The Public Record Office, as the national archive for England and the United Kingdom, holds primarily, but not exclusively, the records of central government. Many government departments had, and continue to have, an interest in Nigeria which is reflected in their records. For the period with which the Nigerian Field Society is primarily concerned - from the late nineteenth century until independence - the richest source is to be found among the records of the Colonial Office which assumed responsibility for Lagos when it became a colony in 1862, for the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1899, and for Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria the following year. A variety of Colonial Office records relate to those territories as well as to the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria from 1914.