Records relating to the Office of the Armoury, the Ordnance Office (Board of Ordnance), and the Armouries museum comprising:

records of the Office of the Armoury including letter from Sir Henry Lee regarding the Office of the Armoury, c.1579; list of armourers at Greenwich, 1599; inventory of arms and armour in the Office of the Armoury, 1603; list of wages of armourers at Greenwich, 1610, 1612; list of armourers at Greenwich, 1612, 1624; list of wages of the armourers at the Tower of London, Greenwich and Woolwich, 1615; a petition from Francis Ingoldsby for his arrears of wages as Keeper of the Armoury at Greenwich, 1623; letter to Sir Robert Pye authorizing the payment of wages to the armourers at Greenwich, 1627; inventory of arms and armour in the Office of the Armoury, 1650; report by the Commissioners of the Admiralty concerning the wages of the armourers in the Tower of London, 1653;

records of the Ordnance Office/Board of the Ordnance records including Ordnance Office account book, 1547-1553; Ordnance Office debenture book, 1606-1607; Ordnance Office receipted indenture, 1633; extracts from a receipt of Stores ledger, 1645, 1648; warrant signed by John, Lord Berkeley to Col. William Legg, Lt. Governor of the Tower, authorizing the issue and replacement of weapons, 1668; ledger of receipts, returns and issues of arms from the Tower of London, 1675-79; proposed contract for brass guns, 1682; letters patent appointing William Meesters to be Keeper of the Stores of Ordnance at the Tower of London, 1691; warrant of appointment of John Harris to be furbisher of small arms at Hampton Court and St. James's, 1711; Rules, orders and instructions for the government of the Office of the Ordnance, 1760, 1769, 1804, 1829, 1841; regulations for official of the Ordnance Department, 1855; letters patent in favour of Stephen Remnant for the right to manufacture cannon, 1761; letter signed by the 3rd Duke of Richmond and Master of the Ordnance, 1784; An Act for transferring One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State the Powers and Estates vested in the Principal Officers of the Ordnance, 14th August 1855 [i.e. relating to the abolition of the Board of Ordnance]; proof books;

Corporate records relating to the management of the Tower Armouries under the control of the Board of Ordnance, the War Office, the Office of Works and the Department of the Environment comprising:

Visitor attendance records including: book listing daily attendance figures for the Tower Armouries, 1851; book listing daily attendance figures for the Tower Armouries, 1857-1864; warders book giving the numbers of visitors to the Tower Armouries, 1859-1861; attendance book of artists admitted to the Armouries, 1870-1894; warders book giving the numbers of visitors to the Tower Armouries, 1871-1872; visitors book, 1913-1993; register of students' tickets, 1914-1939; day books and diaries, 1913-1938; visitors book to the study collection, 1961-1971; visitors book, 1961-1975;

photographs of Viscount Dillon (curator, 1895-1915), early 20th century, and Charles ffoulkes (curator and master, 1910-1938), 1916;

documents relating to the transfer of responsibility for the Armouries to the British Museum and the Office of Works, c.1905; letter books 1939-1947, with index 1939-1946; annual reports compiled by Charles ffoulkes, 1913-1938; Charles ffoulkes' report on the Tower Armouries, 1938; Summaries of grant-in-aid received, 1953-1983;

minute relating to changing the name of the officer in charge of the Armouries from Curator to Master of the Armouries, 1935; Staff book 1915-1917 staff occurrence books, 1939-1956; records relating to the relocation of staff during the Second World War, 1939-1945; Wardens Diaries, 1870-1871, 1876-1877;

records relating to the permanent displays at the Tower of London comprising:

papers including letter from Samuel Meyrick to the Board of Ordnance describing his redisplay of the Armouries, 1827; the Spanish Armoury; redisplay of the White Tower by J.R. Planche, 1869; plan of the Small Arms Room, c.1910; volume recording renumbering of exhibits 1914-1915; the redisplay of the White Tower by Charles ffoulkes, c.1920; the Sporting Gallery, 1971-1996; the Oriental Gallery, 1971-1996; the Board of Ordnance Gallery, 1977-1996; improvements to the White Tower displays, 1984-1988; redisplay of instruments of torture, 1989; proposals for the redisplay of the White Tower, 1989; the 18th/19th Century Gallery, [1996]; tenders for the redisplay of the White Tower, 1994; redisplay of the White Tower, 1994-1998; and copies of records relating to provision of wooden figures, 1685-1749; documents relating to the Spanish Armoury; redisplay of the White Tower by Samuel Meyrick, 1826-1832; and alterations to the Horse Armoury, 1850-1851; Gifts and Purchases register 1916-1939 (covering 1840 -1939); file concerning inventory check with location list, 1922-1935; list of uncatalogued items, 1981; administrative files relating to old displays, loans of items, and war time arrangements for the armouries;

