LibGuides: History: Home

Step 1: Search the library catalogue for books

LibrarySearch
Search the library catalogue to find books on your topic.

Search tips:

Choosing keywords. Try searching on alternative keywords if you don't get the results you expect.
Phrase searching. Try putting common phrases in quotation marks, e.g. "industrial revolution".
Truncation/wildcard. Put an asterisk at the end of the stem of the word to search for any letters which come after it, e.g. film* will find film, films, filming, etc.
Refining to ebooks. Use the ebook filter.

Finding a Book (video)

Step 3: If the library doesn't have the book/article

Document Delivery Service
Guide to using the Document Delivery Service

Suggest a Book for the Library

Help with academic skills

Writing history essays by Ian Mabbett
ISBN: 9781137543677
Publication Date: 2016
Studying History by Jeremy Black; Donald M. MacRaild
ISBN: 9781137478597
Publication Date: 2016
Studying Arts and Humanities by Catherine Bates; Abigail Matthewman
ISBN: 9780230205475
Publication Date: 2009
Academic Essay by Derek Soles; Graham Lawler (Editor)
ISBN: 9781842850657
Publication Date: 2005
The Study Skills Handbook by Stella Cottrell
ISBN: 9781137289254
Publication Date: 2013

Step 2: Search databases for secondary sources

The databases listed below contain research in History (journal articles and book articles). Choose a database appropriate for your specific topic. Historical Abstracts is a good general database in this subject (though it excludes the United States and Canada).

Search tips:

Choosing keywords. Try searching on alternative keywords if you don't get the results you expect.
Combining search terms. Combine concepts with AND. Combine alternative keywords with OR, e.g. (film OR cinema) AND (horror or suspense)
Phrase searching. Try putting common phrases in quotation marks, e.g. "industrial revolution"
Truncation/wildcard. Put an asterisk at the end of the stem of the word to search for any letters which come after it, e.g. film* will find film, films, filming, etc.
Refining search. Refine your search using the filters available, e.g. date, language
Evaluating results. Read the abstract and subject headings to decide whether the article is relevant to your research.
Finding full text. If you don't see a PDF link, look for the Find@Stir button - this may take you to the full text. You can also download the LibkeyNomad browser plug-in, which will provide access to articles. If we don't have the article, see Step 3 below (If the library doesn't have the book/article).

Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
World history (excluding United States and Canada) from 1450 onwards; includes other subject areas presented from a historical perspective.
Bibliography of British and Irish History Online This link opens in a new window
An index to journal articles, books and book chapters about British, Irish and Commonwealth history covering the period from 55 BC to the present.
Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to the Citation Indexes for: Science; Social Sciences; Arts & Humanities; Conference Proceedings and Books. Use for finding journal articles and conference papers. Databases can be searched simultaneously or select specific databases using the More Settings option.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Searchable digital archive collection of core scholarly journals, many starting with the first issue (some of which date from the 1800s). Also includes some primary source collections.
PAO : Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Full text backfiles of international academic journals in the humanities and social sciences. Files run from the late 18th century to the late 20th century.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project Muse provides full text access to a wide range of journals. We subscribe to the Humanities Collection only.
Humanities Index - previously British Humanities Index This link opens in a new window
Covers 1962 to date. Abstracts from over 400 sources in the areas of literature, the arts, cinema, economics, history, current affairs, popular science, religion, music and architecture.
European Views of the Americas: 1493-1750 This link opens in a new window
A bibliography of works printed in Europe which relate to the Americas before 1750.
International Medieval Bibliography Online This link opens in a new window
Index to articles on medieval topics (300 - 1500 AD). Click on Enter databases, then select International Medieval Bibliography Online.
SocArXiv - Open archive of the social sciences This link opens in a new window
SocArXiv is a free open access archive for the social sciences. It holds working papers, preprints and published papers - some documents have links to data and code. (A pre-print is: "a manuscript draft that has not yet been subject to formal peer review, distributed to receive early feedback on research from peers").
British Library Shared Research Repository for cultural and heritage organisations This link opens in a new window
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Research repository of research produced by staff of the British Library and their partner organisations including: the British Museum, MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology), National Museums Scotland, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and Tate
OOIR (Observatory of International Research) This link opens in a new window
Tracks “social science” journals to continually list their latest papers. Covers Anthropology, Area Studies, Communication, Geography, History, Law, Political Science and Sociology.

