Uncatalogued Archive Collections

Tate Archive – with more than 900 archive collections - is now the world’s largest archive for British art.  Over 70% of our archive collections are catalogued with more than 65,000 selected items from almost 100 collections now digitised.  Please check our database regularly for newly catalogued collections.

For collections which have not yet been catalogued, this means that we do not have detailed lists from which you can call up specific items or groups of items.

We regret that we cannot freely give access to uncatalogued Archive collections because:

a) we need to know in detail what we are making available to researchers

• to ensure their security

• so that we do not unwittingly give access to personal data in breach of the Data Protection Act

· to enumerate and re-house material so that items can be safely issued in our Reading Room

b) we need to preserve the informational value of the original order of the papers

We appreciate the requirements of researchers, so we do consider requests to make available specific items from uncatalogued collections provided we have at least four weeks’ notice. We can do this if the material is reasonably easy to locate and the quantity is small enough for us to be able to check through before issuing.

Although we cannot guarantee to be able to make any material available, we consider each request carefully.

If you would like to consult material in an uncatalogued collection, please write or email to Archive Enquiries (details below) giving as much information as possible about the subject of your research and a note of the specific material you are interested in consulting.

See the list of uncatalogued collections

Archive Enquiries

Tate Library and Archive

Millbank

London

SW1P 4RG

email: reading.rooms@tate.org.uk

Please note that the final decision to allow access to uncatalogued collections rests with Tate’s Archivist, Adrian Glew.