This is a collection of approximately 600 pamphlets and short publications on world affairs in the Twentieth Century. Many themes are covered, including politics, economics, civil liberty, democracy and religion, and many of the countries of the world feature. Examples of titles in the collection are Full employment in a free society; I was a Franco Soldier; The hydrogen bomb and you; What the Arab World really wants; The Basques and the Communists; British policy in the Far East; Two Sides in Germany: Which is yours?; Youth and Anti-Semitism; Haile Salassie: the Plea for Ethiopia; Japanese Naval expansion; Chinese Women and the War; and Banking in Soviet Russia. Many prominent figures are represented as authors, including Marx and Engels, Kropotkin and Liu Shao-Chi.

Books on Arabic and Persian languages, and on the history and antiquities of Arabia, Iraq and the Near East that formed part of Gertrude Bell's working library.

The Bosanquet Papers consist of archive material relating to Bernard Bosanquet, the idealist philosopher (1848-1923), and to his wife, Helen Bosanquet, née Dendy (1860-1926), a member of the 1909 Poor Law Commission. Material relating to Bernard Bosanquet comprises correspondence, research notes, drafts and manuscripts of publications, as well as offprints from journals and other publications by Bosanquet himself.Material relating to Helen Bosanquet includes notes and correspondence for her memoir of Bernard Bosanquet, offprints from publications, correspondence relating to Helen Bosanquet's family and relating to public work, journals of travel, drawings, literary notebooks, photographs, engagement diaries and some undated miscellaneous material. A particular highlight is Helen Bosanquet's notebook which contains diary notes on Poor Law Commission meetings attended by her in 1909.

The papers of the distinguished public servant Lady Plowden (1910-2000) were generously gifted to Newcastle University Library in 2003 by the Plowden family.

Held in Special Collections, Lady Plowden's papers are an extensive and rich resource reflecting her many areas of concern. Lady Plowden held a number of high-profile public roles in the spheres of education reform and television broadcasting, most notably as Chairman of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England), 1963 – 1967, Vice-Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, 1970 – 1975, and Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), 1975 – 1980. A large and varied number of public roles followed, many of which retained this focus on primary and pre-school education reform as well as the promotion of high-quality television broadcasting. Lady Plowden's interests were wide however and these papers also reflect Lady Plowden's roles within organisations related to Romany and Traveller education and rights, adult education, the care and resettlement of offenders, the role of voluntary work, young adult unemployment and training, and women and employment.

Lady Plowden (nee Richmond) was a niece of Gertrude Bell and a cousin of the Trevelyans of Wallington. An additional deposit of material made by the Plowden family comprise of a number of family photograph albums and correspondence files relating to the Richmond, Bell and Trevelyan families.

The archive mainly comprises correspondence relating to Charles' activities as a Civil Servant and administrator. There are also publications relating to these activities and Charles' wider interests.

There is also personal content, including travel diaries, family correspondence and papers regarding inheritance of the Wallington estate in Northumberland.

Administration, correspondence, research and campaign materials produced by the Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and associated material relating to lesbian and gay politics from the 1970s to the 1990s, including newspaper cuttings, campaign material, leaflets, and magazines and journals.Administration, correspondence, research and campaign materials produced by the Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and associated material relating to lesbian and gay politics from the 1970s to the 1990s, including newspaper cuttings, campaign material, leaflets, and magazines and journals.

This archive includes content accumulated and created by both Charles and Mary, and other family members. It reflects the family's personal activities from Charles' childhood in the 1870s to Mary's death in 1966, but also includes some content from Charles' professional life. It can support research into a broad variety of areas, including political history (particularly the Liberal and Labour parties, socialism and international relations), World War I (particularly dissent and the peace movement), childhood and education (from both a personal and political perspective), domesticity, class and landed estates.
This extensive personal archive is mostly comprised of correspondence. This includes: Correspondence to Charles in his role as MP Correspondence to and from Charles relating to the operation of the Union of Democratic Control Correspondence to and from Charles relating to his positions in government Correspondence relating to the management of the Wallington estate and the donation to the National Trust Correspondence between members of the Trevelyan and Bell families, much of which is domestic in tone Correspondence to and from Charles and Mary's children from their early childhood to adulthood Correspondence from visits abroad including North America, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Russia and Germany The correspondents include family members such as Charles' brothers George Macaulay Trevelyan and Robert Calverley Trevelyan, Mary's sister and brother in law Elsa Richmond and Admiral Sir Herbert William Richmond. Other correspondents include Sir Winston Churchill, J Ramsay MacDonald, E D Morel, Arthur Ponsonby, Walter Runciman, Herbert Samuel, George Bernard Shaw and Jennie Lee.

Other documents include: Papers relating to Charles, Mary and their childrens' educations, including exam papers and school ephemera Personal Diaries, in particular a short run of Mary's personal diaries as a young woman Official political papers, including Cabinet Conclusions, draft bills[?] and copies of Hansard Pamphlets and leaflets written by and collected by Charles, many relating to socialism and the UDC Transcripts of speeches given by Charles and Mary in professional and personal capacities Personal notebooks with draft speeches and essays Family photograph albums and glass negatives, recording family events, daily life, and Charles' political career Press cuttings and scrapbooks relating to family events and Charles' career

The Cowen Tracts are almost two thousand pamphlets which were formerly owned by local (radical) M.P., Joseph Cowen (1829-1900). The tracts date mostly from the mid- to late-Nineteenth Century and reflect Cowen's interest in the social, educational, political and economic issues of the day.

There is some earlier material, such as Deed of incorporation for the insurance of ships printed by T. Angus, St. Nicholas' Church-Yard, Newcastle (1778). Pamphlets were an effective form of public debate because they could be circulated to a wider audience than books and authors could remain anonymous. The Cowen Tracts discuss Irish politics, foreign policy, women's rights, religion, education and public health and include such titles as The Union programme for 1880: constructive, not destructive, Irish legislation [1879?], Are women fit for politics?: are politics fit for women [185-] and The education of the agricultural labourer: a paper read before the Morpeth Chamber of Agriculture, on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 1870 by M.W. Ridley (1870).

34 items. Includes letters from contemporaries of Williams, including letters sent in support of job applications. Also includes a number of photographs of Williams throughout her life, objects connected to the suffrage movement, and selected information about Williams collected after her death.

The papers and photographs of Gertrude Bell mainly consist of the letters Gertrude Bell sent home to her family whilst on her travels, of the diaries she kept when abroad, and the photographs taken whilst she was away.

The papers consists of sixteen thousand letters, sixteen diaries, seven notebooks and forty-four packets of miscellaneous material; whilst the photographic collection is about 7000 in number, and consists of photographs taken by her between c.1900-1918. Those of Middle Eastern archaeological sites are of great value because they record structures which have since been eroded or, in some cases, have disappeared altogether, while those of the desert tribes are of considerable anthropological and ethnographical interest.

Her competence as a field archaeologist and photographer means that the papers are indispensable for archaeological research of parts of the Middle East.

The items in the Bell Miscellaneous Papers contain material relating to Bell's work and travels, including contemporary articles, notes by Bell on various topics (archaeological sites, Arab tribes, etc.), letters concerning the publication of Bell's letters by Lady Richmond and letters to and from Gertrude Bell, maps and plans, literary manuscripts, lecture notes and copies of letters from Gertrude Bell held elsewhere. There is also a series of the letters known as the Doughty-Wylie letters, 1913-1915. These are the letters between Gertrude Bell and Charles Doughty-Wylie, an army officer with whom Bell was in love. The letters were returned to Gertrude Bell after his death at Gallipoli in 1915.