Library

The Library will be closed to visitors for the summer break from Monday 26 July, and will reopen on Monday 6 September at 10 a.m. Staff will still be on hand to take email and telephone enquiries during this period.

The Society's Library is the major archaeological research library in the UK. Having acquired material since the early eighteenth century, the Library's present holdings number more than 100,000 books and around 800 currently received periodical titles .

As the oldest archaeological library in the country, the Library holds an outstanding collection of British county histories, a fine collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century books on the antiquities of Britain and other countries and an exceptionally wide-ranging collection of periodical titles (British and foreign) with runs dating back to the early to mid-nineteenth century.

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The Library's holdings of books and periodicals cover a wide range of subjects, reflecting the interests of the Fellows of the Society. The focus is on

  • British and European archaeology
  • British record publications
  • Architectural history
  • Decorative arts
  • Numismatics, Heraldry and Genealogy.

The collection of printed materials is supplemented by a significant collection of broadsides , proclamations and Civil War tracts.

The Library also holds the Society's outstanding collection of Prints and drawings.