Information Services

Primary Sources

The Library gives you access to a wide range of primary source databases that allow you to search for and view original primary source material. There are separate lists for Newspapers & Magazine archives and Images and Moving Images databases.

 

Accessible Archives

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Eyewitness accounts of historical events, vivid descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records. Includes archives from African American Newspapers, American County Histories, Civil War archives and many other eighteenth and nineteenth century newspaper and journal archives.

 

The Afghanistan War and the United States, 1998-2017

Access information. Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description.

This collection provides researchers with a trove of revealing primary documents during the key periods of the 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan. Largely the product of decades of FOIA requests and appeals, these records obtained from the State Department, CENTCOM, the DIA, and other agencies detail many of the problems that bedeviled the American-led occupation, including reconstruction efforts, diplomatic relations with the Afghan government, Pakistan's double-sided games, Taliban-al Qaeda relations, corruption, and narcotics.

Coverage: 1998-2017.

 

African Newspapers, Series 1, 1800-1922

Access information:

Access on and off-campus.

Description:

This groundbreaking online collection provides more than 60 searchable African newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring English and foreign-language titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, African Newspapers, Series 1, offers unparalleled coverage of the issues and events that shaped the continent and its peoples between 1800 and 1922.  From repercussions of the Atlantic slave trade, life under colonial rule and the results of the Berlin Conference to the emergence of Black journalism, the Zulu Wars and the rejection of Western imperialism, these newspapers provide a wide range of viewpoints on diverse cultures.

Coverage: 1800-1922

 

American Jewish Congress Records: Administrative and Executive Committee, Governing Council, National Conventions, and Executive Director Files

Access information:

Access on and off-campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

Description:

The American Jewish Congress, founded in 1918 under the leadership of Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, is one of the most important organizations dedicated to advocating for the interests of the American Jewish community and defending the civil rights of all Americans. The American Jewish Congress Records span from 1915-2009 and document the American Jewish Congress’s impact on the United States legal system, civil rights and liberties, the fight against discrimination and antisemitism, and support for the State of Israel. The records of the American Jewish Congress are digitized by ProQuest from the holdings of the American Jewish Historical Society. This module represents the first seven series of the collection, covering the history of the American Jewish Congress, the proceedings of its governing committees, the files of the Executive Directors, and records of the organization’s national conventions.

 

 American Politics in the Early Cold War - Truman and Eisenhower Administrations, 1945-1961

Access information. Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description. This resource presents major White House files from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. The centerpiece of the Truman files is the President's Secretary's file while the Eisenhower files are centered on the Confidential File and the Whitman File of the Eisenhower White House Central Files. The Cold War takes center stage in the Truman files on international relations and the stalling of Truman's Fair Deal program is documented in the files that pertain to domestic concerns. The Eisenhower files focus to a large degree on national defense and economic issues, two of the areas that Eisenhower had the most personal interest in.

 

American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

Access information: Available on and off campus. 
Description: On March 24, 1800, Forlorn Hope became the first newspaper published within a prison by an incarcerated person. In the intervening 200 years, over 500 prison newspapers have been published from U.S. prisons. American Prison Newspapers brings together hundreds of these periodicals from across the country into one collection that represents penal institutions of all kinds, with special attention paid to women-only institutions.

 

Americans for Democratic Action Records, 1932-1999

Access information: Available on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description:

Americans for Democratic Action Records, 1932-1965 is a rich resource for researchers interested in 20th century progressive politics and labor organizing. Founded as the Union for Democratic Action (UDA), this organization supported liberal social, political, and economic causes. Their main activities included lobbying, organizing, research, and rallying behind political candidates and legislation, often in coordination with other progressive organizations.

 

Arab-Israeli Relations, 1917-1970: The Middle East Online, Series 1

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The database offers a wide range of primary source materials (including letters, minutes, reports and maps) at the National Archives, London, from the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, War Office and Cabinet Papers from the 1917 Balfour Declaration through to the Black September war of 1970-1, documenting the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict as well as British diplomacy towards Israel and the Arab States.

 

Archives of Sexuality & Gender

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

Archives of Sexuality & Gender provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, you can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. This growing digital archive offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history. The database currently includes 4 collections: International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture, LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Part I and Part II and Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century.

 

Archives Unbound

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history. Collections are chosen for Archives Unbound based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.

There are currently 382 collections in Archives Unbound, covering a large range of subject areas, and new collections are added every year. To see a full list of all the collections and what they cover click on the Collections box and you can either view as alphabetical list or browse by category. Alternatively, click here.

 

Art and Architecture Archive

Access information. Access on and off campus.
Description. This archival collection of digitized searchable backfiles from first issue to the year 2005, of many of the foremost art and architecture magazines of the 20th-century, supports scholarship across the spectrum of disciplines in the arts, from fine and applied arts through to interior design, industrial design, and landscape gardening. The title list includes: Apollo, Architectural Review, Architects Journal, Art Monthly, British Journal of Photography, Country Life, Eye, Graphis, Ornament and more.
Coverage: 1895 - 2005

 

Bayeaux Tapestry Digital Edition

Access information:

Access on and off campus

Description:

The whole Tapestry (and two facsimiles) with full commentary, maps, genealogies, glossary, libraries of textual and visual analogues. Runs in all major browsers on all major computer systems - please note that this online version uses Flash, so it does not work in an i-Phone or i-Pad.

Further information: You may have to enable or download Adobe Flash player to make this resource work properly.

 

British Association for the Advancement of Science – Collections on the History of Science (1830s-1970s) by Wiley Digital Archives

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The Archive of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) and connected collections from UK universities covers astronomy, biology, technology, industrial design, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, agriculture, meteorology, physics, history of science and STEM, and government grants for scientific research. It contains administrative records, correspondence, illustrations, manuscripts, photographs, prototypes, clippings, personal papers, grey literature—all presented as fully searchable digital images that can be analyzed, downloaded, manipulated, and compared with content from other societies and universities in the Wiley Digital Archives program.

 

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries

Access information:

Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

Description:

British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries spans more than 400 years of personal writings, bringing together the voices of women from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Complementing Alexander Street’s North American Women's Letters and Diaries, the database lets researchers view history in the context of women’s thoughts—their struggles, achievements, passions, pursuits, and desires.

 

British History Online

Access information Available on and off campus. Login required. Click login then select Login using Shibboleth. Type University of Edinburgh into box and click continue. Enter your University Login if prompted.
Description: British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, it aims to support academic and personal users around the world in their learning, teaching and research.
Coverage: 11th – 19th Century

 

British Labour Party Papers, 1906-1969

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The Parliamentary Labour Party is the organisation of Labour members of Parliament (MPs) founded in 1906. These papers cover that foundation; then follow the Party through Ramsay MacDonald's Governments, two world wars, the first Harold Wilson Government and the early part of his second Government. The events in these records are a reflection of current events as much as of the Party itself. From the suffrage campaign for the electoral enfranchisement of women, to nuclear tests over the Pacific Ocean, through the Beveridge Report, the Trade Union Bill and the development of the United Nations.

