Since its establishment in 1884, the Marine Biological Association has accrued a wealth of material relating to marine biology research. This ranges from personal correspondences between scientists, such as E.T. Browne, F.S. Russell, Marie Lebour and many others, to early manuscripts for research papers and textbooks, and even scientific specimens. This historic material forms the MBA Archive, and is cared for by the staff of the MBA’s library.
A selection of material from the MBA Archive. Top left: hand drawn watercolours of fish for William Yarrell’s ‘A History of British Fishes’; top right – drawers of histological specimens; bottom left – photograph of the opening of the MBA in 1888; bottom right – material from the MBA Easter Classes. c. The Marine Biological Association
Until recently, the MBA Archive collections have been housed in two store rooms within the library, but a project to relocate the collections to one main store within the Citadel Hill laboratory is now coming to its conclusion.
The original archive store, on the ground floor of the library. c. The Marine Biological Association
Not all of the material to be moved was stored in standard archive packaging, so the initial focus was on getting those items into new boxes specifically designed for archives. With 100 of these boxes to fill, this was a role that the library volunteers got stuck into with great enthusiasm.
Our wonderful National Marine Biology Library volunteers reboxing materials in preparation for the move. c. The Marine Biological Association
Adaptability is a useful trait to have when working at the MBA and our new archive store is no different. Former laboratory space has been repurposed to create the archive’s new storage room and, if you look closely, you can still see hints of the room’s previous role.
The new Archive store. c. The Marine Biological Association
With hundreds of boxes to move across to the other side of the site, we were grateful to have the help of the wider MBA team including Site Services, Aquarium staff, the DASSH team and our brilliant library volunteers – allowing us to manage the majority of the move in less than one day.
For the library staff, this is a great opportunity to reorganise and make the material more accessible, and we hope to have the new archive store at full capacity in the coming months.
If you are interested in what we hold in the archive, you can find records of some of the personal collections on The National Archives Discovery, or email the library on nmbl@mba.ac.uk for full details.
More images from the archives can also be found on Instagram (@nmbllibrary) and Bluesky (@nmbl.bsky.social)
