Science Faculty
Reference: UND/DA1
Dates of creation: 1922 - 1973 When Durham university was founded in 1832, several appointments to teach scientific subjects were made. In 1838 a course in civil engineering was established, but it was short-lived. With the opening in 1871 of the College of Physical Science in the Newcastle upon Tyne division of the university, all science teaching was transferred there. Science teaching was re-established in Durham in 1924, with involvement from Durham County Council, which was concerned to enhance the supply of graduate teachers of science subjects.
The papers date from the administration of Miss Beatrice Hollingworth, Science Site Secretary 1928-1966. They were deposited with the University Library in 1982 by I.M. Stewart, Assistant Registrar.
W.A. Prowse, University Science in Durham, 1924-74 (Durham 1974), 28p.
C. Preece, “The Durham Engineer Students of 1838”, Transactions of the Architectural amd Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland (New Series, 6, 1981), p.71-74.
R.A. Baker, “The Art of the Soluble: Science and Scientists at Durham”, (History of Universities 14, 1995-1996), p.201-223.

Health, Medicine and Environment Faculty
Reference: UND/DA4 Created in 2000, the faculty was merged with Social Sciences in 2003.

Applied Physics
Reference: UND/DB27 A department of Applied Physics was established in Durham in 1959/60. Its brief was expanded to Applied Physics and Electronics in 1969/70 and it was all subsumed into the School of Engineering in 1984/85.

Applied Social Sciences School
Reference: UND/DB24 Including Community and Youth Work, Social Work, Sociology and Criminology, and Sport.

Archaeology Department
Reference: UND/DB9 R. Cramp, “University of Durham: Department of Archaeology”, (Antiquity 51, 1977), p.139-140.
S.A. Draper, From Aesica to Asia : a short history of archaeology at Durham University, (Durham 2008) (includes a list of permanent staff).

Chemistry Department
Reference: UND/DB21 In 1832 James Finlay Wier Johnston was appointed as a lecturer then reader in Chemistry and Mineralogy. Johnston made many important contributions both to chemistry, especially Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology (1844), and to the local community, with the Durham Johnston secondary school named in his honour.
Heads of department:
1924-1938 Irvine Masson
1938-1953 Friedrich Paneth
1953-1968 Geoffrey Coates
1968-1971 Kenneth Musgrave
1971-1974 Thomas Waddington
1974-1977 Kenneth Musgrave
1977-1980 Thomas Waddington
1980-1981 Kenneth Musgrave
1981-1983 David Clark
1983-1986 Richard Chambers
1986-1989 Kenneth Wade
1989-1992 Robin Harris
1992-1995 Lyn Williams
David Parker
Randal Richards
Jeremy Hutson
2006-2009 Judith Howard
2009 John Evans
2020 Karl S. Coleman
Annual group photographs of staff and graduates 1985-2016 are on display in a corridor in the department.

Classics Department
Reference: UND/DB28 Phillip Sidney Horky, History of Ancient & Medieval Philosophy at Durham (2020) available at http://www.dcamp.uk/history-ancient-medieval-philosophy-durham/

Economics Department
Reference: UND/DB3
Dates of creation: [1998] J. Bharier, “Early Economics Teaching at Durham”, (Durham University Journal, 63, 1970-1971), p.179-185

Education Department/School
Reference: UND/DB13 Durham University was the first English university to appoint a professor of Education in 1895 when teacher education was carried on only in Newcastle. A department of Education was established in the Durham division in 1922, though much of the teaching was done by Bede College staff on Bede College premises. The School of Education was established in 1977 when the teaching and research functions of the Department and Institute of Education were combined. Then undergraduates could study for a BEd, postgraduates for a PGCE, the MA in Education, or research degrees, and there were various diplomas availabel and short courses of all kinds for teachers.

Engineering School/Department
Reference: UND/DB17 Engineering has been taught at Durham University since 1838 making it the first course of its kind in England.

