Bad trip to Edgewood consists of, interview transcripts, research files and videos for a television documentary on US Army testing of chemical and biological warfare agents on human 'guinea pigs' between 1955 - 1975, and includes files of mainly photocopied documents, reports, scientific articles, letters and newspapers articles, with some printed brochures, as well as videotapes.There is also a video copy of Bad trip to Edgewood which was produced by Michael Bilton, Yorkshire Television, and broadcast as a First Tuesday film in March 1993.

The files focus on secret projects carried out by the US Army Chemical Corps at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Edgewood, Maryland USA, between 1955-1975, in which US Army volunteers were used to test the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), benzilates such as BZ (3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, also known a QNB) and glycolates. The testing programs were suspended in 1975 when information about them became public. A number of volunteers claimed to have suffered long term mental health effects from the tests. They also claim they were not informed at the time of immediate or long term effects of the agents tested.

In 1977 US Army notified 686 volunteers who has been tested with LSD and conducted a follow up study of their health. The LSD follow-up study report released in 1980 found 'the majority of subjects evaluated did not appear to have sustained any significant damage from their participation in the LSD experiments'. There are notes and transcripts of interviews conducted with former US Army personnel who were volunteers in the research programmes, individuals involved in the running testing programs, medical experts and lawyers.

Several files relate to particular law suits including that of Sgt James B Stanley, US Army, volunteer at Edgewood during 1958. In 1977 he was informed by the army that he had been given LSD as part of the testing program. In 1987 a controversial judgement by the US Supreme Court found against Stanley, effectually granting immunity from liability for money damages for all federal officials who intentionally violate the constitutional rights of those serving in the military. Other notable cases frequently mentioned in the files include that of Frank Olson and Harold Blauer. Dr Frank R Olson, US Army scientist at Fort Detrick, apparently suicided, on 28 November 1953. In 1975 the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (the Rockefeller Commission) revealed Olson had been given LSD without his knowledge while attending a meeting of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) personnel eight days before his death. A civilian, Harold R Blauer died on 8 Jan 1953 after being given a lethal injection of Experimental Agent 1298 supplied by the US Army Chemical Corps to the New York State Psychiatric Institute where he was a patient. A 1975 Senate investigation revealed the facts of his death. Files also contain material on bacteriological testing by the Army and the CIA carried out in Washington DC, Florida, San Francisco, and New York. Particular reference is made to the case of Edward Nevin, a civilian, who died on 1 Nov 1950 in San Francisco as a result of a rare bacterial infection Serratia Marcescens, which coincided with a significant and unexplained outbreak of this infection between Oct 1950 and Feb 1951. In 1976 it was revealed that the US Army had conducted bacteriological warfare experiments with Serratia Marcescens over San Francisco Bay during September 1950. There is a small amount of material relating to the role of American Citizens for Honesty in Government, a Church of Scientology sponsored organisation who campaigned during 1979 for a full investigation of the testing and storage of BZ and compensation for volunteers suffering long term effects from testing of the substance, and to chemical testing carried out in the UK at Porton Down, Wiltshire, UK and production of chemical agents at Nancekuke Base, Cornwall, and Anglo American cooperation in this area.

Photographs relating to his service in the UK, Middle East and Singapore, including photographs of civil and military aircraft, notably flying boats, 1928-1936.

Low level Beaufighters over Burma: a review of the low level attacks carried out during September by 27 and 177 Beaufighter Squadrons', an official report including photographs and map, written by Baldwin in 1943.

Photocopies of reports relating to the role of HMS SCOURGE in Operations NEPTUNE and OVERLORD, Jun 1944, France.

Correspondence, [1874], 1900-1901, 1914-1916, principally comprising letters to his family describing his service with 6 Corps, Mounted Infantry, South Africa, 1900-1901, and with 1 Norfolk Regt and 7, 95 and 14 Infantry Bdes, France and Belgium, 1914-1916, notably at the Battle of Mons, Aug 1914.

Papers relating to his service with 12 Gloucestershire Regt, 95 Infantry Div, 3 Div and 3 Corps, France, 1914-1918, dated 1915-1918 and 1938, principally comprising his official report of a visit to trenches near 3 Infantry Bde HQ at Novelles, 9-12 Aug 1915, written for 32 Div HQ, Aug 28 1915; 12th Service Battalion Gloucestershire Regt (Colston Publishing Co, Bristol, 1915) an illustrated souvenir pamphlet compiled and edited by Howard Rankin and Albert G Wain; 3 Div order of battle, Jan 16 1917; 3 Corps order of battle, Oct 1918; group and individual photographs of 12 Gloucestershire Regt, 1914-1919.

