The archives relate chiefly to the building, equipping and use of the new laboratories on Lensfield Road after World War Two and to Chemistry teaching from the 1960s onwards. For the former, there survive extensive series of building plans, equipment manuals, correspondence concerning supplies and photographs. For the latter, there are course outlines, problems and solutions and demonstrators' notebooks.

Among the project files of Dr Chris Haley, departmental archivist/historian, is a sequence of biographical files for holders of the Chair of Chemistry and other individuals significant in the field.