 

British Labour Party Papers, 1968-1994

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The Parliamentary Labour Party is the organisation of Labour members of Parliament (MPs) founded in 1906. Included in this collection are all the minutes of the Party Meetings, the Liaison Committee and the Parliamentary Committee (Shadow Cabinet) for the period 1968-1994. This period represents a turbulent one in British politics, during the early part of which Labour were twice in power. It begins with the latter half of a Labour government under Harold Wilson and ends during the period of Margaret Beckett’s caretaker leadership after the death of John Smith. It covers the three-day week, becoming members of the EEC, the Margaret Thatcher years, including the Falklands War and the miners’ strike, the sift to New Realism and the progress to the top of Tony Blair.

 

Chile and the United States: U.S. Policy toward Democracy, Dictatorship, and Human Rights, 1970–1990

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: This collection presents 2,842 once-secret, U.S. records--among them hundreds of declassified Top Secret CIA operational memos, cables, and reports--as well as records from the archives and courts of other nations tracing the U.S. role in Chile from the Nixon administration's covert efforts to block the election and inauguration of Salvador Allende, through the military takeover of September 11, 1973, to the end of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship and his eventual arrest in London.

 

China Culture and Society

Access information:

Access on and off campus

Description:

Spanning three centuries (c. 1750-1929), this resource makes available for the first time extremely rare pamphlets from Cornell University Library’s Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia, one of the oldest and most distinctive collections of its kind and a very rich source for research on China for teachers and students from undergraduate-level to research-level and beyond.  Digitised in its entirety and in full colour, the Wason collection of c. 1,200 pamphlets encompasses speeches, guides, reports, essays, catalogues, magazine articles and other material addressing Chinese history, culture, and everyday life. The resource is full-text searchable, allowing for the collection to be comprehensively explored and studied. The wide variety of research interests and themes covered by the pamphlets include education, emigration, the foreign presence, missionaries, wars, rebellion, reform, opium, healthcare and language. 

 

Chinese Foreign Policy Database

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The Chinese Foreign Policy Database enhances the ability of contemporary observers and historians to gain broader perspectives on Chinese policies. Curating 1000s of documents from Chinese and international archives, it offers insights into China’s foreign policy since 1949 and its relationship to ideology, revolution, the economy, and traditional Chinese culture. The Database is generously supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

 

Church Missionary Society Periodicals Module 1: Global Missions and Contemporary Encounters, 1804-2009

Access information:

Access on and off campus

Description:

From its roots as an Anglican evangelical movement driven by lay persons, this resource encompasses publications from the CMS and the latterly integrated South American Missionary Society. Documenting missionary work from the 19th to the 21st century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounter. 

 

Church Missionary Society Periodicals Module 2: Medical Journals, Asian Missions and the Historical Record

Access information:

Access on or off campus.

Description:

The focus of this second module is on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children subscribers. Articles, often in the form of letters authored by missionaries abroad, are enhanced by detailed illustrations and photographs of their surroundings, the mission community and the people among whom they worked.

 

Churchill Archive

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Until recently the only way to access this historical resource was to visit the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, now researchers can browse the nearly 800,000 private letters, speeches, telegrams, manuscripts, government transcripts and other key historical documents within the archive.

Search the Churchill catalogue online, browse by topic and period and explore the people and places which appear in the archive.

 

CIA Family Jewels Indexed

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

The work of the National Security Archive's efforts over 15 years to obtain the CIA's most closely held secrets about their domestic intelligence activities conducted at the height of the Cold War, through 1973. Among the most controversial documents ever compiled by the Central Intelligence Agency, the "Family Jewels" represents the CIA's own view, in 1973, of those domestic activities it had engaged in up to that time that were outside its charter, hence illegal.

 

Colonial Legacies: Empire & Commonwealth Periodicals

Access information: Access on and off-campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description: The backfiles of over 30 periodicals concerning the 20th-century history of the British Empire, decolonization, and the history and culture of former colonies. This archive offers a mixture of British publications about the empire and titles published in Commonwealth countries. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century to the 21st – these publications encompass the key events in the empire's later phase and its post-independence legacies. 

 

Colonial Law in Africa, 1946 -1966

Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description: This database provides access to the African Government Gazettes from 1946-1966. These gazettes contain copies of the laws and ordinances which were introduced in the years they cover. Each item was originally published as the Government Gazette for a colony and year. Their contents include tenders of property, probate records and insolvency notices. The papers in this database cover the Mau Mau uprising, the creation of the first legislative councils and legal changes to transfer power to those councils.

 

Colonial State Papers

Access information: Access on and off-campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description: The Colonial State Papers offers access to over 7,000 hand-written documents and more than 40,000 bibliographic records with this incredible resource on Colonial History. In addition to Britain's colonial relations with the Americas and other European rivals for power, this collection also covers the Caribbean and Atlantic world. It is an invaluable resource for scholars of early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery.
Coverage: Coverage: 1574 - 1757.

 

Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description: This collection contains searchable British government documents from the National Archives of the UK, a linked Chronology of World War II, cine film from the Imperial War Museum London and newly commissioned thematic essays to create a primary-source research environment for students, teachers and researchers.
Coverage: 1940-1945.

 

Congressional Record

Access Information: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description: ProQuest Congressional is a comprehensive online collection of primary source congressional publications and legislative research materials covering all topics, including government, current events, politics, economics, business, science and technology, international relations, social issues, finance, insurance, and medicine. Finding aid for congressional hearings, committee prints, committee reports and documents from 1970-present, and the daily Congressional Record from 1985-present. Compiled legislative histories from 1969-present.

 

 Contemporary Anthropology: Archaeological Fieldwork and Methods

Access information:

Access on and off-campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

Description:

Contemporary Anthropology: Archaeological Fieldwork and Methods brings together archival and textual material relating to archaeological excavations, methods, and practices done in the late 20th century to present day. It provides insights into the lives, cultures, and societies of ancient and not-so-distant civilizations through the analysis of material remains and artifacts from the past. This collection allows researchers and students to use archival material and published works to better understand, analyse, and critique archaeological research.   Featured in this collection is the The Cusichaca Trust Archive sourced from the Senate House Library, University of London. Led by archaeologist Ann Kendall, the Trust did numerous excavations in the South-Central Andes from 1980s-2010s. The archaeology, archaeobotany and ethnohistorical work focused on human occupation of the area from the late first millennium BC, through Inca expansion and into the Spanish Colonial period.

 

The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

Access information: Access on and off campus. 
Description:

The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 (from the Digital National Security Archive) presents an integrated, comprehensive record of U.S. decision making during the most dangerous U.S.-Soviet confrontation in the nuclear era.

