Election Ephemera

Since 1945, the Library has been collecting publicity material produced by candidates in general elections. The result is an exceptional resource that provides a fascinating insight into the development of election campaigning in post-war Britain and can also be used to trace the rise and fall of political parties, policies and careers.

LSE Archives now holds over 14,000 items of election ephemera. Most of the collections consist of election addresses and other campaign material produced by candidates for general elections from 1945 onwards. Coverage is not fully comprehensive, but it is broadly representative, covering the whole of the UK and including material from minority parties and independent candidates as well as the three main parties. The collection also includes a limited amount of election ephemera from the 1800s-1930s and some material relating to local and by-elections. We also have a few collections of ephemera relating to overseas elections.

Online catalogue

• The following link takes you to a list of our election ephemera collections: Archives Catalogue.
• Click on any name on that list to show the collection-level description for those papers (such as administrative information and the scope of the papers).
• Some collections are catalogued to item-level on the Archives catalogue. For a full list of these see Completed Catalogues.
• Visit the Archives Catalogue Help pages for tips on how to search effectively for election ephemera.

Only a limited number of detailed catalogues relating to election ephemera are currently available on the online Archives Catalogue, so please contact us (Document@lse.ac.uk) for further information about any of the collections listed or for details of our holdings on particular candidates, parties or constituencies.

^