Selected Digital Primary Sources for History

Spans more than 400 years of personal writings, such as diaries and letters, and brings together the voices of approximately 500 women from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Includes approximately 100,000 pages of primary materials.

Digital library based at University of London's Institute of Historical Research. Brings together material from the collections of libraries, archives, museums, and universities. Contains over 1,200 volumes of primary and secondary sources, from the medieval to the 20th century.

Sourced from the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library, this digital collection of English-language sources includes maps, colour paintings, photographs, and drawings. It contains records of major diplomatic missions to China, from the late 18th and early 19th century missions of Macartney and Amherst, to those of Nixon and Heath in the 20th century. Provides a fully-searchable access to the Chinese Recorder, a major Protestant missionary periodical, from 1867-1941.

Prepared by the archivists at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, England, the Churchill Archive brings together nearly a million documents amassed by Winston Churchill throughout his lifetime, including hand-written notes and private letters. The primary source content is augmented by an expanding range of pedagogical resources, secondary materials, as well as video and audio content.

Issued by Britain's Foreign Office (FO) and Colonial Office (CO), these documents range from one-page letters or telegrams to large volumes of text and treaties. All were circulated to leading officials in the FO, the Cabinet, and Heads of British missions abroad. Includes the entire classes: CO 880/1-32 North America, 1839-1914; CO 884/1-38 West Indies, 1826-1961; FO 414/1-278 North America 1824-1941; FO 461/1-13 America, 1942-1956; and FO 462/1-10 USA, 1947-1956.

Provides a gendered perspective on a vast body of original British source material useful for researchers in history, literature, sociology, and education. Includes contextual essays by leading scholars from Australia, Canada, the UK, and USA; the essays introduce the major themes of the project and provide direct links to sources. Sources include: ephemera, pamphlets, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, manuscript journals, poetry, receipt books, and conduct and advice literature.

Contains images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America, as well as English-language works printed elsewhere, from 1473–1700. Includes over 130,000 titles and more than 17 million scanned pages.

Based on the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC, 1475-1800), this resource contains images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, as well as English-language works printed elsewhere, from 1701-1800. It contains over 180,000 titles, including books, pamphlets, essays, and broadsides.

Digitized collection of rare 18th century newspapers and periodicals, selected to convey the evolution of the publishing world from 1685 to 1835. Includes content from the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; the British Library Newspapers; Cambridge University Library; Chetham's Library, Manchester; the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; Birmingham Central Library, and Liverpool John Moores University Library.

Online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas, and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th centuries. Includes 67,875 historical documents by 8,331 historical figures on subjects ranging from religious tolerance to animal rights, vulcanology to classical archeology, and economic modelling to celebrity culture. Features a biographical dictionary to facilitate internal browsing.

Spans five centuries, from 1492 to 1969, and charts the rise and fall of empires around the world. Sections include: Cultural Contacts (1492-1969); Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion and Empire; and Race, Class, and Colonialism (c1789-1969). This resource provides original documents and contextual essays to enable exploration of colonial history, politics, culture, and society. Cross-searchable with Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration, and Cultural Exchange.

Features a wealth of primary source materials for the study of the Great War, complemented by a range of contextual secondary sources. Includes 3 modules:
1. Personal Experiences (with letters, photographs, diaries, postcards, sheet music, etc.)
2. Propaganda and Recruitment (with aerial leaflets, atrocity propaganda, international posters, cartoons, etc.)
3. Visual Perspectives and Narratives (with material from the Imperial War Museum, including artwork, museum objects, film clips, etc.)

Sourced from the UK National Archives, this resource combines eye-witness accounts, regular reviews, and analyses; syntheses of newspaper articles, conference reports, and economic assessments; and synopses of key events, personalities, and developments relating to China from 1949-1956. It reflects the exchange of information between London, the British Embassy in Beijing, and consular outposts; it also reveals the ongoing dialogue between Britain, America, Europe, and the Commonwealth on issues relating to East Asia.

The single largest source for the study of women's history in the world, containing materials dated from 1543 to 1945, written in 15 languages, and originating from Continental Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand. Digitized contents include: books, pamphlets, and periodicals reflecting the evolution of feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights.

Focuses on 15 commodities with intertwined histories: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, oil, opium, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits. Commodities are documented by a range of primary materials: maps, photographs, objects, and rare books. Facilitates research through the themes of exploration and discovery, imperialism and monopoly, trade wars, economic geography, slavery, mass production, luxury, and the evolution of global branding.

