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A view from Trinity's Old Library window onto the quad below, with a bookshelf in view.

College Archive and

Special Collections

Archive and Historic Collections

We are lucky at Trinity to house several exceptional collections: our historic collections of manuscripts and early printed books (which number more than 6,000 volumes in our Old Library alone), and our Archive containing records of the college and its history from its foundation in 1555. 

Trinity’s historic collections – housed in our Old and Danson Libraries – consist of early printed books for research, teaching, exhibitions and talks. Our Old Library dates back more than 600 years and our early printed book collection has grown over the centuries primarily through donations and now includes more than 6,000 volumes dating from the late fifteenth century. The Danson Library houses an impressive collection of illustrated books, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, important early printed books and a small number of modern first editions.

The Trinity Archive is home to the administrative records of the college from the Foundation in 1555, and includes material related to the College’s foundation and governance, historic building sites and estate records, as well as photographs of college people and places dating from the 1860s.

 

Trinity College

Archive

Learn more about the collections in our College Archive, including how to access or donate to the archive collection. 

Trinity's

Historic collections

Find out more about the collections of manuscripts, illustrated books and other material held in our Old and Danson Libraries as part of the historical material donated to the college.