Reference code
Title
Date(s)
Level of description
Collection
Extent, medium and format
The first 3 volumes contain 17 pdf files, one for each part of the volumes. Photographs are also available in jpg format.
Collecting area
Archival/Digitisation history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Description
The personal and political correspondence of George Lansbury (1859 – 1940), gathered by his biographer and son-in-law Raymond Postgate. George Lansbury was a Labour MP who become borough councillor in Poplar in 1903 and Leader of the Labour Party in 1931 – 1935. Lansbury was interested in the causes and prevention of poverty and unemployment. He was a member of the Central Unemployed Body for London and also a member of the Royal Commission on Poor Law and Relief of Distress, where he signed the minority report. In 1929 he became the first Commissioner of Works and also established the first Poor Law Labour Colony and the first Labour Colony for the Unemployed (apart from the Poor Law and under public control) at Hollesley Bay. He was also a founder of the 'Daily Herald' and its editor from 1919 to 1923. The papers including the following topics: schools, the Labour Party, unemployment, agriculture, India, the 1931 Cabinet Crisis, and the Metropolitan Police; personal and official photographs, and caricatures from the press; press reviews of Lansbury's published works; printed matter, including articles, pamphlets, speeches and leaflets by or concerning Lansbury, election addresses, and personal ephemera.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The entire archive is being digitised and will be uploaded over a period of time, when it is completed the collection will have the following arrangement of 31 volumes:
17 volumes, SECTION I, main corpus of George Lansbury's personal and political correspondence and papers in one chronological sequence, 1877-1940
Volume 17, SECTION II, correspondence between Professor Raymond William Postgate, Lansbury's son-in-law and biographer, and others after the death of George Lansbury, arranged alphabetically by correspondent, 1940-1950.
Volumes 18 - 25, SECTION III, correspondence and papers grouped as found, under subject headings:
IIIa.(i): 18. Limit Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd. 1913-1914
IIIa.(ii): 18. Victoria House Printing Co. Ltd., 1917.
IIIb.: 19. Voluntary school problem, 1928-1931
IIIc.: 19. Labour Party manifesto and programme, 1929.
IIId.: 19-20. Unemployment, 1929-1935.
IIIe.: 20. Unemployment and migration, 1929-1930.
IIIf.: 21. Claude Leigh papers: 'Augusta Johnson Centre', 1929-1930
IIIg.: 21. Honorary positions held by George Lansbury, 1929-1931
IIIh.: 21. Unemployment and agriculture, 1929
IIIi.: 21. Maplescombe Valley model village scheme, 1929-1931
IIIj.: 21. Agricultural policy, 1930-1931
IIIk.: 22-24. India, 1930-1937.
IIIn.: 25. George Lansbury: 'Cabinet crisis of 1931', 1931
IIIo.: 25. Means test, 1931-1935
IIIp.: 25. Metropolitan police, 1933
IIIq.: 25. National Hospitals for Dentures, 1935-1936.
Volume 26, SECTION IV, photographs, c1889-1939.
Volume 27, SECTION V, press reviews, 1928-1938:
Volumes 29 - 31, SECTION VI, additionals, 1880-1940:
Access information
Copyright and licencing
As of October 2022, many of the items in this collection are still in copyright. For letters and papers authored by Lansbury LSE is the copyright holder and and we provide permission for its reuse under a CC-BY licence CC-BY licence. For re-using papers and photographic material not authored by Lansbury, e.g. press photographs, please see our Terms and Conditions useful page. Please cite “LSE Digital Library” in any use.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Information on originals
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related material
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
Places
People and organisations
- Lansbury, George (Subject)
- Labour Party (Subject)