History

Lives of British persons from the earliest times to the end of the 20th century. IMPORTANT: our access is limited; please click the LOGOUT link when done.

This project offers rare and invaluable 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.

State Papers Online offers original historical materials across the widest range of government concern, from high level international politics and diplomacy to the charges against a steward for poisoning a dozen or more people. The correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants and provincial administrators present a full picture of Tudor and Stuart Britain.

The National Archives of the UK: SP 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 44
(714,092 manuscript images (single or double folio) and 270,596 calendar entries)

Every significant work published in English from 1475 to 1700. Searchable text and page images of books, pamphlets, prayer books, proclamations, almanacs, calendars,etc. in all subjects. See also Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800.

Discover manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University, the project seeks to rediscover early modern women authors who were “lost” because their writing exists only in manuscript form.

1,270 newspapers and news pamphlets from the United Kingdom from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Searchable full text and page images for books, almanacs, broadsides, magazines, pamphlets, etc in any language from the British Isles and North America, and in English from the rest of the world. See also Early American Imprints.

Offers online access to approximately 300,000 government manuscripts that reveal the behind the scenes, day to day running of the British government during the reigns of King George I (1714-1727), George II (1727-1760), and part of the reign of George III (up to 1782), plus Military, Naval, Plantation Registers, Sheriffs Lists and State Papers Scotland and Ireland. Key themes covered are the establishment of the British Empire as a dominant colonial power, the development of agriculture and industrialization, and Britain during the Age of Enlightenment.

The Grand Tour is a source of information about daily life in the eighteenth century. This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works allows scholars to compare a range of sources on the history of travel for the first time, including many from private or neglected collections. The collection includes letters; diaries and journals; account books; printed guidebooks; published travel writing; paintings and sketches; architectural drawings and maps.

The full text of the Times of London from 1785-2014.

Searchable full text and page images of 48 national and regional British newspapers.

This database provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture

In more than 8,000 issues since its first publication in 1843, The Economist has presented timely reporting, concise commentary, and comprehensive analysis of global news every week.

Migration to New Worlds explores the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia. Split across two modules, and including collections from 26 archives, libraries and museums, Migration to New Worlds brings together the movement and memories of millions across two centuries of mass migration.

Victorian Popular Culture is a portal comprised of four modules, inviting users into the darkened halls, small backrooms, big tops and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to the world of magic, spiritualist séances, optical entertainments, and the first moving pictures.

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.

London Low Life is a full-text searchable resource, containing color digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London. In addition to the digital documents, London Low Life contains a wealth of secondary resources, including a chronology, interactive maps, essays, online galleries and links to other useful websites.

Part of Gale Primary Sources: Archives Unbound, this collection provides the opportunity to review the telegrams, correspondence, minutes, memoranda, and confidential prints gathered together in the India Office Military Department on Mesopotamia.

Mass Observation Online makes available original manuscript and typescript papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organisation, as well as printed publications, photographs and interactive features. A pioneering social research organisation, Mass Observation was founded in 1937 by anthropologist Tom Harrisson, film-maker Humphrey Jennings and poet Charles Madge. Their aim was to create an 'anthropology of ourselves', and by recruiting a team of observers and a panel of volunteer writers they studied the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain. This resource covers the original Mass Observation project, the bulk of which was carried out from 1937 until the mid-1950s, offering an unparalleled insight into everyday life in Britain during these transformative years.

Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975: Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest focuses on collections of original archival material from key libraries in Britain and America using printed and manuscript sources, visual material, ephemera and video clips. This digital resource provides primary sources to enable students and scholars to examine these issues in detail.

Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963 provides complete coverage of the Cabinet conclusions (minutes) (CAB 128) and memoranda (CAB 129) of Harold Macmillan’s government, plus selected minutes and memoranda of policy committees (CAB 134). This collection also includes 165 files from the Prime Minister's Private Office (PREM 11). These provide an important supplement to the Cabinet records and cover all aspects of policymaking.

Access to Modules I-III
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.
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.

The complete online fully-searchable edition of the TLS from the first edition in 1902 through 2019. Among over 300,000 reviews, letters, poems, and articles, users will find the contemporary criticism of scholars such as Christopher Ricks and George Steiner, the reviews of award-winning novels of A.S. Byatt and Joyce Carol Oates, and the philosophical works of Thomas Nagel, Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins. They can also track the discoveries of explorers Redmond O'Hanlon and Robin Hanbury-Tenison.