Much of the documentation focuses on U.S. decision making during what Robert Kennedy called the "Thirteen Days" of the missile crisis—from McGeorge Bundy's October 16, 1962 briefing of President Kennedy on the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba to Nikita Khrushchev's October 28 decision to withdraw the weapons.

The numerous intelligence reports, diplomatic cables, political analyses, military situation reports, and meeting minutes included in the set portray both the deliberative process and the execution of critical decisions made by the Kennedy administration during the crisis.

 

The Cuban Missile Crisis: 50th Anniversary Update

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

This is a rich update consisting the latest declassified documentation on the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, supplementing the DNSA’s collections, with never-before-published records from U.S. and Soviet archives, highlights from the archive of Anastas Mikoyan - the Soviet leader who negotiated the end of the crisis, U.S. Navy tracking reports, briefing documents for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and formerly classified U.S. intelligence materials. Also in this update are 4 volumes of the CIA’s internal history of the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.

 

The Database for the History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements, 1949-

Access information:

Access on or off campus.

Description:

The database provides full-text primary source materials relating to the Chinese political movements after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949: the Political Campaigns in the 1950s from Land Reform to Public-Private Cooperation (1949-1956), the Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957–), the Great Leap Forward and the Great Famine (1958-1964), and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Sources include government documents, directives, bulletins, speeches by Mao Zedong and other officials, major newspaper and magazine editorials, and other types of documents. All the documents are in Chinese, but the database platform can be switched to English where document titles can be browsed in English.

Further details: For more information on this database, please visit the Chinese University Press website.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

This resource consists of expertly curated, and meticulously indexed, declassified government documents covering U.S. policy toward critical world events – including their military, intelligence, diplomatic and human rights dimensions – from 1945 to the present. Each collection is assembled by foreign policy experts and features chronologies, glossaries, bibliographies, and scholarly overviews to provide unparalleled access to the defining international issues of our time.

The University's access includes the following databases:

For a complete description of each database, please see the individual entries on the alphabetical databases pages.

 

Documents on British Policy Overseas

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Documents on British Policy Overseas offers researchers the opportunity to see beneath the surface of the major events of the twentieth century. Users can access contemporary accounts and follow the detailed exchanges that shaped British foreign policy from the origins of the First World War and beyond.

 

Donald Rumsfeld's Snowflakes, Part I: The Pentagon and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2001-2003

Access information:

Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

Description:

Donald Rumsfeld's "snowflakes" are a unique resource, coming directly from the Defence Secretary's desk. Part 1 provides unprecedented insight into the workings of the Pentagon during the early years of the Bush administration. Snowflakes offers glimpses into Rumsfeld's day-to-day concerns covering everything from relations with Russia, China, and other nations to the DOD's strategy and conduct in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to communications with the White House and battles with Pentagon bureaucracy.

 

Donald Rumsfeld's Snowflakes, Part II: The Pentagon and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2004-2006

Access information:

Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

Description:

Donald Rumsfeld's blizzard of "snowflakes" comes to an end with Part 2. These revealing memoranda illuminate the large and small issues confronting the Pentagon during the second term of the Bush administration and Rumsfeld’s daily administration of the U.S. Defense Department until his resignation. In addition to Rumsfeld’s musings about defense spending, government bureaucracy, political appointments, and office etiquette, the collection includes substantive responses to his inquiries from high-level civilian staff members and military commanders on significant national security topics, such as manpower needs in the prosecution of two wars, reconstruction and democratization in Iraq and Afghanistan, and modernization of the U.S. military.

 

Early English Books Online - ProQuest website

 Early English Books Online - JISC Historical Texts website

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Most books are in English (134,417), but there are also hundreds of books in other European languages including Latin (9060), French (678), Welsh (205), Ancient Greek (147), Greek (112), Italian (95), Scots (88), German (63), Spanish (32), Hebrew (12), Scottish Gaelic (8), Portuguese (7), Arabic (6), and other Roman languages (795).

Users can explore complete, digitized images of all the works listed in these key bibliographic records of English literature: The Short-Title Catalogue (Pollard & Redgrave, 1475-1640); The Short-Title Catalogue II (Wing, 1641-1700); The Thomason Tracts; and the Early English Books Tract Supplements, as well as original almanacs, pamphlets, musical scores, prayer books and other primary sources.

Cross-searchable with Early European Books on the Early Modern Books platform.

Cross searchable with Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) 65,000 texts from the British Library 19th Century collection and the UK Medical Heritage Library (UKMHL) on the JISC Historical Texts platform. The JISC Historical Texts platform does not contain any annual updates.

 

Coverage: 1470-1700. Approximately 200-500 new titles are added to EEBO every year (on the ProQuest platform).
Userguide: https://proquest.libguides.com/eebopqp 
 

Early European Books Online

Access information: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024 - NB applies to collections 5-23 only, collections 1-4 are perpetually licensed content.
Description:

Early European Books traces the history of printing in Europe from its origins through to the close of the seventeenth century, offering full-colour, high-resolution facsimile images of rare and hard-to-access printed sources.

Cross searchable with Early English Books Online on the Early Modern Books platform.

Early European Books is divided into 18 collections:

  • Collection 1 contains 2500 titles (P); Collection 2 contains 2700 titles(P);
  • Collection 3 contains 10,000 titles(P); Collection 4 contains 9200 titles(P);
  • Collection 5 contains 5500 titles (S);  Collection 6 contains 3500 titles(S);
  • Collection 7 contains 7400 titles (S); Collection 8 contains 5300 titles(S);
  • Collection 9 contains 3300 titles (S); Collection 10 contains 2600 titles(S);
  • Collection 11 contains 2200 titles (S); Collection 12 contains 1200 titles(S);
  • Collection 13 contains 5000 titles (S); Collection 14 contains 1100 titles(S);
  • Collection 15 contains 3000 titles (S); Collection 16 contains 1350 titles(S);
  • Collection 17 contains 1180 titles (S); Collection 18 contains 900 titles(S);
  • Collection 19 contains 1043 titles (S); Collection 20 contains 900 titles (S);
  • Collection 21 contains 5,100 titles (S); Collection 22 contains 556 titles (S).
  • Collection 23 contains 1900 titles (S).

Early European Books Online is a mix of perpetually licensed content, marked (P) above and subscribed content, marked (S) above.

Coverage: Over 77,000 e-books. The University of Edinburgh has access to Collections 1 - 23 and the Wellcome Trust collection. Further details can be found at http://proquest.libguides.com/eeb

 

Early Western Korans Online

Access Information: Access on and off campus.
Description: This remarkable collection demonstrates the impact of the holy book of Islam in Europe. Long before printing with movable type became common practice in the Islamic world, Korans had been printed in Arabic type in several European cities. The collection includes Korans and Koran translations, printed between 1537 and 1857, and is of interest to book historians, theologians, philologists, and scholars of Islamic Studies alike.

 

East African Newspapers Collection

Access information:

Access on and off campus. 

