Historical resources

The CSP archive at the Wellcome Collection

Our print archive is deposited at the Wellcome Collection. Dating back to the Society's foundation, the archive provides a comprehensive record of the CSP's activities and development.

Records less that 5 year old are held at the CSP's offices, and are transferred to the archive periodically. The full catalogue record for the collection can be consulted by using the online database link on the Wellcome Collection.

• The CSP holdings alone can be searched using the keywords ‘Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’ or by typing SA/CSP in the Reference box.
• All the Wellcome Collection’s physiotherapy holdings can be searched using a subject search on the term ‘Physical Therapy’ or ‘Physical Medicine’ typed into the Subject box, or ‘Physiotherapy’ in the Any Text box.
• At the Wellcome Collection, there are few details on named physiotherapists.

Those wishing to use the CSP archive and other physiotherapy material at the Wellcome Collection are advised to apply online for a free membership, and to request material in advance by emailing collections@wellcomecollection.org.

Oral History Project

The CSP Retirement Association completed 95 interviews with many of the leading lights of physiotherapy in the 20th century. The collection provides a valuable resource  for learning about the UK physiotherapy profession.

The interviews and their summaries are publicly accessible via the British Library's Sound and Moving Image online catalogue. Please note that because of the 2023 British Library cyberattack, this service is currently unavailable.

The unique reference number for the Oral History collection is: C1586 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Retirement Association Oral History Project.

The recordings can be accessed onsite at the British Library at St Pancras, London and Boston Spa, Yorkshire (see www.bl.uk/listening), and via eLKAS (email library@csp.org.uk).

Historical images

We have digitised a number of historical images of physiotherapy techniques, people who made significant contributions to the profession or the Society, and physiotherapy in a variety of settings. 

These images are drawn from a number of sources, including the Society’s archive. Copyright has not been identified for all of the pictures. We welcome information on copyright or copyright holders.

• See an interactive timeline of images from this collection.
   

Contributing historical images:

If you have historic photographs of physiotherapy up to ~1950 and would like to add them to the collection, please email CSP eLKAS.

History of the Society's Founders' Lecture

The Founders' Lecture was instigated in 1914 as a token of respect to the Founders.

• See all traced Founders' Lectures since 1914, including publication details or source of data.

History of the Society’s conferences and congresses 1917–2013

The information in this document is drawn from the programmes of the meetings either published in the Society’s journal or from a separately published programme.

Many of the papers were not subsequently published in full, or may have been published elsewhere. Where the programme details end with a red line, the programme continues. For details you should then refer to either the published programme or the programme as published in the journal. All the journals and programmes are available from eLKAS.

• Read the history of the Society's conferences and congresses

Family history

The CSP recognises the growing interest in family history research. However, the CSP eLKAS team is small and its priorities are supporting members in providing evidence-based practice, and assisting with their professional education and continuing professional development.

This means that we are unable to undertake family history research on behalf of CSP members or non-members.

Members who have made an impact or played a key role in shaping and steering the Society and the profession may have been featured in the Society's journal, now known as Physiotherapy.

Established in 1915, the journal carried obituaries of key members. From 1995 this news aspect was moved to being reported on in the Society’s twice monthly magazine, Frontline. The eLKAS has complete collections of both Physiotherapy journal and Frontline magazine.

Until the end of 1994 the journal featured the names of members who had passed various physiotherapy examinations, and also carried news of appointments to positions of employment.

During the First World War, the journal featured the names of all the members of the Almeric Paget Military Massage Corps (often including their place of work).

If you have the bibliographic details of a specific obituary or article featured in the Society’s journal or in Frontline, you can apply to eLKAS for a scanned copy of this resource.

• Find out about our article and document supply service (including details of charges) and information about eLKAS.

AIM25: Archives in London and the M25 area

AIM25 offers collection-level descriptions of archives from more than 90 higher education institutions and learned societies within the Greater London area, some of which feature physiotherapy resources.

Archives Hub

The Archives Hub is national gateway to descriptions of archives in UK universities and colleges. A number of collections containing information on physiotherapy are listed.

National Archives catalogue

The National Archives hold many records on physiotherapy, including a list of books and journal articles about the history of physiotherapy and the CSP.