LibGuides: History: Useful Websites

Doing in-depth research?

Search these recommended databases for your research projects, dissertations and theses.

The complete Databases A-Z can be found here.

17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window The newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) represent the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media.
19th Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window Throughout the 19th century, pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. 19th Century British Pamphlets contains the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in research libraries in the United Kingdom. The digitization of more than 26,000 pamphlets from collections in seven universities in the UK spanning more than one million pages brings together a corpus of primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain.
19th Century Early American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
19th Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new window
British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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
Gender: Identity and Social Change This link opens in a new window Essential primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. This expansive collection offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics.
History of Science (1830s-1970s): Archive from the BAAS This link opens in a new window The Archive of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) and connected collections from UK universities covers astronomy, biology, technology, industrial design, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, agriculture, meteorology, physics, history of science and STEM, and government grants for scientific research. It contains administrative records, correspondence, illustrations, manuscripts, photographs, prototypes, clippings, personal papers, gray literature—all presented as fully searchable digital images that can be analyzed, downloaded, manipulated, and compared with content from other societies and universities in the Wiley Digital Archives program.
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers contain the working documents of the British government for all areas of social, political, economic, and foreign policy. It covers Bills, Reports of Royal Commissions, Reports of Select Committees, Accounts and Papers and other materials.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences I Collection This link opens in a new window JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization with a dual mission to create and maintain a trusted archive of important scholarly journals, and to provide access to these journals as widely as possible. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences II Collection This link opens in a new window JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization with a dual mission to create and maintain a trusted archive of important scholarly journals, and to provide access to these journals as widely as possible. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences.
Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963 This link opens in a new window Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963 provides complete coverage of the Cabinet conclusions (minutes) (CAB 128) and memoranda (CAB 129) of Harold Macmillan’s government, plus selected minutes and memoranda of policy committees (CAB 134).
Migration to New Worlds This link opens in a new window From government-led population drives during the early nineteenth century through to mass steamship travel, Migration to New Worlds showcases unique primary source material recounting the many and varied personal experiences of 350 years of migration. Explore Colonial Office files on emigration, diaries and travel journals, ship logs and plans, printed literature, objects, watercolours, and oral histories supplemented by carefully selected secondary research aids.
The Nixon Years, 1969-1974 This link opens in a new window This collection provides complete FCO 7 and FCO 82 files for the entire period of Richard Nixon’s presidency. Top-level Anglo-American discussions and briefing papers dominate these papers. There is also a wealth of material on social conditions, domestic reforms, trade, culture and the environment.
SAGE Journals Online This link opens in a new window SAGE Publications is an independent international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media.
Taylor and Francis Online Journals This link opens in a new window Taylor & Francis Online hosts multidisciplinary, scholarly journals and reference works.

Primary documents

A primary source provides first hand evidence of an event and can include items such as; historical documents, diaries, financial accounts, eye witness accounts, photographs, correspondence, audio and video recordings and so on. The following resources will be of use in accessing primary material.

