History
- Age of Exploration This link opens in a new window Primary source collection that documents the history of European maritime exploration from c.1420-1920 and includes rare manuscripts, speeches, letters, maps, diaries and ships' logs from voyages.
- AM Explorer This link opens in a new window Search platform for a multitude of primary source collections spanning the 15th-21st centuries. It includes collections spanning the social sciences and humanities.
- Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window Topically-focused collections of historical documents covering a broad range of scholarly subjects
- Avalon Project The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. We do not intend to mount only static text but rather to add value to the text by linking to supporting documents expressly referred to in the body of the text. The Avalon Project will no doubt contain controversial documents. Their inclusion does not indicate endorsement of their contents nor sympathy with the ideology, doctrines, or means employed by their authors. They are included for the sake of completeness and balance and because in many cases they are by our definition a supporting document.
- Center for Research Libraries Provides research materials to patrons of member libraries. CRL acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, and other traditional and digital resources from a global network of sources. Most of the materials acquired are from outside the United States, and many are from the emerging regions of the world: Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America. Students, faculty, and researchers at member institutions may borrow these rich source materials through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery. See also, topic guides.
- Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window Publications including news, journals, and reports that document missionary work from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.
- Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture This link opens in a new window Primary source collection of crime-related materials, including court proceedings, forensic documents, true crime literature, and newspaper accounts and show how the justice system evolved in the 19th century.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window Digitized books,essays, and pamphlets from the 1700s in English
- Food and Drink in History This link opens in a new window Primary source collection that includes cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and images that illustrate the links between food & identity, politics & power, gender, race and socioeconomic status
- Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration & Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window Primary source collection relating to the study of global commodities in world history and how trade transformed societies over time.
- Leisure, Travel, and Mass Culture: The History of Tourism This link opens in a new window Primary source collection relating to the multi-national expansion of tourism, including guidebooks & brochures, correspondence, photographs, and personal travel journals from 1850-1980s.
- Medical Services and Warfare This link opens in a new window Materials on the history of injury, treatment, and disease during warfare from 1850-1949. Materials from U.S., U.K., and Canada and cover the Crimean War, American Civil War, WWI, and WWII.
- Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new window Family letter collections from 15th century Medieval England. Transcriptions and images of the original manuscript can be viewed side by side. Additional features include: a chronology, a visual sources gallery, an interactive map, a glossary, and family trees.
- Medieval Sources Online This link opens in a new window Ebook collection central to medieval studies courses that focus upon the cultural, social and political conditions of medieval society. Texts have been translated to English.
- Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new window Manuscripts of European travel writing from the later medieval period. The chief focus is on journeys to central Asia, India, and the Holy Land from the 13th-16th centuries.
- NINES: Nineteenth-Century Scholarship Online Searchable collection of digital resources in the long nineteenth century (1770-1920), British and American.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) This link opens in a new window Primary sources from the 1800s mainly from Western perspectives. It consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other documents.
- Official Gazettes A collection of official gazettes and other key historical government documentation from countries where the integrity of the public record is known to be at risk. CRL is digitizing official gazettes from its extensive collection of print and microfilm, augmented by born-digital gazettes and related data harvested from the web.
- Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive This link opens in a new window Streaming video collection of more than 55,000 primary source testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity.
- Slavery Abolition and Social Justice 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window Primary and secondary source material relating to the subjects of slavery, abolition, and social justice, from 1490-2007.
- Social Networks and Archival Context Tool to locate historical records
- Socialism on Film This link opens in a new window Collection of documentary films, features, and newsreels showing life behind the Iron Curtain, as seen by filmmakers from the USSR, Vietnam, Cuba, China, East Germany, Eastern Europe and more. The films illuminate how socialist countries saw themselves and the world around them during the major political & social events of the time.
- Travel Writing, Spectacle, and World History This link opens in a new window 19th and 20th century travel writing, documenting travel to British, French, Chinese, and American destinations through the writing of women.
- World Digital Library With the support of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Digital Library makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
- World's Fairs: A global history of expositions This link opens in a new window Official records, monographs, personal accounts, artwork, and ephemera for more than 200 fairs from around the world and in North America. Most works are from 1850-1920.
- African Language Materials Archive The materials that have been contributed so far to this archive represent a wide range of genres and subject matter in Wolof, Mandinka, and Pular, the three major languages of Senegal and The Gambia in West Africa. They include: post-literacy materials (e.g. booklets on small enterprise activities, health, human rights, etc.); newspapers intended for, and sometimes edited by, the newly literate; religious materials (e.g. Koranic and Biblical texts); poetry; information on AIDS and its prevention; folktales and epics; African language translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and articles on oral history and culture.
