InfoGuides: British/United Kingdom-Western European History Core Sources: Access Specialized Archival Collections

About These Resources

The resources on this page represent digitized primary source collections either from a special or digital collection focused on a specific topic or theme. The vast majority of material found in special collections exists only in print.

Each of the resources here is unique. Consult the About page or Help file to discover what each contains and tips for locating items within the collection

Selected Archival Sources

Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Collection encompasses publications from the Church Missionary Society and the South American Missionary Society. Documenting missionary work from the 19th to the 21st century, the database includes news, journals and reports offering an insight into the history of the societies, protestant missions across the world and cultural encounter from the Victorian era to the contemporary age. Note: Includes: Module I: Global Missions and Contemporary Encounters, 1804-2009; and Module II: Medical Journals, Asian Missions and the Historical Record, 1816-1986.
Colonial America This link opens in a new window
Collection of manuscript and printed material from the archive of the British government in London. Covering the period 1606 to 1822, this digital resource consists of the complete series of Colonial Office (CO) 5 files – the original correspondence between London and the American colonial governments. The documents shed light on political, economic, military, cultural and social aspects of life in colonial America. Modules I-III covering 1606-1799 are available. Tutorial for the Colonial America database.
Defining Gender This link opens in a new window
Collection of digitized primary sources depicting gender in British history, literature, society, and culture. Material types include ephemera, pamphlets, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, manuscript journals, government papers, illustrated writings on anatomy, writings on midwifery, art and fashion publications, receipt books, conduct and advice literature, poetry, novels, ballads, drama, literary manuscripts, and travel writing. View a tutorial on this database here.
Eighteenth Century Drama: Censorship and the Stage This link opens in a new window
Features the John Larpent Archival Collection from the Huntington Library which includes over 2,500 digital facsimile of almost every play submitted for license in England between 1737 and 1824. The collection also includes two major reference sources, The London Stage, 1660-1800 and A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. View a tutorial on this database here.
Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
Collection of unique and rare periodicals representing the wide range of English language print culture in the 18th century. Journals from the United Kingdom and its then-colonies, including United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and India are represented. A wide variety of subjects are addressed in these periodicals. Coverage: 1685 – 1835. Note: Includes: Modules I – V. View a tutorial on this database here.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.
Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1980 This link opens in a new window
Complete British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980, covering important historical events in modern Chinese history. Coverage: 1919 – 1980. View a tutorial on this database here.
Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980 This link opens in a new window
Collection of files from the Foreign Office (later the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and Dominions Office focuses on the political and social history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coverage: 1947 – 1980. View a tutorial on this database here.
Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1981 This link opens in a new window
Resource for primary source documents covering the events in the Middle East during the 1970s. Includes diplomatic correspondence, minutes, reports, political summaries and personality profiles. Note: Includes: Module I: 1971-1974, The 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Oil Crisis. Coverage: 1971 – 1974. View a tutorial on this database here.
Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement and Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents covering the lives of settlers and indigenous peoples in the European and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa and Australasia. Through an array of digitized primary source materials it documents the creation of new states, trade networks, and movements of people in these regions alongside the marginalization and decline of indigenous peoples. Material ranges across four centuries, from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century.
Tutorial for Frontier Life database.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
Contains primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. It focuses on the history of 15 major commodities, and examines the ways that they have changed the world. In addition to historical documents, collection provides users with visual resources, such as thematic galleries, data and maps, and a searchable chronology.
View a tutorial on this database here.
Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
Collection of primary and secondary resources, including writings, artworks, photographs, and maps for the study of travel. Coverage: 1550 – 1850. View a tutorial on this database here.
India, Raj and Empire This link opens in a new window
Primary source materials depicting, from a British colonial perspective, the history of South Asia (primarily India) between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947. Material types include diaries and journals, official and private papers, letters, sketches, paintings, histories, and literary works. View a tutorial on this database here.
Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture: The History of Mass Tourism This link opens in a new window
Provides digital access to documents relating to the evolution of British and American working class tourism from c.1850 to 1980. It includes access to guidebooks and brochures, periodicals, travel agency correspondence, photographs, personal travel journals posters, and ephemeral items. Coverage: 1850 – 1980. View a tutorial on this database here.
Perdita Manuscripts This link opens in a new window
Provides digital access to manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the 16th and 17th centuries, sourced from archives and libraries across the United Kingdom and the US. Coverage: 1500 – 1700.
Archives of Sexuality and Gender This link opens in a new window
Collection of historical primary source publications relating to the history and study of sex, sexuality, gender research and gender studies research. Materials span the sixteenth to twentieth-first centuries. Documentation covering disciplines such as social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) communities around the world are included, as well as rare and unique books on sex and sexuality from the sciences to the humanities.

