St Hugh's College
University of Oxford
Support The College
Skip to main content
Support The College
Menu
St Hugh's College
University of Oxford

The College Archive

St Hugh’s Archive

The College Archive preserves the institutional memory of St Hugh’s College, from its foundation in 1886 to the present day.

Its history as a former women’s college means there is a wealth of material that would be of interest to those studying the history of women’s education or the history of the University of Oxford.

The collections include administrative paperwork, such as minute books and records of students and staff, as well as personal papers of past students, maps and plans of College buildings, photographs, scrapbooks and ephemera.

Alumnae with papers in the archive include Mary Renault (novelist), Phyllis Hartnoll (poet and author), Freda Levson (South African activist) and Renée Haynes (author and psychical researcher).

You can explore our some of our collections of Publications and Images online.

The Mordan Hall Library, c. 1930s
Neurosurgeons and neurologists at St Hugh’s, c. 1945

Military Hospital for Head Injuries

There is a second major collection in the archive, which arises out of our unique history.

During the Second World War, the College was requisitioned by the British Government and served as a hospital treating head injuries. After the war, a number of the veterans continued to be involved with an ongoing project to assess the neuropsychological effects of their injuries. This work was initiated by W Ritchie Russell and continued by Dr Freda Newcombe until her death in 2001.

The Archive contains the patient records for those who were studied, together with follow up material on brain injury research that was conducted with the veterans. Unfortunately, we do not have the administrative records of the hospital or any papers relating to surgeons or other medical staff.

Please see below for more detailed listings of both collections and how to arrange a visit to view archive material.

Expand All +
Contacting and Visiting the Archive

Anyone is welcome to visit the Archive. Enquiries can be addressed to Matthew Chipping (College Archivist) at archivist@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk

Please use the listings below to see if we are likely to hold material relevant for your research.

Research visits are by appointment only and arranged in advance, usually offered on Mondays, Tuesdays or alternate Wednesdays.

Opening hours for visits are 10:00am to 12:00pm and 1:00pm to 5:00pm.

Please note:

  • The St Hugh’s collection is available for anyone to view, with respect to relevant legislation such as data protection and copyright.
  • The Military Hospital for Head Injuries collection is subject to the relevant periods of closure for medical records. Material can be made available to close relatives of individual patients and to medical researchers in the appropriate field. Please get in touch to confirm whether you meet these criteria.
St Hugh’s College Collection

The College Archive is divided into the following sections:

  • A: Foundation and Governance
    Foundation documents, statutes, by-laws and standing orders.
  • B: Governing Body and Administration
    Minutes and papers of the St Hugh’s College Governing Body and supporting administrative committees together with general administrative paperwork.
  • C: University and Inter-College Matters
    Papers relating to issues involving the other women’s colleges and the wider University.
  • D: College Buildings and Gardens
    Papers relating to the purchase, construction and maintenance of College buildings and gardens.
  • E: Maps and Plans
    Maps and floorplans of the various College buildings.
  • F: Finance
    Papers relating to College finance including annual accounts, student costs and fees, various ledgers, loans and investments, salaries and benefactions.
  • G: Development and Fundraising
    Papers relating to fundraising and the development of College including specific appeals, fundraising projects, gifts, merchandise.
  • H: Domestic
    Papers relating to the domestic administration of St Hugh’s including the College Chapel, conferences and catering.
  • J: Admissions, Academic and Student Records
    Papers relating to admissions, individual student records and academic matters.
  • K: Collections
    Papers relating to College collections including the library and archive. Also contains listings of the College’s art, artefacts and silverware.
  • L: Events
    Papers relating to various College events including anniversary celebrations and building openings/dedications.
  • M: Photograph Collection
    Over 600 photographs of all aspects of college life. A selection has been made available online here.
  • N: Senior Common Room
    Papers relating to the administration of the St. Hugh’s Senior Common Room (SCR).
  • P: Middle/Junior Common Rooms and Clubs
    Papers relating to the Middle (graduate) and Junior (undergraduate) Common Rooms, together including constitutions, minutes, newsletters, yearbooks and handbooks and papers of various sporting and social clubs and societies.
  • Q: St. Hugh’s Club and ASM
    Papers relating to alumni societies St Hugh’s Club and its successor, the Association of Senior Members (ASM).
  • R: Publications
    Publications produced by the College and related organisations including the Society of Oxford Home-Students and the Association for the Education of Women (AEW). Most can be found online here.
  • S: Principals, Fellows and Staff
    Papers relating to and donated by College Principals, academic and non-academic staff and Honorary Fellows.
  • T: Individual Alumni
    Discrete collections of papers relating to and/or donated by individual alumni.
  • ASSK: A collection of the awards and honours presented to alumna Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

The Military Hospital for Head Injuries Collection

The majority of the material is in the following two series of files, which contain the case files for the patients at the Hospital and follow-up research data on their condition.

  • Series HHA/1: Case files for Patients and Research Subjects, 1939-2001

There are two types of case file:

  1. The original patient records, recording the diagnoses and treatment of those suffering from head injuries during World War II.
  2. The research case files created to keep track of the long-term effects of the injuries, via grants from the Medical Research Council awarded from the 1940s onwards.

Patients were treated primarily at the Military Hospital for Head Injuries, Oxford, (sited at both St. Hugh’s College and Wheatley); the Stoke Mandeville Head and Spinal Injuries Centre and the Headington Hill Hall Rehabilitation Centre during and after World War II. Content includes patient admission records, medical case files and correspondence. There are case files for approximately 20% of the 13,000 patients who passed through the Hospital.

 

  • Series HHA/2: Research Datasets and Supplementary Materials, 1940-2003
    Research datasets, which contain information collected from the clinical records (case files) and by other means such as surveys and experiments. These often trace the veterans throughout their lives. The series contains a set of ‘punch cards’ created as an index of the patient records, which record various pieces of information about the patient, allowing certain groups to be quickly identified.

Separate to the patient and research information, there are seven smaller series, consisting of research notes and material that was gathered for publication, some correspondence of senior officers at Hospital, financial documents and a photograph collection.

There are also two sets of personal papers: of John Gillingham (who worked with Mobile Neurosurgical Units on the battlefield) and of Sydney Alsford (who worked at the Headington Hill Hall rehabilitation hospital).

Brain Injury Research Study Notification

We are informing the public about a research study involving the archived records of veterans who were treated at the Head Hospital. The study explores the long-term outcomes of traumatic brain injury using documents that may contain personal information. If you or someone you know may be included in these records and wish to withdraw consent, please review the full study details here or contact us for more information.

Archives Online

We have begun a project to digitise a variety of material from the Archive, making it available online. Explore these resources to browse some of our publications and images to find out more about the history of St Hugh’s.

Publications Online

Images Online

Further Resources

Oxford Archivists’ Consortium
A support network covering all archives in Oxford. Their website has a useful list of all college archives and how to contact them.

Education and Activism
A project website created for the centenary of the formal admission of women to the University of Oxford in 2020. Contains resources, articles and collections of digitised archival material from all of the former women’s colleges.

Other former women’s colleges in Oxford