British Cartoon Archive

The British Cartoon Archive is a department of the University of Kent, at Canterbury in Kent, England, and holds the national collection of political and social-comment cartoons from British newspapers and magazines. Created in 1973, the BCA collection includes 130,000 original drawings by 350 different cartoonists, plus some 90,000 cuttings, and a library of books and magazines. Its website at gives free access to its holdings, including a fully searchable catalogue of 140,000 cartoon images.

The formation of an academic study centre dedicated to political and social cartoons was first discussed at the University of Kent, in 1972. Interest in the subject had been revived by a successful cartoon exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery two years earlier, entitled "Drawn and Quartered". Dr Graham Thomas, a Lecturer in the University’s Department of Politics, contacted national newspapers in an effort to locate surviving collections of cartoons, and had found them eager to dispose of the material they held.

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