Ann Lambton Papers

The collection includes three substantial series of research notes, appointment diaries, travel journals, and a few Persian manuscripts. More then 2,000 printed works from Professor Lambton's library are held in the main library's collections (an addition 1,000 duplicates were donated to the University of St Andrew's).

A.K.S. Lambton ( Nancy ), OBE, FBA., was a British historian specialising in medieval and early modern Persian history, politics, administration, and linguistics, Islamic political theory, and Persian social organisation, particularly land tenure and reform in Iran. From 1932 she studied Persian and Arabic at the School of Oriental Studies in London. She first visited Iran in 1934, and gained her Ph.D. with a thesis on Seljuk institutions in Iran in the 11th and 12th centuries. She served in Tehran during the Second World War. After the war she returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies (renamed in 1938) as a senior lecturer in Persian, later as a reader and from 1953 until her retirement in 1979 as Professor of Persian and was the leading western scholar in her field. Her research and writing continued in her long retirement, alongside an active role in the Anglican Church in her home county of Northumberland.

Provisional arrangement:

1. Research notes

2. Appointment diaries

3. Travel journals

4. Correspondence

5. Offprints

6. Persian manuscripts

7. Objects

The collection has been box listed but has not yet been catalogued. For this reason, it is not normally possible to consult some parts of the collection. Please contact the Archives and Special Collections before planning your visit. Access to some files concerning personal references and letters in support of applications will be restricted under terms of the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

Open for consultation.

Presented to Durham University Library by George Lambton, 2009 and 2013.

Box list

Printed items from Ann Lambton's library are listed in the library catalogue.

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Parts of the collection have not yet been fully appraised.