Our collections

Discover five centuries of advice literature from the mid-15th to early 20th century. Research the ideals of social conduct, power distribution within the family, consumption and leisure, education of men and women and gendered perceptions of the body to analyse and challenge the changing views and ideas surrounding traditional gender roles.

American social, cultural, and popular history during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.

A wide range of primary source material, including printed and manuscript cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films and illustrated content. It reveals the evolution of food and drink within everyday life and the public sphere. The material in this collection has been sourced from across the globe to reflect a wide range of food cultures and traditions.

Explore the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations.

From entertainment and technology to relationships and current affairs, explore everyday life and society on both sides of the Atlantic through popular and lesser-known periodicals.

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.

This 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.

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.

A multi-archive resource examining the history of the modern Olympic Games through primary sources.

Exploring the social and cultural history of shopping, the retail industry, and daily and working life.

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

A finding aid to the collections of The National Archives, UK, at Kew. Also includes a selection of rare documents relating to women's suffrage in the UK and the British Empire.

Explore the lives and experiences of women in Britain and Ireland across three centuries told in their own words.