Archive Collection of the Month
march 2010
1807: Oystermouth railway opens
In March 1807 the first passenger-carrying railway in the world opened in Wales.
Click here for advice from National Archives on tracing railway workers.
february 2010
1960 The wind of change
Read about Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's significant and courageous speech to the parliament of South Africa in Cape Town from February 1960.
january 2010
In the news 30 years ago! New Year file releases from 1979 covered an eventful year in post-war British political history. James Callaghan's Labour government was replaced by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, and the 'winter of discontent' affected the whole country.
Click on the image below to read from various files.
OR Listen to the National Archives podcast
December 2009
Search and download 164 volumes of logbooks of the Royal Navy's voyages of scientific discovery.
Many famous officers kept logs which are held in this collection, including James Cook and William Bligh who commanded the mutinous Bounty.
NOVEMBER 2009
Listen to the podcast series created in 2008 to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armistice. Hear extracts from Haig's war diary, reports on gas attacks, love letters to soldiers and the 'war guilt' clause from the Treaty of Versailles.
With words taken directly from the original records, these podcasts give a rare insight into the First World War in the voices of those who served in it.
OCTOBER 2009
100th anniversary of the Security Service, the UK's national security intelligence agency. Known for keeping personal files on a great range of individuals, the Security Service has released over 4,000 of these files to The National Archives since 1997.
The Security Service files cover a period up to the late 1950s and are open to the public. You can view many of them by clicking here, including those of Sidney Reilly, the spy thought to have inspired James Bond. good overview of the files, and offers some tips on searching them.
september 2009
70th Anniversary of the II World War
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Second World War, the National Archives have created a series of six videocasts entitled 'War on Film'. These describe key events that inspired popular war films, using extracts from real government records and archive footage.
Discover the real stories behind films such as 'The Dam Busters' and 'The Longest Day', as retold by National Archives military records specialist William Spencer.
The first videocast looks at the Blitz and the evacuation of children from large cities, as shown in the film 'Hope and Glory'.
AUGUST 2009
Newly released UFO files reveal more than 800 reported sightings between January 1993 and August 1996.
These include a lemon-headed alien attempting to abduct two young men in Staffordshire and numerous sightings over
Bonnybridge, Scotland - the UFO hot spot of the mid nineties.
July 2009
Lost page of American history found at The National Archives
A rare print of America's Declaration of Independence has been found among files at The National Archives at Kew.
Printed on 4 July 1776, the Dunlap print is one of only 26 known copies in the world and is named after John Dunlap, the printer whose name is at the bottom of each copy.
The newly discovered print was found, hidden among correspondence from American colonists intercepted by the British in the 18th century, by an American carrying out research at The National Archives.
- Dunlap print of the Declaration of Independence, printed on July 4 1776 (Extracted from CO 5/40 )
- Image details
June 2009
- Jazz Music Library
- Access the entire collection free through June with the username "jazzlibrary" and the password "jitterbug."
Source: jazz.alexanderstreet.com Jazz Music Library will be the largest and most comprehensive collection of jazz available online — with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.
May 2009
- Greater Manchester Collection of Steve Cohen, lawyer and anti deportation campaigner, 1975-1996.