ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY ARCHIVES

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0103 RMSP
Held at	: University College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/special-coll ›
Full title	: ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY ARCHIVES
Date(s)	: 1840-1958
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 10 boxes, 78 volumes
Name of creator(s)	: Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Company was formed in 1839 and was the principal British shipping company serving the Caribbean and the east coast of Latin America. For further details on its history, see T A Bushell, Royal Mail: a Centenary History of the Royal Mail Line 1839-1939 (London [1939]).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, 1840-1958, comprising reports, accounts, minutes, cash books, agreements and other business records, and including some records of the Australasian Pacific Mail Steam Packet Company, Nelson Line, and the Australian Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open. The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

Handlist. Collection level description on CALM. See also A Guide to Manuscript Sources for the History of Latin America and the Caribbean in the British Isles, ed Peter Walne (Oxford University Press, London, 1973).

Archival Information

Archival history:

The archives were split and placed on deposit at UCL and the National Maritime Museum during the 1960s. The National Maritime Museum holds the bulk of the archive.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Placed on deposit by the Company during the 1960s.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The National Maritime Museum holds an extensive collection of the company's archives. (Ref: RMS)

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
1999, revised Oct 2001