Coventry University Archives: Explore our collections

Includes published material e.g. annual reviews; prospectus’; newsletters; university, faculty/college, schools, research centres and services publications; photos. Plus some staff and student work, administrative and other files. Some items relate to the university’s predecessors e.g. Lanchester College of Technology, Coventry College of Art, Lanchester Polytechnic – but please note that most predecessor material is at Coventry Archives.

Recordings of interviews made during research by Kenneth Richardson, Senior Lecturer at Lanchester Polytechnic for his work and publications including the book Twentieth Century Coventry (1972). The collection also includes some transcripts of the interviews. Digital copies of the interviews and a few transcripts are available to listen to or download from our online catalogue. Also includes files and correspondence relating to the publication of the book and to a research project undertaken by Richardson on the social history of the British motor car industry.

Audio cassettes, questionnaires and transcripts compiled during research for the book The motor car industry in Coventry since the 1890s: origins, development and structure by Prof. Tom Donnelly, Professor of Automotive Business, Centre for Business In Society at Coventry University & former Coventry University history lecturer David Thoms.

The cassettes have been digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project by its Midlands Hub team at Leicester University. The interviews are available to listen to and download via our online catalogue. There are also plans to digitise the transcripts as well.

Papers, catalogues, slides and drawings from the late Dr. Anthony Hobson, Honorary Research Fellow of Coventry Polytechnic, relating to the artist John Waterhouse. Dr. Hobson, who taught for many years as Head of the General Studies Department and Principal Lecturer in the History of Art, was the country’s leading authority on Waterhouse. There is also material and slides relating to his work as a lecturer at the polytechnic.

Material collected by former Coventry University Honorary Life Fellow Celia Fitzhugh. Includes photographs, illustrations and postcards, newspaper cuttings, theatre programmes and published books on Terry and the theatre. There are also research files on Ellen Terry and her family, the theatre and other actors. 

Includes papers, advertising proofs, magazines, books and research material from the collection of graphic designer Roy Wilfred Wilson - especially relating to his work on publicity and advertising campaigns at Shell International Petroleum Company. There may be copyright, privacy or data protection restrictions on some records.

Peter Ball was born in Coventry in 1943, later attending the Coventry College of Art.

Initially a painter, Ball adopted sculpture as his foremost medium and has spent over 60 years creating works that utilise found objects and recycled wood as a base on which he embellishes with metals and paint. He has become a leading figure in British ecclesiastical art and, although he produces secular works, it is his religious work that has provided a great deal of recognition worldwide with works in many major British cathedrals and churches as altar pieces and other devotional subjects.

His donation consists of a wide variety of printed material covering his career and includes exhibition catalogues, press cuttings, books  and postcards. Peter has also donated framed paintings produced as preparatory work ahead of altar piece commissions. We also have audio recordings that chronicle his whole life and experiences growing up in Coventry, as an art student and teaching for a while at Lanchester Polytechnic.