Memory of the World

The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme is a global initiative to safeguard the world’s documentary heritage against collective amnesia, the ravages of war, decay and deterioration.

In 1993 a United Nations committee met to plan how to preserve significant documentary heritage from across the globe by cataloguing and protecting historical archives for future generations to learn from and enjoy.

The result is the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, the documentary heritage equivalent of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Its mission is to focus world attention on the need to safeguard endangered and unique library and archive collections and make them accessible to everyone.

Registers

National: The UK Memory of the World Register honours documentary heritage of national and regional significance and includes documents such as the Death Warrant of King Charles I. This invaluable archive is a remarkable and rich insight into a small island’s past and mark on the world. This is Britain’s collective memory.
International: The International Memory of the World Register recognises documentary heritage of global significance and includes documents such as the Magna Carta. It inspires both nations and regions to identify, list and preserve their respective documentary heritage for the collective memory of humankind.

Memory of the World Chapters

The development of people’s political, social and cultural rights in the UK has taken generations of conflict, campaigning and protest. Recognised on the UK UNESCO Memory of the World Register are some of the milestone documents relating to the development of these rights. This includes the Magna Carta issued in 1215 which limited the divine right of kings, through to the Bill of Rights in 1689 which effectively made the UK’s political system what it is today. These rights have been brutally hard-won as inscriptions including the Peterloo Massacre Relief Books and the papers relating to the Women’s Suffrage Movement show.

UNESCO Memory of the World Inscriptions in the UK

The Roman Curse Tablets from Bath

Personal and private prayers of 130 individuals inscribed on small sheets of lead or pewter, and cast into the hot spring at Bath, dating from the 2nd-4th century AD.

The Shakespeare Documents

The ‘Shakespeare Documents’ are the key archive sources for understanding the life of the world’s most celebrated poet and playwright, William Shakespeare, b.1564, d.1616.

Thomas Hardy Archive

Thomas Hardy is a literary figure of international importance, both seminal and transitional. The universal themes of his writing include time, love, loss, nature, place and war. Find out more

Tyne & Wear Shipyards Collection

The shipbuilding collections deposited at Tyne & Wear Archives are the major source of information on the many shipyards in the North-East of England that helped to shape the unique identity of the…

Wakefield Court Rolls

The Wakefield court rolls are an almost complete series of manorial rolls documenting the business of the manor of Wakefield from 1274 to the abolition of manorial jurisdiction in 1925. Find out more

Wedgwood Museum Archive

The collection is one of the most complete ceramic manufacturing archives in existence.

West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum Records, 1814-1991

The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Wakefield was one of the world’s most famous and active research institutions for the study of the ‘insane brain’.