Collections Overview
The British Library is the National Library of the United Kingdom and while it was established only in 1973, its collections originate from a number of institutions, primarily those derived from the British Museum library departments, where the Philatelic Collections were established in 1891 with the bequest of the outstanding Tapling Collection.
Since that time about 50 important Collections or Archives
have been acquired by donation, bequest, or transfer from
Government departments. An important consideration is that
each collection or archive has been maintained intact, in
order to preserve the original information in an archival
context.
About half of the material held is of Great Britain, with large groups of British Colonial or Commonwealth, and a balance of Foreign countries. All of the collections and archives are listed under the following categories:
General Collections
Great Britain Collections
Air Mail Collections
Country Collections
Special Collections
A to Z of Collections
(also available in PDF
format 55KB )
Introduction