Step 4: Search for primary sources

Below you will find a selective list of online primary sources. Remember to also check the library catalogue for primary sources published as books.

World history

AM Explorer This link opens in a new window
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Primary source collections across the entire portfolio of Adam Matthew Digital, spanning content from the 15th-21st centuries.
Old Maps Online This link opens in a new window
Cross search online historical maps. Includes maps from the National Library of Scotland and the British Library.
Index of Medieval Art This link opens in a new window
Images and descriptive data related to the iconography of works of art produced between late Antiquity and the sixteenth century. You can browse the database or search by keyword.
Migration to New Worlds This link opens in a new window
Primary source material recounting various personal experiences of migration over the last 350 years, e.g. Colonial Office files on emigration, diaries and travel journals, ship logs and plans, printed literature, objects, watercolours, and oral histories.
Age of Exploration This link opens in a new window
Explore five centuries of journeys across the globe, scientific discoveries, the expansion of European colonialism, conflict over territories and trade routes, and decades-long search and rescue attempts in this multi-archive collection dedicated to the history of exploration.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
This 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 secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.
Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
Primary and secondary sources, artworks, photographs and maps for the study of travel, ca. 1550-1850
Frontier Life This link opens in a new window
This digital collection of primary source documents helps us to understand existence on the edges of the anglophone world from 1650-1920. Discover the various European and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa and Australasia through documents that reveal the lives of settlers and indigenous peoples in these areas.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Bringing together primary source documents from archives and libraries across the Atlantic world, this resource allows students and researchers to explore and compare unique material relating to the complex subjects of slavery, abolition and social justice
Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History This link opens in a new window
This resource brings together hundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. Students and researchers will find sources covering a variety of topics including architecture, art, the British Empire, climate, customs, exploration, family life, housing, industry, language, monuments, mountains, natural history, politics and diplomacy, race, religion, science, shopping and war.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
From its roots as an Anglican evangelical movement driven by lay persons, this resource encompasses publications from the CMS, the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and the latterly integrated South American Missionary Society. Documenting missionary work from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounters.
First World War This link opens in a new window
The First World War portal makes available primary sources for the study of the Great War, brought together in four thematic modules. From personal collections and rare printed material to military files, artwork and audio-visual files, content highlights the experiences of soldiers, civilians and governments on both sides of a conflict that shook the world.
Interwar Culture This link opens in a new window
Interwar Culture showcases popular and lesser-known periodicals published during the interwar period. With articles covering culture, entertainment, fashion, home and family life, world current affairs, class, social and welfare issues, these historically significant and highly visual magazines provide a rich insight into these dynamic yet turbulent decades, as well as allowing examination of a burgeoning media industry that both shaped and reflected society.
Service Newspapers of World War Two This link opens in a new window
This resource reveals the story of war as told by the newspapers that brought information, entertainment and camaraderie to the forces at home and overseas. Explore over 300 titles from key nations across the globe that took part in the world-changing conflict.
Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture: the History of Tourism This link opens in a new window
This resource presents a multi-national journey through well-known, little-known and far-flung destinations unlocked for the average traveller between 1850 and the 1980s. Guidebooks and brochures, periodicals, travel agency correspondence, photographs and personal travel journals provide unique insight into the expansion, accessibility and affordability of tourism for the masses and the evolution of some of the most successful travel agencies in the world.
Socialism on Film: the Cold War and International Propaganda This link opens in a new window
This 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.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window
Popular Culture explores the dynamic period of social, political and cultural change between 1950 and 1975.
The resource allows users to study the period using manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera and memorabilia. The interactive chronology, extensive visual resources and video footage provide valuable contextual background to the materials included in this collection.

