Referencing archives

Standard format for referencing

The standard format for referencing archival material is as follows:

Author surname, initials. (Date) title in italics. [Material type in square brackets]. Collection name, archive reference number. Archive, city.

Organisation name. (Date) title in italics. [Material type in square brackets]. Collection name, archive reference number. Archive, city.

Note: (Date) is the year or date range of the creation of the material. If the archival material is undated use (n.d.) in your reference to indicate no date.

Example formatting from our archive collections

Laban, R. (1 July 1942) Letter to Lilla Bauer. [Manuscript letter]. Lilla Bauer Archive, LBS/1/2. University of Surrey, Guildford.

Mlada, L. (n.d.) Dance notes. [Manuscript papers]. Ludmila Mlada Collection, LM/E/2/8. University of Surrey, Guildford.

New London Theatre, London. (1981) Cats. [Programme]. Core Theatre Programmes Collection, XZH/6203. University of Surrey, Guildford.

Shepard, E.H. (1970) Pooh Orchestra. [Drawing]. E.H. Shepard Archive, EHS/G/6/1. University of Surrey, Guildford.

University of Surrey. (1992) Aerial Photograph: Stag Hill Campus. [Photograph]. University of Surrey Archive, US/PH/1/1/3. University of Surrey, Guildford.

Example formatting from archives collections elsewhere

Archive material in collections held elsewhere can be referenced in the same way:

British Government War Office. (1937-1943). Infantry: Equipment Photographs. [Photographs]. Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies, WO 208/1271. The National Archives, London.

Thorpe, J. (1964-1969). Anti-Apartheid movement papers. [Manuscript papers]. Jeremy Thorpe Papers, Add MS 89073/4/4. British Library, London.

In-text examples

If you are referencing a source within the text of an assignment, you should reference as follows:

Quoting directly from a source

(Author’s surname/organisation’s name, year/date range of creation).

For example: (Laban, 1938) or (University of Surrey, 1960s).

Immediately after a direct quote from a source

“Quotation” (Author’s surname/organisation’s name, year/date range of creation, page number/range).

For example: (Laban, 1938, p.7) or (University of Surrey, 1960s, pp.93-94).

Referencing rare books

You should reference rare books in the same way you would reference any published text, however, be aware that many early books will have multiple printing houses and they all need to be listed, for example:

Collier, J. (1698) A short view of the immorality and profaneness of the English stage: together with the sense of antiquity upon this argument. London: Printed for S. Keble at the Turk's Head in Fleetstreet, R. Sare at Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holborn, and H. Hindmarsh against the exchange in Cornhil.

Captioning images in publications

You must seek permission to reproduce an image of an item from an archive in an assignment or dissertation. This could be an image of a photograph, drawing, or page of a manuscript.

The archive can advise on the permissions process, and the individual or organisation granting permission will likely dictate how you should caption the image. Once permission to use is granted, we ask that images of items from our collections are captioned as follows:

Title/description, date (archive reference number). From the XXX Archive, University of Surrey, © statement.

Examples

Photograph of Rudolf Laban standing in the centre of a Icosahedron, 1955 (L/F/4/86). From the Rudolf Laban Archive, University of Surrey, © University of Surrey.

Letter to E.H. Shepard from A.A. Milne about future collaboration, 13 November 1926 (EHS/C/4/1/17). From the E.H. Shepard Archive, University of Surrey, © The Estate of the Late Lesley Milne Limited.

Contact us

For more information on referencing archives, or for permission to reproduce an image of an item in our collections, please contact the Archives team at archives@surrey.ac.uk.