Our collections
Award-winning primary source collections for teaching and research.
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CollectionDescriptionPeriod covered
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Medieval Travel WritingThe Middle Ages
An extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy.
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Meiji Japan1856-1925
Manuscripts for the study of Meiji society, culture, ethnology and education from the papers of Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925).
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Mexico in History: Colonialism to Revolutionc.1500-1929
Discover the history of Mexico through the unique print and manuscript Spanish-language collections of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
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Migration to New Worlds1800-1900A 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.
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Missionary Studies1700-2002This collection includes primary sources for the study of missionary work, educational work, medical work, evangelism, political conflict, and the emergence of indigenous churches.
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Nineteenth Century Literary Societyc.1768-1900
An unparalleled resource for nineteenth century culture and the literary luminaries who shaped it.
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Perdita Manuscripts, 1500-17001500-1700This resource is produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University. Their goal was to identify and describe all manner of writing by early modern women from diaries to works of drama. The resource links digital scans of the original documents with the researchers' catalogue and notes.
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Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-19751950-1975A wide range of material, from government documents to fanzines, video content to posters and scrapbooks, tells the story of a time of music, political unrest, fashion and new technology.
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Popular Medicine in America, 1800-19001800-1900Explore the medicine chests and bookshelves of the everyday nineteenth-century American through a colourful array of advertisements, popular texts and much more. This resource offers access to an outstanding collection of highly visual primary source material, together with supplementary features designed to aid research and teaching.
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Poverty, Philanthropy and Social Conditions in Victorian Britain1800-1900
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.
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Research Skills Foundations
Develop students' primary source literacy and critical thinking skills and introduce key approaches to working with source material.
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Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape1768-1903A 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.
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Royal Shakespeare Company Archives: From Playwrights to Performance1922-2013
Insights into the RSC and its most innovative and pioneering productions.
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Service Newspapers of World War Two1939-1948Contains an extensive range of both rare and well-known wartime publications for soldiers serving in major theatres around the world. Publications are included from many key nations involved in the conflict, such as the US, Canada, New Zealand, India, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
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Sex & SexualityLate 19th century - present day
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.
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Shakespeare in Performance1670s to 1970s (bulk nineteenth century)Rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. The prompt books tell the stories of key performances as they were put on in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and further afield, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.
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Shakespeare's Globe Archive1997-2016Documenting over 300 productions from 1997-2016 from the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, this digital collection is a critical resource for the study of Shakespeare, theatre, cultural history and early-modern literature.
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Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice1490 - 2007This 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.
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Socialism on FilmEarly twentieth century - 1980sSourced from the British Film Institute (BFI), this collection of documentary, newsreel and feature films reveals the world as seen by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, East European, and Latin American filmmakers. Ranging from the early 20th century to the 1980s, material encapsulates the themes of war, revolution, news, current affairs, culture and society.
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The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
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.
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The Grand Tourc1550 - 1850A digital collection of manuscript, visual and printed works that allows students and researchers to explore and compare a range of sources on the history of travel. Many come from private or neglected collections.
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The Nixon Years, 1969-19741969-1974British Government documents on North America during Nixon's presidency.
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The Olympic Movement: Sport, Global Politics and Identity
A multi-archive resource examining the history of the modern Olympic Games through primary sources.
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