Primary sources

Archives are collections of documents or “records” that have been selected for permanent preservation because of their value as evidence or as a source for historical or other research. Records are created by the activities of organisations and people; they serve an active purpose whilst in current use and some of them are later selected and preserved as part of an archival collection. (Definition from the National Archives)

African Diaspora, 1860–present
From resource’s own description: “allows scholars to discover the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent. With a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France, the collection includes never-before digitised primary source documents, including personal papers, organisational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters and ephemera.

Amnesty International Archives

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.

An AM Digital Resource.

Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century

The Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century offer a range of content for the region, providing opportunities for research into issues and events in contemporary Latin American and Caribbean history, as well as historical perspective back to the colonial period. Coverage extends from the 15th to 20th century, providing information about the indigenous peoples of the region, the Conquest (la Conquista), colonial rule, religion, struggles for independence, and political, economic, and social progress and issues in newly independent nations.

A Gale/Cengage resource.

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century
Gale’s Archives of Sexuality and Gender spans the sixteenth to the twentieth century and is the largest digital collection of primary source materials relating to the history and study of sex, sexuality and gender. Documentation covering social, political, health and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world is included, as well as rare and unique books on sex and sexuality from the sciences to the humanities. Selection of materials for this milestone digital programme is guided by an advisory board consisting of leading scholars and librarians in Sexuality and Gender Studies.

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ history and culture since 1940, Part I

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ history and culture since 1940, Part II

Over a million pages of archival material on sexuality and gender with material on sexual, political, social and legal issues in pamphlets, posters, newsletters, manuscripts, monographs representing LGBTQ communities internationally.

Avalon Project
This Yale University Law School project gives free and open access to a full text collection of documents relating to world history. It has a US focus (including relations with other nations) with some non-US documents. Most documents date from 18th century to present, but some pre-18th century documents are included. It also includes a section on 20th century history.

Black Abolitionist Papers
This collection of documents covers 1830–1865, and presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, via the writings of the activists themselves during the Pre-US Civil War period.

Black Thought and Culture
This resource comprises around 100,000 pages of non-fiction material by leading figures in last 250 years of African-American arts, politics, religion, entertainment, sport and culture. This collection includes writings by Paul Robeson, Booker T. Washington, Audre Lorde, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, W.E.B. Du Bois and Zora Neale Hurston among many others. Topics covered include black nationalism, segregation and the Jim Crow laws, The Black Panthers, the Civil Rights movement. A subscription resource from ProQuest.

Border and Migration Studies online
A collection of documents, videos and images representing personal and institutional perspectives relevant to the growing areas of border and migration studies. Over 30 worldwide border areas are covered, notably the US/Mexico border, the European Union and Israel.

British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries (Second edition): 
Letters and diaries spanning over 400 years, many by renowned women writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Fanny Burney, Queen Victoria and George Eliot. Includes 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscripts.

British Online Archives: British Communism Through Committee Work, 1926–1992

The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) spawned many different committees throughout its turbulent lifetime. This collection contains the papers of numerous different committees established to advise the Executive Committee on party policy and ongoing developments in their respective fields. The material is varied in scope and demonstrates the totality of the CPGB’s ambitions in developing policy for their political programme.

British Online Archives: British Labour Party Papers, 1968–1994
Compiled by the Parliamentary Labour Party this collection of minutes of minutes of party meetings, Liaison Committee meetings, and Parliamentary Committee (Shadow Cabinet) meetings documents Labour in power (Wilson and Callaghan governments) as well as the post-1979 years in opposition.

British Online Archives: Caribbean Colonial Statistics from the British Empire, 1824–1950
Statistical records, arranged by year, for the Caribbean under British colonial rule, the core of which covers the period 1839-1938. In addition to population returns, the material covers education reports, prison records, land grants, imports and exports.

British Online Archives: Colonial Africa in Official Statistics, 1821–1953
Following the 19th century “Scramble for Africa”, Britain came to exercise colonial rule over the largest portion of the continent. Subsequently, each of the thirteen British colonies was required to compile and submit to the Colonial Office an Annual Blue Book report primarily covering economic development as well as demographic, ecclesiastical, and public records. The standardisation of reporting across all territories allows cross-database comparisons to be made on a range of topics including the slave trade.

