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John Rylands Research Institute and Library

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The Humanitarian Archive

Date range: 1960 – present

The Humanitarian Archive provides a permanent home for collections connected to humanitarianism.

Photo of an UK-med flak jacket, c. 1995, Tony Redmon Collection.
UK-med flak jacket, c. 1995. Tony Redmon Collection, The University of Manchester Library.

The archive is a unique partnership between the University of Manchester Library and the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute. Its remit covers the work of individuals and small non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who provide a broad range of aid in response to conflict, natural and manmade disasters, with a focus on changes in humanitarian practice and archivally underrepresented views and events.  

The Archive was launched in 2021 and currently works closely with the HCRI’s Developing Humanitarian Medicine project, which examines the development of humanitarian medicine over the past 50 years.  

The archive collects material from those who have worked in a variety of humanitarian positions, from medical work to consultancy, aid and supply distribution to human rights.  

These collections, dating from the 20th century onwards, cover humanitarian work carried out independently or for different organisations in countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. Browse the headings below to find out more about the topics covered across these collections or see the list of collections to learn more about the contents of each individual archive. 

 

Current collection themes 

Food security, drought and famine 

The archive contains material relating to food security and famines, their effects and work carried out to tackle them from the 1970s onwards, including in Uganda and Sudan in the 1980s to 1990s (in the Jonathan Falla collection), and in Ethiopia and Eritrea in the 1980s-1990s (in the Roger Briottet collection).  

Disaster preparedness and emergency response planning 

The archive contains an extensive amount of material relating to the planning and organisation of responses to emergencies and natural disasters, including earthquakes, flooding and drought, and the guidelines and procedures used in humanitarian work.  

This includes a large amount of grey literature: guidelines, training and reports on providing humanitarian aid primarily held in the Ron Ockwell papers, produced and provided by organisations such as UNICEF, WHO, WFP, ICRC from the 1970s-2000s.  

Humanitarian medicine 

The archive also holds material relating to medical care carried out in humanitarian settings, to treat injuries, control the spread of communicable diseases, and provide primary healthcare.   

This includes archives relating to medical care provided in conflict, including on British doctors who were sent to provide medical aid in Vietnam during the Vietnam war in the 1960s (in the British Medical Team collection), or in Sarajevo, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo during the breakdown of Yugoslavia and ensuing conflict, and in Rwanda and Sierra Leone in the 1990s (in the Tony Redmond collection).  

The Tony Redmond collection also covers medical aid provided in the aftermath of natural disasters, including the 1988 Armenian earthquake, the 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake in Iran, the 1995 Cabo Verde volcanic eruptions, and the 1997 Montserrat volcanic eruption. This collection also contains information on the standardisation of medical humanitarian work from the 1980s onwards and the development of the Emergency Medical Team system in the 2000s.  

Refugee camps and settlements and internally displaced people (IDPs) 

The Humanitarian Archive holds several collections relating to the provision of aid to refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), covering the construction and management of camps and settlements, providing healthcare and distributing supplies in these situations, and the people who lived in them.  

This includes an extensive amount of material on refugee camps on two borders of Thailand, for refugees from Myanmar from one side, and those from Cambodia on the other, from the 1980s onwards. This includes an extensive series of photographs of the Thailand/Myanmar camps in The Border Consortium visual collection from the 1980s-2000s and archives relating to healthcare and the political situation in the Thailand/Cambodia camps in the 1980s in the Rudi Coninx papers.  

Early humanitarian fundraising and activism 

While most collections in this archive date from the 1970s onwards, it also holds some material relating to activism and fundraising for humanitarian causes in the early to mid-20th century. This includes memorabilia and ephemera from the United Nations’ 1960 World Refugee Year initiative (in the World Refugee Year collection), as well as photographs and correspondence relating to peace protests, fundraising and awareness raising in the UK in the mid-20th century (part of the Elizabeth Wilson collection).  

Humanitarian visual material 

The archive also contains many photographs taken of humanitarian work and its settings, including of humanitarian work carried out in India, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Kenya and China in the mid-20th century (in the Elizabeth Wilson collection), photographs of aid work across Sudan, Nepal and Burma [Myanmar] in the 1980s-1990s (held in the Jonathan Falla collection), and of the Thailand/Myanmar camps from the 1980s-2000s (in The Border Consortium visual collection). 