stereographic photographs of the Horse Armoury, mid 19th century and c.1870;

photographs of displays of arms and armour in the White Tower, etc., 1884-1895; the Horse Armoury, c.1890, and late 19th century; Queen Elizabeth I and her page on display in the White Tower, late 19th century;

records relating to temporary exhibitions held at the Tower of London including papers relating to the Kings and Captains, 1949';Greenwich Armour', 1951; Brunswick Armour', 1952;Armour from Innsbruck', 1954; Spanish Royal Armour', 1960;Japanese Armour', 1965; Royal Sporting Guns', 1968; Prisoners of the Tower', 1997-1998; Treasures from the Moscow Kremlin', 1998;The Menagerie', 1999-2000;` Millennium Exhibition', 2000;

exhibition catalogues including Exhibition of armour of Kings and Captains from the national collections of Austria (1949); Exhibition of armour made in the Royal Workshops at Greenwich (1951); Exhibition of arms, armour and militaria lent by HRH the Duke of Brunswick and Luneburg at the Armouries of the Tower of London (1952-1953); Exhibition of Spanish royal armour in HM Tower of London (1960); Exhibition of Japanese armour (1965); Royal sporting guns at Windsor / Howard Blackmore (1968); Treasures of the Moscow Kremlin (1998); and guidebook, The Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London (1999); Records relating to buildings and works at the Tower of London including documents relating to repairs, 1825-1826; plans for the conversion of the `C Store' into the New Armouries, 1947; correspondence relating to the plans for a new entrance to the New Armouries, 1949-1959; correspondence relating to the New Armouries building, 1947-1965;

four photograph albums containing images of museum objects (some from the Royal Armouries collection) [1900-1950]; Collections of slides and postcards; Richard Williams' photograph albums and scrap books; original drawings by Dr Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick c.1830, used for the publication Meyrick and Skeltons' Engraved Illustrations of Ancient arms and armour, 1830;

microfilm collection including copies of Rough register of the Chapel, held in the British Library; Hewett Catalogue; Yeoman Warder's Dividend books 1660-1700; State Papers held in the National Archives (Public Record Office) relating to the Board of Ordinance;

photocopy collection comprising copies and transcripts records from the National Archives (Public Record Office) including Exchequer records, 1360-1600; Chancery records, 1455-1655; State Papers, 1523-1681; War Office records, 1589-1841; and manuscripts in the British Library, 1499-1725.

Records of the Royal Polytechnic Institution (RPI), 1837-1881 and undated, comprising:

Leases of premises, 1838-1876, including no 5 Cavendish Square; prospectus, 1837; correspondence and papers concerning the foundation of the Institution, its provisional committee, shares, status and affairs, 1837-1839 and undated, including its charter, 1839, and papers on arbitration on a dispute between W M Nurse and the Institution; correspondence and papers relating to activities and affairs of the Institution, 1838-1842 and undated, including documents on the alleged infringement by the Institution of a patent for a diving dress, 1838, and an agreement with W H F Talbot permitting the use of his patented photographic process, 1841; photocopy of a letter from Robert Longbottom, RPI Secretary, to Samuel Morse, 1846; copy of charter, 1852; letter concerning a school visit to the RPI, 1858;

Catalogues of the Polytechnic Institution (copies), 1838-1840, and Royal Polytechnic Institution, 1844-1845; programmes for 1861, 1876, 1878 and 1881; bound volumes of RPI programmes, 1873-1878; reports, 1879-1880; particulars and conditions of sale of the RPI premises, 1881;

Books by authors associated with the RPI, including various publications by John Henry Pepper: The Boy's Playbook of Science, 2nd edition, 1860.; Popular Lectures for Young People and Half Hours with the Alchemists, 1st edition, 1855; The Playbook of Metals, 1st edition, 1869 and Cyclopaedic Science Simplified, 1st edition, 1869; The Book of The Lantern by T C Hepworth, 2nd edition, 1889; Memory by William Stokes, 2nd edition, 1888 and Rapid Writing by William Stokes, 4th edition, 1873; issues of various contemporary journals containing information on or advertisements for the Institution [1839]-1845, some with illustrations, among them scientific equipment, including four parts of the London Polytechnic Magazine, 1844, six parts of its continuation, The Polytechnic Review and Magazine, 1844, and five parts, 1845; advertising poster, 1840;

