📢 Today we are publishing a new set of material to our online Access Portal, totalling 14690 images in 105 files across 5 collections! 📝 📓 📒 This batch contains diaries, autobiographies and letters. The full extent detailed on our new blog post: buff.ly/dxwJdSM

#otd in 1903, Stephen Roskill was born! He had an illustrious Naval career, becoming a historian once retired, but he is important to the history of the Archives Centre as he was closely involved in our early development, working to seek deposits and collections to complement the Churchill papers.

📣 Blog post from guest blogger Dr Andrew Brown focusing on G I Taylor's 1941 calculations of the blast from an atomic bomb. Taylor is 1 of 5 Cambridge scientists who are the subjects of Brown’s forthcoming book, Savants of Science and Warfare, to be published by @oxunipress.bsky.social next year

The blast from an Atomic Bomb - Churchill Archives Centre

A blog post on G I Taylor's calculations of the blast from an atomic bomb and correspondence with James Chadwick, by Dr Andrew Brown

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One of our most recent accessions is a small archive from Sir Eric Seal, Churchill's Principal Private Secretary in the early years of his premiership, having been with him since the very start of the war, when Churchill was brought back to the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty.

Sir Eric Seal, Churchill's 'submarine' secretary - Churchill Archives Centre

Blog about Sir Eric Seal, Winston Churchill's Principal Private Secretary during the early years of the war

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Found amongst the papers of Donald MacDougall, whoever put together the biographies of delegates for a conference couldn't help but add some further comments... some were clearly for conversation starter purposes, whilst others were definitely not...

'Spies, secrets, and nuclear fears'. Read our latest blog post by MA student researcher Diana Kuznetsova, about her work in the Mitrokhin collection:

Spies, Secrets, and Nuclear Fears: Twelve Years of the Mitrokhin Archive - Churchill Archives Centre

Blog by Diana Kuznetsova on her research into the Mitrokhin archive at Churchill Archives Centre

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🍿 🎞️ Recording now available of Dame Karen Pierce's lecture "Do we still need the 'Special Relationship'?". For the lecture Dame Karen drew on her experience within the United Nations and her time as Ambassador to the United States to talk about the special relationship.

The 21st Stephen Roskill Memorial Lecture: Do we still need the ‘Special Relationship’?

The 21st Stephen Roskill Memorial Lecture: Do we still need the ‘Special Relationship’? Delivered by Dame Karen Pierce DCMG on 22nd June 2026

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Last week we celebrated the end of term with an open afternoon, to allow students, staff and fellows the opportunity to see some of the treasures we have in the archive and talk to our staff all about what we've been up to!

Another LGBTQ+ find from the archives for #pride month. "Liberty", "equality" and "pluralism" were the three values outlined in a late 1980s paper to the Labour party, encouraging them to support lesbian and gay rights...

For #pride month this year, we will be posting a few items from our collections that highlight modern LGBTQ+ history...

Dame Karen Pierce delivered a fantastic lecture 'Do we still need the special relationship?' on Monday evening for our 21st Roskill Memorial Lecture. Thank you to all who braved the heat and joined us for a lovely evening!

Last week the Archives and Library teams had our annual Disaster Contingency Plan training day which was once again a packed programme. Thank you to our external speakers and Churchill College staff involved from the maintenance, grounds and gardens, hospitality porters and porters teams!

12 tickets left for our free lecture, happening on Monday!

Churchill Archives Centre@chuarchives.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Join us for our 2026 Roskill Lecture with Dame Karen Pierce: "Do we still need the special relationship?" on the 22nd June. Tickets are free and you can register here: buff.ly/VjPzNmP

This #RefugeeWeek we are highlighting the Second World War Cambridge Children's Refugee Committee which two people in our collections (Sybil Hutton and Rachel Lauterpacht) was involved with. You can find out more by following the links in our Women in Cambridge research guide:

Women in Cambridge c.1900-1950 Research Guide - Churchill Archives Centre

This research guide shares archive material which documents the roles played by women in Cambridge in the first half of the twentieth century.