Typescript papers relating to Territorial Army annual training exercises, UK, 1935-1937. Papers relating to Barber's time as a Japanese POW in Changi POW Camp, Singapore, 1942-1945, including detailed manuscript diary, 25 Aug 1942-4 Sep 1945, with notes on diet, casualties, disease and nominal rolls of prisoners; eight manuscript letters home from Barber, written after the liberation of Singapore, 1945; printed 'Memorandum for the information of prisoners of war of United Kingdom Forces detained in the Far East' [1945]; two 18 Division Association printed booklets, 1950 and 1993. Two portrait photographs of Barber [1939]. Papers relating to the campaign in France, 1940, including four printed maps of France, Belgium and the Netherlands, various scales, 1938-1939; typescript 'Orders for troops in transit at Cherbourg' and 'Orders for disembarkation' [1940]. Printed training manuals, 1925-1945, including Royal Army Service Corps training manual Mechanical transport. Maintenance, upkeep and operation (HMSO, London, 1925); Section leading (HMSO, London, 1928); Air Raid Precautions. Respirators (HMSO, London, 1939).

Signal from Chiefs of Staff to Barker, 1945, outlining the role of Shield Force in the re-establishment of British administration in Hong Kong.

Photographs and press cuttings relating to her service with WAAF and WRAF, 1940-1960, notably her work as Director of WRAF, 1956-1960. Typescript account of her command of WRAF personnel at RAF Mediterranean Command, Caserta, Italy, [1945].

Papers relating to operations of 20 Corps in Palestine, 1917-1918, including third Battle of Gaza; correspondence including with Gen Sir Kenneth Wigram, 1935, and FM Sir Philip Chetwode, 1926-1936, with related papers, 1911-1950; Bartholomew Committee, Jun 1940 including operations in Flanders, organisation and training of troops; Northern Command and civil defence, 1940-1945.

Photographs relating to his service in India, 1933-1934, notably including two photographs of 11 Field Battery testing wireless equipment, 1934.

Copy of detailed memoir, 'From air to chair', covering his RAF career, 1929-1961, including sections on his RAF training, bomber squadron service, 1930-1933, armament training and duties, 1933-1944 and service in Iraq, 1937-1939, Bomber Command, 1939-1940, the Air Ministry, 1940, 1947-1949 and 1954-1956, Malaya, 1946, Joint Services Staff College, 1947, Central Gunnery School, 1949-1951, Rhodesian Air Training Group, 1951-1953 and Technical Training Command, 1956-1961, written in 1985. Copy of chapter of personal family history giving an account of his father, Lt Col Lewis Collinwood Bearne, during the period 1878-1918, including his service in the Boer War and World War One, [1980-1985].

Typescript extract from unpublished memoir relating to Beaumont's RAF service in World War Two, 1939-1945, including Operation DYNAMO, the evacuation of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) from Dunkirk, France, May-Jun 1940, visits to France by Prime Minister Rt Hon Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, Jun 1940, the Battle of Britain, 1940, and Beaumont's involvement as Deputy Air Officer, Administration, No 84 Group, 2 Tactical Air Force, in the preparations for Operation OVERLORD, the Allied invasion of occupied Europe, 1944, and the North West Europe campaign, 1944-1945.

Memoir covering his life and career, 1893-[1918], notably his time at Eton College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and his service in the Grenadier Guards, 1912-[1918], including his experiences in France, 1914-[1918], written in [1950-1970]. Photographs, mainly of Grenadier Guardsmen and other army personnel, [1930-1945].

Papers used by Beevor during the preparation of Inside the British Army (Chatto Windus, London, 1990), including papers on Defence estimates; officer education; Army Personnel Research Establishment, with Sandhurst reports relating to social conditions; officer and other rank recruitment, bullying; the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; UK Land Forces; the Falklands Islands and BFFI (British Forces, Falklands Islands); Northern Ireland; the Intelligence Corps; women in the Army; medical and psychological services and facilities; punishment; the Army in the Field; officer careers; reduction in numbers of personnel; the Territorial Army. Papers used in the preparation of Crete: the battle and the resistance (John Murray, London, 1991), including retrospective personal accounts of operations in Greece and the evacuation of British forces in Apr 1941; the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Yak Mission to train Greek resistance forces; the defence of Crete during the German invasion, May 1941; retrospective personal testimonies of the land and sea battle for Crete, 1941, and typescript copy of the SOE final report on operations in Crete, 1945. Also, typescript text of lecture by Beevor, entitled 'The defence of Crete', given at National Army Museum, 1991, and paperback edition of Crete: the battle and the resistance (Penguin, London, 1992).

Undercover University, an illustrated account of the language lessons he organised and ran as a POW at Kuching, Borneo during the period 1943-1945, written in 1945-1946, privately published in 1990.

Papers relating to his service in World War One, 1915-1918, principally comprising French and British casualty and strength figures, 1915-1918. Correspondence and associated papers relating to his work with Groupe des Armées du Nord and Grand Quartier Général, France, 1915, 1917-[1919], notably including correspondence between FM Sir Douglas Haig and Generals Robert Georges Nivelle and Henri-Philippe Pétain, 1917-1918. Operational documents, 1917-1918, mainly concerning 5 Army, IX Corps and III and VI French Armies. French Grand Quartier Général official communications, reports and telegrams, 1918, with maps relating to operations in France and Belgium, 1917-1918 and 1939-1940.