The British Psychological Society’s History of Psychology Centre has just made available online its archive catalogue, through which individuals can now search the full contents of archive. Among the many collections in the archive are the papers of eminent psychologist Charles Spearman, perhaps best known for his work on human intelligence and factor analysis, and the dream research notebooks of Major Hopkins compiled during his time as a prisoner of war during World War II. Also available online, in the site’s image gallery, are a number of photographs. The official announcement of the online archive catalogue follows below.

The British Psychological Society’s History of Psychology Centre (HoPC) has made its archive catalogue available online. The catalogue contains descriptions of special collections and records held within the BPS archives. Users can now, for the first time, search the entire catalogue via their web browsers.

The archive includes not only records of the Society’s own history but also extensive collections of individual psychologists’ working papers, as well as visual and sound archives. Most of the photographs in the visual archive are viewable in the online catalogue.The catalogue website includes a ‘Showcase’ page that highlights some of the most significant collections in the archives and an ‘Image Gallery’ facility highlighting some of the images contained in the visual archive.

Dr Alan Collins, Chair of the History of Psychology Centre Committee said: ‘The online catalogue will make it easier for historians of psychology to locate important material in the Society’s archives, which are already a major resource for anyone doing research on the history of psychology. And as the History of Psychology Centre is committed to expanding the archives, they will increase in importance in the future. We also hope that anyone with access to valuable archive material will consider contributing it to HoPC so making the Centre one of the “first stops” for anyone seeking archival material relating to psychology and its history in Britain.’

The online catalogue is available at http://archives.bps.org.uk/CalmView