The Caribbean Studies Collection

Introduction

The Caribbean studies collections at the Institute of Historical Research, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and Senate House libraries are some of the largest and most varied in the UK. They are transdisciplinary in scope, covering anthropology, archaeology, history, law, literature, social policy, sociology and political theory. Their main strengths relate to the former British West Indies, but rare materials from the Francophone/Kreyol, Hispanic and Dutch speaking Carribean are important highlights.

This guide offers a concise introduction to the collections and some of their main strengths. It intends to be indicative of materials held in the collections rather than exhaustive. 

The guide is organised under the following thematic headings for ease of navigation and use:

• The pre-Columbian and Early Colonial Caribbean
• The Plantation Caribbean
• Ordering the Colonial Caribbean
• Colonial, Post-Independence and Commonwealth Law
• Imagining Caribbean Freedoms
• Caribbean Cosmologies
• Key Thinkers: Caribbean Thought and Letters
• The Caribbean post/neo-Colony
• Interrogating Gender, Kinship and Sexuality
• ‘British Subjects’, Diasporic Caribbeans and ‘Black Britons’

With the following addenda: 

• University of London Theses
• Periodicals
• External Digital Archives

The guide was created by Dr Adom Philogene Heron on behalf of the Centre for Integrated Caribbean Research and The Institute of Latin American Studies. 

Collections Strengths

Worthy of special note are the various archives, subject guides, periodicals, seminar series' and theses that feature in the collections. Many include original sources that are entirely unique to the University of London.  

Colonial, Post-independence and Commonwealth Law Guides

Periodicals

The CLR James Papers

The Heisler Collection of Political Materials

The Political Pamphlets Archive

The Slavery Subject Guide

University of London Caribbean Postgraduate Seminar Papers

University of London Theses