European history

Europeana This link opens in a new window
Access to over 50 million digital resources from Europe's museums, archives, art galleries, libraries and audiovisual collections. Sources include the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum and the British Library.
CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives) This link opens in a new window
An umbrella organisation for social science data archives across Europe. The CESSDA Catalogue provides access to research data from archives across Europe covering around 6000 studies distributed by members of the CESSDA European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). The Catalogue enables users to locate datasets, as well as questions or variables within datasets. Data collections include sociological surveys, election studies, longitudinal studies, opinion polls, and census data from the European Social Survey, Eurobarometer and the International Social Survey Programme.

German History in Documents
Collection of primary source materials documenting Germany's political, social and cultural history from 1500 to the present.
Testifying to the Truth: Eye Witnesses to the Holocaust
Over 1,000 accounts from eyewitnesses to Nazi persecution and genocide gathered by researchers at the Wiener Holocaust Library during the 1950s.
French Revolution Digital Archive
A collection of digital resources of value for anyone researching the French Revolution. A collaboration between Stanford University Libraries and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Scottish history

Digitial Collections from the National Library of Scotland
Digital materials from the National Library of Scotland, includes maps, Post Office Directories, stories from the First World War, Gaelic Book collections, Robert Louis Stevenson collection, resources about the Jacobites and much more.
Scottish History Society publications
Useful resource for Scottish historians. Covers the 12th to 20th centuries. Includes a variety of resources including diaries, letters and illustrations.

Scotsman 1817-1950 This link opens in a new window
Archive of The Scotsman newspaper
SCRAN : Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network This link opens in a new window
Searchable online database of 1 million text and multimedia records from museums, galleries and archives. Use it to find images, sounds and movies relating to culture, history and science.
National Galleries of Scotland Online Collection This link opens in a new window
Explore the collections from Scotland's National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Photograhpy Collection in Edinburgh. The online collection contains information about almost 2500 works of art with more being added to the site regularly.
Statistical Accounts of Scotland This link opens in a new window
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Web version of the old (first) and new (second) Statistical Accounts of Scotland, first published in 1791-99 and 1845 respectively. Covers a wide range of topics: wealth, class and poverty; climate, agriculture, fishing and wildlife; population, schools and the moral health of the people. Keyword and phrase searching of the whole text is possible.
Records of the Parliaments of Scotland This link opens in a new window
Searchable database containing the proceedings of the Scottish parliament from the first surviving act of 1235 to the union of 1707.

People of Medieval Scotland
Biographical record of notable Scots from 1093 to 1314.
Stirling Council Poor Relief Indexes (1814-1934)
Access to General Registers of the Poor, Applications for Relief and Parish Minutes for 14 parishes in the Stirling Council area
University of Stirling Oral History
Collection of recordings from retired and former staff and alumni of the University, providing an informal history of the University in all its aspects: academic, social and environmental.

British history

Audio-visual materials

British Library Sounds This link opens in a new window
British Library Sounds presents 50,000 recordings and their associated documentation from the Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds.

British Council Film Collection
Access to over 100 films showing life in Britain in the 1940s.

British Pathé Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to over 85,000 historic films covering the period 1896 - 1976. Playlists include sport, inventions, days that shook the world, war footage and fashion.

Roundabout from British Universities Film & Video Council
Over 600 short films made in the 1960s and 1970s by the Central Office of Information to promote British manufacturing and showcase the Commonwealth to cinema audiences in Asia.

Victorians on Film This link opens in a new window
Showcasing the British Film Institute’s Victorian Film Collection and the Mitchell and Kenyon Collection, Victorians on Film provides a glimpse into the lives of the late Victorians and Edwardians captured by some of Britain’s earliest film pioneers and innovators.

Images

British Museum's online collections
over 2 million records available to search.

