in private collections and research files on items its collections. Information on the collections is available online.

Tate Gallery Archive holds the national archive of 20th century British art. Major collections include the papers of William Holman Hunt, Paul Nash, David Bomberg, Stanley Spencer, Alfred Turner, John Piper, Ben Nicholson and the art historian, Lord Clarke. Other major figures from the British art world represented are Sir Jacob Epstein, Dame Barbara Hepworth, John Minton, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi and Walter Sickert. Interviews with artists, press cuttings and photographs of artists are also held. Information on the collections and a catalogue are available online.

Victoria and Albert Museum, Archive of Art and Design The Archive of Art and Design was set up in 1978 to hold papers which would formerly have been collected by curatorial departments of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The collections have a particular emphasis on the 20th century. Major collections include papers of the publisher Benhard Baer, his correspondence with Lowry, Ben Nicholson, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and other British artists and sculptors. The Archive of Art and Design also holds the records of the Arts Council of Great Britain. The Victoria and Albert Museum’s own archive is also located here.

Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library, the largest art library in the world, it holds documentary material concerning the fine and decorative arts of many countries and periods. It is also the curatorial department for the art, craft and design of the book. Among the manuscript collections are papers of Sir Edwin Landseer, Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Graham Sutherland as well as many other artists, writers, curators and art critics, societies and dealers. Information on the collections and a catalogue are available online.

Whitechapel Gallery Archives

Wallace Collection Extensive archives relating to the art and object collections were built up by the Marquesses of Hertford in the 19th century and bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace, including a large number of 18th and 19th century sales catalogues, records of founders and trustees. Information on material held by the Wallace Collection is available online. In addition administrative records of the Wallace Collection are held by The National Archives.

William Morris Gallery William Morris lived in this house from 1848-1856. It now holds a permanent collection illustrating his life, achievements and influence. Archival collections include correspondence and writings of William Morris and his associates, such as Arthur Mackmurdo and Frank Brangwyn.

17.3 Overseas institutions

Many collections of correspondence and papers of British artists are held by foreign institutions, especially those in America. Foremost among these are the Huntington Library, California, and the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Massachusetts.

The Find an archive tool includes a list of overseas repositories holding collections relating to British history.

17.4 Local record offices

Local record offices also hold collections relating to art and artists, including family papers of art collectors and patrons, records relating to an artist’s personal background and the papers of local art societies and art clubs.

Addresses and contact details for local record offices in the UK are available via the Find an archive tool.

17.5 Schools of art

Many art colleges hold their own records which contain rich information on art education over the last 150 years. These records are likely to include governors’ minute books, letter books, registers of students, prospectuses and annual reports. Some colleges (such as Edinburgh College of Art) have their own facilities for accommodating researchers; others have deposited their records in local or national institutions.

18. Further reading

Some of the publications below may be available to buy from The National Archives’ bookshop. Alternatively, search The National Archives’ library catalogue to see what is available to consult at Kew.

18.1 The National Archives’ blogs

• Arts and Crafts at the Archives
• Art in the Archives
• Dynamic design: Bloomsbury, Chanel and Art Deco
• The personal and professional life of Barbara Hepworth
• Investigating the letters behind carving and shaping stone (Barbara Hepworth)
• 19^th century artist in residence
• The Battle of Vimy Ridge: war art

18.2 Audio and video content (The National Archives)

• Barbara Hepworth: her life and works
• Festival of Britain
• The life and work of Mervyn Peake, by Sebastian Peake
• Arts and inspiration day at The National Archives 2014: Propaganda
• Arts and inspiration day at The National Archives: Design history and material

18.3 Published sources

The principal biographical reference works for artists are the international works by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker (edited by Hans Vollmer), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (37 vols, 1965-1966), and Emmanuel Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’ecrivains specialistes francais et etrangers (10 volumes, 1976).

There is no single English language work comparable. The largest art and artists dictionary in English is Jane Turner (ed), The dictionary of art (34 volumes, 1996).

Researchers might also make use of the series of the Dictionary of British art series, published by the Antique Collectors Club (ACC). The volumes currently available are:

Christopher Wood, Victorian painters (1995)

J Johnson and A Greutzner, British artists 1880-1940 (1976)

Frances Spalding, 20th-century painters and sculptors (1991)

David Buckman, Dictionary of artists in Britain since 1945 (1998)

Other publications by the ACC in a similar useful style include:

Simon Houfe, The dictionary of British book illustrators and caricaturists, 1800-1914 (1978)

Ellis Waterhouse, The dictionary of British 18th-century painters in oils and crayons (1981)

A further general biographical reference work of use generally is Who’s Who in Art, which has been occasionally published since 1927. Also:

Bryans Dictionary of painters and engravers (5 volumes, 1925)

Rupert Gunnis, Dictionary of British sculptors 1660-1851 (1951)

Alan Winsor (ed), A handbook of modern British painting 1900-80 (1992)

Alan Winsor (ed), A checklist of painters in the Witt Library c.1200-1994 (1995)