To visit the Reading Rooms you will need to book an appointment in advance and register for a free annual membership. We will send over instructions on how to register, along with detailed health and safety measures once your appointment has been confirmed.
Scan and send service
We offer a ‘scan and send’ service for small quantities of information from both our Library, Archive and Public Records collections. This service is available for those undertaking non-commercial research and private study only. Please email the Reading Rooms. The onward use – e.g. publication or wider dissemination of the document will require express copyright clearance, for which the researcher is solely responsible. This service will be provided free of charge, at the current time.
Library
Tate Library is a centre of excellence for art historical research, covering British art since 1500 and international art since 1900. As well as a wide selection of books, printed journals and electronic resources about art and artists, the library has a pre-eminent collection of exhibition catalogues dating from the late 19th century to recent contemporary shows. Tate Library also has a collection of 6500 artists’ books which date from the 1960s to the present day.
Archive
Tate Archive contains over a million items related to artists, art world figures and art organisations in Britain, primarily from 1900 to the present day. Serving as the national repository for the history of fine art practice in the UK it includes personal and institutional papers, letters, writings, sketchbooks and maquettes, audio-visual and born-digital material, photographs and press cuttings. In addition, Tate Archive houses materials that are international in scope. These include collections of more than 100,000 documentary photographs of artists, their studios and installation shots, 3,500 audio-visual accessions, 2,500 artist-designed posters, and 1,500 single items - from a letter written by J. M. W. Turner to Christmas gifts by YBA’s. Over 52,000 digitised images from the Archive collections are now available to view online.
Public Records
Tate's Public Records document the full range of Tate’s activities throughout its history, including exhibitions, acquisitions, development and expansion across its current sites. Records also include Board of Trustees’ minutes, posters and photographs. They capture fascinating chapters in Tate's history, such as the 1928 flood and the gallery during wartime.