The Historical Manuscripts Commission published a great number of calendars and editions of records. They fall into three main series, the Reports and Calendars series, the Prime Ministers' Papers series, and a series of volumes published jointly with a number of local record publishing bodies. Due to the complexity of references to volumes in the Reports and Calendars series, a bibliography has been prepared.

Reports and calendars bibliography

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The earliest accounts of collections of historical papers inspected by the Historical Manuscripts Commission were published as appendices to the Commissioners' periodical reports to the Crown. Nine reports accompanied by appendices of this type were issued between 1870 and 1884 in seventeen folio parts (series nos. 1-8 below).

The format of the series was then changed from folio to octavo, and the appendices to the 10th-15th Reports, 1885-99, were issued separately in parts as completed (serial nos. 10-44, 46-47). At the same time, separate publication was begun of calendars of important individual collections of papers, bearing the titles of these collections alone. The first independent calendar was that of the Salisbury (Cecil) MSS at Hatfield House, of which Part I appeared in 1883 and Part XXIV - the last - in 1976 (serial no. 9).

All accounts of collections issued since 1889 have been in the form of independent calendars. The appendices to the Commissioners' 16th and subsequent reports to the Crown are confined to location lists of collections previously reported on, and similar information.

The serial numbers used in the present catalogue were introduced in 1914 to bring together volumes dealing with the same collection but published at wide intervals. The first four volumes of the calendar of the MSS of the Duke of Portland, published between 1891 and 1897 as appendices to the 13th, 14th and 15th Reports to the Crown, were in this way related to the six later volumes published between 1899 and 1931 as Portland MSS V-X under serial no. 29.

Since the serial numbers were applied retrospectively, they are not printed in any volumes published before 1914, and are in fact omitted from many of the volumes published subsequently.

Until 1920 all volumes issued in the Reports and Calendars series were published as parliamentary papers. They are therefore additionally numbered in the parliamentary papers series, e.g. C.9471 of 1899, Cd. 282 of 1900.

Readers should note that nearly all the volumes mentioned here are out of print but they are available for consultation in The National Archives search room and they may be available in good reference libraries. See our planning your visit page for more information before setting off.