A Window on History www.churchillarchive.com

What is the Churchill Archive?A unique resource bringing 800,000 documents gathered

by Churchill in his life online for the first time

• 800,000 pages of primary source documents from 1874 to 1965

• Content – from 2,700 boxes held by the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, UK, previously available on microfilm by appointment only

What is the Churchill Archive?• Historical files digitised for the first time: telegrams, booklets, speech

notes, government documents, photos, book manuscripts, letters and diaries

• Sources document Churchill’s engagement in all aspects of national and international affairs over six decades of public life as soldier, journalist, wartime leader and historian

• Letters

What can you do in the Churchill Archive?The Churchill Archive - an exceptional resource for researchers, students and the general public.

It includes:• Specially-commissioned articles, based on courses, to guide students

and researchers through the content• Special features, such as Action this Day, which bring history alive• Links to additional content such as contemporary newspaper articles,

newsreel and film clips to give different perspectives on events, speeches and diplomatic relationships

• Reading lists and bibliographies to encourage further research• Personalisation features: annotating, citing, extracting and sharing

options (from August 2012)

HomepageThe homepage is your portal to the rest of

the Archive’s features and contents

Or browse the content by topic, place, people or period

Slideshow highlights featured content

Read original documents from this day in history

Access the catalogue browser directly

Explore by place, periods or topic

From drop-down menus, click-through to those of

interest

The Archive covers much more than just one man. Its unique taxonomy helps you to explore 20th-Century history by place, periods or topic

Explore by peopleYou can also search for documents about any individual who has been

mentioned more than 10 times

Links are provided to further information about the individual in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and/or Who Was Who

(you’ll need a subscription to these products)

Search resultsSelect documents to view side by side in the image browser

Narrow your results to a specific date range or refine

them using the Archive’s unique taxonomy

Large number of results? Use advanced

search to accurately pinpoint what you’re

looking for

Advanced search

Use or exclude specific search phrases to narrow

results

Or search within areas of the catalogue, by categories such as ‘speeches’ or ‘Official: War

Cabinet’

Browse the catalogue

Click on the eye symbol to bring up details of the documents

within each category

Click the arrow to load the list of documents in a category

In ‘Explore’ or from the homepage, you’ll find the option to browse the complete catalogue, as categorised

by the Churchill Archives Centre

Image browserThe image browser allows you to look at digitised versions of

the documents alongside information about them

‘Current selection’ lists the document you are currently looking at

On the information tab, you can view details about the document, including the

catalogue description – in itself illuminating and a useful reference point

Image browserYou can also zoom to explore

the documents in high definition

Using the zoom, you can scroll around the document using this

thumbnail

Using the full-screen option

you can view the document in

higher definition

Use the film-reel to scroll through the pages

Teaching resources – HE modulesFor lecturers, specially commissioned

higher education modules can be found in ‘Teaching Resources’

Each module contains an essay on a key topic by a leading academic

Links to further reading, websites and supporting materials e.g. suggested essay questions, summary slides for seminars

Links to Churchill Archive documents of

relevance

Teaching resources – lesson plansYou can view the plans on the website, or download a PDF

For teachers, specially-commissioned lesson plans can also be found in

Teaching Resources

Links to relevant archive documents (here, drafts of the speech)

Plans include suggestions for how to use them in class and questions and answers

for students to test their learning

• ‘This is the holy grail of twentieth-century archives.’ Martin Farr, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Historical Studies, Newcastle University, UK

• ‘The Churchill Archive will make students much more likely to use primary sources, and will give them a wider range of documents to draw on. In addition, I am more likely now to shape components of my course around the documents if I know they are available to students in such a convenient form.’ Christopher M. Bell, Associate Professor, Dalhousie University, Canada

• ‘An Aladdin’s Cave of historical riches ... It is a project that will bring the history of the first sixty years of the Twentieth Century, and the remarkable story of Britain’s greatest Prime Minister, into the classroom and the home.’ Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill Biographer and Special Advisor to the Churchill Archive

What’s been said about the Churchill Archive?

A Window on HistoryIf you are interested in trialling or purchasing an institutional subscription to the Churchill Archive, please contact: churchillarchive@pcgplus.com