West Indies Papers

This is a group of diverse small collections of mainly legal papers relating to estate management in the West Indies. They cover the entire geographical area of the West Indies, and the period C16th-C20th. The majority relate to estate management, but they also include family affairs.

Pinney Family Papers

This large collection has been deposited by the Pinney Family. The papers include family affairs, estate management, farming, trade, slave ownership. It covers all aspects of their life from the C16-C20th, both on the island of Nevis in the West Indies, and in the West Country of England. Of particular interest are a fine series of letterbooks and accountbooks which give a picture of the trade of the family. There are also personal papers of individual members of the family, and legal papers relating to their estates both in Nevis and Britain. There is a small amount of material relating to other West Indies islands, and America, particularly relating to trade.

Latin America and the Caribbean Collection

Over 15,000 volumes. Collection includes all areas of the Caribbean, including non-Hispanic. Recent material on open access; store includes older and rare books, mostly still recorded only in card catalogue. Current acquisition mainly of English-language material to support teaching programmes. For further detail see Alan Biggins and Valerie Cooper, eds, Latin American and Caribbean library resources in the British Isles: a directory (2002).

Caribbean Collection

Covers all aspects of the modern experience in the Caribbean and the diaspora (particularly the United Kingdom). The focus is on the Anglophone and Hispanic islands, but the Francophone and Dutch are also covered. The collection consists of approx. 2700 textbooks, monographs, official reports and pamphlets which principally supports an undergraduate half degree, but also some research. In addition there are about 150 videocassettes which are a mixture of off-air recordings and commercial purchases.