LibGuides: *English Language & Literature: Primary Sources

Find Original Poetry, Prose, Drama, Ephemera, and More

The following resources may be useful in finding primary source literature including manuscripts, books, pamphlets, broadsides, and more. This set of databases concentrate their content on a particular time period. Others can be found on the A-Z list of databases under the subject English.

19th Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
A global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the long 19th century. Content consists of monographs, newspapers, manuscripts, pamphlets, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, etc. in both Western and non-Western languages.
American Fiction, 1774-1920 This link opens in a new window
American Fiction, 1774–1920 contains more than 17,800 titles and is comprised of prose fiction written by Americans from the political beginnings of the United States through World War I.
Complete Corpus of Old English This link opens in a new window
Over 3,000 different texts in Old English.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text with page images of books published in 17th- and 18th-century America. Browsable by genre, subject, author, printer, place of publication, and language. See also Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text with page images of books published in early 19th-century America. The collection can also be browsed by genre, subject, author, printer, place of publication, and language.
Early Modern England: Society, Culture and Everyday Life, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new window
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.
ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collection Online (1701-1800) This link opens in a new window
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.
EEBO: Early English Books Online (new ProQuest Platform) This link opens in a new window
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.
Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new window
This project provides an extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy. The core of the material is a magnificent collection of medieval manuscripts from libraries around the world and dating from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The main focus is accounts of journeys to the Holy Land, India and China.
Middle English Compendium This link opens in a new window
Access to the Middle English Dictionary, a hyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MED bibliographies, and an associated network of electronic resources, including a large collection of Middle English texts.
Nineteenth Century Literary Society This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from the archive of the historic John Murray literary publishing company. Materials span the entirety of the long nineteenth century and document the golden era of the House of Murray from its inception in 1768. Discover the work of one of the world’s most important publishing dynasties through this collection from the historic John Murray Archive. From book history to travel writing, politics to poetry, this newly digitized resource introduces an unparalleled repository for nineteenth century culture and the literary luminaries who shaped it.
Parker Library on the Web This link opens in a new window
High resolution images of the medieval and Renaissance manuscripts from the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Perdita Manuscripts This link opens in a new window
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.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window
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.
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
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.

The following resources may be useful in finding primary source literature including manuscripts, books, pamphlets, broadsides, and more. This set of databases concentrate their content on a particular genre. Others can be found on the A-Z list of databases under the subject English.

20th Century American Poetry This link opens in a new window
Includes the works of most major poets from 1919 to the end of the century.
African American Poetry (1760-1900) This link opens in a new window
Over 2,500 poems.
American Drama, 1714-1915 This link opens in a new window
Selected plays by American dramatists.
American Poetry Database (pre-1900) This link opens in a new window
40,356 poems from 1,288 works by 209 American poets from the Colonial period to the early twentieth century. Use with other poetry collections in Literature Online.
Children's Literature and Culture This link opens in a new window
Explore a stunning collection of rare books, games, ephemera, and artwork from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that reveals the socio-cultural history of these times. Showcasing innovative new publishing methods characteristic of the golden age of children’s literature, from mass-produced chapbooks to richly illustrated ‘book-beautifuls’, this resource examines the way in which new concepts were introduced to young readers, encouraging an engagement with the imagination which went on to fundamentally shape established notions of childhood.
Columbia Granger's World of Poetry This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 250,000 poems, mostly in English, but also including poems in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Information about and citations from thousands more poems, plus biographies of poets and analyses of poems.
Drama Online This link opens in a new window
Drama Online introduces new writers alongside the most iconic names in playwriting history, providing contextual and critical background through scholarly works and practical guides. The constantly growing collection meets the full range of teaching needs for theatre studies, literature courses and drama schools. From the epic to the monologue; ensemble to one-person plays; comedy to tragedy; the historical to the contemporary; and from the highly political to the profoundly personal, there is plenty to discover.
Early English Prose Fiction, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new window
Over 200 complete prose novels and stories from the period 1500 to 1700, by writers from the British Isles.
Eighteenth Century Drama This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Drama features three distinct areas:
Primary source documents- the focus of which is the Larpent collection of plays and Anna Larpent's Diaries; The London Stage Database; and The Biographical Dictionary Database.
Literary Manuscripts: Leeds This link opens in a new window
Examine complete images of 190 manuscripts of seventeenth and eighteenth-century verse held in the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds. These manuscripts can be read and explored in conjunction with the Brotherton Collection Manuscript Verse Index, which includes first lines, last lines, attribution, author, title, date, length, verse form, content and bibliographic references for over 6,600 poems within the collection.
Alongside original compositions are copied verses, translations, songs and riddles. The whole collection is situated within an assortment of manuscripts, some entirely dedicated to poetry, while others contain medicinal recipes, household accounts, draft letters, musical scores and plays. There are also several printed works, with handwritten verse additions.
London Low Life This link opens in a new window
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.
Shakespeare's Globe This link opens in a new window
This collection of documents offers insights into the performance practice in the particular space of the reconstructed Globe Theatre. It details the way in which the theatre was constructed as a place of radical experiment. It documents over 200 performances through prompt books, wardrobe notes, programmes, publicity material, annual reports, show reports, photographs, and architectural plans.
Shakespeare in Performance This link opens in a new window
Shakespeare in Performance showcases rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library. These prompt books tell the story of Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.
Theatre This link opens in a new window
Theatre from Alexander Street features performances of works by American, European, Asian, and other worldwide dramatists from the past several centuries. In addition to performances, Theatre also features dozens of documentaries and interviews about theatre, discussing the history of theatre, acting methods, pioneering dramatists and actors, and much more.