Extra-Mural Studies/Adult and Continuing Education Department
Reference: UND/DB15
Dates of creation: 1886 - 1999 The idea of extension lectures for those outside the university was first mooted at Durham in 1886, and was raised again in 1893. Following a report to Senate in March 1895, a board was set up in that year to administer this but programmes of such lectures do not appear to have lasted after 1898. In a rather different approach, the university established a joint committee with the Workers Educational Association in 1911 to foster and supervise tutorial classes in the area. From 1926, this work was administered by a board for extra-mural studies. After July 1964, the board was replaced by a delegacy. On 1 September 1979, the department's title was changed to that of Adult and Continuing Education, as extra-mural was no longer felt to be meaningful and had connotations of a peripheral activity. In 1989/90, the delegacy merged with the Senate Committee on Continuing Education to produce the department for Adult and Continuing Education (DACE). The department was reinvented as the Centre for Lifelong Learning in 1998 which ceased in 2002.
Heads of department:
[F.B. Jevons, 1895-1928]
E.G. Pace, 1916-1947 (secretary of Durham Colleges Board for Extra-Mural Studies, also director)
H.J. Boyden, 1947-1959, director
T.F. Daveney, 1960-1968, director
J.F. Dixon, 1968-1986, director
Bill Williamson, 1987-1998, director
Vivian M. Shelley, 1998-2001, director
Transferred to the University Library on the department's demise in July 2000 and March and April 2002 (Acc No Misc.2000/2001:2, 2001/2002:131 and 132).

Geology/Earth Sciences Department
Reference: UND/DB33 Aspects of Geological Sciences were taught from the start of the university, but it was not until 1924 that the Geology Dpeartment was created, headed by Arthur Holmes. He developed a strong department, which produced a succession of distinguished professional geologists. Holmes left the department in 1943, shortly before the publication of his groundbreaking textbook Principles of Physical Geology. Lawrence Wagner was appointed as Holmes's successor. He oversaw the growth of the department, recruiting David Vincent (Geochemistry) and Fred Stewart (Petrology), both of whem were later elected FRS.
The department in its modern form began with the appointment of Kingsley Dunham as head in 1950. He brought huge energy and vision to the role, overseeing a dramatic expansion in staff numbers. The Rookhope Borehole Project was perhaps the stand-out scientific achievement of this period, and marked the rise of Geophysics in the department, led by Martin Bott. Malcom Brown arrived in 1967 and shared the head of department role with Bott for the next 12 years; petrological, mineralogical and geochemical analysis of moon rocks, returned by the Apollo missions, was a highlight of this period, and laid the foundations fo the department's pre-eminent status as a centre for Geochemistry.
The department became Earth Sciences in 2003 and moved to the Arthur Holmes Building, which includes state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and purpose-built teaching rooms. In 2018, the department comprised 31 academic staff, 30 research staff, 70 PhD students and around 250 undergraduates, and is known internationally as one of the top-rated Earth Science departments in the country.
Annual group photos of staff, undergraduate finalists and final year research students 1949-2017 are on display in a corridor in the department.

History Department
Reference: UND/DB11 Prior to 1985/86 it was the Modern History Department.

Linguistics and English Language/Linguistics and Language
Reference: UND/DB26 Departments of English Studies, and Linguistics and English Language, were created out of the School of English and Linguistics in 1993. Linguistics and English Language became just Linguistics and Language in 2001 and ceased to exist in 2004.