Oral history archives 

The archive is home to a growing collection of recorded oral testimonies taken from key humanitarian actors, created in collaboration with the Developing Humanitarian Medicine and Researching the Impact of Attacks on Healthcare projects.  

 

Tony Redmond Collection

The personal collection of Professor Tony Redmond, medical doctor, humanitarian and the founder of UK-Med, the UK’s Emergency Medical Team. This collection covers Redmond’s entire emergency medical career, from the 1980s-2010s, including his work during the earthquakes in Armenia in 1988 and Kurdistan in 1991, the 1995 Cape Verde volcano eruption, the Lockerbie Air Disaster and the Bosnian war.

For more detailed information, click here.

Elizabeth Wilson Collection

The correspondence, photographs and diaries of Elizabeth Wilson (1909-2000), founder of the Huddersfield Committee for Famine Relief (Hudfam), pacifist and Oxfam activist. The collection details her activism and fundraising in the UK and internationally, including in Hong Kong and India. These papers complement the archives related to Hudfam and Wilson which are deposited in the West Yorkshire Archive Service. Access the catalogue here. 

British Medical Team Collection

Photographs, newspaper clippings and correspondence collected by members of the British Medical Team sent by the British government to work in a hospital in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) during the Vietnam War.

For more detailed information, click here.

Ron Ockwell Papers

Papers collected by Ron Ockwell, humanitarian and consultant, throughout the course of his work from 1980s-2000s. Ockwell worked with several organisations, including UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) to create guidelines for humanitarian work. His archive covers topics of food security and food aid, disaster response, healthcare and emergency preparedness, across several countries, particularly Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Cambodia.

For more detailed information, click here.

Antonio Donini Papers

Letters, reports, grey literature and publications relating to the work and research of Antonio Donini, who worked on humanitarian aid and refugee resettlement programmes in Afghanistan for the United Nations during the late 1980s to early 2000s.

For a more detailed description, click here.

Jonathan Falla Collection

The diaries, published works, photographs and correspondence of Jonathan Falla, author and former humanitarian aid worker. The collection covers Falla’s literary output and his work as a nurse and coordinator in India, Indonesia, Uganda, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Burma, and Sudan, spanning 1974-1991.

For more detailed information, click here.

Norah Niland Papers

The personal papers of Norah Niland, former Director of Human Rights in the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, covering the 1980s-2000s. The collection consists of reports, minutes, policy documents, grey literature and correspondence, which relates primarily to Niland’s time in Afghanistan but also her work in the refugee camps on the Thai Cambodian border in the 1980s, and her research on landmines.

For more detailed information, click here.

World Refugee Year Collection

A collection of ephemera, memorabilia and correspondence relating to World Refugee Year 1959-1960, collated by Professor Peter Gatrell over the course of his research for his book Free World? The Campaign to Save the World's Refugees, 1956–1963. Access the catalogue here.

 

Roger Briottet Collection

The personal archive of Roger Briottet, a legal expert and humanitarian activist who worked extensively in Ethiopia and Eritrea in the 1980s, during the war and ensuing famine and criminal trials. His papers also cover his work in Togo, Burundi, Algeria, South America and Sudan.

For more detailed information, click here.

Rudi Coninx Papers

This collection consists of guidelines, articles, notes, correspondence, grey literature and reports, and primarily covers Coninx’ work on the Thai/Cambodian border for UNBRO, where he was a health coordinator for Cambodian people displaced by conflict during the 1980s. 

For more detailed information, click here.

The Border Consortium Visual Collection

This collection consists of several hundred photographs and slides taken by TBC staff members from 1984 to 2003, covering a wide geographic area along the border. They show the provision of humanitarian aid by TBC and other agencies, the construction of new refugee camps (including some of the first camps), meetings of various political groups, new refugee arrivals and food and aid distribution.

For more detailed information, click here.

RIAH Oral Histories Collection

This oral history project provides first-hand insight into the persistent threat of attacks on healthcare and is a complement to the research agenda of RIAH and its partners.

For more detailed information, click here.

Further information

To find out more about the Humanitarian Archive, please contact Flora Chatt, Humanitarian Archivist.

To discuss how this archive will contribute to the scholarship of humanitarianism and humanitarian aid, please contact Professor Bertrand Taithe.

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