The following resources may be useful in finding primary source literature including manuscripts, books, pamphlets, broadsides, and more. This set of databases concentrate their content around a particular theme. Others can be found on the A-Z list of databases under the subject English.

British Literary Manuscripts Online This link opens in a new window
British Literary Manuscripts Online presents facsimile images of literary manuscripts, including letters and diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels, and other literary works, and similar materials. Searching is based on tags and descriptive text associated with each manuscript. Images of the complete manuscript can be viewed, manipulated and navigated on screen.
Please note that the text of the manuscripts themselves is not searchable.
Defining Gender This link opens in a new window
Defining Gender provides access to a vast body of original British source material that will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective
Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement This link opens in a new window
At completion, Disability in the Modern World will include 150,000 pages of primary sources, supporting materials, and archives, along with 125 hours of video. The content is essential for teaching and research—not only in the growing disciplines of disability history and disability studies, but also in history, media, the arts, political science, education, and other areas where the contributions of the disability community are typically overlooked.
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare This link opens in a new window
Including The Shakespeare First Folio and various other editions and adaptations of Shakespeare; includes 2,272 color digital facsimiles.
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 a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.
First World War Portal This link opens in a new window
The First World War portal makes available invaluable 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.
Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
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.
Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction This link opens in a new window
Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction includes more than 100,000 pages of poetry, short fiction, novels, and more than 450 plays. Also part of ProQuest One Literature.
Literary Manuscripts: Berg This link opens in a new window
Literary Manuscripts is drawn from the nineteenth century holdings of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library. While the holdings of the Berg extend from 1480 to the present day, its most extensive holdings date from the nineteenth century.
Literary Print Culture This link opens in a new window
The Stationers’ Company Archive covers the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions, and the history of bookbinding. Explore extremely rare documents dating from 1554 to the 21st century in this invaluable resource of research material for historians and literary scholars.
Literary Studies This link opens in a new window
Literary manuscripts, rare printed works, and personal papers of a range of leading literary figures, as well as unique access to a goldmine of rare and obscure literary texts and genres. This collection provides students and scholars of British and American literature invaluable access to a rich seam of resources to support in-depth study in this field.
Modern English Collection This link opens in a new window
Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, letters, newspapers, manuscripts and illustrations from 1500 to the present, arranged for browsing by author's last name or by category of interest. From the UVA Library's E-Text Center.
Past Masters This link opens in a new window
Full-text e-books of classic works in philosophy, religion, and literature.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window
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.
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape This link opens in a new window
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape offers unique access to rare and priceless literary sources that are indispensible for scholars and students studying William Wordsworth and the Romantic period. The collection offers an insight into the working methods of the poet and the wider social, political and natural environment that shaped much of his work and that of his contemporaries. In addition, this collection makes available the writings of Dorothy Wordsworth through her much celebrated Grasmere Journals, Alfoxden diary, and travel journals.
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 19th century to the late 20th century. Sources cover 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; war.
Women's Studies Archive: Rare Titles from the American Antiquarian Society, 1820-1922 This link opens in a new window
The third module in Gale’s Women’s Studies Archive series, Rare Titles from the American Antiquarian Society, 1820-1922, gives researchers access to over one million pages of female-authored work across a diverse range of both fiction and non-fiction. Sourced from and curated by the American Antiquarian Society, the pre-eminent collector of pre-twentieth century Americana, this archive includes around 5,700 monographs published between 1820 and 1922 in the United States and authored by women.
Women Writers Online This link opens in a new window
Women Writers Online is a full-text collection of early women’s writing in English, published by the Women Writers Project at Northeastern University. It includes full transcriptions of texts published between 1526 and 1850, focusing on materials that are rare or inaccessible. The range of genres and topics covered makes it a truly remarkable resource for teaching and research, providing an unparalleled view of women’s literate culture in the early modern period.
Women Writers Project This link opens in a new window
Writing by women from the Renaissance through the first half of the 19th century.