Mathematics Department
Reference: UND/DB2
Dates of creation: 1928 - 2003

Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Centre/Institute
Reference: UND/DB23 Beginnings
From the University's foundation in 1832 the study of the languages and literature of the Middle East had formed part of the study of theology. Later, the study of Arabic developed in its own right. Within a year a post of Reader in Hebrew and Oriental Languages was proposed and the Reader in Hebrew was duly functioning from 1835. In 1841 a salary of £500 was proposed to fund a professorship of Hebrew and other oriental languages. The next development was the appointment of the distinguished British Islamicist, Alfred Guillaume, as Professor of Oriental Languages in 1921. He introduced degree and diploma courses in Arabic which at the time were unique in Britain in that they included modern as well as classical Arabic language and literature in their syllabuses. In 1948 the Scarbrough Committee, influenced by Durham's long-standing interests, recommended expansion and recasting of Oriental Studies in British universities and selected Durham as one of only five universities in which special facilities were to be made available. As a consequence, a School of Oriental Studies was established with special responsibilities for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Its director was Professor T.W. Thacker, and James Craig was appointed Lecturer in Arabic. Sir James Craig later became one of Britain's most respected Arabists, also serving as the British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. By 1950 there was an Assistant in Colloquial Arabic; Gordon Simpson was Reader in Turkish, Fazlur Rahman was Lecturer in Persian Studies, and Richard Hill was Lecturer in Near Eastern History. In addition, there were other staff members teaching Hebrew, Egyptology and Assyriology.
Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies 1962
Durham University's prominent position in Middle Eastern scholarship was recognised in the 1961 Hayter Committee Report on Area Studies which recommended that extensive development in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, with particular emphasis on contemporary affairs, should be given especial support in the universities of Durham, London and Oxford. Durham's Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies was set up in the following year with Professor W.B. Fisher, a geographer, as its director. Originally it had no teaching role but served to encourage, co-ordinate and support the relevant activities of departments with strong Middle Eastern interests. Its support included the establishment of a documentation centre and the further enhancement of library provision in 1970. This grew to contain well over 200,000 publications by 2009. The documentation unti's central purpose is to monitor current economic, social and political developments in the region and to procure and make available on the widest possible scale, primary material relating to the modern Middle East and the Muslim world in general. Its holdings include primary data in the form of official government reports and statistical publications (at ministerial, departmental and municipal levels), reports produced by banks, chambers of commerce, trade unions and political parties, together with publications of the main international organizations working in the region. The unit has good coverage of basic documentary material from the early 1960s onwards and in some cases and for some countries from 1945. Much of the material is in the original language (Arabic, Persian, Turkish or Hebrew) but in many cases the documents are also published in English or French translation. The collection covers all the countries of the Arab world together with Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and Turkey.
Separate Department 1988
Following the reorganisation of Oriental Studies in Durham, the Centre, in addition to its previous activities, became a teaching department in its own right in 1988 with responsibility for undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in Arabic, Middle Eastern History, and Islamic Studies. A major expansion occurred in 1993 with the appointment of a number of social science staff with expertise in politics and international relations. These additions greatly broadened the range of expertise and courses offered and strengthened the Centre's international standing. In 1998 it made two new appointments (lecturer in Political History of the Middle East and lecturer in Political Economy of the Middle East) and created a new post in Islamic Studies and Persian. In 2000, it appointed Professor Rodney Wilson as its Professor of Middle East and Islamic Economics. In 2009, IMEIS is one of the largest Area Studies departments in the country and has continued to expand and develop into the School of Government and International Affairs (SGIA) along with the Department of Politics in August 2004. It has also established a successful in-house publication, the Durham Middle East Papers. These have a healthy international readership and are available as an e-journal via the University Library.

Music Department
Reference: UND/DB7 The days of the BMus and DMus degrees became numbered when Professor David Greer as head of the department was strongly opposed to the existence of a degree in music that was outside the control of the departmental head. He therefore inspired the phased withdrawal of these external degrees. The first stage was to apply a cut-off date for the registration of new applicants; and the second was to specify a date for the last Second Examination. Derek Downes piloted this external degree through its closing stages, acting as the chairman of the panel involved in the viva voce examinations.

