Senate House Library

Social, economic and cultural history

Discover one of the foremost collections in the UK supporting historical research into social, economic and cultural history.

Subject Librarian: Argula Rublack
Email: Argula.Rublack@london.ac.uk 
Phone: 020 7862 8455

Schedule an online meeting to discuss your research or collection related enquiries.

Charity Organisation Society

Social, economic and cultural history

Discover one of the foremost collections in the UK supporting historical research into social, economic and cultural history.

Subject Librarian: Argula Rublack
Email: Argula.Rublack@london.ac.uk 
Phone: 020 7862 8455

Schedule an online meeting to discuss your research or collection related enquiries.

Collection Description 

Senate House Library’s history collections cover a broad chronological and geographical scope to support historical research. The collections have a strong international focus with distinctive strengths in British, Irish, European, United States, Imperial and Commonwealth as well as Latin American history. Chronologically the collections span from late antiquity and the Middle Ages to modern and contemporary history. Some of the thematic strengths of the collections lie in Victorian and Edwardian culture and society, the history of welfare and social reform, the history of education and the origins and development of industrial societies.

The history collections provide an extensive research collection of print and e-books, journals, newspapers, theses and microfilms. We offer a broad and growing selection of databases and electronic resources. Additionally, Senate House Library has acquired a wealth of special collections and archives of unique and rare materials over the course of its history, which we are still continuously expanding. To explore our unique historical collections further, consult our guides to Senate House Library’s printed special collections and archives and manuscripts.

Locating and accessing material 

The best way to start finding history resources at Senate House Library is to use the catalogue.  

The open access history collection is located on the 5th floor and continues in the Periodicals Room gallery on the 4th floor below. New acquisitions for the history collections are shelved in the Periodicals Room on the 4th floor. The floorplan will help you navigate the collections. Books and journals held in the stacks and off-site can be requested through the fetch service on the catalogue. 

Most of our e-book collections can be found on Ebook Central. All e-resources and databases for history are listed on the A-Z Databases list on our LibGuides platform. 

Special collections and archive material must be ordered in advance and consulted in the special collections reading room. Some of these collections are available as part of our e-Resources. They can be found on our list of Digitised UoL special collections and archives on our LibGuides platform.

Subject areas

The IHR Library

The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) Library contains over 200,000 titles of mainly published primary sources, complementing the history collections available at Senate House Library. The collections cover the history of Europe from the medieval period to the present day, European colonialism, north and south America as well as historiography, and ecclesiastical, military and diplomatic history.

Membership is free for everyone.

The IHR Library is located in the North Block of Senate House, neighbouring Senate House Library, which is located in the South Block.

Suggest a book

We are always happy to review suggestions for new items to add to the collections.