Find Historical Newspapers, Periodicals, Diaries, & More

The following resources will allow for searching in historical newspapers. Others can be found in the Newspapers & Other News Media research guide.

17th & 18th Century NICHOLS Collection of UK Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The 17th and 18th Century Nichols Newspapers Collection features the newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets and broadsheets that form the Nichols newspaper collection held at the Bodleian library in Oxford, UK. All 296 volumes of bound material, covering the period 1672-1737 are presented in digitized format here.
19th Century British Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text and page images of 48 national and regional British newspapers.
African American Newspapers: Part I-V This link opens in a new window
Searchable African American Newspapers.
Part I: Freedom's Journal, New York, 1827-Mar. 1829; Colored American, New York, 1837-Mar. 1840; The North Star, Rochester, NY, 1847-July 1849; National Era, Washington, DC, 1847-Dec. 1848.
Part II: Colored American, 1840-41; The North Star, July 1849-1851; Frederick Douglass’ Paper (continuation of The North Star), 1851-May 1852; National Era, 1847-Dec. 1850; Provincial Freeman, Toronto, ON, 1854-Dec. 18, 1855.
Part III: Frederick Douglass’ Paper, May 1852-Dec. 1852; National Era, Dec. 1850-Dec. 1853; Provincial Freeman, Dec. 1855-57; The Christian Recorder, Toronto, ON, 1861-April 1862.
Part IV: The Christian Recorder, May 1862-Dec. 1864; National Era, Jan. 1854-Dec. 1855; Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Jan. 1853-Dec. 1854.
Part V: The Christian Recorder, Jan. 1865-June 1868; National Era, Jan. 1856-Dec. 1857; Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Jan. 1855-Dec. 1856.
African American Newspapers Series I and II This link opens in a new window
African American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2, provides online access to more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African-American experience. This unique collection, which includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states, features many rare 19th-century titles.
America's Historical Newspapers (1690-1991) This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text collection of US newspapers. For additional titles see 19th Century U.S. Newspapers.
American Indian Newspapers This link opens in a new window
American Indian Newspapers aims to present a diverse and robust collection of print journalism from Indigenous peoples of the US and Canada over more than 9,000 individual editions from 1828-2016.
British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Includes parts I-V. Sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library, British Library Newspapers delivers a wide range of irreplaceable local and regional voices to reflect the social, political, and cultural events of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
1,270 newspapers and news pamphlets from the United Kingdom from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 This link opens in a new window
The largest collection of fully searchable 18th- and 19th-century Caribbean newspapers. The evolution of the region across two centuries chronicled within more than 140 titles from 22 islands. Essential for research on colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, international commerce, New World slavery and related topics.
Chronicling America This link opens in a new window
Chronicling America allows you to search and view millions of American historic newspapers, published 1836-1922 as well as discover more about newspapers published in the U.S., 1690-present.
Daily Progress Digital Edition This link opens in a new window
The Charlottesville, VA area newspaper, published daily from 1892 to the present. Issues from 1892 through 1964 have been digitized from the Library's set of microfilm and are available for viewing online.
Gale Newsvault This link opens in a new window
Now part of Gale Primary Sources. Search together 5 historical collections of British and American newspapers: Burney Collection (17th and 18th C.), 19th century British and US newspapers, British Library Newspapers: Parts I-IV, the Times (London), and the Economist.
HarpWeek This link opens in a new window
HarpWeek provides full-text and images of Harper's Weekly, America's leading 19th century illustrated newspaper.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980, represents the single largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries. The distinctive collection features hundreds of Hispanic American newspapers, including many long scattered and forgotten titles published in the 19th century. It is based on the “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project,” a national research effort directed by Nicolás Kanellos, Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Pittsburgh Courier, NY Amsterdam News, Baltimore Afro-American, Washington Post, and The Guardian & The Observer.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers - Black Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A subset of the larger ProQuest Historical Newspapers, this is a collection of several prominent black newspapers including the Chicago Defender, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American, and NY Amsterdam News.
Times Digital Archive: 1785-2014 This link opens in a new window
The full text of the Times of London from 1785-2014.
Virginia Chronicle This link opens in a new window
Virginia Chronicle is the Library of Virginia's online newspaper database and repository, and contains over 46,000 individual issues totaling nearly 300,000 pages.
World Newspapers Archive - Latin American Newspapers, Series 1 & 2 This link opens in a new window
This collection provides access to nearly 300 newspapers from across Latin America from the 19th and early 20th centuries. We also have access to World Newspapers Archive - Africa and World Newspapers Archive - South Asian Newspapers