National Portrait Gallery This link opens in a new window
Explore details of over 120,000 portraits from the sixteenth century to the present day.
British Cartoon Archive This link opens in a new window
The British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent contains more than 130,000 cartoons from 1904 onwards. Contains cartoons from the magazine Punch from the 1920s to 1990s. Search the catalogue to look for materials available online.

Biographies

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographical dictionary containing information about the lives of people who have shaped the history of Britain.

Newspapers

British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Digital archive of historical British newspapers, covering the 17th century up to 1950. Includes many local and regional newspapers.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Searches 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection, 19th Century UK Periodicals, British Library Newspapers, Financial Times Historical Archive, Sunday Times Digital Archive, Times Digital Archive, Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive
British Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window
Archive of British newspapers from the 18th century onwards. We do not subscribe to this service, but a large number of historical newspaper titles can now be consulted free. Registration required. Choose Advanced Search, and limit to Free to View.
Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text of The Times newspaper from 1785 to 2019. See also The Sunday Times archive
Sunday Times Archive This link opens in a new window
Archive of The Sunday Times from 1822 - 2006. See also The Times Digital Archive.
Financial Times Historical Archive 1888-2010 This link opens in a new window
The Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2010, is the complete searchable facsimile run of the world's most authoritative daily business newspaper. Every article and advertisement ever printed in the paper can be searched and browsed individually and page by page. This is an essential, comprehensive and unbiased research tool for everyone studying public affairs, and economic and financial history of the last 120 years.
Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full text of selected influential national and regional newspapers representing different political and cultural segments of 19th century British society. This resource can also be searched as part of the British Newspapers Collection.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to over 1 million newspaper pages, Acts of Parliament and pamphlets from the 17th and 18th centuries.
British Periodicals Online This link opens in a new window
British Periodicals Online provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth century.
Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
Bringing together rare journals printed between c.1685 and 1835, this resource illuminates all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Topics covered are wide-ranging and include 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.
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Access to the full text of 90 periodicals from the nineteenth century.

Official Publications

UK Parliamentary Papers (was House of Commons Parliamentary Papers) This link opens in a new window
Previously known as House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, now also includes House of Lords Papers. This is the major gateway to materials relating to parliamentary history of the United Kingdom. Includes full text of House of Commons Parliamentary Papers from 1801 - 2003/04. Covers Bills, House of Commons Papers, Command Papers, Reports of Committees and Commissions, and Accounts and Papers, but not Parliamentary debates. Also House of Lords papers from the 19th century.
Hansard 1803-2005 This link opens in a new window
Digitised historical Hansard reports for the Houses of Commons and Lords.
Hansard is now available as part of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England (HathiTrust version) This link opens in a new window
1066 - 1803. Includes a browsable list of volumes.
Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England (Bodleian Library version) This link opens in a new window
From 1066 to 1803

Statistics

Histpop
A collection of British Historical Population Reports. Access to population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1937.

Maps

Historic Digimap This link opens in a new window
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Offers a range of historical Ordnance Survey mapping data products from 1843 to 1996. A range of online tools are available to facilitate viewing, interrogation and download of these products.

Early printed publications

Historical Texts This link opens in a new window
Access the full text of over 470,000 English language books. Historical Texts includes Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) and Early English Books Online (EEBO). It also provides access to around 65,000 nineteenth century books from the British Library as well as the UK Medical Heritage Library.
John Johnson Collection This link opens in a new window
This collection provides access to over 67,000 items selected from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, which will be of interest for anyone studying British social history. The collection offers unique insights into the changing nature of everyday life in Britain in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Categories include nineteenth century entertainment, the booktrade, popular prints, crimes, murders and executions, and advertising.
MEMSO (Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources for the study of the Medieval and Early Modern world, with particular strengths in British and colonial history
Early Modern England: Society, Culture & Everyday Life, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new window
Offers rare sources for examining the lived experience of people who witnessed this pivotal era of English history. From 'ordinary' people through to more prominent individuals and families, these documents show how everyday working, family, religious and administrative life was experienced across England.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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The 19th Century British Pamphlets Collection is a good primary source. You can do an advanced search and limit your search to pamphlets only.