British Online Archives: Indian Communists and Trade Unionists on Trial

The Meerut Conspiracy Case was a controversial legal saga that played out in British India between 1929 and early 1933. It began with the arrest and subsequent trial of twenty-nine trade unionists, including three Englishmen. It was alleged that they had attempted “to deprive the King Emperor of the sovereignty of British India”. They were charged under Section 121A of the Indian Penal Code. Containing over 10,000 images, this collection includes petitions and resolutions in support of the Meerut prisoners and the wider Indian labour movement. It includes papers from Indian police intelligence files, such as surveillance reports, alongside writings by the defendants, including Philip Spratt and Lester Hutchinson, as well as the papers of William Gillies and Benjamin Francis Bradley.

British Online Archives: Notable Individuals of British Communism

At its peak, the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) had tens of thousands of dedicated activists fighting to bring sweeping change across Britain. These activists penetrated nearly all areas of British society, from industry and trade unions to colonial administration and academia. Convinced of the righteousness of their cause, these activists showed great enthusiasm and fierce determination in advancing the struggle for socialism. This collection is drawn from the personal papers of a multitude of CPGB activists throughout the twentieth century. This includes those at the heart of party (such as full-time "national organisers") and peripheral figures who supported the communist cause (such as Labour MP Dennis Nowell Pritt). Covering over a hundred years, from the communist movement’s earliest sprouting’s to its nadir in the late twentieth century, the collection offers valuable insights into the grassroots efforts of almost one hundred communist activists and sympathisers.

British Online Archives: Power and profit: British colonial trade in America and the Caribbean, 1678–1825
Based upon the British Naval Office shipping lists for 1678–1825, this collection illustrates how both commodity and human cargo was moved in a triangular fashion around the three points of Empire: Britain, its colonies and the profitable markets in Europe and the Americas. The lists include, amongst other details, the name of the vessel, where it was built, the name of its home port and colony, details of the vessel’s construction, the name of the owner(s).

British Online Archives: Slave Trading Records from William Davenport & Co., 1745–1797
William Davenport was a Liverpool merchant and slave trader. Prominent in this collection held by Keele University are his company’s trading invoices and accounts for each of its ships. These papers record the cargoes carried and thereby show what the colonies involved were trading and what their commodities were worth.

British Online Archives: Slave Trade Records from Liverpool, 1754–1792
Over the course of the 18th century, Liverpool became Britain’s most profitable slave-trading port. Immense fortunes were made from trading slaves to the Americas prior to abolition in 1807. This resource presents documents such as slave ships' logs, financial documents, order papers, and private correspondence from leading figures involved in the industry.

British Online Archives: Secrecy, Sabotage, and Aiding the Resistance: How Anglo-American Cooperation Shaped World War II
A large collection of papers on the British Special Operations Executive and its US counterpart the Office of Strategic Services featuring British and American security services intelligence used to mount covert and resistance-style operations in Axis occupied countries. Covers the period of sabotage and guerrilla warfare activities under Operation Jedburgh from its inception in June 1944 to the end of the war in Europe.

British Online Archives: Tanzania and Malawi from colonial missionaries, 1857–1965
From the provider’s description: “The Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) was an Anglican missionary society established in the late 1850s. In 1965, the UMCA merged with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) to form the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG). This collection contains documents relating to the UMCA’s activities in Tanzania and Malawi during the period 1857–1965. The papers provide an insight into the spread of Christianity in Central Africa.”

China and the Modern World: Hong Kong, Britain, and China, Part II: 1965–1993

Digitised primarily from the records of British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO 40), this collection continues where Hong Kong, Britain and China Part I, 1841–1951 left off, and documents the process of Hong Kong maneuvering, surviving, thriving and transforming into a modern international metropolis and financial center in the wider context of the Cold War.

A Gale/Cengage resource.

China Trade Politics and Culture 1793–1980
This collection contains material from nine archives at the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library and covers events from the earliest English embassy in China to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic. A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Colonial Missionaries’ archives

The British Online Archives contain primary material from the United Society Partners in Gospel (USPG) colonial missionaries. The USPG is a UK-based Anglican missionary organisation that operates around the world. During the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, the USPG went by the name of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG).

• America in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1635–1928
  These records provide a unique insight into the evolution of Christianity in the American colonies, the United States, and Canada. They contain letters and supplementary material compiled by the North American branch of the USPG.
• Colonial Missionaries' Papers from America and the West Indies, 1701–1870
  This resource contains the USPG’s founding documents, in-house journal, annual sermons and reports, providing insights into the relationship between colonisers and those colonised.
• The West Indies in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1704–1950
  This archive offers reports covering both sides of the USPG’s legacy as it moved from owning slaves to educating the emancipated.

