Churchill Archives Centre

Our workshop on caring for your own photographs and archives at home is being generously supported by Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination. Find out more about the charity here: cambridgecandi.org.uk

Register here – How to preserve your past: Workshop on caring for your own photographs and archives at home – Churchill Archives Centre How to preserve your past: Workshop on caring for your own photographs and archives at home – Churchill Archives Centre, Sat 21 Mar 2026 - Bring along 5-10 items from your own collection. These could…

On Saturday 21 March we will be hosting a workshop on caring for your own photos and archives at home with independent community archivist Cassia Clarke as part of the 2026 Cambridge Festival.

Spaces are limited so find out more and register buff.ly/BZgNXf1
@cambridgefestival.bsky.social #camfest

Happy Valentine's Day 🥰

Students stand in front a screen featuring an archive document

Students look at an archive display in Churchill Archives Centre's reading room

Students listen to a behind the scenes talk

Another great visit this week - this time it was @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social history students taking an Appeasement and the Second World War special subject course. They listened to a talk from our director (Allen Packwood), visited a specially curated display, and had a peek behind the scenes

Students gather round David (conservator) to hear about conservation at Churchill Archives Centre

Students looking at a display of archive material in Churchill Archives Centre's reading room

This week we had fun hosting Anglia Ruskin University history students starting a project using our collections - they will select documents from our collections relating to the Battle of the Somme or the abdication of Edward VIII and write us some interpretative text.

@angliaruskin.bsky.social

Churchill Archives Centre Future Development - Churchill College Churchill College’s Governing Body has voted in favour of plans to build a new Churchill Archives Centre within the Grounds of the College. This vote took place after a period […]

🎉We are very happy to share the news that Churchill College’s Governing Body has voted in favour of plans to build a new Churchill Archives Centre within the Grounds of the College. www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

File Reference: ACAD 1/30 Diary, 1959 Typed diary with corrections made in light blue inked pen

File Reference: HNKY 1/4, Diary, 1917 - 1918 Handwritten diary entry cut out and pasted into volume

File Reference: ACAD 1/38, Diary, 1967 Typed diary full of crossing out and rewrites with an inked pen

File Reference: HNKY 1/7, Diary, 1923-01-07 - 1942-08-31 Almost blank page in the middle of entries with a typed "NOTE, a typescript for the entry for 3 February 1923 has been bound separately in volume 1/8"

🖥️ We have added another batch of files to our Access Portal! You can now explore further diaries of Alexander Cadogan and Maurice Hankey. 📓📝📒 The pictures below show the variety of formats which make studying diaries fascinating
buff.ly/0vIiTvh

Churchill Archives Centre stall at the Archives and Collections Fair

Archives and Collections Fair banner

Questions about your dissertation? Come to our stall in the lower ground floor of the Law building. We're here until 4!

Photograph of display case

We have a new mini-exhibition about historical events that turn 100 years old this year! Take a look at the display cases outside the Churchill College dining hall...

And for diary fans, you can compare Charles' diary with Edward's which has been digitised by our friends at @uoyborthwick.bsky.social (shared below), who also hold one of Charles' photograph albums and some of his correspondence.

Charles Peake’s wartime diary: diplomacy, Hollywood glamour, and a wild train ride - Churchill Archives Centre A blog post exploring the wartime diary of Charles Peake who worked as Personal Assistant to Edward, Lord Halifax.

⭐ 🚂 Hollywood stars, heated arguments, and a wild train ride...

Explore the extraordinary American adventures of Lord Halifax and his Personal Assistant Charles Peake in Charles' Second World War diary, recently catalogued and available to read online.

The Nuremberg Trial Research Guide - Churchill Archives Centre This guide presents a summary of holdings in the Churchill Archives Centre relating to the Nuremberg Trial of 1945-1946.

And if you're keen to dig deeper into our Nuremberg collections, then take a look at Helen and Phoebe's informative research guide: buff.ly/qYx1lMH.

A photograph taken inside the court room of the Nuremberg Trials, KLMR Acc.1485 12/1.

David Maxwell Fyfe in the Nuremberg courtroom, KLMR 5/4

The courtroom under construction, KLMR Acc. 1485 12/1

David Maxwell Fyfe's security passes for the Trials, KLMR Acc.1485 3/2

🎬 Have you seen Nuremberg? Keen to learn about the history of the Nuremberg Trial?

Then look no further than our new online exhibition 'Nuremberg: A new kind of justice?' curated by Churchill College undergrads Helen Brozovic and Phoebe Pryce-Boutwood.

buff.ly/mT8sK8x

A modest envelope spotted by Elvira, our Digital Copying Assistant, in the papers of the Royal Naval Officer and politician Commander Robert Bower...

#archives #history #Cambridge

Visit us - Churchill Archives Centre

🎉 Happy new year! 🎉 The Archives Centre is now back open, Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, as usual. Find more information about using the reading room on our website: archives.chu.cam.ac.uk/visit-us/

A snowy image of the Archives Centre building, with a small added in image of a bust of Churchill, in a party hat and tinsel scarf

Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁 We hope you all have a peaceful and restful Christmas and we look forward to welcoming you all back to the reading room in the New Year

Christmas cake (half) with Father Christmas and holly leaves decoration

Bust of Winston Churchill wearing a party hat

🎄 ❄️ We are feeling festive with our annual Christmas cake made by Amanda (half was demolished in record time!) and Christmas parties in the College

The Archives Centre will be closed 22nd December-Friday 2nd January (inclusive). We hope you all have a wonderful break. We will be back in 2026!

