Thomas Cook archive now available to view online

The archive, which dates back 178 years to the formation of the original Thomas Cook in Leicestershire, is now under the care of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland in Wigston.

The collection was acquired by Leicester County Council in 2019 following a nationwide bidding process to find a new permanent home after the operator collapsed and its Peterborough HQ, which housed the collection, was closed.

The collection includes staff records, posters, travel guides and timetables plus 60,000 photographs and souvenirs, including glass and china, uniforms and a model Nile steamer.

Brochures make up a large section of the archive, with examples dating back to 1858 and the first continental brochures from 1865. Most of the collection dates from around 1890, with samples from nearly every year being kept, covering all varieties of destinations.

Project archivist Jennifer Roach said: “The Thomas Cook archive is internationally significant, as it provides a detailed historical record of the man and company which created international package travel as we know it today.

“It is a great honour for us to have been chosen as the permanent home of the Thomas Cook archive and we believe it is vital that we can make the material as accessible as possible.

“We’re aiming to keep uploading records to the catalogue throughout the course of the project, with the full catalogue online and the collection available from next April when the project concludes.

“We will then showcase some of the material in the Thomas Cook Collection, highlighting the gems we have found along the way.”

Items can be viewed by searching the catalogue at record-office-catalogue.leics.gov.uk