Book of press cuttings relating to the Institution from 1842, many lacking details of their source; five tokens bearing the name of the Institution, 1840; photogenic transfer made at the Institution, 1840; a ceramic plate fired at the RPI, 1866;

Illustrations and photographs of illustrations from 1840, some undated, including the great hall and other shots of the interior and exterior, 1843, and demonstrations, including the diving bell.

Royal Society Library and Museum Account Book; the catalogue in account with the Royal Society.

The Royal Society Library and Museum; 'Libri desiderate' library request book with minutes of the Library Committee from undated to 1932.

Catalogue of the Royal Society Museum, possibly seventeenth or early eighteenth century.

The archive consists of personal papers mainly relating to training and work as a medical social worker (hospital almoner) 1920s-1950s, and correspondence relating to historical family documents and her aunt Rose Squire. It includes correspondence, a London School of Economics Social Work exam paper (1927), lecture notes on the subject of health and hospital social work, and two photographs of Rose Squire.

Two works by Hugh Edwin Strickland bound in a single volume: "On the evidence of the former existence of Struthious birds distinct from the Dodo, in the islands near Mauritius", 1844 and "List of Unfigured Species of Birds, the type-specimens of which exist in the India House or in the Museum of the Zoological Society", 1853.

Papers of 'The Museum Of ...' temporary museum project. The collection holds material from four of the five "museums" that together formed The Museum Of. These are: The Museum of Collectors, The Museum of Me, The Museum of Emotions and The Museum of the River Thames. The collection holds no records for The Museum of the Unknown.

The Museum of Collectors (Nov 1998 - Mar 1999): The Museum of Collectors looked at who collects, what people collect and why? It housed a display of forty-two local people's collections, everything from rejection letters and snow domes to snails and monsters. The collections were displayed in consultation with the collectors by an interdisciplinary team. The records held in the collection include: Glassine pockets containing items collected by visitors to the museum, photos and text relating to collectors exhibiting at the museum and advertising material.

The Museum of Me (May 1999 - Oct 1999): The Museum of Me combined art works that looked at the self with a chance for visitors to experience, record and display aspects of themselves as they travelled around the space. Responding to input from artists, poets, performers, psychologists, designers and anthropologists, each visitor was given the opportunity to contribute to the making of The Museum Of Me by creating their own personal museum exhibits during their visit. The records held in the collection include: Tin Cans containing items belonging to visitors, miniature glass bottles each containing a written "secret", large glass bottles containing multiple "secrets", a range of labels on which visitors wrote down various aspects of themselves and their experiences, black and white portrait photographs and a selection of emphemera including a promotional t-shirt and several diaries containing handwritten comments by visitors filled in about days that were important to them.

The Museum of Emotions (Feb 2000 - Jun 2000): The Museum of Emotions asked the question where and how do we express our emotions? Ten artists were commissioned to evoke different emotions through creating a series of interactive environments. An ephemeral experience created by light, sound and installation explored how much feeling is lost, found and expressed in the context of the museum. Records for this collection include: plastic bottles each labelled with a visitor's response to the question "What makes you cry?", a large hardback book containing visitors comments on the theme of love and a number of advertising leaflets.

The Museum of The River Thames (March 2001 - July 2001): The Museum of The River Thames focused on the River Thames as the largest public space in London. Creating a journey from the Bargehouse to the river and back again The Museum of the River Thames reflected on the experiences of those people and places, that told a story of their environment and personal relationship with the river. The Museum included collaboration with: The London Rivers Authority, The Thames Explorer Trust, The Millennium Bridge Trust, Platform and The Museum of London. The collections includes: Origami Boats made by visitors to the Museum, drawings and comments on possible uses for the space if the River Thames did not exist and a variety of objects found in the river.

The final series is entitled "Marketing and Administration" and this includes advertising material relating to all five of the "museums" and a press pack that sets out the aims and intentions of the project, detailing the nature of each "museum" and setting out how the projects developed and progressed.

