Archives and Collections

The Temple of Peace heritage collections and archives include:

The Council Chamber Library of Wales’ Temple of Peace

  1. Digitised Records – over 5,000 digitised documents from the Temple of Peace and Wales’ Peace Heritage ‘story’, with support of HLF, have been digitised by volunteers over 2014-19 and can be viewed at:
  2. Exhibition items and artefacts displayed around the building. WCIA offer monthly guided ‘Temple Tours’ exploring the story of this remarkable national monument, and the movements inspired by its mission to build a better world.
  3. The Council Chamber Library contains Lord David Davies’ personal collection of books and original writings on peace and internationalism from the last 150 years, as well as a number of display cameos including the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition to America of 1923-4. There are also book collections and references from organisations based at the Temple from 1938-today, from the Welsh League of Nations Union and United Nations, to International Youth Volunteering.
  4. The Temple Archives, stored in the attic of the building, are not physically accessible to the public – however, WCIA’s Heritage Advisor can facilitate enquiries or support appointments to view materials. Scroll down to view the Temple Archives Catalogue.
  5. Archives Repositories. Many older records from the Temple of Peace and its constituent organisations are held at the National Library of Wales Archives in Aberystwyth (see below for further details), as well as Glamorgan Archives and some other county records offices (see Archives Wales for listings).

Mari Lowe puts together one of the archives displays for Temple80. Click to open Mari’s Report

Overview of the Temple of Peace Archives and Collections

In Spring 2017, HLF-funded Temple of Peace Archivist Mari Lowe undertook a detailed Research Report into Archives and Heritage Objects held at the Temple of Peace. This is an invaluable resource for understanding the breadth of materials held in WCIA’s collections, and identifying objects of potential interest.

The organisations who have operated from the Temple, and whose records are among WCIA’s collections, include:

Archives Catalogue

The Temple archives stored in the attic (over 250 boxes) were catalogued over Summer 2019 by research students Rob Laker (Swansea University) and Emily Franks (Cardiff University) for searchable access from Autumn 2019 onwards. It is hoped to secure future funding to enable the Temple Archives to become more widely accessible to the public.

Click to open Attic Archives spreadsheet

The Archives Catalogue can be downloaded here as an Excel Spreadsheet, with four ‘tabs’ to guide users:

1. User Guide: Legend, colour codes and categories
2. Archive Search spreadsheet – with boxes, collections, years, brief descriptions and tags.
3. Guide to acronyms used in Temple Archives documents
4. Attic Archives Map – for staff retrieval of archive sources.

Organisational and Thematic Archives held at the Temple of Peace 
  1. Local Affairs / Community Activism and Campaigns – records of community activities eg campaigning, local government, organisations
  2. Temple of Peace & Health – records of the building and organisations who work(ed) here, including:
    a) League of Nations Union and United Nations Association (UNA)
    b) UNA Wales, UNA Welsh National Council (WNC) and UNA Welsh Centre Trust (WCT)
    c) History of International Youth Volunteering
    d) History of International Education
  3. Development Education
    a) World Schools Debating Championships
    b) CEWC – Council for Education in World Citizenship
    c) Cyfanfyd
  4. Humanitarian Aid and International Development
  5. European Union – Welsh engagement
  6. Financial Records of WCIA, UNA, UNA Exchange, CEWC, WNMA and other organisations associated with the Temple.
  7. Poster and Art Collections from Welsh organisations involved in internationlist projects, in particular Valley & Vale Community Arts, Wales Haiti Link and solidarity campaigns / organisations.

National Library of Wales ‘Peace Heritage’ Holdings

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

Pre-WW2 records from the Temple of Peace, as well as founders Lord David Davies of Llandinam and first Organiser Gwilym Davies, are held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth – following accessions made in the 1960s, 1980s and 2012. These complement a range of related collections relevant to Wales’ Peace Heritage:

WCIA and Wales for Peace also financed a project between UNA Exchange and the Urdd, to involve Welsh and international volunteers in working together to uncover a ‘peace camp’ in Summer 2017 in Aberystwyth, exploring archives held at NLW of responses to the Welsh Peace & Goodwill Message from young people around the world in the 1920s-60s.

Welsh League of Nations Union Report, 1927

Digitised Reference Resources

A wide range of resources essential to the historical and social researcher can now be accessed online, with the progress of digitisation (see WCIA’s digitised peace archives here). Material less than 100 years old is often subject to copyright or data protection / GDPR limitations. The following references may prove useful to researchers of Wales’ Peace Heritage:

Arranging a Visit to the Temple of Peace Archives

Swansea University Archives Workshop, May 2019 with Dr Tomas Irish, History Dept.

WCIA usually offer ‘Open Doors and Temple Tours’ Days on the last Friday of each month, when Temple Heritage staff or volunteers are on hand to support visitors, offer access to handling objects, or assist researchers with finding source materials from the Temple’s collections. Dates are advertised on WCIA’s Events pages. We can also offer Archives Workshops, Tours and tailored Talks to visiting groups, on a day rate basis.

Please email walesforpeace@wcia.org.uk if you would like to arrange a special visit, organise a workshop, wish to request materials or find out more about specific contents of the Temple Archives. Please note that, as we no longer receive HLF funding, we may need to charge to cover staff time for more in depth queries – but we will endeavour to offer as much help as we can.

PLEASE NOTE, FOLLOWING THE COVID PANDEMIC AND SOCIAL DISTANCING / VENUE RESTRICTIONS, ACCESS TO THE TEMPLE OF PEACE ARCHIVES WILL BE RESTRICTED – PLEASE CONTACT WALESFORPEACE@WCIA.ORG.UK FOR ANY ENQUIRIES.