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Digging for Data: Recovering Files from Forgotten Word Processing Systems - find out in our new blog what happened when our Digital Archivist worked with computer science students as one of their ‘clients’ for a group project!

This International Archives Week focuses on Archives for Justice: Rights, Memory and Futures, so we are sharing our resources on the Nuremberg trials. Nuremberg trial research guide ➡️ buff.ly/FXcvE6d Nuremberg trial online exhibition ➡️ buff.ly/g6ATyds #IAW2026 #ArchivesForJustice

The Nuremberg Trial Research Guide - Churchill Archives Centre

This guide presents a summary of holdings in the Churchill Archives Centre relating to the Nuremberg Trial of 1945-1946.

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Today marks 82 years since D-Day. In our collections you can find various accounts, and today we're highlighting the diaries of John Antony Crawford Hugill with his first hand account and the reminiscences of Admiral Sir Manley Power, written years later only relying on his memory...

On Thursday 25th June we are hosting an introduction day for anyone considering a career in archives, records management or conservation. Contact archives.volunteers@chu.cam.ac.uk for further details and to sign up to attend #archives #archivesconservation #recordsmanagement

We have a rare and exciting opportunity to join our team as Director of Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College. Application deadline is 9am on 29th June 2026. Please share this with people you think would be interested.

Director of the Churchill Archives Centre | Churchill College, Cambridge

Application deadline: 09:00 am BST on Monday 29th June

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This #VolunteeringWeek we are highlighting the experience of our latest volunteers in Archives and Records Management - Yulia and Charlotte. They've kindly written about their placements: buff.ly/vOZG9sk You can find out more about our volunteering placements and applying on the same webpage

Randolph Churchill was born on this day in 1911. Here he is at Stour, his home in East Bergholt, Suffolk. We've recently been looking into our material relating to Randolph Churchill's Suffolk connections in preparation for attending the Lillian Redstone celebration day @suffolkarchives.bsky.social

Join us for our 2026 Roskill Lecture with Dame Karen Pierce: "Do we still need the special relationship?" on the 22nd June. Tickets are free and you can register here: buff.ly/VjPzNmP

One of our archivists, Chris, has been working on The Papers of Sir Donald MacDougall, which required a mass rearranging. He took over the back of the strong room to have enough space to spread out!

For @cambridgefestival.bsky.social we collaborated with Cassia Clarke, independent community archivist, to host a workshop on caring for photos and other archives at home. Here Cassia shares some of the tips and techniques covered in the workshop, as well as downloadable guides

How to preserve your past: Caring for your own photographs and archives at home - Churchill Archives Centre

As part of the Cambridge Festival 2026 Churchill Archives Centre collaborated with Cassia Clarke, independent community archivist, to host a workshop on caring for photographs and other archive…

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Today is the 81st anniversary of #VEDay, which marked the end of the Second World War in Europe. We preserve this "victory special edition" of the Picture Post magazine - containing vivid photos of street celebrations in London and Paris...

Our conservators have been busy preparing film-based materials to go into our new (4th) laboratory freezer. The team carry out ‘critical moisture indicator’ packaging (to be able to visually check the humidity inside the packages) before filling the new freezer #archivesconservation

This May marks 100 years since the General Strike. A few of our collections contain newspaper articles detailing the strike. Newspapers were an important tool of the government to try and reassure the public that the strike wouldn't affect their day to day life

Last week, we were honoured to welcome the High Sheriffs of Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and Suffolk for an educational visit about archives and how they inform current research. Thanks for attending, all!

Today's #Archive30 theme is #ArchiveFoodandDrink! We love these candid snaps of a young Mary Churchill and her friend eating doughnuts while on holiday in Switzerland. [Reference: CSCT 5/2/83-84]

Today's #Archive30 theme is #ArchiveVolunteers. We're always grateful for the support of our volunteers 🫶 Our conservation volunteer Róisín recently assisted conservator David in making new book boxes. These will prevent damage to fragile books in our collections!