Stories from the collection

Stale ale, ground nutmeg and mustard seeds – would you try these medieval cures for headaches and congestion? They give surprising insights into global trade.

Sir John Fielding grew to become one of England’s first and greatest police detectives. And for his entire crime-fighting career, he was blind.

Virginia Hall (1906–1982) was an American who served with the British Special Operations Executive in France in 1941–1942 and built a career in espionage.

What was the everyday reality for LGBTQ+ people in the 80s and 90s living under the infamous Section 28, and how was it eventually repealed?

WÃSÙ was the journal produced by the West African Students’ Union (WASU) and distributed across Europe and Africa from 1926.

These handwritten pages offer a window onto a Prime Minister’s thinking about the issues of the day. In 1978, they ranged from education to the environment.

Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act negatively affected LGBTQ+ lives for decades. How did such a seismic piece of legislation come about?

This debated document officially ended the First World War and set out the terms and conditions for peace, and determined the course of the 20th century.

Described by the Birmingham Post as the ‘queen of Jamaican theatre’, Louise Bennett-Coverley (1919–2006) was a poet, performer, folklorist, writer and educator.

The Treason Act defined the crime of ‘high treason’ in law for the first time. It is one of the oldest pieces of legislation still on the statute book today.

Our collection includes many weird and wonderful records – one of the weirdest is undoubtedly a small box containing the remains of two long-dead rats.

This previously unknown set of records from an 18th-century galleon shines a light on one of history's most significant trade routes.

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.

John Blanke was a trumpeter at the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. He is one of the earliest people of colour in England we have records about.

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.