Published by Primary Source Microfilm

From the British Library of Political and Economic Science, London

Most researchers are aware of the 17-volume Life and Labour of the People of London by Charles Booth. What is not generally known is that Booth's 17 volumes contain only a fraction of the important information he and his team collected.

During the last 20 years of the 19th century, Charles Booth (1840-1916) produced one of the first great studies of poverty and industrialization. With a team of assistants, he made an exhaustive empirical examination of London's four million people in order to discover how they really worked and lived. The published results are the 17-volume work Life and Labour of the People of London. The Booth Collection at the British Library of Political and Economic Science includes all the original manuscript material which formed the basis of this great work.

Complete Collection: 96 reels

Part One: Manuscript Notebooks on Industry, Workhouse and Asylum Inmates, and the Police
19 reels

Part Two: Industry Interviews and Questionnaires
7 reels

Part Three: The Poverty Series, School Board Enquiry and House to House Visits
16 reels

Part Four: Poverty, Welfare and Religion in London, District by District
10 reels

Part Five: Poverty by District
25 reels

Part Six: Poverty by District
19 reels