No other document has left its imprint on the development of human rights as the Magna Carta. Born out of the conflict between King John and his Barons in 1215, the “Great Charter” is one of the most important documents in the world. The Magna Carta established the principle that all free men have the right to justice and a fair trial, and that no one, not even the King, is above the law. These principles inspired documents centuries later including the United States Bill of Rights (1791). In promoting the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said it was her goal to set up a ‘Magna Carta for mankind’.

The Magna Carta stands as a living document, a testimony to our collective human memory on the development of our inalienable human rights. Four original copies of the Magna Carta, sealed by King John remain with us today. These four 1215 documents are recognised by the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.

Widely seen as Scotland’s most iconic document, The Declaration’s stirring language, and evocative sentiments of nationhood and freedom, have given it a special distinction over the centuries, not just in Scotland but worldwide. The Declaration is a letter written in 1320 by the barons and whole community of the kingdom of Scotland to the Pope, asking him to recognise Scotland’s independence and acknowledge Robert the Bruce as the country’s lawful king.

A collection telling the extraordinary struggle of the women’s suffrage movement in Britain from the 1860s to all women gaining the vote in 1928. It includes the 1866 Petition which enabled John Stuart Mill to be the first person in Parliament to call for women’s suffrage; and ends with the success of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act of 1928.

The documents represent the women’s suffrage movement in Britain, and Parliament’s response to this, and seeks to epitomise a movement that continues to excite the public imagination and generate academic debate among historians of suffrage, feminism and British political life. This select group of items has been chosen to create a narrative of this movement, an inheritance that ‘keeps alive the history of women’s long march to equality, which is so often forgotten or ignored’ Mary Stott.

Charles Booth’s Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People in London, undertaken between 1886 and 1903, originated in the profound unease about poverty that came to a head in London in the 1880s, when acute economic problems heightened long-standing social tensions. Booth set out to remedy what he felt was a lack of facts about poverty, by investigating and documenting ‘the condition and occupations of the inhabitants of London’. Booth’s Inquiry profoundly influenced the public debate around poverty and social policy in the decades that followed.

Combining panoramic scope and scale with an extraordinary level of detail, the archive of the Inquiry reveals the living and working conditions of the inhabitants of what was then the largest city in the world. Over 450 volumes of interviews, questionnaires, observations and statistical information document the social and economic life of London, highlighting all of its contrasts, complexities and contradictions.

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’. The research work and the resulting scientific developments were ground breaking and started global scientific changes in the treatment of the mentally ill. The records also given an unparalleled insight into the medical, social and family history of the West Riding, the largest geographical county in England. The collection includes over 5000 photographs of patients from the late 1860s onwards, literally putting a human face on a patient number.

The Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest battles in history. On the first day alone, there were more than 57,000 British casualties, and by the end of the campaign, the Allied and Central Powers would lost more than 1.5 million men. The 1916 film The Battle of the Somme is uniquely significant both as the compelling documentary record of one of the key battles of the First World War, and as the first feature-length documentary film record of combat produced anywhere in the world.

Seen by many millions of British civilians within the first month of distribution, The Battle of the Somme allowed the civilian home-front audience to share the experiences of the front-line soldier, helping both to create and to reflect the concept of Total War. The film also played a major part in establishing the methodology of documentary and propaganda film, and initiated debate on a number of issues relating to the ethical treatment of “factual” film which continue to be relevant to this day.

This information was provided by various Labour Companies and Graves Concentration Units who were set up under the control of the military authorities. They were tasked with searching for the graves and remains of the war dead and conducting the battlefield exhumation and reburials which resulted. The Commissions task was later extended to cover British and Commonwealth casualties from the Second World War. The records include grave registration documents and headstone schedules. In many cases, these represent the earliest recorded information that the Commission was able to gather about those who came under its care.

An extraordinary set of maps indicating, building by building, bomb damage in London during the Second World War. This is the most detailed record of damage to the capital’s built environment caused by aerial bombardment. An iconic and multi-layered source for London’s experience of war and its aftermath, it conveys complex survey data in the tradition of Leake’s Great Fire map, Milne’s land use map, Mylne’s geological maps and Booth’s poverty maps. These printed maps were extensively annotated with the use of colour keys by the Architects Department of the London County Council to indicate, building by building, bomb damage during the Second World War. This is the most detailed record of damage to London’s built environment caused by aerial bombardment.