Collected Primary Sources By Topic

Colonial America This link opens in a new window
Collection of manuscript and printed material from the archive of the British government in London. Covering the period 1606 to 1822, this digital resource consists of the complete series of Colonial Office (CO) 5 files – the original correspondence between London and the American colonial governments. The documents shed light on political, economic, military, cultural and social aspects of life in colonial America. Modules I-III covering 1606-1799 are available. Tutorial for the Colonial America database.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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Provides an interactive research environment that allows researchers to cross-search multiple Gale collections including Eighteenth Century and Nineteenth Century collections, Making of Modern Law, and other Archives products and to discover and analyze content in new ways.
Bibliography of British and Irish History This link opens in a new window
An authoritative guide to what has been written about British and Irish History from the Roman period to the present day.
View a tutorial on this database here.

British History Online
Primary and secondary sources for the history of the British Isles, including:
»nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps
»journals of the House of Lords and House of Commons
»the Victoria County History of the counties of England,
»the Survey of London from English Heritage,
»calendars of state papers,
»letters, diaries and more.

British Literary Manuscripts Online This link opens in a new window
Presents facsimile images of literary manuscripts, including letters and diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels, and other literary works, and similar materials.
Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West's Response to Jewish Emigration This link opens in a new window
Collection of documents and images from the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR). IGCR was organized in London in August 1938 as a result of the Evian Conference of July 1938, which had been called by President Roosevelt to consider the problem of racial, religious, and political refugees from central Europe.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Provides access to unique primary source materials that document political reform and revolution, nationalism and nation building, the expansion of empire and colonialism, growing literacy and education, and the flowering of both popular and high culture.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Collects 50,000 illustrated biographies of the men and women who shaped British history and culture over a 2,500-year period. note: Updated three times per year in January, May, and September. View a tutorial on this database here.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window
Covers a wealth of subjects and themes, from Art and Architecture to Youth Culture. Source material includes: manuscripts and typescripts; printed materials (newspapers, magazines, press kits, artist's files); video clips; visual images (photographs, advertisements, memorabilia); ephemera (pamphlets, leaflets, posters, pins, artifacts); fanzines, underground press, scripts; and government files. View a tutorial on this database here.
Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new window
Collection offering a wide range of writings on the subject of witchcraft. Supplies texts in Latin, English and German, although there are also selected items in French, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch and Spanish.
World Shakespeare Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Search over 137,000 annotated entries consisting of Shakespeare-related scholarship and theatrical productions published or produced worldwide between 1960 and 2014. View a tutorial on this database here.

Colonial America This link opens in a new window
Collection of manuscript and printed material from the archive of the British government in London. Covering the period 1606 to 1822, this digital resource consists of the complete series of Colonial Office (CO) 5 files – the original correspondence between London and the American colonial governments. The documents shed light on political, economic, military, cultural and social aspects of life in colonial America. Modules I-III covering 1606-1799 are available. Tutorial for the Colonial America database.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
Contains primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. It focuses on the history of 15 major commodities, and examines the ways that they have changed the world. In addition to historical documents, collection provides users with visual resources, such as thematic galleries, data and maps, and a searchable chronology.
View a tutorial on this database here.

