Preserving our Party’s history
What is it?
Conservative Heritage has been established to support the critical preservation work of the Conservative Party Archive. The Archive is designated by the Board of the Conservative Party as the appropriate place for the deposit of records created by the Conservative Party at the regional, national, and European level.
Established in 1978, the Archive collects and preserves the historical records of the Party dating from 1867 to the present day and facilitates research and study into all aspects of the Party’s history.
The records in the Archive represent all three areas of the Party organisation: the parliamentary Party, the voluntary wing of Party activists, and the professional Party (namely the records of Conservative Central Office/Conservative Campaign Headquarters). Records are collected in all formats: not just paper, but also photographs, objects, audio-visual media, and, increasingly, digital records.
Where is it?
By agreement between the Party and the University of Oxford, it is located at the Bodleian Library in Oxford – which has one of the foremost collections of modern British political papers in the UK. These collections include the personal papers of 7 Prime Ministers (Disraeli, Asquith, Attlee, Macmillan, Wilson, Callaghan and Heath), as well as the papers generated by numerous politicians of all parties, public servants, diplomats, journalists and broadcasters.
Since 2014, all of these collections have been housed in the Bodleian’s state-of-the-art Weston Library which houses other archives, manuscripts and rare book collections.
Who is it for?
The Archive is primarily used by students and academics engaged in research on the Conservative Party, but it is available for anyone to use. Party members, whether staff of Conservative Campaign Headquarters, Members of Parliament, or members of local Conservative Associations, are all welcome to consult historical material on the Party’s organisation, policies, and election campaigns, in the Weston Library’s reading rooms. A Bodleian reader’s card, which is free of charge upon application, is required to access the material.
How is it funded?
The Conservative Party Archive is owned by the Conservative Party Archive Trust on behalf of the Party. The Trust was set up in 1996 to help fund the task of acquiring, preserving, and cataloguing the Conservative Party’s historical material at the Bodleian. Since 2015, the Trust has received direct funding from the Conservative Party Board to help with this work. Conservative Heritage and the Trustees are also working to raise funds to support this important work.
For more information email heritage@conservatives.com.
To buy some of our historic election posters, visit the Party Shop where you can buy framed and unframed posters.
To browse the Conservative Party Archive’s online catalogues, please click below:
