Raphael Samuel Archive
Raphael Samuel (1934 -1996) left us the product of a lifetime of teaching, scholarship and political activity. Gifted in all these areas, he wrote, as his close friend Gareth Stedman Jones recalled, with 'the insight of a literary critic, the acuity of an anthropologist and the wit of a political journalist'. Consequently, the Raphael Samuel archive provides inspirational reading for the student, professional academic, enthusiastic amateur and cultural commentator alike. Raphael's was a democratic approach to history and his resistance to academic convention, his dismantling of academic and professional hierarchies make this a varied, fascinating and unique collection.
Raphael Samuel's publications and talks are nevertheless only one measure of his contribution to a wider historical culture. They represent only a fraction of his overall output that stretches back to the 1950s. A constant at these various 'interventions', at least according to Bill Schwarz, is that he would 'bring the archive with him', initially in brief cases or shopping bags and later a 'niftier array' of shoulder bags. Access to the Samuel archive now gives all researchers an opportunity to empty the contents of these bags and to rummage around. Inside is information on the important movements and generations contemporary to Raphael but also illsutration of his extraordinary working methods.
The archive of historian Raphael Samuel was deposited at the Bishopsgate Institute in 1998. The collection now consists of around 700 boxes detailing the life and work of one of the twentieth century's most notable historians. At present, around 450 boxes are available for consultation immediately at the Institute and the other 220 are held in outside storage and may be consulted at one week's notice. The full catalogue of the collection, temporarily catalogued by Dr Peter Claus, may be downloaded below.
The contents of the collection include:
- Working papers on the heritage of East London.
- Doctoral notes on the Victorian Poor.
- Papers regarding Samuel's contribution to Michael Young's sociological research on family and kinship in Bethnal Green.
- Records, oral history recordings and correspondence gathered whilst compilingEast End Underworld, the life story of East End criminal and Barnardos boy Arthur Harding.
- Printed and manuscript material, including notes, correspondence, publication drafts, photographs, slides, pamphlets, annotated newspaper and journal extracts gathered in research for all of Samuel's major publications, including Theatres of Memory and Island Stories, along with contributions to many edited volumes.
For more information and latest news, visit the Bishopsgate Library RS Archive page.
Note on the Catalogue
Records marked Open may be consulted in the Reading Room of the Bishopsgate Library without prior notification. Records marked Apply To Archivist must be ordered with at least one week's notice. The catalogue is divided into two - the RS Archives catalogue consisting of material from Raphael's London home and the Ruskin catalogue, which lists archived correspondence, papers and other material from Raph's office at Ruskin College, Oxford, and later deposits by individuals and organisations. For research convenience, the RS Ruskin archive is now held at the Bishopsgate Library, with kind permission from Ruskin College.