Communisms and the Cold War 1944–1986
This resource contains reports and other records compiled by the Communist Party of Great Britain's International Department between 1944 and 1986. This period begins immediately after the dissolution of the Communist International (Comintern) and ends shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A subscription resource from British Online Archives.

Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920 
With 2.1 million pages of trial transcripts, police and forensic reports, detective novels, newspaper accounts, true crime literature, and related ephemera, this resource presents the broadest and deepest collection of materials supporting the study of nineteenth-century criminal history, law, literature and justice. This quintessential resource enhances understanding of the intersection of law and society during a pivotal era of social change.

This unique international collection helps researchers explore the causes and effects of the rise in crime during the Industrial Revolution, the development of metropolitan police departments and the public's fascination with increasingly sensational accounts of crime in newspapers and fiction. It covers changing attitudes about punishment and reform that led to such practices as solitary confinement, prison work programs and penal transportation, as well as ""scientific"" theories such as phrenology, which posited that character could be determined by physiognomy.

A Gale resource.

Decolonization: Politics and Independence in Former Colonial and Commonwealth Territories

Decolonization: Politics and Independence in Former Colonial and Commonwealth Territories brings together material from within former British colonies and Commonwealth nations, alongside some from former French and Portuguese territories, to provide valuable primary source material created for local audiences by local actors during a period of enormous global change. After the Second World War, decolonization movements around the world gathered pace and from the small port colony of Aden to the vast Indian sub-continent, new borders were set and new nations built.

A Gale/Cengage resource.

Defining Gender 1450–1910
This advice literature from the mid-15th to early 20th century covers social conduct, power distribution within the family, consumption and leisure, ideas surrounding traditional gender roles, education of men and women and gendered perceptions of the body.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Development of Environmental Health Policy: Pope A. Lawrence Papers 1924-1983 
Correspondence, field studies, reports, scientific data, photographs and maps all document the varied research and policy-making career of Pope A. Lawrence, an environmental health scientist with the Public Health Service (PHS) and the Environmental Health Agency (EPA). His papers contain a wealth of primary source research materials and scientific data related to: environmental and industrial hygiene, radon activity, use of beryllium as a rocket propellant, uranium mining, and toxicological, biological and chemical weapon systems, primarily from the 1950s through the 1970s, especially as related to America's atomic age federal policy.

Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement
A collection of primary and secondary source material documenting the disabled community’s history and contributions to society throughout the 20th century. Material includes contemporary periodicals, photographs, government documents, memoirs and diaries, advertisements, poetry. The publisher is working towards including around 125 hours of video material. This resource supports disability studies from the perspectives of, amongst other themes, gender, sexuality, employment, veterans of military service, class, race, legislation, campaigns and social activism.

A subscription resource from ProQuest.

Early Modern England: Society, Culture and Everyday Life, 1500-1700 
Explore the lived experiences of Early Modern English society, from ordinary people to prominent families.

This collection of primary sources looks at two centuries of everyday, political, religious, working, trading and administrative life in England during this pivotal epoch.

An AM Digital resource.

East India Company Modules I–V
The India Office Records from the British Library contain royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types. These chart the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1599 to 1947.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Eighteenth Century Drama

A unique archive of almost every play submitted for licence between 1737 and 1824, and hundreds of documents that provide social context for the plays.

An AM Digital resource.

Empire Online
Empire Online charts the rise and fall of European empires over five centuries, from European and non-European perspectives, starting with the voyages of Columbus. The material covers ‘empire’ from the British, French, Portuguese, and German viewpoints, as well as those of the indigenous peoples of Africa, India and North America. This resource is useful for research into colonial history, politics, culture and society.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Environmental History: Colonial Policy and Global Development, 1896–1993

The study of environmental history emerged in the 1960s, inspired by the popularity of emerging environmentalist movements, but concerns about human intervention and interaction with the natural environment can be traced much further back. Starting in the late nineteenth century, in direct response to the Industrial Revolution, forces in social and political spheres across the globe struggled to balance the good of the public and the planet against the economic exploitation of resources. In Environmental History, researchers may explore the history of the environment and conservation efforts across the globe from the late 1800s onwards.

A Gale/Cengage Resource.

Environmental Issues Online – Text resources

Environmental Issues Online – Video resources
A multimedia resource containing material from the 20th and 21st centuries covering environmental challenges, including climate change, water and air pollution, biodiversity, conservation, agriculture, deforestation.