Oriental/East Asian Studies Department
Reference: UND/DB20
Dates of creation: 1949 - 2007 Beginnings
From the University's foundation in 1832 the study of the languages and literature of the Middle East had formed part of the study of theology. Later, the study of Arabic developed in its own right. Within a year a Reader in Hebrew and Oriental Languages was proposed and a Reader in Hebrew was in post from 1835. In 1841 a salary of £500 was proposed to fund a professorship of Hebrew and other oriental languages. The next development was the appointment of the distinguished British Islamicist, Alfred Guillaume, as Professor of Oriental Languages in 1921. He introduced degree and diploma courses in Arabic which at the time were unique in Britain in that they included modern as well as classical Arabic language and literature in their syllabuses.
School of Oriental Studies 1951
In 1948 the Scarbrough Committee, influenced by Durham's long-standing interests, recommended expansion and recasting of Oriental Studies in British universities and selected Durham as one of only five universities in which special facilities were to be made available. As a consequence, a School of Oriental Studies was established in 1951 with special responsibilities for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Its director was Professor Thomas W. Thacker who had been appointed professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages by the university in absentia in 1941 and who became in 1948 the newly created professor of Semitic Philology. At the same time James Craig was appointed lecturer in Arabic. Later knighted, he became one of Britain's most respected Arabists, also serving as the British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The support of benefactors, especially H.N. Spalding, allowed the school to expand its academic activities in the 1950s. A library was also built up and a museum collection was developed, established in a building given by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1960. The School had moved from 29 Old Elvet to Elvet Hill House in 1955.
Durham University's prominent position in Middle Eastern scholarship was recognised in the 1961 “Hayter” Committee Report on Area Studies which recommended that extensive development in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, with particular emphasis on contemporary affairs, should be given especial support in the universities of Durham, London and Oxford. Durham's Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies was set up in the following year with Professor W.B. Fisher, a geographer, as its director. Originally IMEIS had no teaching role but served to encourage, co-ordinate and support the relevant activities of departments with strong Middle Eastern interests. Its support included the establishment of a documentation centre and the further enhancement of library provision.
Department of East Asian Studies 1989
The Department of East Asian Studies was created on 1 October 1989 out of the School of Oriental Studies, teaching Chinese, Japanese and Korean courses; the now Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies became a teaching department in its own right with responsibility for undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in Arabic, Middle Eastern History, and Islamic Studies.
Heads:
Director: Prof T.W. Thacker 1951-1977.
Director: Prof J.R. Harris 1977-1989.
Head of Dept: Prof Keith L. Pratt 1989-1997.
Head of Dept: Prof Gina L. Barnes 1997-2004.
Head of Dept: Mr Donald F. Starr 2004-2007.

