Historical collections and archives

Collections and scope

Material from these collections is available to IFoA members, academics, bona fide researchers, and members of the public (including family historians) for consultation by appointment. The collections are held across various locations.

All viewing consultations are made on an appointment basis only. Research access to archives collections may be subject to signing a non-disclosure agreement as part of data protection safeguards.

You can find details of what we hold and how you can request access by reading the information below.

Subjects

Subjects represented in the historical collections include books, pamphlets and manuscripts covering:

• early insurance and pensions
• demography (particularly mortality trends of populations)
• commercial arithmetic (application of compound interest in accumulating funds)
• statistics and probability theory leading to calculations of life expectation
• the business of offering life assurance and pensions based on 'actuarial' mathematics.

Most texts are in English but there are also significant items from French, German and Dutch writers and sources. There is also much evidence from insurance offices of the work of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century 'actuaries', including those whose work led to the formation of the first professional bodies, the Institute of Actuaries (1848) and Faculty of Actuaries (1856).

The archive collections include the IFoA’s own institutional archives, documenting the professional association work of the Faculty and Institute since their foundation, as well as the Archive of the Equitable Life Assurance Society (ELAS).