Photographs of Leicester College of Technology

Photographs of the Leicester College of Technology taken by the Central Office of Information. The majority of photographs date to November 1967 and were taken for a series called "Know Your College", which showcased the work of individual technical colleges. A small number date to January 1970 and were part of a series of photographs of science students in colleges of further education (at this date the College of Technology had become the City of Leicester Polytechnic).

Subjects of the photographs include:

• students on Systems Analysts course,
• students on Diploma in Management Studies working on office lay-out problems,
• students on Diploma in Management Studies course on a project in a local firm,
• student operating an IBM card sorting machine,
• students learning to operate card punching and card sorting machines,
• students and a lecturer examining a Honeywell computer,
• Business Studies students in the language laboratory,
• Business Studies and Management Studies students being introduced to computer processes,
• postgraduate Pharmaceutics student extracting mucus samples,
• Applied Chemistry student separating an iodine/iodide mixture,
• Pharmacy students investigating heat transfer in an all glass evaporator,
• trade union leaders from Ethiopia meeting R.E. Wood, Principal of the College.

Leicester College of Technology was formed in 1929. It originated in 1882 when the Leicester Technical School began classes in the Ellis Wing of Wyggeston Boys School. In 1897 the Technical School amalgamated with the Leicester School of Art to form the Leicester Municipal Technical and Art School. Restructuring in 1919 separated the Technical and Art schools and led to the creation of the City of Leicester Technical School, renamed the City of Leicester College of Technology in 1925, and finally the Leicester College of Technology in 1929. The College of Technology and the College of Art were managed by one committee and shared building space, although they had separate principals and teaching staff. In 1969 the College re-merged with the Leicester College of Art to form the City of Leicester Polytechnic, which in turn became De Montfort University in 1992.

Subjects taught at the College of Technology included boot and shoe manufacture, hosiery and textiles manufacture, chemistry and dyeing, pharmacy, physics, mathematics, engineering, biology, commerce, languages, and industrial and commercial administration.

The photographs were assigned numerical reference codes by the Central Office of Information and have been arranged according to this sequence.

Available for general access. External researchers are advised to make an appointment with the Archivist.

Catalogued by Katharine Short, Archivist, May 2013.