No, Trinity Hall is another college in Cambridge, and to add to confusion, Trinity College is situated right across the lane from Trinity Hall. For enquiries about the Trinity Hall archival collections, contact archivist@trinhall.cam.ac.uk and for Trinity Hall rare books and manuscripts, contact Jenni Lecky-Thompson via jel52@trinhall.cam.ac.uk.

Also, Trinity College has a chapel, Trinity Hall has a chapel, and there’s also a Holy Trinity Church, unconnected with either college, in central Cambridge. Holy Trinity Church is rich in memorials, which are occasionally referenced as being in “Trinity church.”

There are many other Trinitys, including another Oxbridge college, Trinity College, Oxford, as well as Trinity College, Dublin, which has a library with a Long Room, impressive architecture, and treasures.

Trinity College Library includes both the College Library and the historic Wren Library. The buildings are linked, and readers coming to consult the rare book, archival and manuscript collections will enter the building through the College Library and head up the stairs to the Wren Library. The readers’ desk for consulting materials is at one end of this historic building designed by Christopher Wren.

Information about booking an appointment as a reader may be found on the readers page. 

All of our digital resources can be found on the page for the Wren Digital Collections.

Perhaps the most accessible site is ACAD (A Cambridge Alumni Database) which lists alumni/alumnae for all of the University of Cambridge up to 1900. This is based on the printed multi-volume set, Alumni Cantabrigienses: a biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900. 

Published lists of the members of Trinity College up to 1900 can be found online on the Brittle Books website under the title Admissions to Trinity College, Cambridge edited by W. W. Rouse Ball and J. A. Venn, in 5 volumes. The 5 volumes (which are searchable) are Vol. I. Introduction, College Officers, Appendices, Index. Vol. II. 1546-1700. Vol. III. 1701-1800. Vol. IV. 1801-1850. Vol. V. 1851-1900. 

Check the College Archive page for information on how to access the documents we hold.

Our Modern Manuscripts catalogue contains many collections and single items created by and about Trinity members, and descriptions are being added to it daily.

Trinity College Chapel has a website with information about Trinity members memorialised in the Chapel:

• College Fellows honoured by memorial brasses, with transcriptions and short biographies 
• Trinity men who gave their lives in World War I, with short biographies 
• Trinity men who gave their lives in World War II, with short biographies 
• Trinity members interred in the Chapel, with transcriptions and short biographies 
• Trinity members represented by sculptures in the Chapel, with transcriptions and short biographies 

In addition, the Alumni Office has created a list of recent alumni obituaries and remembrances. 

All of the Trinity College Library catalogues for printed, digital, and archival collections are available via our Catalogues page.

ArchiveSearch is an online archival database which has records for many colleges in Cambridge, including the Cambridge University Library. It should be noted that our collection is not represented there, and neither are those belonging to Clare, Jesus, and St John’s Colleges.

Discovery, the catalogue of the National Archives, holds not only descriptions of their holdings but also more than 3500 archives across the country. 

Archives Hub is another site gathering descriptions of archival holdings in the UK.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography includes information on the location(s) of personal papers with most biographical entries. The site is available online to people with access to academic libraries and to those with a UK public library card.

ArtUK includes images of selected portraits at Trinity, particularly oil paintings and statuary.

The British Newspaper archive includes many local papers and is run in partnership with the British Library, with a limited free trial. 

Genealogical sites such as Ancestry, which has a free trial.

Who Was Who, which is available online to people with access to academic libraries and to those with a UK public library card. 

Also, the Library’s Treasures from the Collections blog has been running since March 2014 and is searchable and possibly inspiring.

The short history by G. M. Macaulay, Trinity College: an Historical Sketch, published in Cambridge in 1943, and reprinted in 1990. A longer College history has not yet been published. 

There are two general histories provided from the College’s home page: a general historical overview of the College, and a more detailed history of the College.  

Other useful sources:

• Edward Stourton and John Lonsdale, eds. Trinity: a Portrait (London, 2011) 
• W. W. Rouse Ball’s Trinity College Cambridge, (London, 1906) and Cambridge Notes: Chiefly Concerning Trinity College and the University, (Cambridge, 1921)
• Alan B. Cobban’s The King’s Hall within the University of Cambridge in the later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1969)

Specialist books: 

• Jane Brown, Trinity College: A Garden History (Cambridge, 2002)
• David McKitterick, ed. (and former Trinity College Librarian), The Making of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1995)
• Robert Neild, Riches and Responsibility: The Financial History of Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 2008)
• Robert Willis, The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge and of the Colleges of Cambridge and Eton, ed. by John Willis Clark. Vol. II (1886; reprinted in 1988)

Online: 

• The Victoria County history of the University and Trinity in A History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City and University of Cambridge, (London, 1959)
• ‘Trinity College’, in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge, (London, 1959) pp. 209-244
• A list of references to Trinity in literature  
• Capturing Cambridge, a site with short histories, images of College buildings, and other landmarks in Cambridge 

The University Archive has a helpful site with a list of reference sources. We note particularly Elisabeth Leedham-Green’s A concise history of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1996), and a glossary of Cambridge-related terms, which may be helpful in understanding some sources.