The Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy was opened on New Year's Day 1930, founded by Dr Elizabeth Casson. Over the years the School moved from its original base in Bristol to Bromsgrove and then to Oxford: firstly in Nissen Huts in the grounds of the Churchill Hospital, then to a London Road site in 1964, and eventually as part of Oxford Brookes University to its Marston Road site in 2004.
The collection includes some of the personal papers and books of Dr Casson and the Dorset House Principals. The real treasures of the Archive are the photographs, ciné films and scrap books which capture the true history of Dorset House.
Key periods covered by the collection are:
The Archive has been made accessible thanks to a generous grant from the Elizabeth Casson Trust, which has enabled book stock to be catalogued, the scrapbooks to be conserved and primary sources to be digitised.