Our collections

Explore the history of illness, treatment and disease on international front lines from 1850 to 1949.

Only five major letter collections exist from fifteenth century England and they are all available online for the first time in this digital resource.

Manuscripts for the study of Meiji society, culture, ethnology and education from the papers of Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925).

A selection of original documents that tell the story of European and Asian migration to North America, Australia and New Zealand during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Official records from governments, shipping lines and agencies are found alongside the letters, oral histories and diaries of the migrants themselves. The resource includes material on life for successive generations, refugees and displaced persons, and those who were transported as criminals.

This collection includes primary sources for the study of missionary work, educational work, medical work, evangelism, political conflict, and the emergence of indigenous churches.

This digital resource documents the interactions between government policy and public philanthropy in Victorian and early twentieth-century society, tracing developments in welfare reform and the social tensions surrounding poverty. Includes a variety of material on conditions of workhouses and the administration of the new poor relief system through the official government correspondence of the Poor Law Commission.

A digital version of the single largest collection of working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers anywhere in the world. Highlights include annotated full manuscripts of such notable works as The Prelude and Michael, or Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode.

Sex & Sexuality covers a broad range of topics and is drawn from leading archives around the world. From papers of leading sexologists to LGBTQI+ personal histories, the collection is an essential resource for the study of human sexuality, its complexities and its history.

This resource brings together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world covering an extensive time period from 1490. Close attention has been given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.

A range of archival sources charts the contradictions of the age. The resource includes the personal and business papers of key industrialists and financiers; records of rail, steel and oil corporations; material on labour disputes, politics and progressivism; rich visual content on fashion, material culture and architecture.

Rare diaries and correspondence describing the travel experiences, destinations and desires of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American women travelling the world.

Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930, and shows how interconnected these worlds were. Taking its cue from the source material, Victorian Popular Culture welcomes readers into the darkened halls, small backrooms and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to magic and spiritualist séances.

This collection offers access to the works and legacy of many notable and influential women, but also a chance to hear the voices of forgotten and ordinary women.

Primary sources, offering insight into many aspects of the war, including government policy, the war in the Pacific, and the war in Europe. sources include the records of British espionage and sabotage organisation The Special Operations Executive; and private papers of American General Robert L Eichelberger from the Pacific war.

Explore three centuries of life at sea through the individual histories of ships’ crews during the Age of Sail and into the era of steam.

A huge range of primary sources covering social, cultural, political, scientific and religious perspectives, from the 12th to early 19th centuries.

Study military conflicts, political and diplomatic rivalries, exploration, Christian missions, technological advancements, slavery and encounters between European colonisers and African communities during this major period of colonial expansion.

Explore the rise of the global human rights movement during the second half of the twentieth century through the International Secretariat records of Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Amnesty International.