Collection KDJ - JOURNALISM: King's College London departmental records

Key Information

Reference code

KDJ

Title

JOURNALISM: King's College London departmental records

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

(1923-1939)

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.

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

King's College London Archives: Secretarial series (Ref: KAS/AC2)

Related descriptions

Alternative identifier(s)

Place access points

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.

Accession area