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The Papers of Sir Winston Churchill

The Churchill Archive comprises material in almost 2500 boxes, consisting of a variety of formats including paper, photographs and artefacts.

The catalogue was written by, and is maintained by, the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge. It divides the Archive into two groups, or 'series'. The papers dating from before 27 July 1945, when Churchill's first term as Prime Minister ended, are known as the Chartwell Papers (catalogue reference CHAR) and were originally owned by the Chartwell Trust. The papers dating from after 27 July 1945 (catalogue reference CHUR) are known as the Churchill Papers and were given to Churchill College by Lady Churchill in 1969.

Within these two series the catalogue offers more detailed classifications relating to the type of material, and in many (though not all) cases describes individual documents.

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Area	Series	Description	Date range
Personal	CHAR 1 Share Details	Personal	1884 - 1945	select this
Personal	CHUR 1 Share Details	Personal	1945 - 1965	select this
Public and political: general	CHAR 2 Share Details	Public and political: general	1898 - 1945	select this
Public and Political: General	CHUR 2 Share Details	Public and Political: General	1945 - 1965	select this
Political: Constituency: Oldham [Lancashire].	CHAR 3 Share Details	Political: Constituency: Oldham [Lancashire].	1900 - 1905	select this
Political: Constituency: North West Manchester.	CHAR 4 Share Details	Political: Constituency: North West Manchester.	1904 - 1908	select this
Constituency: Dundee	CHAR 5 Share Details	Constituency: Dundee	1908 - 1922	select this
Political: Constituency, out of office	CHAR 6 Share Details	Political: Constituency, out of office	1923 - 1924	select this
Political: Constituency: Epping [Essex]	CHAR 7 Share Details	Political: Constituency: Epping [Essex]	1924 - 1945	select this
Political: Constituency: Woodford [Essex]	CHUR 3 Share Details	Political: Constituency: Woodford [Essex]	1943 - 1965	select this
Literary	CHAR 8 Share Details	Literary	1890 - 1945	select this
Literary	CHUR 4 Share Details	Literary	1924 - 1965	select this
Speeches	CHAR 9 Share Details	Speeches	1897 - 1945	select this
Speeches	CHUR 5 Share Details	Speeches	1942 - 1960	select this
Official: Colonial Office	CHAR 10 Share Details	Official: Colonial Office	1902 - 1908	select this
Official: Board of Trade	CHAR 11 Share Details	Official: Board of Trade	1906 - 1911	select this
Home Office	CHAR 12 Share Details	Home Office	1910 - 1911	select this
Official: Admiralty	CHAR 13 Share Details	Official: Admiralty	1911 - 1915	select this
Official: Duchy of Lancaster	CHAR 14 Share Details	Official: Duchy of Lancaster	1915	select this
Official: Ministry of Munitions	CHAR 15 Share Details	Official: Ministry of Munitions	1917 - 1919	select this
Official: War and Air	CHAR 16 Share Details	Official: War and Air	1918 - 1921	select this
Official: Colonial Office	CHAR 17 Share Details	Official: Colonial Office	1920 - 1922	select this
Official: Treasury	CHAR 18 Share Details	Official: Treasury	1924 - 1929	select this
Official: Admiralty	CHAR 19 Share Details	Official: Admiralty	1939 - 1940	select this
Official: Prime Minister	CHAR 20 Share Details	Official: Prime Minister	1940 - 1945	select this
Official: Cabinet	CHAR 21 Share Details	Official: Cabinet	1908 - 1915	select this
Official: Cabinet	CHAR 22 Share Details	Official: Cabinet	1920 - 1929	select this
Official: War Cabinet	CHAR 23 Share Details	Official: War Cabinet	1939 - 1945	select this
Official: Committee of Imperial Defence	CHAR 24 Share Details	Official: Committee of Imperial Defence	1909 - 1914	select this
Official: Committee of Imperial Defence	CHAR 25 Share Details	Official: Committee of Imperial Defence	1920 - 1939	select this
Official: War Council	CHAR 26 Share Details	Official: War Council	1914-1915	select this
Official: War Cabinet	CHAR 27 Share Details	Official: War Cabinet	1917 - 1919	select this
Official: Prime Minister	CHUR 6 Share Details	Official: Prime Minister	1951 - 1955	select this
Acquired Papers	CHAR 28 Share Details	Acquired Papers	1690 - 1960	select this
Miscellanea	CHAR 29 Share Details	Miscellanea	1906 - 1924	select this
Obsolete Lists	CHAR 30 Share Details	Obsolete Lists	1921 - 1952	select this

CHAR 8

1890 - 1945

Literary

This class contains correspondence with publishers, editors, and printers, and other correspondence in connection with WSC's literary work both during preparation and after publication. Since some of the publications are political there is a little correspondence on political topics which arises directly and obviously out of publications. The class also contains materials assembled for writing, notes and drafts, printer's copy, proofs, and reviews. Often some of the material assembled was not used in the final work, while other material was clearly acquired after publication and preserved either out of interest or with a view to later editions. No rigid line can be drawn between source-material and correspondence with persons whose help and advice was sought by WSC, nor on the other hand between source-material and copy, since original documents or parts of them were sent as 'author's copy' to the printer. Such copy still includes documents which may well belong in some other class but are too mutilated to be usefully returned, even if their provenance is certain.

Generally, however, documents which could have been acquired in some other connection than the collection of source material, for example in virtue of office, have been placed in the presumed original class, except in cases where it is certain that they were acquired for literary purposes and can conveniently be separated from other material of less certain provenance, or where they have been inseparably attached to literary material. The material present for all these reasons in CHAR 8 is occasionally of some importance and the value of this class as a source for non-literary matters must not be overlooked.

The correspondence is arranged chronologically; the book matter is grouped at the date, or estimated date, of publication, except for "The history of the English Speaking Peoples", which was largely completed before World War II though not published until later. It has been placed at the end of the class followed by some files of correspondence which came to light only after the arrangement had been completed.

Where books contain a number of volumes all the matter is placed at the date of the first volume. It should be noted, in connection with the use of chapter titles to distinguish some book-matter files, that titles might be changed and chapters re-arranged in the course of preparation, so that these descriptions must be used with some care. Articles were frequently syndicated and reprinted, often under different titles.

Where a book consists of a collection of previously published articles the text of an article may only be found in the book, but in some other cases an article may become separated and restored to the date of the original publication. The book eventually called "Great Contemporaries" started life as a collection of reprinted articles called "Short Biographies" in 1932. The "Biographies" were not published then but some articles appeared in "Thoughts and Adventures". Both "Short Biographies" and "Great Contemporaries" were used as titles by the printers on the galley proofs of other articles set up in the expectation that they would become separate books or be added to the second edition of "Great Contemporaries". All this matter has been placed at 1937. "Not Uneventful" was the title proposed for an autobiography compiled by Charles Eade from WSC's published writings.

The copy of "The history of the English Speaking Peoples" is numbered in folios. The numeration reflects neither chronological arrangement nor the order of the book. It may well not reflect the order in which the various parts were prepared, but shows the order in which they were first printed, and the first galley proofs bear the appropriate folio numbers.

Churchill Archive Centre Classifications

UKAT

Literature

Personal

Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer (1874-1965), Knight, statesman and Prime Minister

Churchill Archive

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The Papers of Sir Winston Churchill

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