African Ajami Library
This resource is a collaboration between Boston University and the West African Research Center (WARC) in part funded by the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme. It has just added a collection of public release of over 18,000 pages of manuscripts from 58 different Mandinka scholars in Casamance, Senegal,. These include many Arabic and African language examples which can be downloaded in their original format. Transcripts are not provided. topics covered include African history and African languages and African responses to world events.
Anti-Slavery (Collection of Distinction) Boston Public Library
In the late 1890s, the family of William Lloyd Garrison, along with others closely involved in the anti-slavery movement, presented Boston Public Library with a major gathering of correspondence, documents, and other original material relating to the abolitionist cause from 1832 until after the American Civil War.
Arabian Gulf Digital Archive
The Arabian Gulf Digital Archive (“AGDA”) is an online archive that has been created to showcase historical and cultural material that tells the story of the rich, intriguing and complex history of the Arabian Gulf.
Archive finder
Archive Finder is a current directory which describes over 220,000 collections of primary source material housed in thousands of repositories across the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The BBC and World War Two
'The BBC and World War Two' forms part of the 100 Voices website – a project led by the University of Sussex, in partnership with the BBC, Mass Observation, the Science Museum Group and the British Entertainment History Project. It includes video clips of programmes plus images of primary source documents, including government archives. Topics covered include discussion on the role and types of broadcasting appropriate to armed forces and the general public during war time as well as the actual content which was broadcast.
Black Cultural Archives
Black Cultural Archives is the only national heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain.
Digital Library of the Middle East English
The Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME) offers free and open access to the rich cultural legacy of the Middle East and North Africa by bringing together collections from a wide range of cultural heritage institutions. Developed by an engineering team from CLIR and Stanford Libraries, the platform federates and makes accessible data about collections from around the world.
Discovery
Discovery holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country. Over 9 million records are available for download.
Endangered Archives Programme
The Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) facilitates the digitisation of archives around the world that are in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration. Since 2004, the Programme has helped digitise over twelve million images and 35,000 sound tracks. Archive types digitised so far include rare printed sources, manuscripts, visual materials, audio recordings.
Eurodocs
Links to European primary historical documents including texts, speeches, letters, images, maps, and video/sound files. Covers a wide range of eras, regions, and topics. Mostly includes links to more specific databases but does link to some documents directly. Not all sources are in English. Sorted by country. Among others, areas of coverage include French Revolution, German Unification, Colonialism, Nationalism, and both World Wars.
Europeana
Images, texts, sound files, and videos of key European times, places, and people. Mix of facsimiles, digitised full text, and external web links. Keyword searching and advanced post-searching refinement options. Material is in language of origin with English metadata and supporting material. Browser translating (e.g. Google Chrome) works relatively well.
Global Archives Online
Global Archives Online is a free-to-use directory of open digital collections of sources in global and colonial history. Aimed at students and researchers, it provides information and links to hundreds of digital collections from the 15th to the 21st century.
Hansard at Huddersfield
Explore the official, verbatim report of what was said in both houses of Parliament between 1803-2004 through various search functions and interactive visualisations.
Hearst newsreel collection
In 1981, the Hearst Corporation donated its newsreel collection to the University of California. In cooperation with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Packard Humanities Institute is developing this website as part of a joint project to make the Hearst newsreel collection more easily accessible to the public. You can browse the newsreels shown in US movie theatres from 1929 to 1967. If the story title is displayed in red, you can click on the title to play the video.
Imperial War Museum, London
The Imperial War Museum offers primary documents (documents, films, photographs, and others) related to 20th century conflicts. Some of their collections are available online, notably films and photographs.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Direct and indirect links to a wide range of European primary source historical documents. Coverage spans from the Reformation right up to the 21st Century. Sorted by themes and regions. Most sources have been translated into English. Includes coverage on the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, American Independence, 19 Century Western Europe, romanticism, nationalism, socialism, imperialism, and World War I.
Ministry of Information Digital Archive 1939-46
Fascinating research project which is aiming to digitise files from the wartime ministry of Information held by the National Archives and Imperial War Museum. It is an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project being undertaken by the Institute of English Studies in collaboration with the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London.Currently available are Home intelligence reports and social surveys.
National Archives, UK
The National Archives are digitising a growing number of their records. Note than only some of the records available online are free of charge.
Persuasive cartography
This is a collection of “persuasive” cartography: more than 800 maps intended primarily to influence opinions or beliefs - to send a message - rather than to communicate geographic information. The collection reflects a variety of persuasive tools , including allegorical, satirical and pictorial mapping; selective inclusion; unusual use of projections, color, graphics and text; and intentional deception. Maps in the collection address a wide range of messages: religious, political, military, commercial, moral and social.
Slave Voyages
This digital memorial raises questions about the largest slave trades in history and offers access to the documentation available to answer them. European colonizers turned to Africa for enslaved laborers to build the cities and extract the resources of the Americas. They forced millions of mostly unnamed Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas, and from one part of the Americas to another. Analyze these slave trades and view interactive maps, timelines, and animations to see the dispersal in action.
Society for historians of American foreign relations
The SHAFR Task Force on Freely Available Research Databases has compiled this bibliography of electronic resources to aid research in U.S. foreign relations history. This project depends on regular updates and suggestions of additional collections to be included in this bibliography.
UK Treaties Online
UK Treaties Online (UKTO) provides an official record of the UK's treaty obligations under international law and is sourced by Treaty Section of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. UKTO gives access to information on over 14,000 treaties to which the UK is or has been a party with links to texts of command papers published in the UK Treaty Series from 1892.
UK Web Archive
The UK Web Archive (UKWA) collects millions of websites each year, preserving them for future generations. Use this site to discover old or obsolete versions of UK websites, search the text of the websites and browse websites curated on different topics and themes.
VADS
Over 140,000 images from over 300 art and design collections in the UK, free for use in education.
World Digital Library
Includes digitised manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings. Material is primarily facsimiles of the original items in their languages of origin and there is an option to select language of material to search. Some contain links to external sites that are not always in English. Metadata and supporting content on home site is in English. Includes a keyword search and browsing by place, time, topic, and format of item. Also has the option of post browsing/searching refinement (e.g . limit results by time period, place etc.)

General history resources

Institute of historical research
Founded in 1921 by A. F. Pollard, the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is an important resource and meeting place for researchers from all over the world. Its mission is to promote the study of history and an appreciation of the importance of the past, offer a wide range of services both onsite and remotely which promote and facilitate excellence in historical research, teaching and scholarship in the UK and provide an accessible and stimulating portal for the exchange of ideas and information and current developments in historical scholarship.
Making Histories
Making History, developed by the Institute of Historical Research, is dedicated to the history of the study and practice of history in Britain over the last hundred years and more, following the emergence of the professional discipline in the late 19th century.

Other library catalogues

British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom with items in many languages and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos, play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings.
Library Hub Discover
Library Hub Discover gives you access to details of materials held in many UK national, academic and specialist libraries.
Library Hub Discover currently contains 39,620,869 records created from 93,299,858 records contributed by 110 institutions.
WorldCat
WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information. WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world.