The collection blog

Most recent posts

• The day a missile struck The National Archives' site

  

  Published

  11 June 2026

  When Chris Ransted learned that during the Second World War, a V1 flying bomb hit the site where The National Archives now stands, he chose to investigate.

• Researching LGBTQ+ histories in the archives of government

  

  Published

  9 June 2026

  In this blog post Vicky Iglikowski-Broad explains how you can get started in researching LGBTQ+ histories through government records.

• Celebrating Volunteers’ Week 2026

  

  Published

  2 June 2026

  To celebrate Volunteers' week, The National Archives’ Keith Mitchell reflects on the achievements of our volunteers and their projects.

• Cataloguing the copyright collection

  

  Published

  29 May 2026

  In this blog post, Katherine Howells explores how our volunteers have catalogued copyright records and highlights the stories they can tell us.

• The A–Z of the Royal Navy Captains' letters project – 'N' to 'Z'

  

  Published

  21 May 2026

  Bruno Pappalardo reports on the final findings of the volunteer Royal Navy Captains’ letters project.

• Cataloguing British Army officer service records

  

  Published

  13 May 2026

  Find out how our volunteers have improved catalogue descriptions for 19th-century military service records.

• Cataloguing the BT 51 and BT 50 registered designs

  

  Published

  8 May 2026

  Explore how a team of volunteers have transcribed The National Archives’ records of registered designs from 1885–1888.

• Accessing the digitised Northern Ireland Troubles records

  

  Published

  21 April 2026

  Explore how to access material related to the Troubles online through The Northern Ireland Digitisation Project.

• Launching the Northern Ireland Troubles Digitisation Project

  

  Published

  21 April 2026

  Today, we launch the first release of the Northern Ireland Digitisation Project, a major four-year research and access initiative.

• The Ministry of Munitions and a surprise discovery in the archive

  

  Published

  18 March 2026

  Finding a tiny object attached to some paper documents reminded me how the materiality of archives can connect us to the past.

• Researching Love Letters

  

  Published

  13 February 2026

  Discover how expressions of love have been uncovered in unexpected places by The National Archive.

• A place of refuge in the colonies

  

  Published

  26 January 2026

  The National Archives holds powerful material relating to the Holocaust. With over 11 million records on the topic, what stories can we uncover?