From the armour of Henry VIII to a photograph of a First World War munitions factory, thousands of records are launched online
Royal Armouries press release.
Royal Armouries has launched its Collections Online website which provides more than 150,000 collection records held within one of the world’s leading collections of arms and armour dating from ancient times to the present day.
The digital catalogue features records of the royal armours of the Tudor and Stuart kings; arms and armour of the English Civil War from Littlecote House; military weapons from the Board of Ordnance and Pattern Room collections; hunting and sporting weapons as well as the collections from Asia and Africa.
These records are enriched by almost 20,000 images along with detailed descriptions of the items and their origins. The library includes a special collection of pictures of the historic buildings at the Tower of London drawn from antique prints and drawings, paintings, early photographs, stereoscopes and lantern slides.
Tonlet armour of King Henry VIII. English, Southwark, 1520. Made to replace the foot combat armour (II.6) for the great tournament, known as the Field of Cloth of Gold, held between Francois I, King of France and Henry VIII in 1520 (II.7) © Royal Armouries
Commenting on the collection, Edward Impey, Director General and Master of the Armouries said: “The Royal Armouries’ online collections illustrate the sheer breadth, diversity and richness of its objects and its records. Many items are on display at our three sites or on loan to cultural venues across the world. However, this new resource provides incredible behind-the-scenes access to records about this globally important collection for the first time. These collections play a vital role in advancing everyone’s understanding and appreciation of the history or arms and armour.”
The Collections Online website can be found at collections.royalarmouries.org. It holds almost 150,000 records, over 63,000 of these are about its objects, almost 15,000 about its archives and 62,000 are library records.
In addition, there are subject collections about the arms of the First World War and the battle of Waterloo.
For more information: collections.royalarmouries.org