College Archives

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New Hall was founded in 1954 and from the first has kept records of its history. The collection was begun by the first President, Dame Rosemary Murray, who kept scrapbooks of press cuttings throughout her presidency and left behind twenty boxes of papers, which include minutes and papers of the Committee on the Third Foundation for Women dating from 1948. Since her retirement successive Librarians have acted as keepers of the archives, with input also from a part time Archivist.

The archive catalogue is available online at http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/ To search the New Hall Archive only, select "New Hall" from the drop down menu of "Participating Institutions".

Publications by and relating to the College, including ephemeral notices, invitations, menus and so on, are preserved, and our alumnae are now working with us to collect ephemera from the past. There are many photographs in the archive.  'The first year at New Hall' a series taken by E. G. Malindine shows the first sixteen students in the setting of The Hermitage, Silver Street, the College's original home and now part of Darwin College. There are photographs of the innovative architecture on the Huntingdon Road site, completed in 1964, and photographic records of such major events as the opening of these buildings by the Queen Mother, the archaeological dig of 1994 and the opening of the Kaetsu Centre on New Hall land in 1996. Amateur photography is also represented and is valuable in illustrating the daily life of students and Fellows.

The first Matriculation book and early volumes of Council papers are kept in the archives. There are papers relating to founders and benefactors, appeals, alumnae, past Fellows, student activities and the College's administration and finance. Site plans and building plans occupy a considerable amount of space, since New Hall has done much recent building. The New Hall Art Collection is complemented by a growing archive of catalogues, articles and newscuttings which we expect to become a useful source for research.

The video collection began with an amateur film of the construction of the Dome in the 1960s and continued with film of various celebrations and media coverage. The College has an on-going audio-visual programme to interview some of the key figures in its history. In 2004 we produced a film to commemorate our first fifty years.

Access to the archives by external users is by advance appointment with the Librarian. Applicants should supply proof of ifentification and give details of the type of material they wish to consult.