EuroDocs
EuroDocs offers access to a large range of European primary source documents (digitised manuscripts, literary texts, historical documents, newspapers, journals, legal and government documents) which are freely available online. Material can be browsed by country and then period.

First World War: Personal experiences and First World War: Propaganda and recruitment
Documents from national and other archives, including the British Library and Cambridge University Library, highlighting the voices and experiences of men and women who served in the First World War.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century

The archive provides a wide variety of primary sources addressing the history of disabilities.  Users will find information on treatments, policies, institutional records, studies, advice and personal accounts. It is these personal accounts that are sometimes most intriguing as they provide a more human perspective on the experiences of people with disabilities.

A Gale/Cengage resource.

History Vault: American Politics and Society

• American Politics and Society from JFK to Watergate
• Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement

Archives of material from the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon presidencies as well as records from federal agencies. Covers a wide spectrum of issues of the time including civil rights, poverty, women’s rights, space exploration, the Watergate trials, the anti-Vietnam War movement.

History Vault: Civil rights and the Black Freedom Struggle
This History Vault collection contains digitised letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and other primary source materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. It includes records of major civil rights organisations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black Freedom Struggle.

Our subscription includes the following:

• African American Police League Records (1961–1988)
• Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Parts 1 and 2
• The NAACP's Major Campaigns—Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces
• The NAACP's Major Campaigns—Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses
• NAACP papers: Board of Directors, annual conferences, major speeches, national staff files
• NAACP papers: Branch department, branch files and Youth Department files
• Black freedom struggle in the 20th century: Federal government records with Supplement

In addition, Black Freedom Struggle in the United States is an open resource containing free to access primary source materials documenting the US abolitionist and Civil Rights movements; the Jim Crow era of race discrimination legislation; African Americans and the US Civil War; contemporary documents and records on race and equality in the US. A free resource from ProQuest.

History Vault: International Relations and Military Conflicts

• Creation of Israel: British Foreign Office Correspondence on Palestine and Transjordan, 1940–1948
• Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Early Cold War, 1946–1960
• Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960–1975

History Vault: Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War

A collection of contemporaneous records covering a significant part of the history of the American South. The Library currently offers the following parts:

• Slavery and the law
• Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries
• Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Law and Order in 19th century America, 1636–1880

History Vault: Women’s Studies

• Struggle for Women's Rights, Organizational Records, 1880–1990
• Women at Work during World War II: Rosie the Riveter and the Women's Army Corps
• Women’s Studies Manuscript Collections from the Schlesinger Library: Voting Rights, National Politics, and Reproductive Rights

History Vault: Workers, Labor Unions, Progressives and Radicals

• Socialist Party of America records, 1897–1976
• Workers, Labor Unions and the American Left in the 20th Century: Federal Records

These are ProQuest subscription resources.

India, Raj and Empire
These National Library of Scotland manuscript collections document the East India Company from foundation in 1615 to independence for India and Pakistan in 1947. Agriculture and trade, society travel and leisure, and the Raj as British administration in India are amongst the topics covered by the documents in this resource.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Literary Manuscripts: Berg
The Berg Collection's Victorian holdings is a source for the textual analysis of Victorian literature. It includes unpublished poems, working notebooks, holograph manuscripts and drawings.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Literary Manuscripts: Leeds
This collection of digitised literary manuscripts of 17th and 18th century poetry from the Brotherton Library Special Collections includes early modern verse and source materials for both literary scholars and historians.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Literary print culture : the Stationers' Company archive 1554–2007
From provider’s website: “An important resources for understanding 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”. Documents cover the Tudor period to the 21st century.

An Adam Matthew Digital resource.

London Low Life: Street Culture, Social Reform and the Victorian Underworld
An extraordinary digital collection bringing to life the teeming streets of Victorian London, and inviting students and scholars to explore the gin palaces, brothels and East End slums of the nineteenth century’s greatest city.

From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers an unparalleled insight into the dark underworld of the city. Children’s chapbooks, street cries, slang dictionaries and ballads were all part of a vibrant culture of street literature.

The Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600–1926
Contains documents – official and unofficial – for US trials over more than 300 years reflecting issues concerning the administration of justice, race, gender, and journalism.

A Gale subscription resource.