Georgian Britain
Collection of materials from the British Library relating to Georgian Britain
Victorian Britain
Collection of materials from the British Library relating to Victorian Britain.

London Low Life: Street Culture, Social Reform and the Victorian Underworld This link opens in a new window
Rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London

Manuscripts

Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new window
The Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh Papers. This resource consists of full-colour images of the original medieval manuscripts that make up these family letter collections and full-text-searchable transcripts from the printed editions, where they are available.

A plethora of topics are covered in these collections, including trade, warfare, arranging advantageous marriages, arguments between parents and children, matters of inheritance, births and deaths, estate management, legal disputes, domestic finances, women and their role in the family and everyday social and domestic life.
Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new window
This collection presents manuscripts of some of the most important works of European travel writing from the later medieval period. The chief focus is on journeys to central Asia and the Far East, including accounts of travel to Mongolia, Persia, India, China and South-East Asia. It is an indispensable source for scholars of medieval travel, geography, exploration, trade, literature and medieval postcolonial studies.

The travel texts gathered here cover some of the most widely read and influential prose works of the late Middle Ages – notably the books of Marco Polo and ‘Sir John Mandeville’ – but also important items by authors whose names are now less well known to non-specialists, such as John of Plano Carpini and Odoric of Pordenone.
Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new window
This resource offers access to one of the most important archives for the study of Social History in the modern era. Explore original manuscript and typescript papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organisation, as well as printed publications, photographs and interactive features.

Manuscripts Online
Catalogue of primary source materials from the period 1000 to 1500.

Specific people and topics

Life at Sea This link opens in a new window
Bringing together unique primary sources drawn from world-class maritime archives and heritage collections Life at Sea takes a sociocultural approach, focusing on the individual experiences and personal narratives of seafarers. Through a broad range of sources, from journals and memoirs to ships’ logs and court records, the lives of ordinary seamen, merchants, whalers and pirates can be explored. This resource offers exciting new insights into three centuries of the Anglo-American maritime world.
Queen Victoria's Journals This link opens in a new window
Digitised versions of Queen Victoria's journals. 141 volumes are included covering the period 1832 to 1901.

Florence Nightingale Digitization Project
Links to online primary resources relating to Florence Nightingale.

Medical Services and Warfare This link opens in a new window
Explore multiple perspectives on the history of injury, treatment and disease on the front line. Chart scientific advances through hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts, and discover the evidence of how war shaped medical practice across the centuries.

Legacies of British Slave Ownership
Database of British slave owners at the time of the abolition of slavery.
Manufacturing Pasts
Access to 1700 multimedia resources (images, maps, audio clips, newspaper cuttings) relating to British industrial history in the second half of the 20th century. Most of the material relates to the Leicestershire area.
Unit War Diaries (First World War)
From The National Archives, these diaries provide an insight into events on the front line.
London's Pulse, Medical Officer of Health Reports (1848-1972)
Health information and statistics about the lives of Londoners for over 125 years. Uses data from the collections of the Wellcome Library and the London Metropolitan Archives.

Poverty, Philanthropy and Social Conditions in Victorian Britain This link opens in a new window
Discover what life was like for the poorest communities in Victorian Britain, and explore the government policy, social reform movements and philanthropic efforts of charitable institutions that sought to alleviate poverty.
Women in the National Archives This link opens in a new window
This collection consists of:

A finding aid to women's studies resources in The National Archives
Original documents on the suffrage question in Britain, the Empire and colonial territories

African history

African Online Digital Library
Gateway to a range of multimedia resources of interest to those studying or researching Africa.
Connecting Africa
Gateway to information about Africa, including links to repositories, researchers and organisations.

Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, is a fundamental building block for political, social and economic research.

The series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad.