Description:

The East African Newspapers collection provides insight into this region during the 20th and early 21st centuries, a time of great change for Africa. In East Africa, this time witnessed the growth of decolonization as independence movements swelled, and local, autonomous self-governance took hold throughout the region. This period was also punctuated by famine, drought, political uprisings, border disputes, and war as countries worked to navigate the post-colonial landscape. The collection includes 3 key newspapers: Daily Nation (Kenya), The Ethiopian Herald, and The Monitor (Uganda).

 

Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description: Contains over 180,000 titles (200,000 volumes) published during the 18th Century, covering a range of subjects including history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, and science. The full text of the collection is searchable, from books and directories, Bibles, sheet music and sermons to advertisements.
Coverage: 18th Century.

 

Access: On and off campus
Description: The Eighteenth Century Journals portal consists of five Sections, containing digitised images of about 270 rare journals printed between c1685 and 1835. Topics cover a very wide range of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life, including: colonial life; provincial and rural affairs; the French and American revolutions; reviews of literature and fashion throughout Europe; political debates; and London coffee house gossip and discussion, etc. Many of these journal are ephemeral, lasting only for a handful of issues, others run for several years. The publisher suggests that all of the titles in this portal have been carefully screened against other eighteenth century e-resources to ensure that there is minimal overlap. Resources checked include Early English Books Online (EEBO); Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers, Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), The Burney Newspaper Collection, and British Periodicals (1680s to 1930s), all of which are in our Database list.
Coverage: 1685-1835

 

Electronic Surveillance and the National Security Agency: From Shamrock to Snowden

Access Access on and off campus.
Description A collection of leaked and declassified records documenting U.S. and allied electronic surveillance policies, relationships, and activities. It serves as an addition to several National Security Archive documents sets - including those on U.S. Intelligence and the National Security Agency. The records provide information on the limitations imposed on electronic surveillance activities, organizations, legal authorities, collection activities, and liaison relationships.
 
Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description: Collection of 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material with accompanying thematic essays. The content comes from library and archive collections worldwide, and can used to support teaching and learning. Full details of how to incorporate images into course materials are provided.
Coverage: 1492-1962.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

To mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies in 1623 (otherwise known as the First Folio), this resource brings together dozens of digitised copies of this literary masterpiece. For the first time in history, you will be able to compare them, side by side, from the comfort of your own home.  As well as the stories told through the plays themselves, each copy offers up another narrative, depicting their unique journeys through history. Some are in prime condition, while others have received annotations, tears, or even lost pages. Many also bear printed differences – changes made by the printers as they produced each copy. 

 

Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description:

Foreign Office Files for China provides access to the digitised archive of British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980. The complete files consist of six parts. We have purchased full content for the following six parts: 1919−1929: Kuomingtang, CCP and the Third International; 1930−1937: The Long March, Civil War in China and the Manchurian Crisis; 1938-1948: Open Door, Japanese war and the seeds of communist victory; 1949-1956: The Communist revolution; 1957-1966: The Great Leap Forward; 1967-1980: The Cultural Revolution.

The formerly restricted British government documents include diplomatic dispatches, letters, newspaper cuttings, maps, reports of court cases, biographies of leading personalities, summaries of events and other diverse materials.  More information on this resource can be found at http://www.archivesdirect.amdigital.co.uk/FO_China/Introduction

Coverage:

1919−1929: Kuomingtang, CCP and the Third International.

1930−1937: The Long March, Civil War in China and the Manchurian Crisis.

938-1948: Open Door, Japanese war and the seeds of communist victory.

1949-1956: The Communist revolution.

1957-1966: The Great Leap Forward.

1967-1980: The Cultural Revolution.

 

Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description:

This resource covers the political and social history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1947 to 1980, featuring essential content on Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Kashmir, as well as other frontier regions. Files look at the impact on UK, US and European trade, industrial policy, education and the media through a vast array of material including diplomatic dispatches, inward and outward telegrams, newspaper cuttings and transcripts, maps, photographs, political and economic reports, accounts of visits and tours, minutes of meetings, conference proceedings, letters, leaflets and more.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Gale Primary Sources is an integrated research environment that allows users to search across all of their Gale primary source collections. Gale Primary Sources takes users beyond a simple search and retrieve workflow, allowing them to analyse content using frequency and term-relationship tools. Through intuitive subject-indexing users will discover new material even in the most familiar of content sets.

You can search across all Gale primary sources that the Library currently has access to:

For a complete description of each database, please see the individual entries on the alphabetical databases pages.

 

Access information:

Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

Description:

In the late 1800's, Dutch physician and feminist Aletta Jacobs and her husband C.V. Gerritsen began collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. By the time their successors finished their work in 1945, the Gerritsen Collection was the greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world, with materials spanning four centuries and 15 languages. The Gerritsen curators gathered more than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, dating from 1543-1945. The anti-feminist case is presented as well as the pro-feminist; many other titles present a purely objective record of the condition of women at a given time.

 

Global Missions and Theology

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: This collection documents a broad range of nineteenth century missionary activities, practices and thought by reproducing personal narratives, organizational records, and biographies. While focusing on the United States the collection also highlights activities in Africa, Fiji and Sandwich Islands, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Hawaii.
  Images are taken from microfilm originals of early printed works.

 

La Guerra Civil Española the Spanish Civil War collection

Access Information: Access on or off campus
Description:

The collection contains a wealth of primary materials documenting the Spanish Republican period (1931-1939), the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and the post-War era of Franco’s rule (1939-1975).  The collection’s greatest strengths are the Civil War itself and the immediate post-War years of the 1940s. Included are publications by Republicans, Falangists, Catholics, anarchists, communists, socialists, agrarian reformers, and regional political parties, as well as Spanish exiles and partisans outside Spain.

Coverage: 1931 to 1940s

 

 

 

Historical Statistics of the United States : Millennial edition online

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

The standard source for the quantitative facts of American history.  This resource brings together 37,000 data series on topics ranging from migration to health, education and crime. Custom tables can be created, and data downloaded in Excel and csv format

 

Historical Texts

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Historical Texts brings together four historically significant collections into a single database search platform: Early English Books Online (EEBO), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), 65,000 texts from the British Library 19th Century Collection and the UK Medical Heritage Library collection (UKMHL). For descriptions of and alternative access to EEBO and ECCO, see their separate entries in this Database A-Z list. The British Library 19th Century Collection offers over 65,000 recently digitised editions during 1789-1914, many of which are previously rare and inaccessible titles. The UK Medical Heritage Library collection (1800-1900’s) contains the images and full text of over 66,000 19th century European medical publications. The UKMHL visualisations are available on a separate platform

Coverage: 1473 to early 1910s
 

History of Feminism (Routledge)

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

History of Feminism is a new online platform that brings together the best and most relevant scholarship from Taylor & Francis, its imprints, and its authors. It is the first part of the new Routledge Historical Resources online programme that will provide both academics and students with an in depth research tool for studying the long Nineteenth Century through thematic collections in areas such as Feminism, the History of Economic Thought, Romanticism and Empire. This resource covers the fascinating subject of feminism over the long nineteenth century (1776–1928). It contains an extensive range of primary and secondary resources, including full books, selected chapters, and journal articles, as well as new thematic essays, and subject introductions on its structural themes:

  • Politics and Law
  • Religion and Belief
  • Education
  • Literature and Writings
  • Women at Home
  • Society and Culture
  • Empire
  • Movements and Ideologies
 

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description: The 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers contains bibliographic records and searchable full text for papers printed between 1688-2014. It also includes Hansard 1803-2005.
Further information: The collection does not include the House of Commons Journal, or daily business papers, such as Order papers and Votes and Proceedings, nor does it include Acts.  User guide located at http://proquest.libguides.com/parliamentary
Note: Access to 2015-2020 content is available until 31 July 2023.
 