The following resources will allow for searching in historical periodicals (some include newspapers along with other serials).

African American Historical Serials This link opens in a new window
The African American Historical Serials Collection features 173 periodicals spanning from 1816 through 1922. The periodicals in this collection include newspapers and magazines, in addition to reports and annuals from various African American organizations, including churches and educational and service institutions.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS): Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to 5 consolidated collections containing thousands of American periodicals, published between 1684 and 1912. The individual collections, each covering a particular timeframe, can also be searched independently.
American Periodicals Series (1740-1940) This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 1000 magazines and journals published in the US between 1740 and 1940.
American Underworld: The Flash Press This link opens in a new window
The Flash Press covered the seamier aspects of urban life in the mid-19th century. This database provides access to a unique, rare, short-lived and often bawdy form of journalism. The publication dates of the papers run from 1826 to 1876.
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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
Ebony Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Ebony Magazine Archive covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship and other social topics with an African-American focus. It includes more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.
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 in five modules. 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.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.
GQ Archive This link opens in a new window
The backfile of GQ magazine, from its launch in 1931 (as Apparel Arts) to the present. One of the longest-running, most influential men's magazines, GQ expanded its initial focus on fashion to cover general men’s-interest subjects.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Independent Voices is a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
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.
Access to Modules I and II.
LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles – The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community.
Life Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
The Life Magazine Archive consists of cover to cover processing dating back to issue number one in 1936 of the American variety magazine Life, published by Time Inc.
Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Find articles from over 300 international music periodicals from over 20 countries and view full text of articles from some 80 journals. Also indexes feature music articles, book reviews, and obituaries appearing in the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Search the full text of nearly 400 international humanities and social sciences journals published from 1770 to the 1990s.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Lists articles from scholarly and popular periodicals covering dance, film, television, theater, opera, stagecraft, broadcast arts, storytelling and more. Some journals include full text.
Rolling Stone Archive This link opens in a new window
The backfile of Rolling Stone, from its launch in 1967 to the present. One of the most influential consumer magazines of the 20th-21st centuries, it initially sought to reflect the cultural, social, and political outlook of a generation of students and young adults. It has been a leading vehicle for rock and popular music journalism, as well as covering wider entertainment topics such as film and popular culture.
Time Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
The Time Magazine Archive consists of cover to cover processing dating back to issue number one in 1923 of the American popular magazine Time, published by Time Inc.
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
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.
Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
A searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Pages, advertisements, covers and fold-outs have been included, with rich indexing enabling researchers to find images by garment type, designer and brand names.
Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Over 90,000 article records and 11,000 contributor records from 43 important British periodicals. Indexed by scholars with author attributions for articles that were originally published anonymously or pseudonomously.
Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
An archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines. Issues are scanned in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.