Making of the Modern World Parts I & II
This resource is sourced from the Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450–1850 and provides digital facsimile images of 61,000 works on economics, business and trade. Covers the history of Western trade, the coal, iron, and steel industries, the railway industry, the cotton industry, banking and finance, and the emergence of the modern corporation. It also covers the rise of the modern labour movement, the evolving status of slavery, the condition and making of the working class, colonisation, the Atlantic world, Latin American and Caribbean studies.

A subscription resource from Gale.

Mass Observation Online
Mass Observation Online makes the Mass Observation Archive available in its entirety. Useful for social research this archive presents a record of everyday life in Britan as documented in diaries, surveys, questionnaires and photographs by those living it. Covers the original project, 1937–1950 and newer material collected since 1981.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Medical Services and Warfare Module I
Archives covering medical advances across conflicts, including documents from the Crimean War, the second Boer War, the American Civil War, the First World War and inter- and post-war periods. Of use to medical historians, it includes hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts which illustrate how warfare has shaped medical practice.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Medieval and Early Modern Studies

A huge range of primary sources covering social, cultural, political, scientific and religious perspectives, from the 15th to early 18th centuries.

An AM Digital resource.

Medieval Family Life

Collected correspondence of five medieval families: "A plethora of topics are covered in these collections, including trade, warfare, arranging advantageous marriages, arguments between parents and children, matters of inheritance, births and deaths, estate management, legal disputes, domestic finances, women and their role in the family and everyday social and domestic life."

An AM Digital resource.

Missionary Studies

A broad selection of missionary collections, representing a global range of Christian missions, churches and denominations.

An AM Digital resource.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online
These collections contain large amounts of digitised material from a variety of original formats. Our subscription to Gale covers:

• British politics and society
• European literature, 1790–1840: The Corvey Collection
• British theatre, music, and literature: High and popular culture
• Asia and the West: Diplomacy and cultural exchange
• Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, civilisation, and conquest.

North American Women’s Letters and Diaries
Comprising 150,000 pages of letters and diaries, of which 7,000 are previously unpublished.

Perdita Manuscripts

Discover manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

An AM Digital resource.

Political Extremism, Part 1

This collection covers a broad assortment of both far-right and radical 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 the impact they have had on today's society.The collections cover a period of just over a century (1900s to 2010s) when the world saw the formation of several civil rights movements, including for the rights of minorities, women's rights, and gay rights. It also encompasses the rise and fall of a number of peripheral groups deemed 'extreme' or 'radical' by contemporaries, such as anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-war, communist or socialist, creationist, environmentalist, hate, holocaust denial, new left, survivalist, white supremacist, and white nationalist.

A Gale/Cengage resource.

Political Extremism and Radicalism: Global Communist and Socialist Movements

Liberal democracies of North America, Europe, and Australasia throughout the twentieth century have experienced a variety of forms of extremism and radicalism that have shaped mainstream political thinking as well as cultural norms. To comprehend modern governmental and societal systems researchers must understand the environment that created them, their origins and their adversaries. In the Political Extremism and Radicalism series Gale provides insight on unorthodox (by contemporary standards), fringe groups from both the right and left of the political spectrum through rare, hard to access primary sources. Content supports scholars and students answering questions on philosophical, social, political, and economic ideologies as well as on contemporary issues surrounding gender, sexuality, race, religion, civil rights, universal suffrage and much more.

A Gale/Cengage resource.

Popular Medicine in America 1800–1900
This resource highlights American popular medicine as represented by advertisements and popular texts. It offers visual primary source material, together with supplementary features designed to aid research and teaching.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Power to the People: Counterculture, Social Movements, and the Alternative Press, Nineteenth to Twenty-First Century

This archive showcases a range of ideas, initiatives, and social movements devoted to people-powered politics and organizing from the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries. Ranging beyond a few specific movements, the archive paints a broad picture of the counterculture and many disparate organizations that represent this moment in modern Western history. Although the archive concentrates mainly on the United States and the United Kingdom, it also covers events and topics from around the globe. Alternative press publications throughout the archive represent anti-establishment and countercultural ideas and movements through art, satire, humor and alternative lifestyles.

A Gale/Cengage resource.

Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913
A fully searchable body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people relating to 197,745 criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Prosecuting the Holocaust
Drawn from the National Archives (UK) and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum this collection contains information regarding the British government’s efforts to investigate and prosecute Nazi crimes during the period 1944–1949.

A subscription resource from British Online Archives.

Queen Victoria’s Journals
An open resource of searchable scans of the original journal pages alongside a transcript.

