About the Archives
The documents held in the archives of Magdalen College fall into several categories:
- Documents about the administration of the College, including statutes and minute books.
- Documents about the College’s estates, including many early title deeds (some dating back to the twelfth century), manorial court records from medieval times to modern ones, leases, and maps.
- Documents about the College’s finances from the 1480s onwards.
- Documents about the College’s buildings, including one of the largest collections of architectural drawings in any Oxford or Cambridge College.
- Papers from some former Presidents, Fellows, and undergraduates. To find out more about the personal papers we hold here, go to the ARCHON directory of record repositories on the website of The National Archives here, and search for Magdalen College there, for a list of many of the collections which we hold.
Do note, however, that we hold very few records actually about undergraduates. We also hold almost no records about College servants.
A good place to find out where the personal papers of former members of the College may be kept is the on-line index of the National Register of Oxford, which is also on the website of The National Archive. Click here to find it.
Further reading on the history of Magdalen College and its members.
The difference between Magdalen College and Magdalen Hall.