Papers, 1942-1976 (some undated), of Dr K Bryn Thomas, comprising his files and notebooks on the history of anaesthesia, including drugs, techniques, and eminent practitioners, containing offprints, cuttings and copies from publications on anaesthesia, including periodicals, monographs, catalogues of medical equipment, and obituaries of anaesthetists, also including typescripts, copy photographs and diagrams, notes, and miscellaneous correspondence of K Bryn Thomas on the subject, the original sources dating from the 1840s to the 1940s, including pictures of eminent anaesthetists and anaesthetic apparatus; file on the King Collection, 1968-1976, containing miscellaneous letters on the history of anaesthesia, copies of photographs and diagrams of anaesthetic apparatus and eminent anaesthetists, and copies (from originals dating from between 1862 and 1967) of articles, including professional matters and obituaries of anaesthetists, and catalogues of medical apparatus; files containing correspondence and papers, 1969-1971, on Thomas's article on the King Collection for the journal Anaesthesia, including a typescript inventory of the collection; files containing correspondence and related papers, largely dating from 1974, concerning production of Thomas's The development of anaesthetic apparatus, including acknowledgements for reproduction of illustrations, and typescript index; file containing typescript and printed papers, including some catalogues, on collections of anaesthetic apparatus at St Thomas's Hospital and the Royal College of Surgeons, London, the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Belfast, and in Australia; file of papers relating to the history of anaesthesia including material accumulated by Sir Robert Macintosh which passed to K Bryn Thomas, relating particularly to John Snow and Joseph Clover, and including articles, typescripts, notes, photographs of apparatus, and copies of earlier sources, dating from the 1840s to the 1910s, including letters and papers of eminent anaesthetists, also including a few miscellaneous letters, 1939-1949, addressed to Sir Robert Macintosh, and a letter from Sir Robert Macintosh to K Bryn Thomas, 1975, relating to The development of anaesthetic apparatus.

Correspondence of the Tring (natural history) Museum, 1890-1955.

Papers of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, 1874-[1984], comprising reports, correspondence, administration records, staff files, inventories, diaries, registers, notebooks, financial records, details of exhibitions and events, visitors books, photographs, publications, presscuttings, and papers relating to Henry Solomon Wellcome's personal life including arrangements for his funeral.

Card index to material generated by or for Wellcome Historical Medical Museum staff held in Western manuscripts sequence. Formerly one alphabetical sequence of card, the index was rearranged during the cataloguing of that material and now forms 5 discrete blocks.

Papers of the Wellcome Museum of Medical Science, 1923-1983, comprising publications and the unpublished annual reports of the Wellcome Museum of Medical Science.

Experimental notes, working papers, correspondence and lecture summaries compiled by Charles Wheatstone, 1836-1875, and photographs collected by him in that period. Notably including papers relating to the development and testing of the telegraph, [1836-1960]; descriptions of experiments and test results concerning the measurement of electromotive forces and electrical potential, [1840-1875]; experimental observations on the nature of magnetism, electricity and thermodynamics, including electromagnet design, batteries and dynamos, [1834-1855]; working papers relating to optics including experiments into refraction, colouration of compounds and polarisation, [1850-1875]; drafts of lectures on sound and musical instruments prepared by Wheatstone, [1832-1837]; material relating to the management of the Wheatstone collection of scientific instruments and library, 1890-1992; biographical material relating to the life of Wheatstone, the invention of the telegraph and Wheatstone's musical instrument manufacturing business, with unrelated newspapers, 1757-1975; stereoscopic photographs and glass negatives taken by Roger Fenton, Samuel Buckle, Jules Duboscq and others, featuring landscapes, still lifes, panoramic scenes of cities including Paris and Moscow and the interior and exterior of the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, Sydenham, 1851, and especially the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1855, [1850-1901]; artefacts on loan from Department of Physics, King's College London, including telegraph apparatus, a nail fiddle and other prototype musical instruments, [1834-1875]; exhibition of scientific and musical instruments, [1834-1875].

Papers, 1934-1987, created and accumulated by Dr David J Wilkinson and relating to A Charles King, comprising correspondence and other papers, 1982-1987, on King, including biographical information on his education, army service with the London Rifle Brigade in World War One, and career as an anaesthetic instrument maker; earlier correspondence relating to the King Collection at the Association of Anaesthetists, 1963-1964; copies of articles on King, 1934-1987, and typescript inventory of the collection; King's bookplate, undated, and envelope of his business, 1934.