Refugees, Relief and Resettlement: Forced migration and WWII
Features key material from the UK National Archives, The British Library, US National Archives and World Jewish Relief to create a record of refugee and displaced persons experiences, 1935-1950.

A Gale subscription resource.

Revolution and Protest Online – Text resources

Revolution and Protest Online – Video resources
Assembled from archives and collections at the National Archives; University of London; Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University; and the WGBH Educational Foundation, this resource presents a wealth of documents with analysis and interpretation of political processes as part of revolutions, protests, resistance and social movements – from the 18th century to the present day.

Romanticism: Life Literature and Landscape
A collection of the working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers, digitised in full colour. Includes the annotated full manuscripts of Wordsworth’s The Prelude and Michael, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode.

A subscription resource from Adam Matthew Digital.

Royal College of Physicians Archive
This archive contains an eclectic range of 14th to 19th century medical manuscripts. Personal papers of past fellows from the 16th to the 20th century provide glimpses into the personal lives and social concerns of many distinguished physicians.

A subscription resource from Wiley.

Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Archives

Royal Shakespeare Company Archives provides a comprehensive record of the performance history of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessor, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.

An AM Digital resource.

Shakespeare's Globe Archive

Explore two decades of pioneering theatrical experiment from the archives of Shakespeare's Globe. Renowned worldwide for the iconic reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre.

An AM Digital resource.

Shakespeare in Performance

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.

An AM Digital resource.

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice
A collection of primary and secondary documents from archives and libraries across the Atlantic world on themes such as urban and rural slavery; slave testimony; sprituality and religion; the Underground Railroad; freed slaves; the present day legacy of slavery.

An Adam Matthew Digital resource.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery

This collection of company records, personal papers, newspapers and government records looks at slavery in terms of women and children, legal aspects, abolition movements and resistance to slavery. Emphasis is on slavery on both sides of the Atlantic; Emacipation movements and abolitionist debates; Institutional attitudes to emancipated former slaves. A Gale subscription resource.

• Slavery and Anti-Slavery, part I: Debates over slavery and abolition
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery, part II: Slave trade in the Atlantic world
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery, part III: The institution of slavery
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery, part IV: The age of emancipation

Socialism on Film - Module I Wars and Revolutions
Sourced from the British Film Institute (BFI), Socialism on Film documents the communist world, from the Russian Revolution to the end of the Cold War. This unique collection of documentary films, features and newsreels reveals all aspects of life behind the Iron Curtain, as seen by filmmakers from the USSR, Vietnam, Cuba, China, East Germany, Eastern Europe and more.

This module explores many of the conflicts, tensions and uprisings of the twentieth century from the unique perspective of socialist filmmakers around the globe.

An AM Digital resource.

Socialism on Film - Module III Culture and Society
Sourced from the British Film Institute (BFI), Socialism on Film documents the communist world, from the Russian Revolution to the end of the Cold War. This unique collection of documentary films, features and newsreels reveals all aspects of life behind the Iron Curtain, as seen by filmmakers from the USSR, Vietnam, Cuba, China, East Germany, Eastern Europe and more.

Module III touches on themes including the arts, sport, work, and youth and education, providing Western audiences with an unparalleled insight into life behind the Iron Curtain.

These propaganda films encompass a broad range of content, which focus on healthcare and tourism, women’s work, environmentalism and education. Module highlights include footage shot in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, documentaries on the Space Race and films which aim to present Soviet power as a modernising force for women’s rights.

An AM Digital resource.

Subculture Archives 
An educational and cultural research resource of primary sources exploring 100 years of youth culture through the scenes, styles and sounds that forged them. From rave and punk to rockabilly and grime.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600–2000
An extensive collection of primary sources for US women’s history including 130 document projects and document archives that present and interpret primary source documents.

A subscription resource from Alexander Street.

Women's Voices and Life Writing, 1600-1968
Women’s Voices and Life Writing amplifies the voices of women in Britain and Ireland across three centuries, illuminating issues of gender, class, race, disability, sexuality, religion and more.

The resource brings together diaries and oral histories to enable students and researchers to explore the lives of hundreds of individuals from diverse backgrounds, from abolitionists to suffragists and royalty to republicans. Vivid narratives cover a wide range of themes, including domestic life, travel, sport, feminism, gender fluidity and class, with the collection providing a platform for working class, LGBTQ+ and disabled women’s voices.

An AM Digital resource.