How to transform 1,000,000 documents into a simple, easy to use and profitable service available to everyone as well as ensure it could be used for teaching and learning of history.

The Churchill archives could previously only be viewed in person and by appointment at Churchill College, Cambridge. The opportunity existed to make this globally available.

Churchillarchive.com is entirely unique, both in its approach and in the enormous breadth and depth of the material it offers. It makes one of the largest and most important collections of primary source material available to an international audience. The Archive also brings together all the different versions of Churchill’s speeches, from initial notes and drafts to the delivered speeches and the final printed form.

It is an essential resource not just for teachers, undergraduates, historians and researchers but also those in politics business studies, linguistics and leadership, as well as any member of the general public with an interest in 20th century history. It includes extended essays specially written by experts in the field and designed around modules that appear on higher education courses internationally.

It aims to raise the bar for future archive websites with its sophisticated taxonomy and search functionality, whilst furthering what we know about 20th century history.

For the first time ever the leading higher educational library consortia across three countries have joined forces to offer one product on similar terms to their members. These are JISC in the UK, CRL in the USA and CRKN in Canada.

The Churchill Archive launched in October 2012, but by 1 Jan 2013 had already generated hundreds of thousands in revenues and over 100 universities trialling the product worldwide. The Archive continues to build its subscriber base each year.

New modules are launched every few months to make it easier for institutions to find and use relevant and interesting content for student courses.