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This page contains links to co-operative museum and archive sites
of special interest.
Museums
Rochdale Pioneers Museum
31 Toad Lane, Rochdale was where the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers
Society opened their first store selling pure, unadulterated food
at fair prices and honest weights and measures. The work of the
Pioneers set the pattern for successful co-operatives in Britain
and throughout the world. The Rochdale Pioneers Museum is widely
regarded as the home of the world-wide co-operative movement and
receives visitors from individuals and groups from the UK and
35-40 different countries every year.
http://museum.co-op.ac.uk
People’s History Museum
The national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation
and study of material relating to the history of working people
in Britain. The museum galleries are housed in the Pump House:
a former Edwardian hydraulic pumping station, Bridge Street, Manchester.
http://www.phm.org.uk/
Robert Owen Museum
The Museum is the only museum specifically devoted to Robert
Owen. The bulk of the collection was acquired in the 1920s, some
seventy years after his death. Most of the items are from Robert
Owen's time and have a direct association with him.
http://robert-owen.midwales.com
New Lanark Conservation Trust
The village first rose to fame when Robert Owen was mill manager
from 1800-1825. Owen transformed life in New Lanark with ideas
and opportunities which were at least a hundred years ahead of
their time. Child labour and corporal punishment were abolished,
and villagers were provided with decent homes, schools and evening
classes, free health care, and affordable food. New Lanark is
still a living community, and the village is in the care of an
independent charity.
http://www.newlanark.org/
Co-operative Archives
Plunkett Foundation
The Plunkett Foundation Reference Library and Information Centre
houses a comprehensive English-language collection covering all
aspects of co-operatives and other forms of user-controlled business
in rural areas. The range of books, journals and documents from
around the world has been growing since 1914, and represents a
unique contemporary and historical resource.
http://www.plunkett.co.uk/framesets/index_libraryinfo.html
The Heritage site of the Woodcraft Folk
This web site has been made possible by a grant from the Heritage
Lottery Fund for the project ‘ Opening up the Archives'.
This enabled the Woodcraft Folk to sort out its papers and memorabilia,
from the formation of the first groups in 1925. This archive material
has been transferred to the Archive Department of the London School
of Economics Library. The items on this web site were selected
from these archives. Additional film footage of the Woodcraft
Folk is housed with the Co-operative Archive, The British Film
Institute and the East Anglia Film Archive.
http://www.woodcraftheritage.org.uk
Labour History Archives
Labour History Archive and Study Centre
The Labour History Archive and Study Centre (LHASC) is the only
specialist repository for the political wing of the Labour movement.
It holds records for working class political organisations from
the Chartists to New Labour. LHASC holds the archives of the Labour
Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain. The collections
have been used for a variety of research purposes providing an
insight into the social, political and economic life of the last
two centuries. Besides housing papers of political organisations
the LHASC collects the personal papers of radical politicians,
writers and left wing organisations.
http://www.nmlhweb.org/archive.htm
Working Class Movement Library
The Working Class Movement Library is a collection of English
language books, periodicals, pamphlets, archives and artifacts,
concerned with the activities, expression and enquiries of the
labour movement, its allies and its enemies, since the late eighteenth
century. The library's has its origins in 1953 when two communist
bibliophiles, Ruth Haines and Eddie Frow first met. Born of a
merging of their collections it now leads an independent existence
as a charitable trust, with the support of the City of Salford's
Heritage Department.
http://www.wcml.org.uk
University of Warwick Modern Records Centre
The Centre aims to collect and make available for research original
sources for British political, social and economic history, with
particular reference to labour history, industrial relations and
industrial politics.
http://modernrecords.warwick.ac.uk
Trades Union Congress Library
The TUC Library is the major research library for the study of
all aspects of trade unions and collective bargaining with both
historical and contemporary coverage. The emphasis is on Britain,
but many other countries are represented, especially Europe and
the Commonwealth.
The TUC Library was established in 1922 and was based on the integrated
collections of the TUC Parliamentary Committee, the Labour Party
Information Bureau, and the Women’s Trade Union League.
In September 1996, the Collections moved to their new home in
the London Metropolitan University Learning Centre.
http://www.unl.ac.uk/library/tuc/
Bishopsgate Institute
C.W.F. Goss, Librarian of Bishopsgate Institute 1897-1941, was
responsible for the development of the library’s special
collections. A keen London historian, he assembled much of the
library’s wonderfully eclectic London Collection and acquired
the George Howell, Charles Bradlaugh and George Jacob Holyoake
collections.
From the 1970s the library extended its collections and now holds
archives and published works relating to the co-operative movement
and the Freedom Press. The archives of Bishopsgate Institute itself
are also of interest.
http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk
British Library of Political and Economic Science
The collections held in the archives cover modern British political,
economic and social history, the history of the social sciences
with particular reference to Economics and Social Anthropology,
and the history of the London School of Economics & Political
Science. The material dates mainly from the last quarter of the
nineteenth century to the present day.
http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/
National Library of Wales Welsh Political Library
The Welsh Political Archive was set up in 1983 to co-ordinate
the collection of documentary evidence of all kinds about politics
in Wales. It collects the records and papers of political parties,
politicians, quasi-political organisations, campaigns and pressure
groups; leaflets, pamphlets, ephemera, posters, photographs, and
tapes of radio and television programmes.
http://www.llgc.org.uk
Marx Memorial Library
Founded in 1933 the library specialises in all aspects of Marxism,
socialism and the history of working class movements including
the levellers, Chartists, suffragists, communists, Fabians, labour
and trade unions. The pamphlet collection and collection of left-wing
newspapers and journals form a substantial resource for study
of all left aspects of social, political and industrial relations.
http://www.marxlibrary.net
University of Hull Brynmor Jones Library
The labour archive includes papers of prominent left-wing individuals
and several national organisations: the Co-operative Women's Guild
and International Women's Co-operative Guild, the National Council
for Civil Liberties, the Socialist Medical Association and the
Union of Democratic Control. See John Saville, The Labour Archive
at the University of Hull (1989).
http://www.acsweb.hull.ac.uk/arc/
Searching the Archives
Archives Hub
The Archives Hub provides a single point of access to 19,803 descriptions of
archives held in over 150 UK universities
and colleges. At present these are primarily at collection-level,
although complete catalogue descriptions are provided where they
are available. The Hub also features monthly exhibitions and
provides information on training. The National Co-operative Archive
contributes to the Hub and regularly updates our listings.
http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/index.html
National Register of Archives
The NRA is a central point for the collection and dissemination
of information about the nature and location of manuscripts relating
to British history. It currently consists of some 43,000 unpublished
lists and catalogues that describe archival holdings in the United
Kingdom and abroad. These can be consulted in the HMC's search
room. The lists and catalogues have been indexed by corporate
bodies, persons and families and the indexes are available online.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/
A2A (Access to Archives)
The A2A database contains catalogues describing archives held
locally, mainly in Record Offices, in England and Wales
and dating from circa 1100 to the present day.
A2A does not yet offer a full description of all local archives
but it is regularly updated with new catalogues. As many Co-operative
Societies are held locally it is a useful research tool.
http://www.a2a.org.uk/
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