The documents in Confidential Print: Africa begin with coastal trading in the early nineteenth century and the Conference of Berlin of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa. They then follow the abuses of the Congo Free State, fights against tropical disease, Italy’s defeat by the Abyssinians, World War II, apartheid in South Africa and colonial moves towards independence. Together they cover the whole of the modern period of European colonisation of the continent from the British Government’s perspective.
Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa This link opens in a new window
Digitised documents and primary sources on the dismantling of the apartheid regime in southern Africa
Apartheid South Africa 1948-1980 This link opens in a new window
Apartheid South Africa makes available British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1980.

These previously restricted letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies and first-hand accounts of events give unprecedented access to the history of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The files explore the relationship of the international community with South Africa and chart increasing civil unrest against a backdrop of waning colonialism in Africa and mounting world condemnation.
Nelson Mandela Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Digital archive of resources relating to the life of Nelson Mandela

American history

Library of Congress Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
A great U.S. site for historians, exploiting source material in the Library of Congress.

American national biography
Biographies of men and women whose lives have shaped American life and culture.
Chronicling America
Information about, and access to, digitised historic American newspapers.

American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window
This unique collection documents American History from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. It is sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the finest archives available for the study of American History.

Module I: Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859
Module II: Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945
Colonial America This link opens in a new window
Colonial America makes available all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 series from The National Archives, UK, covering the period 1606 to 1822. CO 5 consists of the original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies, making it a rich resource for historians of the period.
Virginia Company Archives This link opens in a new window
Virginia Company Archives provides a comprehensive record of the history of the Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624. Centred upon the archives of the Ferrar family who played a significant role in the Company's administration, this resource documents the founding and economic development of the Virginia colony, relations between colonists and indigenous peoples, and early trade between Britain and America. It is also a crucial source for London's economic history and the religious and social history of early modern England, with further content documenting the Ferrars' continued interest in the European colonisation of North America in the years after 1624.
Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961 This link opens in a new window
The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, is a fundamental building block for political, social and economic research.

The series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad.

This collection consists of the Confidential Print for the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America, and covers such topics as slavery, Prohibition, the First and Second World Wars, racial segregation, territorial disputes, the League of Nations, McCarthyism and the nuclear bomb. The bulk of the material covers the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century.
Everyday Life and Women in America, ca 1800-1920 This link opens in a new window
Everyday Life & Women in America c.1800-1920 contains primary source material for the study of American social, cultural, and popular history in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Gilded Age and Progressive Era This link opens in a new window
Explore America’s transformative age of industrialisation, expanding wealth, inequality and social change. Personal collections, business records and rich visual content offer perspectives on this influential period.

Elephind
Search the world's historical newspaper archives. Covers Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore, but the coverage of the United States is the most useful.
Digital Public Library of America's Primary Source Sets
Includes posters, video clips, letters, music and more.
The American Presidency Project
Searchable database of Presidential papers going back to 1789
New York Public Library Digital Collections
Posters, images, maps and music more from New York Public Library's collections.
NPR History Department
Audio visual radio resources about American history topics. From the National Public Radio organisation.

African American Communities This link opens in a new window
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
Race Relations in America This link opens in a new window
Based at Fisk University from 1943-1970, the Race Relations Department and its annual Institute were set up by the American Missionary Association to investigate problem areas in race relations and develop methods for educating communities and preventing conflict.

Documenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Department’s staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson and Thurgood Marshall.
America in World War Two: Oral Histories and Personal Accounts This link opens in a new window
Uncover the stories of American military personnel and civilians during the Second World War through their oral histories, correspondence, diaries, photographs, artifacts, and military records. This digital resource offers an insight into the personal experiences of those involved in the conflict, both on the United States home front and on deployment overseas in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Pacific, China, Burma and India.
Nixon Years, 1969-1974 This link opens in a new window
This collection provides complete FCO 7 and FCO 82 files for the entire period of Richard Nixon’s presidency.

Top-level Anglo-American discussions and briefing papers dominate these papers. There is also a wealth of material on social conditions, domestic reforms, trade, culture and the environment.

