Special Collections & Archives

Overview

Special Collections & Archives is located in the Templeman Library on the University of Kent's Canterbury campus and holds over 280 archival collections. It is an Accredited Archive Service.

History

Some of the earliest donations to the University Library formed the basis of Special Collections & Archives, including the research collection of over 12,000 items assembled by John Crow (1904-1969), Professor of English at Pittsburgh University, later donated via Molly Mahood, Professor of English at Kent. Another early acquisition was the roughly 2,000-book Maddison Collection on the history of science, gifted by scientist Robert Edwin Witton Maddison (1901-1993). The University of Kent Archive (UKA), the repository for records of the University's central administration, charts the University's development since its planning in the early 1960s and its founding in 1965.

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

Collection strengths include popular and comic performance from the Victorian era to the present (including the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive), cartoon artwork and publications (the British Cartoon Archive), the history of the University of Kent and local area, material relating to wind and watermills, 20th-century prose and poetry first editions, and the UK Philanthropy Archive.

Access and Usage

Special Collections & Archives is located at the Templeman Library, University of Kent, Canterbury, and is open to all with an appointment.