Pollution in the Archive

16 Jan 2026 11:59 AM

In this blog, we reflect on the 2025 ‘Talking records: Pollution in the Archive’ symposium held at The National Archives. Explore the event's presentations on environmental histories and more below.

The National Archives hold a wide range of records that showcase environmental histories (which explore the relationship between humans and nature over time). This includes colonial environments, environmental law, weather and climate change, energy, botanical history, water management, agriculture, and conservation policy. However, because our government archives are organised via department, searching these records can be challenging.

To support researchers and the public interested in these themes, our Collections Research team organised several initiatives in 2025 aimed at making these records more visible and accessible. This includes a new research guide on Environmental History, which Heather Craddock compiled with the support of internal colleagues and external researchers. This will be published soon.

This work, in addition to a programme of research-focused events, has expanded our knowledge of records that tell stories about the environment. This work also supports The National Archives’ vision of reaching our collection’s potential to shape environmental histories and inform a sustainable future.

This programme of work led to the organisation of the ‘Talking records: Pollution in the Archive’ symposium (a conference on pollution).

Click here for the full press release