- Apartheid South Africa 1948-1988 This link opens in a new window British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices from 1948 to 1988. Files contain previously restricted letters, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies and first-hand accounts of the apartheid regime.
- Confidential Print Africa This link opens in a new window Primary source documents from 1820-1970 that cover the modern period of European colonization of Africa from the British Government’s perspective. It includes the abuses of the Congo Free State, fights against tropical disease, World War II, apartheid, and colonial moves towards independence.
- Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window Primary source collection on European movement and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa and Australasia from 1650-1920.
- Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa This link opens in a new window Materials documenting the liberation of Southern Africa and the dismantling of the Apartheid regime, with a focus on colonial rule, the dispersion of exiles, and international intervention.
- World Heritage Sites - Africa This link opens in a new window The archaeology, history, and culture of Africa as studied through its heritage sites and landscapes.
- Confidential Print Latin America This link opens in a new window Primary source collection of papers originally issued by the British Government from 1820-1970 covering mainland South & Central America, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Topics covered include slavery and slave trade, immigration, relations with indigenous peoples, wars, British business and financial interests, and the building of the Panama canal
- Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window Primary source collection on European movement and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa and Australasia from 1650-1920.
- Humanizing Deportation An open access archive of personal stories about deportation.
- Latin American Open Archives Portal Provides access to social sciences grey literature grey literature (working documents, pre-prints, research papers, statistical documents, and other difficult-to-access materials typically published by research institutes, non-governmental organizations, and peripheral agencies that are not controlled by commercial publishers produced in Latin America.
- China, America and the Pacific This link opens in a new window Primary source material connected to the trading and cultural relationships that emerged between China, America and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries.
- China: Culture and Society This link opens in a new window Primary source East Asian pamphlets spanning from 1750-1929 as well as scholarly essays and interactive chronologies.
- China: Trade Politics and Culture, 1793-1980 This link opens in a new window Primary sources relating to China and the West, 1793-1980. Includes almost any aspect of Chinese history during the two centuries of social and political upheaval that ultimately recreated China into a modern power.
- Chinese Pamphlets Pamphlets, picture books, and other propaganda issued during the early years of the People’s Republic between 1947 and 1954. This is the “street literature” of the revolution: comic books, leaflets, and other ephemera distributed to the general population of provincial cities and villages.
- East India Company This link opens in a new window Containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, this resource shows the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent from 1599 to 1947.
- Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1980 This link opens in a new window Archive of the British Foreign Office Files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan from 1949-1976.
- Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980 This link opens in a new window Archive of the British Foreign Office Files from 1947-1980 focusing on the political and social history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- Foreign Office Files for Japan, 1919-1952 This link opens in a new window British Foreign Office Files from 1919-1952, documenting Japan’s ascent to the rank of a global superpower through diplomatic dispatches, correspondence, maps, summaries of events and other materials.
- Foreign Office Files for Southeast Asia: 1963-1980 This link opens in a new window British Office Files following the establishment of an independent Malaysia in 1963. It also documents tensions with Malaysia, Indonesian civil unrest, and anti-communist sentiments in Southeast Asia.
- India, Raj and Empire This link opens in a new window Primary source materials documenting the history of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.
- Meiji Japan This link opens in a new window Personal and professional papers of Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925), one of the first Americans to live in Japan. It includes written materials and research files regarding his study of evolutionary theory, scientific methodology, ethnology and also documents life in Japan before Western modernization.
- Age of Exploration This link opens in a new window Primary source collection that documents the history of European maritime exploration from c.1420-1920 and includes rare manuscripts, speeches, letters, maps, diaries and ships' logs from voyages.
- Connected Histories British history sources, 1500-1900. Includes both free and subscription resources; access to some materials may be restricted.
- Chatham House Online Archive This link opens in a new window Publications and archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), an independent international affairs policy institute, coverage from 1920-2008.
- Early Modern England This link opens in a new window Primary source collection relating to society, culture & everyday life in England from 1500-1700. These documents show how everyday working, family, religious, and administrative life was experienced across England.
- East India Company This link opens in a new window Containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, this resource shows the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent from 1599 to 1947.
- Empire Online This link opens in a new window Primary source collection spanning five centuries, charting the story of the rise and fall of 'Empires'. Scholarly essays, maps, photographs, and an interactive chronology are included.
- Europeana Digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections
- First World War This link opens in a new window Primary and secondary source documents highlighting the experiences of soldiers, civilians, and governments on both sides of World War 1.
