The Department of History in this College is as old as the College itself. As an essential part of the real drive towards expansion initiated during the times of the illustrious John Parker Haythornwaite, the Principal of the College from 1890 to 1911, classes for B.A. and LLB degrees of the Allahabad University were opened in 1891. Subsequently, PG Affiliations were obtained in Arts and Science in the 1920’s.

The department was reorganised in 1919 with the appointment of Professor J. C. Taluqdar as Professor and a special study of the Mughal period in Indian history began. He made a valuable contribution to Academic progress of the department with the publication of several learned papers and a few fine text-books. Notable among his students were the historian Dr Raghubir Singh D. Litt., Dr. B. N. Mehta, Professor of History and Political Science, B. R. College, Agra and none other than Mr. Shailendra Kumar Singh, who got selected to the Indian Foreign Service after having served as lecturer in the department. For some time, Prof. Taluqdar was a member of the Historical Records Commission, Govt. of India.

The department further progressed under the able guidance of Miss E. Gibbs, with established credentials as a brilliant Oxford graduate and distinguished for her profound and wide learning and missionary zeal. Significant among her publications are the History of the Christian Church and the History of the Church Missionary Society in India, Burma, Ceylon and Pakistan.

Under Prof. G. L. Mukerji, the department offered post-graduate specialization in Medieval and Modern Indian History and research work was carried in Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods of Indian History. Among his Research scholars Shri Ram Nath, then Lecturer in History, Sagra College was awarded a junior fellowship by the U.G.C. Professor Ram Nath published a number of learned papers on different aspects of Mughal Architecture and later on earned recognition for authoring several books on Monuments of Agra, Progress of Medieval Art, Colour Decoration in Mughal Architecture and separate volumes on Progress of Mughal Architecture under the Mughal Emperors.

Prof. R. C. Sharma an Alumnus of the College, a learned and profound scholar of history made a significant contribution to the progress of the department and maintaining glorious traditions with his publication of more than eighty articles and papers in reputed journals, conference proceedings and magazines. He did his Doctorate on Lord Lytton and guided several research scholars among whom were Dr. Amit Mukerji, Dr. A. K. Singh, Dr. A. J. Chauhan and Dr. Suneet Silas who had been his students in the College. He was well acclaimed in the state and National academic circles of history primarily the ICHR, the U.P. and Indian History Congress. During his tenure as head, his colleague in the department Dr. M. S. Renick was appointed as Principal of the College in 1991.

Dr. Amit Mukerji took over as head of department in 1998 and significantly contributed to the progress of Sports and Cultural activities of the College a major area of his interest. He was also warden of the Bishop French hostel till 2004. He did his doctorate on Sir Vincent Smith and guided several research scholars and published several research papers in reputed journals and conference proceedings. An international Conference was organised by the Department on Qazi Nurullah Shushtari in 2001 in collaboration with Jamia Millia Islamia and Embassy of Iran.

Dr. A. J. Chauhan as head of department maintained the traditions of the department and worked on the Proceedings of the U.P. Legislative Council for his doctorate. He got his promotion as Professor in 2022 following the opening of the post at the College level. He has published several research papers in reputed journals and conference proceedings related to his area of research.

Prof. Suneet Silas did his doctorate on Sir Alexander Cunningham and guided several students for the degree of Ph D and published several papers in reputed journals and conference proceedings. He was one of the editors in the publication of the IEASA Conference 2018 Proceedings volume. He also got a Diploma in Tourism Studies with a first class from IGNOU in 2004.  Among his research scholars Sr K. A. Molly is the current Principal of the prestigious St. Bede’s College, Simla and Km Purnima Preyadarshi got ICHR fellowship. At present, under Prof. Suneet Silas, the department has fully switched over to NEP 2020 Semester system. The students of BA III and PG I and II are actively engaged in the preparation of survey reports and research projects under the supervision of the staff members, Prof. Samuel Stanley, Dr. Mamta Meena and Dr. Ruchi Agarwal of the department as part of their curriculum. The department regularly conducts orientation followed by interactive sessions for students after allotment of topics on purpose of study and adoption of research methodology in the time assigned for the same to facilitate their research work. The department meetings are held regularly to decide the schedule of internal assessment and additional activities, review student progress and forge a spirit of teamwork among the department staff.

A new award has been created at the department level namely the HOD Award for overall performance from the session 2023-24 by Prof. Silas and the first recipient was Km. Namrata Singh M. A. Final session 2023-24. 

The Department of History has one department room and two classrooms for post graduate previous and final classes. The undergraduate classes are held in the Main building.