In addition, there is strong coverage of US policy decisions by the FCO and the British embassy in Washington; White House staff appointments and UN discussions; views on Europe; the deployment of F-111 aircraft on US airbases in the UK and Nixon’s battles over funding from Congress; visits to the US by Harold Wilson and Edward Heath; and the internal situation in the US and domestic reform. There are also detailed assessments of all the changes brought about by the presidential election of 1972, in which Nixon beat George McGovern by a record-breaking margin and in every state but one, only to resign two years later in the face of almost certain impeachment.
Old Fulton New York State historic newspapers This link opens in a new window
Access to digitised versions of old newspapers from New York State. Comprehensive searching advice is available from the wesbite. Over 26 million newspaper pages are available.
California Digital Newspaper Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to digitised versions of significant newspapers published in California between 1846 and 1922. The site contains over 6 million articles.
Portal to Texan History - newspaper search This link opens in a new window
Part of a wider Texan history resource, use this to search almost 600 newspapers from Texas.
Historic Oregon Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Access to historic (1860 - 1922) and recent (2009 - 2011) newspapers from Oregon.
Florida Digital Newspaper Library This link opens in a new window
Access to digitised versions of over 1.5 million pages of historic and contemporary newspapers from Florida. To search the site enter your search term and change the search box from "Full Citation" to "Full Text".
Kentucky Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Historic newspapers from Kentucky can be searched as part of a wider digital library. Covers the period 1860 to 1922.
Wyoming Newspaper Project This link opens in a new window
Access to all the historical newspapers published in Wyoming between 1849 and 1922.
Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Digitised newspapers from the Caribbean.
American West This link opens in a new window
From early topographical sketches and pioneers’ accounts, to photographs of Buffalo Bill and his ‘Wild West’ stars, explore the fact and the fiction of westward expansion in America from the early eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Browse a wide range of rare and original documents including printed books, journals, historic maps, broadsides, periodicals, advertisements, photographs, artwork and more.

IDA Treaties Explorer
Indigenous Digital Archive which includes digitised versions of the Ratified Indian Treaties.

American Indian Histories and Cultures This link opens in a new window
Explore manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books dating from the earliest contact with European settlers right up to photographs and newspapers from the mid-twentieth century. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.
American Indian Newspapers This link opens in a new window
From historic pressings to contemporary periodicals, explore nearly 200 years of Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada. With newspapers representing a huge variety in publisher, audience and era, discover how events were reported by and for Indigenous communities.
Slave Voyages This link opens in a new window
Records on the Atlantic slave trade and trafficking within the Americas. Learn about the origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators and more.
Colonial Caribbean This link opens in a new window
Stretching from Jamaica and the Bahamas to Trinidad and Tobago, Colonial Caribbean makes available materials from 27 Colonial Office file classes from The National Archives, UK. Covering the history of the various territories under British colonial governance from 1624 to 1870, this extensive resource includes administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, and details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern of absentee landlords.
Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 This link opens in a new window
The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, is a fundamental building block for political, social and economic research.

The series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad.

This collection consists of the Confidential Print for Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Topics covered include slavery and the slave trade, immigration, relations with indigenous peoples, wars and territorial disputes, the fall of the Brazilian monarchy, British business and financial interests, industrial development, the building of the Panama Canal, and the rise to power of populist rulers such as Perón in Argentina and Vargas in Brazil.

Contact your librarian/make an appointment

Helen Beardsley

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Subjects: Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Step 5: Cite your references

General Guide to Referencing

Chicago Manual of Style Online This link opens in a new window
Guide to the Chicago style. Look at Part III on Source Citations and Indexes (Notes and Bibliography) for help with referencing in this style.

Chicago Referencing Style
Comprehensive guide to the Chicago style produced by the University of York
Guide to RefWorks

Evaluating web sources

It is important to critically analyse information before you use it in an essay, report or assignment.

History: Home

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