The following collections include diaries, letters, and oral histories.

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Letters, diaries and memoirs from the American Civil War, many still in manuscript form. Also includes selected biographies, a bibliography and a chronology of the War.
Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South This link opens in a new window
The project records and preserves the living memory of African American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South from the 1890s to the 1950s. It is the largest single collection of Jim Crow-era oral histories in the world: visitors to the site can listen to over 175 hours of recordings. Additionally, there are over 10,000 pages of transcripts from the interviews, which "capture the vivid personalities, poignant personal stories, and behind-the-scenes decision-making" that made up the African American experience in the South during this period.
British Literary Manuscripts Online This link opens in a new window
British Literary Manuscripts Online presents facsimile images of literary manuscripts, including letters and diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels, and other literary works, and similar materials. Searching is based on tags and descriptive text associated with each manuscript. Images of the complete manuscript can be viewed, manipulated and navigated on screen.
Please note that the text of the manuscripts themselves is not searchable.
Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
Primary sources that document the cultural history of the American South from the Southern point of view. Includes diaries, autobiographies, travel accounts, titles about slavery, and regional literature. Emphasis is on the 19th century.
East India Company This link opens in a new window
East India Company offers access to a unique collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types, this resource charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1599 to 1947.
HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Around 150,000 stories are assembled here from life oral history interviews with 2,700 historically significant African Americans including politicians, religious leaders, athletes, musicians, civil rights activists, soldiers, and many more.
India, Raj and Empire This link opens in a new window
Explore the history of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, through the wonderfully rich and diverse manuscript collections of the National Library of Scotland.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text database of American and Canadian women's letters and diaries written from the Colonial period through 1950.
Political Extremism in the Twentieth Century This link opens in a new window
Political Extremism and Radicalism in the Twentieth Century is a compilation of rare and unique archival collections covering a wide range of fringe political movements. With an extensive scope of content focused on political extremism and radical thought, this archive is one of the first digital archives covering such a broad assortment of both far-right and left political groups. It offers a diverse mixture of materials, including periodicals, campaign propaganda, government records, oral histories, and various ephemera, which allow researchers to explore unorthodox social and political movements in new and innovative ways and to understand what impact they have had on today’s society.
Ralph J. Bunche Oral Histories Collection on the Civil Rights Movement This link opens in a new window
This collection is a unique resource for the study of the era of the American civil rights movement. Included here are transcriptions of close to 700 interviews with those who made history in the struggles for voting rights, against discrimination in housing, for the desegregation of the schools, to expose racism in hiring, in defiance of police brutality, and to address poverty in the African American communities.
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape This link opens in a new window
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape offers unique access to rare and priceless literary sources that are indispensible for scholars and students studying William Wordsworth and the Romantic period. The collection offers an insight into the working methods of the poet and the wider social, political and natural environment that shaped much of his work and that of his contemporaries. In addition, this collection makes available the writings of Dorothy Wordsworth through her much celebrated Grasmere Journals, Alfoxden diary, and travel journals.
Women and Social Movements: International This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements, International is a collection of primary materials. Through the writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made, this collection lets you see how women’s social movements shaped much of the events and attitudes that have defined modern life.
Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new window
This resource contains full color images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise these family letter collections along with full text searchable transcripts from the printed editions, where they are available. The original images and the transcriptions can be viewed side by side.

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