Palaeography and Diplomatic Department
Reference: UND/DB4
Dates of creation: 1938 - 1994 The Palaeography and Diplomatic department (1948-1990) had its origins before WW2 in a desire on the part of Durham dean and chapter, in cooperation with Durham university and with the assent of Durham diocese, to provide more satisfactory accommodation for the archives of the cathedral and the diocese, with proper facilities for research. The assistance of the Pilgrim Trust led to the production of a report by W.A. Pantin, presented by Sir Maurice Powicke in 1939, which recommended that the deanery kitchen should be used as an archives repository with adjacent premises for technical facilities and staff, to be run by a reader in Palaeography on the staff of the university, who was also to act as archivist. It was envisaged that local collections other than those of the cathedral and diocese could be accommodated. After WW2, the scheme was put in place, with the first reader (James Conway Davies) being appointed in 1948, with the papers of the Baker Baker family of Elemore Hall having already been accepted for the new institution. The completion of conversion work in 1951 provided, in addition to the archival storage, a search and seminar room, staff offices, and repair and photostating facilities, all with convenient access to the invaluable reference, manuscript, and archival material of the adjacent chapter library. The cathedral's archive was now moved in along with the first instalment of the diocesan archive. These were followed by quantities of further records, particularly notable accessions being the estate records of the Howard earls of Carlisle from Naworth Castle in 1954 (for Northumberland) and 1960 (for Cumberland), Durham palatinate records in 1954/55, papers of the Earls Grey in 1956, and the pre-1858 probate records in 1958 and post-1858 probate registers in 1962. The Church Commissioners also now disgorged records back to Durham, for the Halmote Court in 1953 and the cathedral estate in 1956.
With all these accessions, storage space rapidly became an issue. Outstores in St Helen's chapel and elsewhere in The College were taken on, with various more satisfactory solutions being explored, including an Elvet Riverside scheme. The consequent limit on accessions was one stimulus for the establishment of a Durham County Record Office. The development of a new University Science Library provided a self-contained portion in South Road for Palaeography with strong-rooms, staff and search rooms, facilities for photostating and repair, and for part of the department's teaching activities. Most of the collections were removed to this new South Road operation in 1966 along with 3 archivists/assistant keepers and a lecturer. The cathedral's own archive along with 3 archivists/assistant keepers remained behind at Prior's Kitchen in a now two site operation overseen by John Fagg, reader and head of department since 1957.
The expansion of the Science Library to become the main university library in 1982 with the transfer of many of the printed collections from Palace Green, meant that the South Road Palaeography operation had to move again, back into The College at No5 with four floors of strongrooms, and searchroom, teaching, conservation and microfilming facilities all being provided there. David Thomas, appointed reader in Papyrology, had taken over as head of department in 1979.
In the later 1980s, the future of the department came under serious review. It was merged with the University Library's Special Collections operation at Palace Green to form an Archives and Special Collections department in the library in 1990. The subsequent history of the staff and collections really forms part of the library's development. Physical moves followed two years later with the political collections and the university's records transferring from 5 The College to Palace Green along with one archivist, and the Prior's Kitchen operation and the records there being transferred to 5 The College, which then comprised some 3.6 archivists in 1992. Five years later, all the remaining records, except those of the cathedral and the concomitant Church Commissioners' material, were moved to Palace Green, along with 1.4 archivists. In October 2008 this material was still at 5 The College, overseen by 0.6 archivists with a searchroom service provided there on 3 days a week.
Heads of department:
James Conway Davies, reader in Palaeography and Diplomatic, 1948-1956
John Fagg, reader in Palaeography and Diplomatic, 1957-1978
David Thomas, reader in Papyrology, 1979-1990
Staff members (dates and posts from the University Calendars):
James Conway Davies 1948-1956 Reader in Pal & Dip
Geoffrey V Scammell 1950-1951 Research Assistant PT, 1951-1952 Lecturer temp, 1952-1965 Lecturer
Bertram P Wolffe 1951-1952 Research Assistant
Constance M Fraser 1952-1953 Research Assistant
Gordon H H Glasgow 1952-1953 Research Assistant
David L Bickersteth 1953-1954 Research Assistant
Martin G Snape (d2010) 1953-1955 Research Assistant, 1955-1957 Assistant, 1957-1965 Assistant Keeper, 1965-1988 Senior Assistant Keeper, 1988-1999 Honorary Research Associate
Carson I A Ritchie 1954-1955 Research Associate
C Roy Hudleston 1955-1965 Lecturer PT, 1965-1970 Lecturer
David W Gooding 1955-1957 Research Assistant
Malcolm A Jack 1955-1957 Assistant
Norman M Million 1955-1958 Assistant, 1958-1962 Assistant Keeper
John E Fagg (d2008) 1957-1982 Reader, 1982-1985 Reader PT
Ronald A Doig 1958-1959 Assistant, 1959-1962 Assistant Keeper
Margaret A Sidaway/Harriss 1958-1960 Assistant temp
Joseph M Fewster 1960-1962 Assistant temp, 1962-1965 Assistant Keeper, 1965-1997 Senior Assistant Keeper
Donald I Phillips 1962-1963 Assistant temp, 1963-1967 Assistant Keeper
Pat Mussett 1963-1980 Assistant Keeper, 1980-1997 Senior Assistant Keeper
Elizabeth Peirce/Fewster 1963-1965 Assistant temp, 1965-1968 Assistant Keeper
J David Thomas 1966-1973 Lecturer, 1973-1977 Senior Lecturer, 1977-1990 Reader in Papyrology, 1990-1992 Professorial Fellow in Papyrology & Tutor in Palaeography PT
J Linda Proom/Drury 1967-1982 Assistant Keeper, 1982-2001 Assistant Keeper PT
Alan J Piper 1968-1992 Assistant Keeper (1981-1983 Assistant Librarian @ PG), 1992-2008 Assistant Keeper & Tutor in Palaeography
Margaret S McCollum 1968-2009 Assistant Keeper
Meryl R Foster 1982-1983 Assistant Keeper temp
Before 1956, there was no departmental secretary amd no filing system. Letters were sent to the Durham Colleges office at 36 North Bailey, where there was a typing pool, being returned to the department for signature. The first secretary, Miss Chester, was appointed in 1956 and began a filing system, but much post was sent to London where the reader, Conway Davies, spent several months a year.
By 2003, the former department's files were in about four or five sequences, largely ordered simply alphabetically by correspondent, in two locations at 5 The College and Palace Green Library. They were then inventoried in situ and weeding was carried out by Genevieve Budd in 2003/4. Some weeding of one sequence at Palace Green had already been carried out by Kath Taylor. Weeding was completed and the residual material was sorted into the present arrangement in 2008 by Michael Stansfield. The original sequences to some extent reflected the various locations that the fragmented department had occupied over time, but there was some duplication between the often two locations, and some files of continuing correspondence were carried over from one location to the next. The original card indexes of correspondents and subjects have been retained to provide a further way in to particularly the enquiries correspondence until such time as the material might be listed in detail. The indexes also provide indications of the full range of the department's contacts, which included most other archive-keeping bodies in the country, the major creators of archives in the region, most medieval historians of the 20th century, and many other individuals interested in family and property history, and all other aspects of the region's past.
For subsequent records of the former Palaeography and Diplomatic Department staff at 5 The College after 1990, see the files of the Archives and Special Collections department of the University Library at UND/EA2/11.

