Archives and manuscripts

Search for records of our archives, manuscripts, photos and prints

Chetham’s Library is open to readers by prior appointment. Please contact us as far in advance as possible to your desired date, and we’ll do our best to meet your needs..

With the support of our friends at the Booth Charities, we have put our new archives and manuscripts catalogue online. The system is Axiell IMu. Please search the system for things of interest to you, and let us know how the service works for you. Please try single keyword searches in the first instance, e.g. ‘Worsley’, ‘Schools’, ‘Processions’. The database is clever, but not as clever as Google, so you may wish to try both singular and plural instances of your search term, for example, or try synonyms. For the time being (and for tedious but sufficient reasons), our catalogue of books and printed items is still the best place to go for records of manuscript books.

You’ll find records for all our major archival collections, usually down to item level; 1000s of records with images for our Belle Vue collection and hundreds of records for material concerning Salford’s people and the life of the city past and present.

Black-and-white postcard of garden with family, late nineteenth century

One image from the Mullineux Collection of Salford items