House of Lords Parliamentary Papers (1800-1910)

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

The House of Lords Parliamentary Papers (1800-1910) is an essential research resource that, along with the existing House of Commons Parliamentary Papers database, provides a complete picture of the working and influence of the UK Parliament during the pivotal 19th century. As the working documents of government, the papers encompass wide areas of social, political, economic and foreign policy, and many contributors were found outside the official world – providing evidence to committees and commissions during a time when the Lords still wielded considerable power.

The Library already has access to the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers and the two databases are cross-searchable.

Further information: User guide located at http://proquest.libguides.com/parliamentary

 

Independent Labour Party Records, 1893-1960

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British left-wing political party founded in 1893. The ILP was affiliated with the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932. This collection contains minute books, annual reports, committee reports, conference resolutions, and weekly notes for speakers from the party's archive. These documents cover a wide range of subjects, from questions of war and peace to housing and trade unionism. They provide an excellent insight into the early years of the Labour movement in Britain.

 

Access Information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The documents in this collection include every exhibit released by the official investigations of the Iran-Contra Affair, including the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Tower Commission, the joint select Congressional committees, and the Independent Counsel. Iran-Contra focuses on the period from Fall 1983, when Congress first put limits on official U.S. assistance to the Contras, to the criminal indictments of Oliver North, Richard Secord, and Albert Hakim in Spring 1988.

 

Access Information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The collection brings together a wealth of materials which trace U.S. policy toward Iraq prior to the Persian Gulf War, as well as U.S. government reactions to revelations about the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) scandal and the secret arming of Saddam Hussein's regime. The set also focuses on the economic issues at play in the U.S. relationship with Iraq. Documents are derived from virtually every federal agency involved in U.S.-Iraq policy and the BNL affair.

 

JFK's Foreign Affairs and International Crises, 1961-1963

Access: Access on and off campus.
Description: This collection provides insight into President Kennedy’s views and actions on The Bay of Pigs, Support of Third World countries, Nuclear weapons and testing, NATO and the Multilateral Force in Europe, The international space race, and more.

 

The John Johnson Collection

Access: Access on and off campus.
Description: The John Johnson Collection is a unique collection of printed ephemera scanned in colour by ProQuest in partnership with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England. Housed in the Bodleian Library, the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera is widely recognized as one of the most important collections of printed ephemera in the world and generally regarded as the most significant single collection of ephemera in the UK. The ProQuest digitized version is a selection from the full collection, drawn from five subject areas: crimes, murders, and executions; advertising; booktrade; nineteenth-century entertainment; and popular prints. The John Johnson Collection is a great source for studying Britain's cultural, social, industrial, and technological heritage.

 

Kenya Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports, 1907-1964

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The colony of Kenya was managed by the government departments who wrote these A1:F79 reports. They start when Kenya was a part of the East Africa Colony and continue until independence. The statistics for Kenya are included in Colonial Africa in official statistics, 1821-1953. These reports explain why those statistics are at the levels recorded. The contents pages at the front of each report list the departments which existed at that time. Comparing the contents pages reveals how the structure of the colonial government changed over time.

 

Access Information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

This collection documents Kissinger's conversations with top officials in the Nixon and Ford administrations, senior officials as well as noted journalists, ambassadors, and business leaders close to the White House.

Topics range widely, including detente with Moscow, the Vietnam War, the Jordanian crisis (1970), rapprochement with China, the Middle East negotiations, U.S.- European relations, U.S-Japan relations, the Cyprus crisis, and the unfolding Watergate crisis.

 

Access: Access on and off campus.
Description: These documents cover Kissinger's time in office as National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State. Some three quarters of the 2,163 declassified documents in this collection were produced by Kissinger and his assistants on the National Security Council Staff. Even after Kissinger became Secretary of State, he relied on the NSC system for keeping meeting records, especially of the most sensitive matters such as relations with Beijing and Moscow, Middle East diplomacy, or meetings with the president.
Coverage: 1969-1977

 

Access information: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description:

This resource gives rich insight into the efforts of the Executive Branch of U.S. government to reach out to the burgeoning Latino population during the last 2 years of the Carter Administration. Major topics covered in this collection include inflation, bilingual education, police brutality, political unrest in Latin America, Haitian refugees, and immigration (legal and otherwise), Puerto Rican self-determination, and the U.S. Navy’s use of Vieques Island. Latino Civil Rights during the Carter Administration also documents some of the most important Latino organizations of the time, including LULAC, TELACU, La Raza, the Puerto Rican Legal Defence and Education Fund, the Mexican American Legal Defence and Education Fund, and the American G.I. Forum.

 

Literary Print Culture : The Stationers’ Company Archive

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Access on and off campus

Description: Explore this unique archive relating to the history of printing, publishing and bookselling dating from 1554 to the 21st century. The Stationers’ Company was a key agent in the process by which the book trade was regulated and monitored and thus it is widely regarded as one of the most important sources for studying the history of the book, publishing history, the history of copyright and the workings of an early London Livery Company. 

 

The Mafia in Florida and Cuba: FBI surveillance of Meyer Lansky and Santo Trafficante, Jr.

Access Information: Access on or off campus
Description:

This collection comprises materials on Santo Trafficante, Jr., Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano, including FBI surveillance and informant reports and correspondence from a variety of offices including, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, New York City, New Orleans, Atlanta, New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago; Justice Department memoranda, correspondence, and analyses; Newsclippings and articles; Domestic Intelligence Section reports; Transcriptions of wiretaps, typewriter tapes, and coded messages; Memoranda of conversations.

Coverage: 1946-1977

 

 

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The Making of Modern Law is the world's most comprehensive full-text collection of British Commonwealth and American legal treatises from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It allows for full text searching of more than 21,000 works from casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, speeches and more.

