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British Psychological Society Administrative Archives
Location: Wellcome Library
At the heart of the extensive internal archives of the Society itself are the Minute Books, from the founding meeting at University College, convened by James Sully, in 1901 down to 1969. Besides these are large quantities of archival material relating to regional branches, the various specialist member networks, such as the Medical Section and Division of Clinical Psychology, and internal administration, as well as ephemera (e.g. the seating plan for the Society's 60th Anniversary Dinner!).
Individual Psychologists' Archives
Location: Wellcome Library
Major individual archives are those of: Leslie Hearnshaw, Charles Spearman, Henri Tajfel, Charlotte Wolff, Charles .W. Valentine, Albert Cherns, David Duncan and John C. Kenna. There are smaller holdings related to, for example, C.S. Myers, T.H. Pear, G.P. Meredith, P. McKellar, E.C. Tolman, John Handyside and Grace Rawlings.
The Library
Location: Senate House Library Search the library catalogue.
The library collection had its origins in the very early years of the Society. It consists of large collection of historical and current psychology journals, a significant collection of books and monographs, including many early texts, and a collection of Society publications.
The History of Psychology Centre maintained a separate collection of books, journals and other periodicals until early 2007, when its holdings were merged with the Society's main collection at Senate House to create a single more extensive collection.
As part of our attempt to ensure that we have a full set of our own publications we are trying to establish what the Society has actually published over the years. If you have any information about early member network (subsystem) publications, you may be able to help with our Subsystems Publications Project.
The Grace Rawlings Visual Archive
Location: History of Psychology Centre, London
The Grace Rawlings Visual Archive, created by Professor Halla Beloff, in 1991, contains portraits of numerous eminent psychologists past and present, as well as group photos and other images including slides and videos (plus a few DVDs). The visual material collected by John Kenna is now incorporated into this. Grace Rawlings was a major British psychologist during the post-war period, and ex-President of the Society, who left money for the development of a visual archive.
John C. Kenna Audio Archive
Location: History of Psychology Centre, London
The John C. Kenna Audio Archive has now been transfered to CD format. As well as interviews and talks (by e.g. B.F. Skinner and Cyril Burt) it includes a number of recordings of psychiatric patients from the 1950s to 1960s, created for teaching purposes (these not as yet transferred to CD). Interviewees include T.H. Pear, R.B. Cattell, Ernest Jones and Marie Jahoda among others. There are transcripts for most of these. This is now being expanded with new interviews resulting from the Oral History Project.
Other Archives
Location: Wellcome Library
The numerous other holdings include four box-folders of Child Study Association minute books from 1891into the 1940s. 'Child Study Association' is, however, somewhat misleading as this had several name changes (e.g. 'Childhood Society' in the 1920s) as well as internal divisions ('Child Study Association of London'). Perhaps the most curious items are the notebooks containing the dream research undertaken with fellow prisoners of war (all officers) by Major Kenneth Hopkins during the years 1939-1943 (when he died). These were included in the C.W. Valentine archive, having been passed to him after the war having been discovered in an empty camp (the first contained a letter from him).
Test Collection
Location: BPS head office, Leicester
We have a substantial collection of psychological tests of various kinds. Accessonly by special arrangement.
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