Used frequently by architects, surveyors, town planners and local and family historians seeking information on the precise degree of damage suffered by properties across the 117 square miles of the London Region 1940-1945, the maps are a symbol of Londoners’ resilience in adversity and highlight the enormous effort and forethought of the London County Council to serve London and Londoners in their ‘hour of need’.

The collection is the personal archive of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), soldier, writer, politician, orator and statesman. The archive was assembled by Sir Winston during his long-life and career and comprises his personal, public, political and literary correspondence and papers, including his drafts and annotated notes for his celebrated speeches and broadcasts. The material consists of some one million items stored in two and a half thousand archival boxes.

The material consists of some one million items stored in two and a half thousand archival boxes. It is pre-eminent not just for its quantity but also for its quality, including correspondence with leading political, literary and social figures of the age, and papers about major events from the Boer War to the Cold War. It provides a window on the twentieth century from the perspective of a man who helped to shape it, and includes the originals for many of his enduring words and phrases.

While Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most famous film directors of all time, his first ten silent films – nine of which survive – are little known compared to his later work. Made between 1925 and 1929, the silent films are among the greatest achievements of British silent cinema, and are blueprints for the rest of his body of work, containing many of his characteristic motifs and obsessions.

The restoration of the ‘Hitchcock 9’ was the largest restoration project the BFI has ever undertaken. The BFI holds some of the most important and earliest surviving copies of the silent Hitchcock films, including negatives; and materials were also sourced from international archives. These restorations ensure that the works of one of Britain’s greatest artists can be appreciated on the big screen as they were meant to be seen.

Between 1969 and 2009, a period of immense social change in the North East of England, Konttinen and Amber Films created a series of works of remarkable quality and depth exploring a huge shift in popular culture. A heartland in the birth of the Industrial Revolution, the region has had to adjust rapidly to a post-industrial reality.

Konttinen and Amber’s work captures the experience from the epic locations of shipbuilding and coal to the forgotten drift mines and brickworks. Crucially the work captures it in the communities – from the terraced streets of Byker to the flawed and visionary Byker Wall Estate that replaced it; Travelling communities, fishing communities, mining communities; the texture of people’s lives; particular experiences that speak to the wider world.

In 1756 Myanmar king Alaungmintaya sent a diplomatic letter to King George II of Great Britain. This is not your run-of-the-mill, ink-on-paper dispatch. The message, in Myanmar language, was engraved on a rectangular plaque made of gold, with a line of 12 rubies embedded on each of two sides.

The letter lay in the vaults of Hanover’s Leibniz library for 250 years, as nobody could read its contents. The letter, which took three years to decipher, relates to an offer of trading cooperation between Burma (current day Myanmar) and England. In October 2015, the Golden Letter was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, as a common heritage of Myanmar, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

This inscription is the common heritage of Myanmar, Germany and the UK.

What became the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies was the idea of William Paterson, a prolific ‘projector’ or promoter of speculative money-making schemes. He had been instrumental in the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694, but his new plan aimed to bring financial prosperity to Scotland, his homeland. He proposed that the Scottish Parliament, following the passing of “An Act for Incourageing Forraign Trade” in 1693, should grant a Scottish monopoly on trade with Africa and the Indies to a trading company, enabling it to harness the lucrative Far Eastern trade.

The DWIC archives are primary resources for researching the history of the European expansion into West Africa and America. The records concern various themes such as commerce and slave trade, warfare, early modern diplomacy, plantation cultures and daily life issues. Moreover the DWIC archives contain information on the history of the regions where the DWIC founded colonies and trading posts. In many instances there is no other written information available for that period.

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 region and made shipbuilding one of the key economic activities on Tyneside and Wearside. The industry also made a significant contribution to world maritime history.

The Tyne & Wear Archives Shipyards Collection is a testimony to the remarkable achievements in shipbuilding and engineering produced on Tyneside and Wearside over the past two hundred years. The rivers Tyne and Wear contributed massively to the history of the UK, world shipbuilding and marine engineering, with many innovations being developed here as well as countless fine ships being built.

Neath Abbey Ironworks in South Wales was in the forefront of development of beam engines for the South Wales coalfield and built one of the first railway locomotives in 1829. The collection includes 8,000 engineering drawings (1792-1882) and demonstrates the contribution of South Wales to Britain’s industrial revolution. Held by the West Yorkshire Archive Service.