Encompasses social, political, economic, and foreign policy. Reproduces Sessional Papers (also called 'Blue Books'); includes Bills, House Papers, and Command Papers. Contains the full text of Hansard, the Official Report of Debates in Parliament, in the House of Commons and House of Lords from 1803 to 2005.

Includes diaries and journals, official and private papers, letters, sketches, paintings, and Indian documents containing histories and literary works. It is relevant to study of the British Indian Empire's government, administration, and politics; the relationship between Britain and the British Indian Empire; and the relationship between the British Indian Empire and the Indian Princely States. It includes writings the of British administrators, Indian princes, soldiers, traders, missionaries, and explorers.

Contains colour images of rare books, ephemera, maps, and other materials relating to 19th and early 20th century London. Content is multi-disciplinary: literature, cultural studies, urban studies, social history, and the study of leisure and tourism. Includes fast literature; street ephemera (posters, advertising, playbills, ballads, etc.); and cartoons. Features Tallis’ Street Views of London, and Swell's Night Guides to London prostitution, gambling and drinking dens.

Sourced from the UK National Archives to provide direct access to high-level documents, this resource sheds new light on Britain's Anglo-American ties, the Cold War, decolonization, and Britain's relationship with the European Economic Community. Coverage includes: independence in African colonies, apartheid in South Africa, the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the aftermath of Suez and a new Middle East policy, and the foundation of the EEC by the Treaty of Rome.

Mass-Observation was a pioneering social research organization founded in 1937. It aimed to record everyday life in Britain by using approximately 500 untrained volunteer observers who either maintained diaries or replied to open-ended questionnaires. Some investigators were paid for anonymously recording conversations and behaviours at work, on the street, and at various public occasions, including sporting and religious events. This resource makes the project available in its entirety.

Only five major letter collections from 15th century England exist: those of the Paston, Stonor, Plumpton, Armburgh, and Cely families. These letter collections and associated manuscripts illustrate the world of the medieval family, and outline their business, relationships, trade, politics, and community.

Provides an extensive collection of manuscripts for the study of medieval travel writing. The core materials are collections of medieval manuscripts in libraries around the world, from the 13th to 16th centuries, as well as maps, images, bibliographies, and chronologies. This resource focuses on accounts of journeys to the Holy Land, India, and China; many images are in full colour. The original documents are in Latin, German, Spanish, Dutch, and English; includes relevant secondary texts of translations and editions.

Contains thousands of primary sources that relate to the long nineteenth century (approximately 1749-1984) sourced from world-wide collections across the globe, written in multiple languages, with geographic coverage spanning Africa, Continental Europe, East/South Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Content types include: monographs (books), manuscripts, newspapers, ephemera, photographs, statistics, and maps.

Part I includes pamphlets, letters, government files, and eye witness accounts of key events; underground magazines, including OZ and IT; and a rich collection of American fanzines and alternative press titles. Part II includes artist files, record company documents, chart lists, and posters from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; press kits and lobby cards for movies and television; the complete run of Gandalf’s Garden magazine; and video footage of key pop culture personalities.

An important portal for slavery and abolition studies. Contains documents and collections produced from 1490 to 2007, sourced from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. Topics include: the African Coast, the Middle Passage, the varieties of slave experience, religion, revolts, abolition, and legislation. Features case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba. Provides links to significant external online sources, approved by leading scholars.

Contains the manuscript papers of Secretary of State (i.e. the papers of the Monarch and government) such as: letters of the monarch and ambassadors, reports, treaties, petitions, warrants, etc.; letters received from other monarchs, ambassadors, and agents; and the personal papers of the government officials writing them. Coverage from Henry VIII in 1503 to George III in 1782. Each entry includes the Calendar of the Paper, the manuscript of the document, and the full citation.

Contains over 1,500 trench journal titles sourced from leading archives around the world, including those of the Imperial War Museums and The British Library, written by service people from every type of unit and every combatant nation. Most are journals from units based on the Western Front in France and Belgium; but there are also magazines from units serving on the Eastern Front in Gallipoli, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Britain, and America.

Examines the history of popular shows and exhibitions across Britain, America, and Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries from audience and professional perspectives. Composed of 4 modules covering big tops, carnivals, fairgrounds, and dime museums:
1. Spiritualism, Sensation, and Magic
2. Circuses, Sideshows, and Freaks
3. Music Hall, Theatre, and Popular Entertainment
4. Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments, and the Advent of Cinema

Essential for the study of the Atlantic World and the early colonial period, this resource documents the founding and economic development of Virginia, as seen through the papers of the Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624.