Collections - Churchill Archives Centre

Discover our Collections

Our collections include a wide-range of documents by more than 570 political, military & scientific luminary figures from the Churchill era and beyond.

Our primary catalogue is hosted on Cambridge ArchiveSearch, along with most of the other Cambridge archives; help on searching ArchiveSearch is available here. Narrow down to ‘Churchill Archives Centre’ as a repository when using ArchiveSearch, if you just want to search our collections.

Other links below offer other ways in to our collections, such as our Guide to Holdings, which lists all our collections alphabetically and also allows for searching our collections by subject, or research guides written by our team, but will ultimately lead to links back to our catalogues.

Discover our collections

Search our full holdings or browse by subject

Guide to holdings

The full list of collections, with a brief synopsis of each, filterable by subject and with links to their catalogue entry.

Archive Search

Catalogues and finding aids to archives and manuscripts held in Cambridge, including almost all of Churchill Archives Centre catalogues.

Research guides

Introductory guides to subjects and collections written by the Archives Centre team.

Newly catalogued and opened material

A continuing cataloguing programme at the Archives Centre means more material is being made available to researchers all the time.

FAQs

Questions on our collections and Archives Centre operations.

Access portal

We have several hundred archival files hosted online on our Access Portal, and we intend to add more over time. This includes image, audio and video material.

Popular collections

Some of our most requested collections

The Churchill Papers

A comprehensive collection of Churchill’s writings throughout his lifetime. The papers contain everything from Churchill’s childhood letters and school reports to his final writings.

The Thatcher Papers

One million documents, in three thousand archive boxes, across three hundred metres of shelving – the Thatcher Papers capture one of the most significant eras in twentieth century politics.

The British Diplomatic Oral History Programme

Transcripts of interviews with former diplomats.

The Papers of Vasily Mitrokhin

KGB files from the famous Mitrokhin Archive – described by the FBI as “the most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source

The Franklin Papers

Most of Rosalind Franklin’s papers are available online from the Wellcome Library.

Churchill College Archives

Founded by Royal Charter in 1960, Churchill College is one of the newer Cambridge colleges.

The College Archive at Churchill College is administered separately from the Churchill Archives Centre. It contains corporate and administrative records, photographs, academic records, and various historical papers and records relating to the College.

Find out more