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Special Collections

Labour history

Print and archival sources on labour history, including information on working class lives, trade unions, the Labour Party, and left-wing political movements.

Victorian London streets with back to back terraces, from Gustave Doré, London, a Pilgrimage (1872)

Working class histories

Archive collections relating to the social and cultural history of the working classes, including autobiographies, records and reports on living conditions.

Plaque on the Mechanics' Institute, Manchester, site of the first meeting of the TUC in 1868.

Trade unions

Records of the British Trades Union Congress, Cardiff Trades Union Council, and individual trade unions.

Independent Labour Party mural on Leeds Road, Bradford.

Labour Party

Archives, publications and ephemera from the British Labour Party and Independent Labour Party.

Sosialydd yn siarad yn 'Speaker's Corner'

Socialism and Communism

Archives on microfilm, pamphlets and newspapers.