St.Thomas College Archives

The St. Thomas’ College Archives has a rich and varied collection of the late 19th and the 20th century records and papers that enshrines the link between higher education and social progress in modern Kerala. The collection, as it remains today, is the repository of the official and semi-official records and other archival materials pertaining to the stature of the College as a premier educational institution in south India in the humanities and the social, physical, natural and exact sciences during the period of more than a century. The collection includes the publications of the College, which encompass the progressing discussions of the College community and the scholarly lectures delivered to it by experts from outside the College on the various disciplines and specialisations at the College as well as on the contemporary socio-political, constitutional and economic developments in India; the official correspondence of Msgr. John Palocaren, the first Principal, with the University of Madras on such issues as the necessity of establishing a University for the Malayalam Language Area and his proposal for the same at Trichur in 1925; the mangalapatram submitted by the students to Mahâtmâ Gandhi on his visit to the College in 1927 photographs of major events and personalities; annals of the institution etc. Since the College has been the premier educational institution of the Diocese of Trichur and a major haven of intellectuals, both of the priestly and lay membersof the Diocese, some of the archival materials pertaining to the early history of the institution also pertain to the Dioceseand have been preserved in the archival cell of the Archdiocese of Trichur. Once classified and arranged systematically, the St. Thomas’ College Archives can effectively trace the spread and progress of ideas and values, the involvement of the institutional resources in the process of nation-building, and the contributions of the Catholic Syrians to the progress of this part of India. Steps are underway to replenish and preservethe archival materials of the College for posterity and strengthen the links with the cherished past of academic excellence. The College Archives has been publishing, in association with the Dept. of History, a journal entitled The Bulletin of the St. Thomas’ College Archives. Archivist: Ms. Dalia Varghese