History Subject Guide

• This digital archive contains British newspapers from the 17th and 18th centuries, offering invaluable historical insights into various aspects of British society, politics, and culture during that period.

• Primary source material pertaining to the British fascist movement led by Oswald Mosley covering 1933-1951. 

• Unique manuscript material relating to the activities and observations of British and American diplomats, missionaries, business people, and tourists in China from 1793 to 1980. Includes rare periodicals, colour paintings, maps, photographs and drawings.

• Access to primary source materials that explore gender roles and relations from the 15th to the early 20th century. Includes manuscripts, printed works, and rare documents that provide insight into the social, cultural, and historical aspects of gender. 

• English literature and historical texts from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Includes early printed books as well as pamphlets, sermons, and more.

• A collection of printed works from the 18th century. Includes books, pamphlets, and essays covering a wide range of subjects from the Enlightenment era.

• Rare printed British journals, periodicals and newspapers of the eighteenth century. All items are full text searchable.

• Access to primary sources, including documents, periodicals, and manuscripts, related to British colonial and imperial history.

• Primary source materials spanning British history from the early medieval period to the 20th century, includes government records, legal documents, letters, charters, and other historical texts.

• A primary source database that explores the history of frontier regions, borderlands, and colonial encounters from the 16th to the 20th centuries. It provides access to manuscripts, maps, and other documents that detail the experiences of settlers, indigenous peoples, and colonial powers.

• A collection of historical documents from the British Parliament that includes reports, debates, and other parliamentary materials from the 18th century to the present.

• This set of online journals includes 10 consecutive years of the following 6 British journals from the 18th and 19th century: The Annual Register (1758-1778), Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1843-1863), The Builder (1843-1852), Gentleman's Magazine (1731-1750), Notes and Queries (1849-1869) and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1757-1777).

• This video collection explores LGBTQ+ history, culture, and identity. It features documentaries, interviews, and archival footage, providing a rich resource for studying gender, sexuality, and queer theory.

• A unique collection of primary source materials from the Mass Observation Project, which documented everyday life in Britain from the 1930s to the 1950s. This database includes personal diaries, surveys, and reports, offers insights into British social history, cultural attitudes, and daily life during a transformative period.

• A specialized database providing access to a collection of travel narratives, exploration accounts, and geographic descriptions from the medieval period. 

• A collection of historical documents related to slavery, abolition movements, and social justice. 

• A complete digital repository of The Times newspaper, providing access to its complete archive from 1785 to 1985. This database offers a rich historical record of global and local events, including detailed news reports, editorials, and advertisements.

The project is a collaborative effort by 56 scholars, distinguished and emerging, who have gathered 41 clusters of documents in their fields of expertise. The clusters range from a few hundred to a several thousand pages. Each editor also provides a scholarly essay that explores the documents she/he has assembled and places them in historical context. These sources were generated in a wide range of languages. Each document not in English (and each image and each handwritten document) is accompanied by an abstract that summarizes its significance and makes it accessible for online searches. The collection includes audio and video material as well as texts drawn from letters, diaries, newspaper articles and a wide range of publications. 

Women’s voices can be found at all levels of imperial history. As agents of empire, women were active as missionaries, educators, health-care professionals and women’s rights advocates. As opponents of empire, women were active in nationalist and social reform movements and as conservers of culture. As people in the vanguard of cultural interaction, women often forged a middle path of innovation in education, health and family life that drew on both imperial and host cultures.

• A digital library containing key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a focus on the period 1300 to 1800, provided by the University of London's Institute of Historical Research.