Geography has been taught at the University of Nottingham for over a hundred years, first within the Geology department, and from 1934 in a separate Department of Geography.

Since 1967 Geography has occupied the lower floors of the Clive Granger Building, and downstairs in the Edwards Resource Centre (named for KC Edwards, a member of staff from 1926-70 and head of department for 36 years) are the School of Geography Collections. These comprise the Map Collection, held in a purpose-built Map Library, and the Geography Archives, held in the Archive Room.

The Collections are of historic value as a record of a century of research and teaching at Nottingham, and have a contemporary value in their use for research, teaching and public engagement. A 2024 research article in the Journal of Historical Geography by David Matless, ‘Somewhere downstairs: Re-animating a departmental geography collection’, gives an account of the collections and their recent development under the direction of the School Collections Group.

Public engagement activities have included the use of the map collection by historians, cartographers, conservation bodies, museums, community groups and school groups, with maps the basis of classes presented in Nottingham primary and secondary schools. The map and slide collections have been used in public exhibitions organised by David Beckingham in the University’s Weston Gallery, and in the University’s City as Lab initiative, notably in the PARM (Projection Augmented Relief Model) developed by Gary Priestnall.

The School Collections thus have a notable historical and contemporary value, informing our understanding of Nottingham Geography’s past, and shaping visions of future geographies in the city and beyond. Separate pages here give further details of the Map Collection and the Geography Archives. We welcome enquires from potential users of the collections. The curator of the collections is Elaine Watts, who also directs the university’s Cartographic Unit, and to whom questions concerning access to the collections can be directed at: elaine.watts@nottingham.ac.uk