Glasgow University Archive Services
Glasgow University Archive Services seeks to collect original and unique archival records to support teaching and research in Glasgow University and the wider community. Established in 1955, it preserves and provides access to the University's own institutional archive and those of predecessor or affiliated institutions. It actively seeks to acquire material which support these official records such as papers of students and staff.
In 1959, the University began to collect the records of businesses from the west of Scotland. The Scottish Business Archive, managed by Archive Services since 1975, now holds records of almost every commercial and industrial activity that has been pursued in the west of Scotland in the last two hundred years and maintains many collections of national and international standing.
The earliest document in the University Archive is a land charter from 1304 although the University itself was not founded until 1451. For the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the archive is the fullest of the four ancient Scottish universities. The records cover a vast range of subjects from top level administration and policy making to student recreation and diet. These records are supplemented by over 400 collections of student, staff and university related papers.
The Scottish Business Archive holds some 400 business, representing well over 1000 individual companies. The shipbuilding collection is unrivalled and includes the records of John Brown of Clydebank, William Denny of Dumbarton, Lithgows of Port Glasgow, and Scotts of Greenock. Textiles are well covered with collections like James Findlay & Co, New Lanark Mills and J & P Coats Ltd. Railway locomotive and rolling stock manufacturers records are held for R Y Pickering & Co, Andrew Barclay Sons & Co Ltd, Dubs & Co and North British Locomotive Co amongst others. House of Fraser is the largest retailing collection in the Centre and the Trustees Savings Bank archive is the best representative of Scotland's financial sector.
In all, GUAS holds the archives of around 4200 individuals, companies, families and institutions.
Special features: Railway history: 200 years of the steam locomotive, Around the Campfire, Forensics
Browse Glasgow University Archive Services' descriptions
Show list of the Glasgow University Archive Services' descriptions