 

Malawi Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports, 1907-1967

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: This collection contains annual reports compiled by the British colonial government of Nyasaland (modern day Malawi). The documents cover the period from the dissolution of the Central African Protectorate in 1907 to Malawi’s declaration of independence and beyond. The Annual Departmental Reports provide a unique insight into the colonial administration’s evolving attitude towards native power structures. For convenience, the documents are divided into nine sections. These are Administration, Finance, Judicial and Police, Natural Resources (1), Natural Resources (2), Social Services, Transport and Public Works, Communication and Post Office Savings, and Miscellaneous.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus
Description: This archive contains papers on everyday life in Britain (from the Mass-Observation social research organisation. The material is especially rich on life in Britain during the Second World War. Based at the University of Sussex.
Coverage: 1937 to 1967
 

Mass Observation Project, 1981-2009

Access information:

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Description:

Launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, its founders' aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. Still growing, it is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK. This collection consists of the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation between 1980 and 2010 and the thousands of responses to them from the hundreds of Mass Observers. 

 

 

Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

This digital research source from Adam Matthew provides you with access to a huge range of primary sources covering social, cultural, political, scientific and religious perspectives, from the 15th to early 18th centuries. The breadth of sources provided within this collection is extensive, from sources concerning the Black Death to the Restoration of the English monarchy and the Glorious Revolution. Includes illuminated manuscripts, personal papers, diaries and journals, correspondence, rare books, receipt books, account books and manuscript sheet music.

 

Medieval Family Life

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

Medieval Family Life - The Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh Papers.  This resource contains full colour images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise these family letter collections along with full text searchable transcripts from the printed editions, where they are available. The original images and the transcriptions can be viewed side by side.  Along with the letter collections themselves there are many additional features useful for teaching and research. These include:  A chronology, a visual sources gallery, an interactive map, a glossary, family trees and links to other scholarly free to access digital resources useful for researching the medieval period.

Coverage:

Medieval Family Life (MFL) is a collection of manuscripts from c1400-1490.  See contents list (.csv file).

 

MEMSO 

Access information:

Use VPN for off campus access, the publisher is experiencing technical difficulties with it's Shibboleth set up. 30/8/22

Access and off campus.

Description: Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO) is an essential resource for the study of Britain and its place in the world during the medieval and early modern period (c. 1100-1800). MEMSO contains a large repository of state papers, chronicles, accounts and correspondence from the archives of Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. Books and manuscripts are added to the database weekly. Printed sources are complemented by a collection of original manuscript images taken from the English State Papers held at the National Archives in London. The manuscripts are arranged for easy viewing, and are linked with corresponding printed sources wherever possible.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Migration to New Worlds explores the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia. From government-led population drives during the early nineteenth century through to mass steamship travel, it showcases unique primary source material recounting the many and varied personal experiences of migration. Most material comes from the period 1800-1924, the ‘Century of Immigration’, but there is some earlier and later material included as well. Explore Colonial Office files on emigration, diaries and travel journals, ship logs and plans, printed literature, objects, watercolours, and oral histories.

 

Access information: On campus or off campus.
Description: Missionary Studies is a global resource for the study of missionary work, educational work, medical work, evangelism, political conflict, and the emergence of indigenous churches. Formed from archival collections relating to Africa, East and South Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, and the Americas, it includes records of female missionaries and women’s missionary organisations.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The British Politics and Society archive of Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) is packed with primary source documentation that enhances a greater understanding and analysis of the development of urban centers and of the major restructuring of society that took place during the Industrial Revolution. The archive is composed of a number of individual collections, drawn together from a variety of sources.

 

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: The Corvey Collection of European Literature, 1790-1840

Access information:

Access on or off campus.

Description:

As part of the Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO), this unique collection of monographs includes 7,717 works in English, 6,504 in French and 3,640 in German published in Britain and on the Continent during the Romantic period and the early Victoria era. Sourced from Castle Corvey in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the Corvey Collection is one of the most important collections of works from the period in existence, with particular strength in especially difficult-to-find or even previously unknown works – by women writers in particular. The collection’s vast archive of materials documents the nature and scope of literary publication in England and on the Continent during the Romantic period and the early years of the Victorian era. Scholars can research and explore a range of topics, including Romantic literary genres; mutual influences of British, French and German Romanticism; literary culture; women writers of the period; the canon and Romantic aesthetics.

Coverage:

1790-1840

 

Access information Access on and off campus
Description This project provides complete FCO 7 and FCO 82 files from The National Archives, Kew, for the entire period of the Nixon administration, 1969-1974.

 

Access Information: Open access
Description: The database provides transcriptions of Olive Schreiner’s more than 4800 extant letters located in archives across Europe, the US and South Africa, with detailed editorial notes and background information, thanks to the Olive Schreiner Letters Project (http://www.oliveschreinerletters.ed.ac.uk/). The letters are fully searchable with free text or with the Boolean search method. Transcriptions include every insertion and deletion as well as the main text. Guides to the archival locations of all her letters are also available.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The electronic version of the celebrated Registres et lettres des Papes du XIIIe siecle (32 vols.; Rome, 1883- ) and the Registres et lettres des Papes du XIV e siecle (48 vols.; Rome, 1899- ). Complemented with unpublished information. More than 220,000 documents providing insights into the most varied aspects of medieval society. A valuable resource for researchers of artistic patronage, this database will be useful for History of Art, Divinity and History researchers.
 
Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) remains the best-known of the Chamberlain family due to his controversial policy of "appeasement" towards Hitler. The Papers of Neville Chamberlain contain political papers documenting his policies as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister, but also highlight his personal correspondence with his family. These provide insight into the intentions behind his policies, his concerns at the development of the Second World War, as well as letters covering his life together with his wife Annie and his sisters, particularly Hilda and Ida. The correspondence of his wife with his biographer and the handling of his estates following his death can be found in this collection as well.

 

Parliament Rolls of Medieval England

Access Information: Access on or off campus
Description:

The rolls of parliament were the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272 - 1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485 - 1509), after which they were superseded by the journals of the lords and, somewhat later, of the commons. The rolls, which amount in total to over four million words, were first edited in the eighteenth century and published in 1783 in six folio volumes entitled Rotuli Parliamentorum ( RP ) under the general editorship of the Reverend John Strachey.

Coverage: 1272-1509

 

 

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Digital facsimiles of over 230 manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, sourced from 15 libraries and archives in the UK and North America.
  These early modern women authors were otherwise little known because their writing exists only in manuscript form. Manscript content includes works of poetry, drama, religious writing, autobiographical material, cookery and medical recipes, and accounts.
  Contains biographical and bibliographical resources, as well as contextual essays by academics working in the field.
Coverage: 16th -17th centuries.