Philosophy Department
Reference: UND/DB5
Dates of creation: 1934 - 1986 Boards of Studies for the subjects taught at Durham were first mooted in November 1938 in a report of the Durham Colleges Council which was accepted by the Colleges' Academic Board. Philosophy was not on the initial list, but was added in January 1939. The 1939 Calendar first has departments listed in the Durham Colleges and these include Philosophy, with Arthur Robinson as the professor of Logic and Psychology, Rev Robert Macgregor as the lecturer in Philosophy and Rev Canon Charles Steel Wallis as the lecturer in Logic. However, at the university's King's College in Newcastle, Mental and Moral Philosophy, first appear in the Calendar in 1938 with Louis Arnaud Reid as the professor and James Drever as the lecturer. Philosophy had been taught in both places before 1938 with various specific appointments in the subject. In fact, Arthur Robinson had been appointed the first professor of Logic and Psychology in 1910 when Frank Jevons was appointed the first professor of Philosophy, both in Durham, and Reinhold Friedrich Alfred Hoernle was appointed the first professor in Mental and Moral Philosophy in Newcastle at the then Armstrong College in 1911. And of course philosophy had always comprised part of the Arts syllabus at Durham from the start of the university in 1832.
F1-2 and G1-2 deposited by Dr Matthew Eddy of the Philosophy department 15 September 2006, Acc No Misc.2006/2007:9.

Physics Department
Reference: UND/DB8
Heads of department (in Durham)
J.E.P. Wagstaff 1939/40-1954/55
G.D. Rochester 1955/56-1972/73
A.W. Wolfendale 1973/74-1976/77
B.H. Bransden 1977/78-1979/80
A.W. Wolfendale 1980/81-1982/83
B.H. Bransden 1983/84-1985/86
A.W. Wolfendale 1986/87-1988/89
A.D. Martin 1989/90-1992/93
D. Bloor 1993/94-1995/96
B.K. Tanner 1996/97-1998/99
M.R. Pennington 1999/00-2002/03
R.A. Abram 2003/04-2009/10
Directors of the department at King’s:
W.E. Curtis 1939/40-1954/55
Vacant 1955/56
S.K. Runcorn 1956/57-1962/63
K.L. Aplin, 'Atmospheric electricity at Durham: the scientific contributions and legacy of J. A. (“Skip”) Chalmers (1904–1967)', (History of Geo and Space Sciences, 9, 2018) p.25–35; https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-9-25-2018

Psychology Department
Reference: UND/DB29 The department was initially that of Educational Psychology, but had become just Psychology by 1957.