An Introduction to Different Voices, Different Stories

Making Our Archive Collections More Inclusive

At Historic England, we are committed to making our archive collections more inclusive, and better reflective of all the different communities we seek to represent.

Our archive collections have developed and grown since the inception of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England in the early 20th century.

We know that as a result, our collections do not accurately represent the many different stories that make up our heritage today.

Inclusive Cataloguing

The way our collections have been described in the past is not always as inclusive as it could be, and we are taking steps to address this through our inclusive cataloguing work.

Alongside this, we know that we are not always best placed to describe different communities and cultures, and that it is those communities themselves that are in the best position to do this.

Different Voices, Different Stories Project

In 2026 we launched our Different Voices, Different Stories project.

Through this project we will work with different communities to surface hidden stories in our collections, and to add different voices to our catalogue descriptions.

Working with our partners, we will identify gaps in our collections which we will seek to fill.

Our aim with this project is to make our collections, and the way they are described, more accessible and inclusive.