 

Access: Access on and off campus.
Description: These files represent a large portion of the archives of the British-run municipal police force based in Shanghai's former International Settlement. This self-governing area was administered not by the Chinese but by the international group of merchants and bankers who paid the taxes and controlled the municipal council. The Special Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Police was charged with providing an orderly environment for Shanghai's foreign trade and commerce.
Coverage: 1894-1945

 

Access Information: Access on and off campus
Description: Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt through to Richard M. Nixon all secretly recorded many of their conversations in the Oval Office. The resulting 5,000 hours of telephone and meeting tape recorded during their time in the White House capture some of the most significant moments in modern American political history. From Birmingham to Berlin, from Medicare to My Lai, from Selma to SALT, and from Watts to Watergate, the presidential recordings offer a unique window into the shaping of U.S. domestic and foreign policy. This history is now accessible via the Presidential Recordings Digital Edition (PRDE), the online portal for annotated transcripts of the White House tapes published by the Presidential Recordings Program (PRP). The transcripts are presented in PRDE alongside the corresponding audio, enabling users to read and listen to these conversations simultaneously. The database currently has recordings and transcripts from Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon and the site is updated regularly.
 

ProQuest Congressional

Access information:

Access on or off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

Description:

ProQuest Congressional offers a comprehensive collection of congressional documents from 1789 to the present. This primary source collection offers you an opportunity to understand the present by comparing today’s events and opinions with trends and patterns throughout our nation’s history. The Library has access to the following collections through ProQuest Congressional:

  • Congressional Basic.
  • Congressional Hearings Digital Collection Historical Archive, Parts A-C (1824-2010).
  • Congressional House and Senate Unpublished Hearings, Parts A-C (1973-1992).
  • Congressional Record Permanent Digital Collection, Parts A-D (1789-2009).
  • Congressional Research Digital Collection Historical Archive, Parts A-B (1830-2010).
  • Digital U.S. Bills and Resolutions, 1789-2013.
  • Executive Branch Documents, Parts 1-6 (1789-1952).
  • Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations, 1789-Present.
  • U.S. Serial Set 1 Digital Collection, 1789-1969.
  • U.S. Serial Set 2 Digital Collection, Parts A-D (1970-2010).
  • U.S. Serial Set  Maps Digital Collection Complete.
Coverage: 1789 - present.
 

Prosecuting the Holocaust: British investigations into Nazi war crimes, 1944-1949

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

Drawn from The National Archives (UK) and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this collection contains a wealth of digitised documents regarding the British government's efforts to investigate and prosecute Nazi crimes during the period 1944-1949. The evidence gathered sheds light on almost every aspect of the Holocaust and includes victim testimonies.

 
Access information: Free access to UK universities.
Description: Queen Victoria’s Journals reproduces every page of the surviving volumes of Queen Victoria’s journals as high-resolution colour images, along with separate photographs of the many illustrations and inserts within the pages. In total 141 volumes have been digitised.
  The journals are a key primary source for scholars of 19th Century British political and social history, and for those working on gender and autobiographical writing.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus
Description: This resources includes important primary sources, offering insight into many aspects of the conflict, including government policy, the war in the Pacific, and the war in Europe. Sources include the records of the Special Operations Executive; and private papers of American General Robert L Eichelberger, from the Pacific war.

Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) – by Wiley Digital Archives

Access information:

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Description:

The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) digital archive contains more than 150,000 maps, charts and atlases complemented by manuscripts, field notes, expedition reports.  Includes primary source material related to colonization, de-colonization, British Empire, polar and desert expeditions.  

Scottish nationalist leaflets, 1844-1973

Access information:

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Description:

From British Online Archives many of the pamphlets included in this collection were printed by the Scottish National Party and its predecessors. Authors include Archie Lamont, Hugh MacDiarmid, and William Mitchell. These items contain research and policy proposals for how an independent Scotland might manage financially. They also contain both a pamphlet of nationalist songs and a history of the nationalist movement which was printed in 1853. The idea of using of oil wealth to support an independent Scotland can be traced back to the 1970s. Questions about how the European Union might affect independence also date back to these papers.

 

Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War

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Description:

This collection provides full-text searchable, digital access to 4,500 primary source British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files spanning 1873 to 1953, with a particular focus from 1936 onwards. Spanning four key 20th century conflicts, the material enables research into intelligence, foreign policy, international relations, and military history in the period of Appeasement, the Second World War, and the early years of the Cold War.

Representing the complete digitisation of material up to 1953 from across nine file series from The National Archives UK, Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War provides a unique three-tiered intelligence insight into world history over the critical years of the 1930s to 1950s through its juxtaposition of Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee papers with MI6 operations case files and decoded signals intelligence from Bletchley Park. Together, these files provide new insights into key 20th century events, international relations and conflicts across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America and beyond, and enable an almost day-by-day, in-depth study of the Second World War. Teaching resources include:

  • File Series Descriptions.
  • an extensive list of Key People and Key Organisations men.

 

Sex and Sexuality

Access information:

Access on and off-campus

Description:

Sex & Sexuality covers a broad range of topics and is drawn from leading archives around the world. From papers of leading sexologists to LGBTQI+ personal histories, the collection is an essential resource for the study of human sexuality, its complexities and its history. Module I is sourced solely from the renowned Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections.  The Library has purchased access to Module I. There is a second module, Module II: Self-Expression, Community and Identity, which the Library does not have access to.

 

The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 – 1974

Access information:

Access on and off campus.  The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

Description:

This digital archive brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. With 125,000 pages of text and 50 hours of video at completion, this searchable collection is the definitive electronic resource for students and scholars researching this important period in American history, culture, and politics.

 

Slavery: supporters and abolitionists, 1675-1865

Access information:

Access on campus or off campus. For off campus access please use the University VPN - Access to the University network via the VPN.

Description:

Containing over 28,000 digitised pages this database contains a wide range of documents concerning the African slave trade during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The papers focus primarily on Jamaica and the West Indies, but also cover the experience of other nations and regions. Through a combination of statistics, correspondence, pamphlets, and memoirs, they offer insights into the commercial and colonial dimensions of slavery and the views of its advocates and opponents.

 

South Asia Commons

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Access on and off campus.

Description:

The South Asia Commons (formerly South Asia Archive) is a specialist digital platform providing global electronic access to culturally and historically significant literary material produced from within, and about, the South Asian region.  Contains millions of pages of digitized primary and secondary material in a mix of English and vernacular languages dating back to the start of the 18th Century, up to the mid-20th Century.  Contains Journals, Reports, Books,  Legislation documents and Indian Film Booklets.

 

Access Information: Access on and off campus
Description: This one-of-a-kind collection provides online access to a select group of South Asian newspapers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring English-, Gujarati- and Bengali-language papers published in India, in the regions of the Subcontinent that now comprise Pakistan, and in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). South Asian Newspapers offers extensive coverage of the people, issues and events that shaped the Indian Subcontinent between 1864 and 1922.

 

Stalin Digital Archive

Access Information: Access on or off campus
Description:

The Stalin Digital Archive (SDA) contains primary and secondary source material related to Joseph Stalin's personal biography, his work in government, and his conduct of foreign affairs. A majority of these documents are scanned page images and corresponding bibliographic records in Russian created by the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI). The archive also contains full transcriptions of all of the volumes in Yale University Press's acclaimed Annals of Communism (AOC) series..

Coverage: Documents written by Stalin from 1889-1952, over 300 books from Stalin's personal library with his marginal notes. Stalin's biographical materials, correspondence, as well as 188 maps with Stalin's hand-written markings.

