Stories from the collection

These photographs, captured through police investigations, give a unique insight into the heart of the early British Black Panther movement.

Copyright photographs of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor provide us with a unique insight into his status in early 20th-century British society.

Robert Wedderburn (1762–1835) was a British-Jamaican radical preacher, abolitionist and writer.

This map was provided to soldiers during the first operation by the Chindits, special forces serving in Japanese-occupied Burma during the Second World War.

Artist and illustrator Louis Wain (1860–1939) achieved great fame for his whimsical drawings of cats, but his story is also a sad one of personal tragedy.

Sir Learie Constantine (1901–1971) was a renowned cricketer, author, politician and persistent campaigner for racial equality and justice.

This parchment records John Blanke, a Black Tudor in the royal court, asking King Henry VIII for a pay rise and a promotion in his role as a trumpeter.

The Imperial Typewriters dispute in Leicester saw over 500 workers, largely from South Asia, go on strike over discrimination in 1974.

In 1866, a British luggage manufacturer attempted to capitalise on the expansion of railway lines with a unique and royal travel bag.

This angry letter offers a rare view of the words of ordinary people at the time, threatening violence in response to falling living standards in rural England.

Ivor Cummings (1913–1992) greeted the iconic arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury in 1948. He became known as the 'gay father of the Windrush generation'.

Explore the foundations of the NHS, one of Britain's most well-known and loved institutions.

The Irish author completed this form to register ownership of a play titled ‘Dracula; or the Un-Dead’, and thus his seminal novel. It would prove important.

Christine Granville, Special Operations Executive agent extraordinaire, was Churchill’s favourite spy. How did this document possibly save her life?

In 1920, hundreds of members of the National League of the Blind (NLB) marched 200 miles to campaign for support. This printed circular explains what happened.

More than a thousand people who supported women’s right to vote were arrested for their activism. This document records them – and includes some famous names.

Is this the most famous anonymous letter in British history? Perhaps it should be. Without it, the Gunpowder Plot might have succeeded.

A handwritten letter written by sewing machinists working at Dagenham car plant who famously went on strike for equal wages in the late 1960s.

On the Windrush passenger list, white socialite Nancy Cunard (1896–1965) is described as a 'writer', but she was also a staunch activist for Black civil rights.

The police raid on a secret queer nightclub in 1933 gives an insight into the lives of gay men in interwar London and their defiance in the face of persecution.

Margaret Bondfield (1873–1953) was a trade unionist and Labour politician. In 1929 she became Britain’s first female cabinet minister.

Passenger lists for the ships that carried post-war migrants from the Caribbean to Britain can be crucial resources for people tracing their family history.

Was a woman arrested for murder in Victorian Liverpool an unfortunate person caught up in a series of ill-fated events, or something much more sinister?

Through documents held at The National Archives, we can piece together a great deal about the life and reign one of Britain's most infamous medieval monarchs.

Insaaf was a film made by the government, filmed partly in Urdu, to promote employment rights under the 1968 Race Relations Act.

Maud Allan (1873–1956) was a celebrated West End dancer in the early 20th century until she became entangled in one of the most sensational trials of the 1920s.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) was a tireless political activist, who led the WSPU – the militant faction of the movement for women’s suffrage.

Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) lived relatively openly as a lesbian in an era that condemned such relationships. Today she is an icon of LGBTQ+ literature.

One of the first MPs of Indian heritage, Shapurji Saklatvala (1874–1936) was an agitator for change, which led to his surveillance by the Security Service.

Alice Hawkins (1863–1946) was a working class suffragette and trade unionist, who boldly campaigned for the rights of women.

The National Archives has a wealth of documents, photographs and art work collected during the planning and running of the influential 1951 Festival of Britain.

William Cuffey (1788–1870) was a mixed-race, disabled, working-class leader. He was a leading figure in the Chartism movement, famed for his powerful oratory.

The trial of nine black protestors who were arrested while demonstrating in Notting Hill in the early 1970s became a public platform to criticise police racism.

Through documents held in The National Archives, we can gain an incredible insight into the life of one of the world's most famous playwrights.