Records of the Amateur Athletic Association of England (AAA). Comprises an extensive sequence of minutes and meeting papers generated by the broad structure of committees which directed the actions of the AAA; financial records; a small amount of circular correspondence; publications, including an almost complete set from the AAA Championships; and ephemera.
The papers demonstrate the changing nature of athletics during the 20th century. Later papers highlight AAA growing preoccupation with advertising and sponsorship deals, television contracts and the increasing problem of drug use to enhance performance and the need for effective dope testing procedures. Other papers discuss the debate, and final acceptable by the AAA, of the concept of a single governing body for athletics in the UK, which became the ill-fated British Athletics Federation.
Taken as a whole, these records are of interest to those studying amateur sports, especially athletics culture in England between across the late 19th to late 20th centuries. These records cover the vast majority of the Association's years of operation, including the years of both World Wars.