The SS Great Britain was launched in Bristol in 1843, construction having begun in 1839. Described as ‘the greatest experiment since creation’ she was the largest ship in the world, and the first iron hulled screw propelled ocean-going steam ship. Amongst the many innovations brought together by her engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel the screw propeller was the most ground-breaking and represents a pivotal moment in world maritime history.

The ‘Chepman and Myllar Prints’ is a volume containing eleven pieces of printing – all known only from these copies – that include the earliest surviving dated book printed in Scotland: John Lydgate’s The Complaint of the Black Knight, completed by Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar in the Cowgate of Edinburgh on 4 April 1508. There are also eight other books from this same press, of which two, dated 8 April and 20 April, are the only other Scottish books dated 1508; a tenth book possibly printed by Myllar; and an eleventh book printed outside Scotland but sharing the early history of the volume.

The archive shows the development of the postal service and the impact it had on villages, towns and cities throughout the United Kingdom (and Ireland to 1922). For example, maps show how postal routes grew over time; the status of becoming a postal town had an economic impact, the records show how the postal town network grew.

From 1635 to the modern day The Royal Mail has dealt with essential aspects of everyday life, from broadcasting and communications to banking and employment. It documents the organisation’s unique history, from employment records to stamp artwork, and is one of the oldest business archives in the world. The collection covers everything from the impact of post on peoples’ lives, to an outstanding archive of stamp designs. Held by the British Postal Museum and Archive.

The BT research reports and memoranda document over a century of the achievements of British telecommunications engineers and scientists in pushing the boundaries of communications technology. Advances in thermionic valves, transistors, radio communications, television broadcasting and transmission, satellite technology, digital transmission, optical fibres, lasers, integrated circuits, video conferencing, videophones, research into early wideband/broadband technologies such as radio waveguide are only some of the subjects covered by the research reports and memoranda.

The private diary of this major scientific figure. It covers all aspects of his life and scientific research, including experimenting with his own body, his relationships with other well-known individuals at that time, his work with Christopher Wren to rebuild London after the Great Fire and a detailed description of life in seventeenth century London. Held by London Metropolitan Archives.

The series of base and field reports and photographs forms the backbone of the archive collections of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and its predecessors, the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (1945-62) and the Second World War expedition Operation Tabarin (1943-45). It is a unique and comprehensive account of these organisations’ activities, illustrating the United Kingdom’s leading role in the modern era of Antarctic scientific exploration from the establishment of the first United Kingdom Antarctic stations in 1944 to the end of the 20th Century.

The material contains ten thousand reports and approximately nineteen thousand photographs, covering all twenty of the UK’s Antarctic stations past and present. Data underpinning globally significant discoveries, such as the hole in the ozone layer, is included. So too are accounts of the challenges of living and working in an extreme environment, and of prolonged journeys into the field to research and map the unknown.

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. These unique handwritten documents, dating from within Shakespeare’s lifetime, provide an evidential basis for understanding the narrative of his life.

The collection provides a priceless perspective on Shakespeare’s life in London. It shows him appearing as a resident in the Elizabethan city, with the documentary trail then charting his rise in fortune, both professional and financial, reaching the heady heights of success at the court of James I and ending with his famous will.

Sir Robert Cotton (1571–1631) was a politician and antiquarian scholar, who began to assemble his collection of manuscripts as early as 1588, aged just seventeen. Cotton’s collecting interests focused on works central to the study of British history, such as chronicles, cartularies, maps and state papers.

The importance of these manuscripts for our knowledge of the past cannot be overstated. For example, Robert Cotton brought together the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in the world, including two early copies of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum and five manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as well as the earliest surviving Anglo-Saxon charter, dating from AD 679. After Robert Cotton’s death, the library passed in turn to his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (d. 1662), and grandson, Sir John Cotton (d. 1702). In 1702, the Cotton library was acquired by the British government, the first occasion that any library passed into national ownership in Britain – an important step in the creation of a national, public library.

The Chronicle of Elis Gruffudd was written in Welsh, c. 1550-52, by a soldier and administrator serving in the English garrison at Calais. Ambitiously aiming to chronicle the history of the world from the Creation to his own time, Elis Gruffudd based the medieval part of his Chronicle partly on a unique body of traditional Welsh legendary matter, including the Taliesin and Myrddin legends.

