Welcome to the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) Library
The Library is an enormous repository of information, pictorial and written, print and manuscript, on the Commonwealth and Britain's former colonial territories, founded in 1868 and home today to a growing collection of over 300,000 printed items (monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and official publications), over 900 archival collections (including manuscript diaries, correspondence, pictures, artefacts, cine films, scrapbooks and newspaper cuttings) and over 125,000 photographs (albums, loose prints, slides, glass plate negatives and lantern slides).
- Induction notes - first-time users of the collection are recommended to consult these notes for guidance on searching the RCS collections
- Brief history of the RCS collection
- Catalogues and remote access
- Current project (2022-2023) - Southern African collections: a co-curation
- Collection guides include: Caribbean collections, cine films, civilian internment (WWII Singapore), military archives, mission archives, nursing archives, official publications, photographic panoramas, and Polar archives.
- RCS 150 - new digital collection celebrating the Society's 150th anniversary, and the acquisition of the RCS Library by Cambridge University Library in 1993
- Anniversary Treasures Exhibition
- Blog posts about the RCS collections - keep abreast of new accessions, cataloguing & digitisation projects, and exhibitions
- Useful links to additional resources for the study of the Commonwealth and Britain's former colonial territories
The RCS Library comprises the collections amassed by the Colonial Society, and its successors the Royal Colonial Institute, Royal Empire Society and Royal Commonwealth Society. It was acquired by Cambridge University Library in 1993.
The RCS photographer’s index and RCS Photograph Project gallery were retired in June 2024. The original selection of 700 images may still be consulted on Apollo. The full RCS digital collection is on CUDL. Biographical details relating to photographers have been incorporated into agent records on ArchiveSearch.