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The Archive contains documents relating to the history of the College dating back to its re foundation by Lord Audley in 1542 and includes:

Official records generated by the College relating to its administration and governance including Governing Body Minute Books, Masters’ Records, Financial Records, and Estate Papers,

Records relating to its students including admission records, tutorial files, and matriculation photographs,

Records of related bodies such as clubs and societies,

The photograph collection.

This series consists of title deeds, estate correspondence, and other unbound material. The arrangement follows, as far as possible, that of the 19th century Index to Muniments or Muniments Book which has the Old Library reference R.2.5, and to which certain alterations and additions have been made.

All dates are set out in the current Style (but reckoning the Year of Grace from 1 January). Dating errors in the Muniments Book have been corrected, but the order of the documents has not normally been disturbed - with the result that some of the lists which follow are not in precise chronological order.

C.S. Lewis was appointed the first Professor of Medieval & Renaissance English at Cambridge and moved from Magdalen College, Oxford, to take up the position in 1954. He was made a Professorial Fellow of Magdalene College in 1954, and he had rooms in First Court. He was made an Honorary Fellow in 1963 and died on 22 November 1963. A Memorial Service was held in the Chapel..

He described his move as a 'great success' and described Magdalene in the following terms:
‘My new college is a smaller, softer, more gracious place than my old. The mental and social atmosphere is like the sunny side of a wall in an old garden'; ‘A tiny little place … but a perfect gem architecturally and (I think) much more congenial socially and spiritually.’

See Walter Hooper (ed)., Collected Letters, 3 vols. (2000-2006), esp. Vol. III 'Narnia, Cambridge & Joy, 1950-1963'.
In addition to the letters in this archive, Hooper prints his ‘Easter hymn’ (F/FT/3); a letter about Canon Tibbats; and a letter about the possible deposit of Kipling’s papers in the College (p. 1261, 4 May 1961).

For other letters of College interest, see W.H. Lewis (ed) Letters of C.S. Lewis , p. 289 (Lady Willink's death), p. 293 (unexpurgated Pepys), and p. 308 (Hon. Fellowship).

Most of C.S. Lewis's papers are held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Photograph containing images of Roland Surgis' time at Magdalene as an undergraduate including College buildings, rowing, family groups, dinners in hall, and a performance of 'She Stoops to Conquer'.