Everton collection
The Everton Collection (reference 796 EFC) includes over 18,000 items relating to the history of Everton Football Club. The collection has been deposited at Liverpool Record Office by the Everton Collection Charitable Trust.
It's a unique and extensive record of Liverpool’s original football team founded in 1878. It is the most comprehensive collection of football memorabilia connected to one club. Everton FC, known as the People’s Club because of its close ties with the local community, was a founding member of the Football League in 1888.
They were the first football club to go on an overseas tour, the first club to be presented with League Championship medals, the first club to officially play in blue and white, the first Merseyside club to win the FA Cup, the first club to build a purpose built football stadium, the first club to be visited by a reigning Monarch, the first club to have a Church in its ground, the first club to install under-soil heating, the first club to win a European Penalty shoot-out, the first British club to stage a World Cup Semi-Final, the first club to form a Former Players’ Foundation and the first club to use football nets.
The trust bought the David France Collection with a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and united it with the Everton FC Archive, which was kindly donated to the trust by the club. The two collections have now been integrated at Liverpool Record Office to form the Everton collection.
Programmes date from 1886 onwards and include the earliest known Manchester United programme from 15 April 1889. A section of programmes show Everton and Liverpool sharing the programme, with whoever was playing at home on the front and the away team at the back.
Photographs of the team, players, directors and ground date from 1881 and include photographs of Dixie Dean, the only player ever to score 60 league goals in a season, from his first signing for Everton in 1925.
The minute books record decisions of Everton’s directors, including the decision to move from Anfield across Stanley Park to Goodison Park following a disagreement about the cost of rent with John Houlding. Decisions are taken about signing players, fixtures and general management. Other Administrative papers include Annual Reports, Accounts and Balance Sheets, Gate Receipt Books and Cashbooks which record the club’s income and expenditure.
Other items in the collection include various publications, medals and trophies and memorabilia. The Arthur Berry Collection includes football and Olympic medals, badges and photographs 1908-1913.
Acquisitions are always being made to enhance the collection.
Parts of the collection are on display at the Museum of Liverpool at the Pier Head, the National Football Museum in Manchester and there's always a range of material on display at Goodison Park.