🎥 A 2 minute video featuring photographs and videos of student visits, Archives Centre events, and behind-the-scenes work by different members of the team. The video ends with a photograph of a delicious Christmas cake made by star baker Amanda.

It's been a busy year at the Archives Centre...here are some of our highlights!

Thank you to our wonderful researchers, volunteers & supporters.

🎵 Royalty Free Music: Bensound. Artist: Benjamin Tissot License code: MGGUBXG9JQVLDJWL

A typescript document titled 'Christmas arrangements - Chequers, 1948, December' with handwritten annotations.

🎄 What was Christmas like at the PM’s country retreat in 1948?

Today’s festive find from the Kathleen Hill papers reveals Christmas arrangements at Chequers, including Clement Attlee’s arrival and later his 4-month-old granddaughter.

The opening of Pride and Prejudice, with a line drawing of two women sat outside on a bench.

Winston Churchill's copy of Pride and Prejudice, later owned by his son, Randolph Churchill, who's bookplate is shown on the left-hand side. The right-hand side of the book shows Asquith's inscription.

Winston Churchill's 10 volume set of Jane Austen novels, with the spines for Vol. VIII of Emma and Vol. IX of Northanger Abbey.

📚 In 1908, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith gave Winston Churchill a wedding present: a ten-volume set of Jane Austen's novels.

As we celebrate Austen’s 250th birthday today, what can we learn from the inscription in this prime ministerial gift?

Find out in our blog: buff.ly/FGD7EXt

We were so pleased to host the students of 'The European Union, A People’s History' (a new Special Subject in the Cambridge History tripos) a few weeks ago.

We hope that access to archives will enrich your understanding of this fascinating topic!

Read more in the thread below...

An illustration of a wintry high street focusing on a pub sign with a bull statute reading 'At the Sign of Good Cheer William Bull', with the words 'A Christmas Greeting from Sir William and Lady Bull' included on top of a piece of parchment in the bottom right-hand corner.

A Christmas card reading 'Greetings for Christmas 1932' with a drawing of a bull holding up a shield which includes the signatures of the Bull family in the centre.

A Christmas card with the title 'Greetings for Christmas 1937 from all the Bull's with 'The March of Time' and 'Bull Edition' printed in red over the pages of a calendar which show the process of planning the Christmas card.

A photograph of the Bull family sailing on the river with the sea regulations 'The Vessel which is close-hauled on Port tack shall keep out of the way of the Vessel which is close-hauled on Starboard tack' included underneath the photograph.

Have you ever wondered what homemade Christmas cards looked like before the digital age?

The Bull family made their own Christmas cards every year, with the tradition likely starting with the MP and solicitor William Bull, which his children continued.

Here's some of our favourites!

A huge congratulations to Dr Mari Takayanagi, one of our former Archives Centre By-Fellows! 🎉

Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Bob Edwards - Churchill Archives Centre Bringing together photographs and video from the Bob Edwards centenary panel session on his life and legacy on 26th September 2025

Did you miss our panel session on the life and legacy of Bob Edwards (IVF pioneer) at the end of September? Well now you can catch up: buff.ly/58PLK5r

Chaired by @rogerhighfield.bsky.social, supported by @cam-repro.bsky.social

#ivf #ivfhistory @loke-ctr.bsky.social @pdncambridge.bsky.social

Two Christmas postcards. The top postcard reads 'Xmas 1915, Ruhleben bei Spandau with heartiest Xmas and New Years Wishes, signed James. The second postcard reads 'Best Wishes from Ruhleben Christmas 1916. CHAD II 3/1

At the outbreak of the war, physicist James Chadwick had been studying beta radiation in Berlin. He was later held as a civilian Prisoner of War at the Ruhleben camp.

In the Chadwick papers, we hold the postcards that James sent to his mother in Christmas 1915 and 1916.

Research Grants & By-Fellowships - Churchill Archives Centre Find out available research grants and Archives By-Fellowships, including eligibility and the application process.

And the deadline for our next round of By-Fellowship applications is 31st December. We offer 3 Archives By-Fellowships each year for researchers engaged in academic projects at a post-doctoral level or above. ➡️ Find out more and apply, click here: buff.ly/HbNqCbd

If you've been in our reading room over the last few weeks, you will probably have seen Archives By-Fellow @jamesghalgh.bsky.social. Read about how James has spent his term with us in a new blog. buff.ly/pE5fPLc

We also participated in the Queer History and Heritage Trail at #histday25. We highlighted some LGBTQ+ historical figures in our archives, using facsimile documents.

The original documents can be requested in the reading room.

Photograph of Archives Assistant Nicole sitting at a stall with facsimile documents, research guides, badges, postcards, and pens.

It's hard to believe that it's been a month since we were at History Day (#histday25) at @ihr.bsky.social!

For those who don't know, History Day can be a great way to locate primary sources for historical research. This year, 70 archives, libraries, and museums participated.