Visits and research enquiries
Researching the shoe archive
Handsewers in the Mounts shoe factory, Northampton about 1900
Researching the Northamptonshire boot and shoe industry: its factories, owners, employees and community
The Shoe Collection consists of a paper archive that could help provide information for your local history and family history research and more general enquiries. You may also wish to share your research by adding it to the shoe archive.
Resources at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery:
The Shoe Archive contains the following which could help you with your research:
- Industry journals including Shoe and Leather News, Shoe and Leather Record, St Crispin’s Journals, Boot and Shoe Trade Journals
- Trade directories
- Trademark directories
- Photographs
- Shoe company magazines
- Shoe company catalogues
- Oral Histories
- Invoices and letterheads
- Piecework statements
- Patents
- Tool catalogues
- Reference books on shoemaking, foot health and orthopaedics, lasting, retail and the shoe industry
- Index of shoemakers and shoemaking firms from the Roman period onwards
- Buckle Maker Index
- Last Maker Index
- Tool Maker Index
- Machinery Maker Index
- Shoe designs
- Fashion forecasting material
The archive is largely concerned with the designing, making and selling of shoes.
We do not hold shoe company records.
Archive material including company archives and records is available at the Northamptonshire Record Office.