This collection contains the records of the work and activities of the University of Huddersfield and its predecessor institutions back to its foundation in 1841. The initial purpose of the organisation was to give the opportunity of a basic education to the young men of the local community, and this remit has expanded over the years to the current status of the organisation, that of a fully fledged university offering undergraduate and postgraduate education and research opportunities on a local, national and international scale.

In the Academic Administration section, records of students academic and scholarly activity is documented. Student timetables, attendance and progress reports, scholarship and exam registers, prize records and records of qualifications awarded are all contained within this section. Many early records still exist, although some series contain gaps in the early part of the 20th century.

Governance and Corporate Performance records reflect the decision making apparatus of the university. The Governance section includes the minutes of the University Council and Senate, and the Teaching and Learning Committees, which determine strategy and policy across the organisation, and at a local level, the minutes of the School Boards (the evolution of the organisation of teaching different subjects is explained in their descriptions). Annual Reports and Strategic and Corporate Plans contain a record of the long term planning for the institution, and the legal and statutory requirements of inspection and reporting are also contained in this section.

The correspondence in to and out from the institution describe issues of importance to staff, students and stakeholders, from the sponsor employers of the early days of the Technical College, to the partnerships with other educational and industrial organisations in the late 20th century. Internal memos reflect the types of educational and policy information circulated for the notice of staff, and the papers of the senior officers of the institution show the day to day work and more in depth projects undertaken to develop the institution's reputation and educational influence over time.

Another core section of activity is the recording of students of the institution, and their associated academic and scholarly activity. Student timetables, attendance and progress reports, scholarship and exam registers, prize records and awards of qualifications conferred are all contained within the Academic Administration section. Student records themselves have their own section, and contain a varied amount of information about the student and their background dependent on the period in which they enrolled. These records are subject to Data Protection legislation, and researchers can make a Subject Access request. Records are opened on the assumption of the age of the youngest student being 16, and adding a closure period to their 100th birthday, which means a rolling closure for 84 years. The records in the Teaching and Learning section cover the academic planning and operational side of the institution at a local level. Divided by school, in addition to the School Board minutes there are exam and module assessment board minutes, course proposals and handbooks (incomplete), course and school publicity leaflets and school administration files by subject.

The Marketing and Communications section may be of particular interest to researchers wanting to know more about the life of the institution and its ways of working and communicating information to staff and students. It contains an almost complete run of institutional prospectuses, which in the early days included a lot of published information about prize winners, exam results and scholarship programmes, as well as the courses running semester to semester in the College. Newspaper cuttings cover the period 1880s-1920s and then the 1920s - 1990s and are also fairly complete. Focusing mainly on the local press they show both the academic and social side of the institution. Research reports cover the annual research activities of academic staff, and there is also a set of staff newsletters which is fairly complete from 1967 - 2010s.

In addition to subject files contained in the Library and Archive section, there are early library catalogues and a special collection of books from the Mechanics Institute library. The Events section covers significant university events such as the installation of the senior officials to royal visits, and the public events those of an important nature to the history of the college, such as anniversaries. Records of the University Press and it's published output are also contained within the records, except for journal articles and papers which are contained in the e-prints repository: https://eprints.hud.ac.uk/

The photographic and AV collection contains photographs of buildings, staff, students and events and many of them have been digitised. There is also a significant amount of video material of graduations and significant events. The day to day business of the institution, development of the campus and turnover of staff and equipment is recorded in the Estates, Finance and HR sections.

Researching University History
The following are good sources of information amongst the records:.
• Governors Minutes – As with most organisations, the big decisions are reflected in these minutes. Information about staff and subjects are usually found in the Class Committee books (later Board of Studies/Academic Board/Teaching and Learning). The college was in control of the LEA and its Education Committee between 1903 and 1970, when the Polytechnic was formed and Governors returned to control. School Board records document departmental changes, and are held with School records.
• Student Records - We have student records from the 1860s, in a patchy way until the 1930s when we have really detailed admissions forms. We have indexes to registers from the 1890s-1910s. Student registers can be read in conjunction with Scholarship Registers and Attendance Records.
• Full Course Timetables – These are a great set of records that set out the weekly timetable for students depending on their course. They run from the 1895-1949.
• Calendars and Prospectuses – 1884 – Present: Early, till 20s contain a calendar with important dates to the institution then prospectus type information for all subjects, lists of student exam and scholarship winners, and next year’s scholarship questions. The Principal’s Reports were bound into these 1880s-1920s.
• Annual and Principals Reports 1840s-1970s: A yearly view from the top on the events, activities and research going on within the college. Good reference source.
• Correspondence: Patchy, as much of it is very mundane, but then there are some gems, so worth looking around particular events or dates in history, e.g. FWW. Incoming and outgoing from the Principal and Secretary’s offices.
• Press Cuttings – 1870s-1920s, then 1947-Present: These cover all kinds of stories about the development of the university and campus, student-y type stories and what students and staff are up to research wise.
• Newsletters – 1969 – Present: We have a pretty good and fairly complete over a long period set of staff newsletters.

Published material relating to Halifax and surrounding area, accumulated by the Halifax Antiquarian Society.

One file of notes and seven printed scores of musical works by John Guthrie that belonged to Hazel Wood, a singing and music teacher. All of Guthrie's works in this collection include words/poetry by Federico Garcia Lorca.

A large set of pamphlets held as a library for the Independent labour Party. This set was obtained from duplicates being discarded from the Working Class Library, Salford via the university's History Department. They cover a wide range of subjects relating to labour politics and history, and have been partially, but not fully listed.

This archive contains the committee minutes and organisational papers for the Huddersfield branch of the society of musicians. The society was active in representing the interests of professional musicians.

Records, books, booklets and objects relating to the children's literary journal published in Huddersfield.

Includes a complete series of the published magazine, letters from children's authors and journal subscribers, draft articles from contributors and financial records. In addition, some printing blocks for the magazine's illustrations survive, as does a short account of its history written by the editor. There are records relating to children's libraries and librarianship, publishing for children, as well as material relating to literary awards.

Arrangement:
JBS/1 The Journal Bookshelf Journal and Related Publications
JBS/2 Editors' Files
JBS/3 Financial Records
JBS/4 Subscribers' Records
JBS/5 Miscellaneous Records and Objects

Collection documents the varied career and personal life of John Henry Whitley. Whitley's occupations included Halifax mill owner, champion of universal education, revered local politician, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chairman of the Royal Commission on Labour in India and Chairman of the BBC.

The archive includes letters from Winston Churchill and King George V and the autographs of Gandhi, Benito Mussolini and cricketer Wilfred Rhodes.

The collection is split into 8 sections: reference sources relating to J. H. Whitley; scrapbooks compiled by the Whitley family; personal papers, correspondence and photographs relating to Whitley's career and family life; press cuttings referring to J.H. Whitley; a series of cartoons from Punch magazine commenting on Whitley's career; a section concentrating on the history of Whitley councils; material relating to Whitley's relationship with his school, Clifton College and information relating to the General Strike of May 1926.

1. Transcript of his unpublished book 'A Guide to English Grammar and Exercises in Sentence Construction', rejected by the publisher 'as too out of date'.

Library of fashion and pattern-making books, deposited by Jo Ogle

This archive contains the personal papers of a scientific gentleman, Josef Petracek, that were discovered amongst the papers of a Huddersfield Technical College professor. The box of papers contain a personal archive including correspondence, photographs, educational records and lifestyle documents about his life in Vienna and in Huddersfield, where he worked in chemical engineering. Many of the documents are in an early 20th century form of German.