The Angus Library and Archive is the leading collection of Baptist history and heritage worldwide. It contains more than 70,000 items relating to the life and history of Baptists in Britain and the wider scene.
The Angus Library and Archive is the leading collection of Baptist history and heritage worldwide. It unites the original collection of historical materials gathered in particular by the college Principals Joseph Angus and William Newman in the nineteenth century with the libraries and archive of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Baptist Historical Society and the Baptist Missionary Society. It holds printed books, pamphlets, journals, church and association records, church histories, manuscript letters and other artefacts from the late fifteenth century to the present day. It contains a comprehensive collection of Baptist periodicals from around the world. The Angus Library and Archive has an extensive manuscript collection including collections from key Baptist figures such as William Carey, Anne Steele, C.H. Spurgeon, Joshua and Hannah Marshman, William Ward, E.A. Payne, and J. H Rushbrook. It also holds manuscripts for leading Baptist families such as the Angus, Steele, Whitaker, and Reeves families. There is a collection of minutes and papers from a variety of Baptist organisations or organisations with which Baptists have been involved such as the European Baptist Federation, the Baptist World Alliance, the Baptist Historical Society and the Deaconess Movement. Special collections, including those of the Baptist Missionary Society, offer material relating to Baptist witness in Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, West Africa, India, China and South East Asia. Early connections between Baptists in Britain and the United States of America are well covered. The Angus also holds material of value to researchers of the English Civil War, theology, missiology, literature, languages and linguistics (especially Indic, Chinese and African languages), medical history, women’s history, the history of education, the history of slavery and the abolition movement, family history, church history and the history of Dissent in general. The library and archive collections are in constant use by researchers from all over the world, who visit in person or who request Angus staff to conduct research on their behalf or to digitize materials for them.