 

 

 
Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: This collection covers - the Tudors: Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509 - 1603: State Papers Foreign, Ireland, Scotland, Borders and Registers of the Privy Council.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: A free version of the service may be used by clicking the "non-academic login" button. The two Statistical Accounts of Scotland, covering the 1790s and the 1830s, are among the best contemporary reports of life during the agricultural and industrial revolutions in Europe.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus. 
Description: This digital resource documents the liberation struggles in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, including archival materials, periodicals, oral histories, books, and photographs. Struggles for Freedom brings together materials from various archives and libraries throughout the world documenting colonial rule, dispersion of exiles, international intervention, and the worldwide networks that supported successive generations of resistance within the region.

 

The Stuart and Cumberland Papers (State Papers Online)

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Description:

This online archive brings together two distinct but historically related collections: The Stuart Papers, the papers of the exiled James II, and VII in Scotland, and his heirs; and the Cumberland Papers, the papers of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, second son of George II and military commander of the British Army. Both collections have been digitised for the first time for this archive and the originals are held in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.

 

Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement

Access information: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description: This resource has key collections offering new opportunities for research on the 1960s through the lens of two influential anti-war organizations. In its heyday, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) emphasized participatory democracy, community building, and creating a political movement of impoverished people. As U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War escalated, SDS became involved in the anti-war movement, before splintering and disbanding by 1970. Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) organized major national protests, including Operation Dewey Canyon III (1971), which catapulted VVAW to a position of leadership within the antiwar movement. Following Dewey Canyon, an ideological split led to a decline in membership; however, VVAW survived to the end of the Vietnam War by focusing on veterans' benefits and, after 1987, on the Agent Orange health issue. In addition to the SDS and VVAW collections, this module contains documents of 10 other anti-Vietnam War organizations.
Coverage: 1958-1987.

 

Tanzania and Malawi in records from colonial missionaries, 1857-1965

Access information:

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Description:

Containing over 54,000 digitised pages from Bodleian's Commonwealth and African manuscripts and archives, this database contains documents relating to the UMCA’s (Universities’ Mission to Central Africa) activities in Tanzania and Malawi during the period 1857-1965. The papers provide an insight into the spread of Christianity in Central Africa. Made up of 5 volumes it includes ‘Central Africa’ magazine, missionaries’ correspondence and journals as well as miscellaneous correspondence, press cuttings, books and conference papers.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description:

An archival research resource containing a vast collection of rare magazines by and for servicemen and women of all nations during the First World War. Over 1,500 periodicals written and illustrated by serving members of the armed forces and associated welfare organisations published between 1914 and the end of 1919 are included. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover, in full colour or greyscale, and with granular indexing of all articles and specialist indexing of Publications.

Coverage: 1914 - 1919

 

Uganda Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports, 1903-1961

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The colony of Uganda was managed by the government departments who wrote these progress reports. Some reports start in the 1900’s, but most reports cover from the 1920’s until independence. These reports explain why those statistics are at the levels recorded. The contents pages at the front of each report list the departments which existed at that time. Comparing the contents pages reveals how the structure of the colonial government changed over time.

 

U.S. Declassified Documents Online

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description: This database provides access to previously classified documents that were used to develop and implement U.S. domestic and foreign policy and deal with events and crises. The comprehensive compilation of declassified documents comes from presidential libraries, the Department of State, Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United Nations, National Security Council, and other executive agencies.

 

U.S. Policy in the Vietnam War, Part I: 1954-1968

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

This collection documents the deadliest conflict in modern U.S. history prior to the current war against terrorism. The goal was to assemble both classic and relatively well-known documentary sources as well as the most recent declassified materials, making a single comprehensive resource for primary substantive research on the Vietnam conflict. The principal focus of this collection is on the period of the Vietnam War between 1961 and 1968.

 

U.S. Policy in the Vietnam War, Part II: 1969-1975

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

This is the most important compilation of documents available on the final phase of the Vietnam War. Incorporating newly released documents, virtually all previously classified, it covers all the major issues from the period, including diplomatic, military, and intelligence aspects of the Vietnam war during the period of the Nixon and Ford administrations.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930. The resource is divided into four self-contained sections, covering: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; and Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema.
Coverage: 1779-1930

 

Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy 

Access information: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description: Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy covers the U.S. involvement in the region from the early days of the Kennedy administration, through the escalation of the war during the Johnson administration, to the final resolution of the war at the Paris Peace Talks and the evacuation of U.S. troops. Along the way, documents in this module trace the actions and decisions at the highest levels of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus, as well as events on the ground in Vietnam, from the perspective of State Department officials, Associated Press reporters, and members of the U.S. Armed forces, including the Marines and the Military Assistance Command Vietnam.
Coverage: 1960-1975.

 

Access: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description: Women and Social Movements in the United States,1600-2000 is a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, this collection seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding about U.S. women’s history generally and at the same time make those insights accessible to teachers and students at universities, colleges, and high schools. The collection currently includes 124 document projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools.

 

Access: Access on and off campus.
Description: The First World War had a revolutionary and permanent impact on the personal, social and professional lives of all women. Their essential contribution to the war in Europe is fully documented in this collection of primary source materials sourced from the Imperial War Museum, London. These unique documents — charity and international relief reports, pamphlets, photographs and press cuttings — are published here for the first time in fully searchable form, along with interpretative essays from leading scholars. Together these documents form a resource for the study of 20th century social, political, military and gender history.
Coverage: 1914-1918.

 

World Heritage Sites : Africa

Access information: Access on and off-campus. JSTOR are providing institutions with free access to the World Heritage Sites: Africa database through June 30th, 2022.
Description:

World Heritage Sites: Africa is a versatile collection of more than 86,000 objects of visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage and rock art sites. This collection aids researchers in African studies, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art history, geography, history, and literature, as well as those focused on geomatics, historic preservation, urban planning, and visual and spatial technologies.

 

World War I: Records of the American Expeditionary Forces, and Diplomacy in the World War I Era

Access information: Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description: This resource offers extensive documentation on the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I as well as materials on U.S. intelligence operations and the post-war peace process. AEF documents consist of correspondence, cablegrams, operations reports, statistical strength reports and summaries of intelligence detailing troop movements and operations of Allied and enemy forces. The vast majority of the AEF documents date from April 26, 1917 - July 2, 1919.
Coverage: 1915-1927.

 

Zimbabwe Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports, 1897-1980

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Description: This collection contains annual reports by successive colonial administrations in Rhodesia. It ranges from the period of corporate colonisation in the late 19th century right through to the creation of an independent Zimbabwean republic in 1980. The documents provide an overview of the evolution of colonial rule from the perspective of colonial administrators. They highlight their response to early anti-colonial resistance such as the Shona and Ndeble Risings of 1896-1897. The records also highlight the difficulties caused by the Smith government’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 and ensuing decades of white minority rule.