Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1923-1946 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
18 boxes and 2 volumes
Scope and content
The records of the Journalism Department at King's College London comprise minutes, correspondence, lecture notes and some printed pamphlets, newspapers and publicity material, 1923-1946; notably including minutes of the Journalism Committee of the University of London, the course's governing board, with some related papers, 1931-1945; manuscript and typescript correspondence, mainly with students, especially applications to study, regarding assignments and work placements, including correspondence with regional newspapers and publishers, but also illustrative of the broadcasting and lecturing work of Tom Clarke particularly on the freedom of the press in the late 1930s, 1923-1939; letters of enquiry from prospective students concerning the possible reinstatement of the diploma course, 1946; papers concerning The Electrical Association for Women and the Retail Trading Standards Association, including booklets and memoranda, 1935-1936; summaries of lecture notes compiled by Tom Clarke for teaching the practical journalism component of the diploma, 1935-1936; copies of The L.U.J.S. gazette , produced by journalism students, 1927-1935; newspaper cuttings concerning the teaching of journalism, 1923-1938. This series also includes records, 1933-1939, containing some student information, including application forms, admission counterfoils giving name, address, year and optional subject, vacation work reports from editors, correspondence regarding students and potential students, some marks, and a register of former students.
System of arrangement
Mainly alphabetical in the case of student correspondence, but otherwise broadly chronological.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
The University of London ran courses in journalism from around 1923. Study comprised a two-year diploma programme initially available at four participating institutions: University College, Bedford College, the London School of Economics and King's College, and comprising classes in practical journalism, composition, modern history and English Literature. Teaching was concentrated at King's College from 1935 under the directorship of Tom Clarke, former editor of the News chronicle , and teachers included Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell, lecturer in Political Economy at University College and the future Chancellor of the Exchequer. The course was suspended on the outbreak of war in September 1939 and never reinstated.
Repository
Custodial history
The departmental records became scattered throughout King's College after World War Two but were located and transferred to the College Archive in piecemeal fashion in subsequent years. Some material was received from the Registrar's Office in 1983, and the University Archives, Senate House, in 1984.
Conditions governing access
Administrative records are generally closed for 20 years except for published material and some committee and other minutes.
Files containing personal data are closed for 80 years and sensitive personal data for 100 years from the date of the most recent document in the file.
Where open, access is subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
Hand list available in the archives reading room.
Related materials
Alternative identifier(s)
Place access points
People and Organisations
- Clarke, Tom, 1884-1957, journalist (Subject)
- Electrical Association for Women (Subject)
- Retail Trading Standards Association (Subject)
- University of London Journalism Committee (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.
Script(s)
Archivist's note
Sources used: King's College London Calendars. Entry compiled by Geoff Browell.