- Grand Tour (1550-1850) This link opens in a new window Primary and secondary sources that highlight the influence of continental travel on British art, architecture, urban planning, literature, philosophy, and daily life from 1550-1850.
- Hansard, 1803 - present Freely available database of British parliamentary debates. Based on information from Hansard, the Official Report of debates in Parliament. There's Hansard itself; by volume, just the Lords sittings, Commons sittings or Westminster Hall sittings. You can also view Written Answers, Written Statements, Lords reports or Grand Committee reports. There are also lists of People who are recorded as having spoken, Constituencies, Offices, Acts, Bills and Divisions.
- Parliamentary Papers (UK) This link opens in a new window Official publications by the House of Commons and the House of Lords from 1688 to 1900, including sessional papers, journals, private acts, and the official report of debates in Parliament.
- Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive, 1554-2007 This link opens in a new window Archive of documents relating to the history of printing, publishing, bookbinding, and bookselling dating from 1554-2007.
- London Low Life: street culture, social reform and the Victorian underworld This link opens in a new window Books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th-early 20th century London street culture. Topics include: working-class culture, street literature, music, ‘slumming’, prostitution, the Contagious Diseases Act, and the Temperance Movement.
- Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957- This link opens in a new window British government Cabinet conclusions (minutes) and memoranda, plus selected minutes and memoranda of policy committees, 1957-1963.
- Mass Observation online This link opens in a new window Original manuscript and papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organization in Britain for the study of social history 1937-1950s.
- Mass Observation Project (1981-2009) This link opens in a new window Collection consisting of the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation from 1981-2009 and the thousands of responses to them. Subjects range from personal, to everyday life, to global affairs and documents the social history of Britain.
- 19th Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window Primary source pamphlets useful for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain.
- Northern Ireland, A Divided Community, 1921-1972 This link opens in a new window Government documents of the British administration in Northern Ireland from 1921-1972. The files contain a full record of every debate and transaction for the entire duration of the Stormont administration, the devolved government of Northern Ireland.
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975: rock & roll, counterculture, peace & protest This link opens in a new window Primary source materials on music, politics, fashion, and youth culture from 1950 to 1975 in the U.S. and Britain.
- Poverty, Philanthropy and Social Conditions in Victorian Britain This link opens in a new window Primary source materials that document the interactions between government policy and public philanthropy in Victorian and early 20th-century society, showing developments in welfare reform and the social tensions surrounding poverty.
- Queen Victoria's Journals This link opens in a new window Diaries of Queen Victoria starting in 1832, covering her early adolescent years, through her Monarchy, and until her death in 1901.
- Shakespeare and Company Project In 1919, an American woman named Sylvia Beach opened Shakespeare and Company, an English-language bookshop and lending library in Paris. Almost immediately, it became the home away from home for a community of expatriate writers and artists now known as the Lost Generation. In 1922, she published James Joyce’s Ulysses under the Shakespeare and Company imprint, a feat that made her—and her bookshop and lending library—famous around the world. In the 1930s, she increasingly catered to French intellectuals, supplying English-language publications from the recently rediscovered Moby Dick to the latest issues of The New Yorker. In 1941, she preemptively closed Shakespeare and Company after refusing to sell her last copy of Joyce's Finnegans Wake to a Nazi officer. The Shakespeare and Company Project uses sources from the Beach Papers at Princeton University to reveal what the lending library members read and where they lived. The Project is a work-in-progress, but you can begin to explore now. Search and browse the lending library members and books. Read about joining the lending library.
- Shakespeare's Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance This link opens in a new window Primary source documents offering insights into over 200 performances at the reconstructed Globe Theatre. It includes prompt books, wardrobe notes, programs, publicity materials, and reports.
- State Papers Online This link opens in a new window Historical materials on early modern Britain across a wide range of government concerns. It includes correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants, and provincial administrators from 1509-1782.
- Digital Vatican Library Manuscripts and incunabula
- Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window Resource for the study of popular entertainment in Britain and America, from about 1779-1950. Primary and secondary documents on topics such as spiritualism & magic, circuses, music halls and cinema are included.
- Confidential Print Middle East This link opens in a new window Primary source collection originally issued by the British Government and covers 1839 to 1969, including the countries of the Arabian peninsula, the Levant, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt and Sudan. It includes the Middle East Conference of 1921, the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia, the partition of Palestine, the 1956 Suez Crisis, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
- Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1981 This link opens in a new window British diplomatic correspondence, minutes, reports, political summaries and personality profiles related to the Middle East during the 1970s.
Tower of Babel