Considered Georgia’s epic poem, Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli dates from the late twelfth century when the country reached the peak of its medieval social, economic, cultural and political development. The masterpiece is remarkable for the striking harmony and beauty of its poetry and the elegance of its language which makes it complicated to render in any foreign language. Probably the greatest attempt to introduce the English speaking communities to the Knight in the Panther’s Skin was undertaken by Marjory Wardrop and her brother Oliver, who was the first Chief British Commissioner of Transcaucasus in the early twentieth century.

This collection consists of a mixture of Georgian, oriental and European cultural traditions created during major political, socio-economic and cultural changes throughout the Caucasian and Middle East regions. It provides unique information about the lifestyle, traditions and characterisations of different social groups in the Middle Ages from the royal family to merchants and peasants.

The Historic Ethnographic Recordings collection contains field recordings of orally transmitted cultures made throughout the world by linguists and musicologists. Some of these recordings represent the earliest sources for research into those cultures, and have captured in the most vivid format available at the time, unmediated by foreign textual interpretation, a linguistic and cultural diversity in a precious moment on the cusp of today’s ‘global village’. Not only were these recordings among the first of such to be made but also they may be the last: many of the languages and musical practices that feature in this collection are endangered or no longer exist.

The Orwell Papers’ collection contains the personal archive of George Orwell (born Eric Blair, 1903-1950), political thinker, essayist, novelist, journalist and broadcaster. The famous British author of Animal Farm, an allegory of contemporary times, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a fictional account of the dangerous potential of totalitarianism kept very few personal papers and even fewer manuscripts of his writings.

His writings featured in the collection include the first jottings of some of the most well-known words and phrases from the Orwell canon, such as “Two Minutes Hate”, “Newspeak”, and the slogan “War is Peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery.”

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. They give an insight into the lives of ordinary people. One tablet is currently unique in that it is believed to be made up of Celtic words written in the Latin alphabet. Another curse tablet contains what is currently the earliest known reference to Christianity in Britain. Held by Bath and North East Somerset Council.

The Hereford Mappa Mundi is the only complete example of a large medieval world map intended for public display. It is very different to our modern understanding of a world map as it shows not only locations of places and geographic features but also acts as a visual encyclopaedia with historical, anthropological, ethnographical, biblical, classical and theological information.

The map is pivotal in our understanding of medieval cartography and sense of place and still has relevance to all peoples in helping them to understand their sense of humanity and self.

Domesday provides a unique snapshot of English society at a pivotal moment in its history. It is The National Archives’ earliest surviving public record and, perhaps, the most iconic. Commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1085, it records in immense detail who held what land and rights in England and parts of Wales, both before the Norman Conquest in 1066 and after it.

The Gough Map, one of the great medieval treasures of cartography, arrived at the Bodleian Library in 1809 as part of Richard Gough’s bequest, an eighteenth century antiquary and expert on British Topography. Richard Gough acquired it for half-a-crown on 20 May 1774 at the sale of the collection of Thomas Martin of Palgrave, where it was offered as Lot 405 and described as ‘a curious and most ancient map of Great Britain’. Dated approximately 1360, it is the earliest surviving map to show routes across Britain and to depict a recognisable coastline.

The map, measuring approximately (height) 553mm by (width) 1164mm, is drawn on the flesh-side of two pieces of sheepskin parchment, joined vertically. The lap-join was held together originally with a plain running-stitch, clearly identifiable by sewing-holes and thread-indentations along the join. Indeed, the thread interrupted the application of the green wash which represents the sea, indicating that the sewing was in place before the map was painted. The two parchments are now joined by adhesive only. The left-hand skin, seen in transmitted light, has the anatomical features of what appears to be the backbone and ribcage of a lamb.

This charter is the oldest document in the archive of the City of London, one of the most important city archives in NorthWestern Europe. The Charter appears to be the earliest royal or imperial document which guarantees the collective rights of the inhabitants of any town.

Founded by an Act of the old Scots Parliament, it was Scotland’s very first bank. Its early history was difficult, reflecting the turbulent economic conditions of the period. But its business and influence grew, and ‘the old Bank’ went on to become the pre-eminent institution of its kind in Scotland, a position it retained right up until the early years of the 21^st century.

Bank of Scotland also pioneered some of the key banking services we take for granted today. In 1696, it issued its first banknotes and was the first bank in Europe to successfully issue a paper currency. The records of the Bank of Scotland 1695-2001 are a major documentary source for the economic and social history of Scotland since the late 17^th century.