China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980 This link opens in a new window
Provides variety of original source material detailing China's interaction with the West, beginning with Macartney's first Embassy to China in 1793, and relating to the activities and observations of British and American diplomats, missionaries, business people and tourists in China between 1793 and 1980, together with rare periodicals, color paintings, maps, photographs and drawings. Tutorial for the China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980 database.
Colonial America This link opens in a new window
Collection of manuscript and printed material from the archive of the British government in London. Covering the period 1606 to 1822, this digital resource consists of the complete series of Colonial Office (CO) 5 files – the original correspondence between London and the American colonial governments. The documents shed light on political, economic, military, cultural and social aspects of life in colonial America. Modules I-III covering 1606-1799 are available. Tutorial for the Colonial America database.
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
Spans the full era of the modern European colonization of Africa, from the occupation of Algeria by France, through increasing British presence on the west African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope in the south, the Berlin Conference which set off the "Scramble for Africa", the high-water mark of economic exploitation of Africans in the Congo Free State, rivalries among European powers, and the era of withdrawal that followed the Second World War. Features 300 color maps.
Confidential Print: Middle East 1839-1969 This link opens in a new window
Covers a broad sweep of history from c .1839 to 1969, taking in the countries of the Arabian peninsula, the Levant, Iraq, Turkey and many of the former Ottoman lands in Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt and Sudan.
Early American Imprints Collection Series I (Evans) This link opens in a new window
Definitive primary source collection of research materials from the 17th and 18th century America. Collection contains digitized representations of all known existing books, pamphlets, & broadsides printed in the United States. View a tutorial on this database here.
Early American Imprints Collection Series II (Shaw-Shoemaker) This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text and full-page-image access to books, pamphlets, and broadsides published America in the early part of the 19th century. Features many state papers and government materials, including published reports; presidential letters and state and territorial resolutions. Based on "American Bibliography, 1801-1819" by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. View a tutorial on this database here.
Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. The project brings coherence to a wide range of published and unpublished accounts, including narratives, diaries, journals, and letters. Tutorial for Early Encounters in North America database.
European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 This link opens in a new window
Bibliography of works printed in Europe about the Americas. Covers the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of Native American peoples. Topics include commerce, discovery, various ethnic and national groups, Jesuits, piracy, and slavery. Tutorial for the European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 database.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window
Covers a wealth of subjects and themes, from Art and Architecture to Youth Culture. Source material includes: manuscripts and typescripts; printed materials (newspapers, magazines, press kits, artist's files); video clips; visual images (photographs, advertisements, memorabilia); ephemera (pamphlets, leaflets, posters, pins, artifacts); fanzines, underground press, scripts; and government files. View a tutorial on this database here.
Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new window
Collection offering a wide range of writings on the subject of witchcraft. Supplies texts in Latin, English and German, although there are also selected items in French, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch and Spanish.

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
Prehistory - Present. Selected transcriptions, facsimiles and translations of European primary historical documents.

Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West's Response to Jewish Emigration This link opens in a new window
Collection of documents and images from the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR). IGCR was organized in London in August 1938 as a result of the Evian Conference of July 1938, which had been called by President Roosevelt to consider the problem of racial, religious, and political refugees from central Europe.
Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new window
Collection offering a wide range of writings on the subject of witchcraft. Supplies texts in Latin, English and German, although there are also selected items in French, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch and Spanish.
International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) This link opens in a new window
Covers all aspects of the Middle Ages (450-1500) in Europe, Byzantium, and Russia; indexes journal articles and edited works (proceedings, festschriften, essay collections).
Tutorial for the International Medieval Bibliography database.

Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries This link opens in a new window
A virtual encyclopedia of over 35,000 tracks of music, spoken word, and natural and human-made sounds that includes recordings from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and archival audio collections of the Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and others. Browse by musical instrument, geographical area, or cultural group. View a tutorial on this database here.
BBC Shakespeare Plays This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the 37 Shakespeare plays produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985.
Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda This link opens in a new window
Collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba. Note: Access includes Module I: Wars & Revolutions.
View a tutorial on this database here.