The National Archives has won an award for its exhibition MI5: Official Secrets.
The exhibition, which was co-curated with MI5, has won the Museums + Heritage Award in the category Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year (Budget more than £80,000).
The groundbreaking exhibition gave public access to 115 years of MI5 secrets, presenting a selection of the several thousand files transferred to The National Archives from MI5, on subjects including the Cambridge Spy Ring and secrets from the Cold War.
The files were supplemented with objects, such as a 110-year-old lemon that helped convict a spy, and loans from MI5’s collections, including a dark leather dispatch case left at the Reform Club in London by Cambridge spy Guy Burgess before he fled to Moscow in May 1951 – and his passport which was exhibited for the first time.
The National Archives team with the award
The National Archives said the partnership with MI5 meant it could tell the story of the secret intelligence agency “in a way it could not do by itself, and examine the real work of extraordinary people.”.
Commenting on the achievement, Saul Nassé, chief executive of The National Archives said: “We are thrilled to win this award. The exhibition was our most popular ever at Kew, with 55,000 visitors coming to discover more about MI5, its history, and the power of archives. The award is not only recognition of a very successful collaboration between The National Archives and MI5, but also proof that archives inspire, educate and entertain.”
The exhibition ran from 5 April- 23 November 2025 at The National Archives in Kew.