Access to facsimile images of letters, poems, plays, novels, and other literary works of British authors over seven centuries.

English-language books published in Great Britain or British North America.

English-language and some foreign-language books. The majority were printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, and the United States

A selection of primary source texts illustrative of various aspects of medieval urban life, in modern English.

Provides systematic information regarding the establishment and operation of markets and fairs. Every reference to a market (mercatum, forum) or fair (feria, nundinae) in the source material has been recorded. This includes both prescriptive markets and fairs (generally the oldest, which were held by established custom) and granted markets and fairs, which were usually held by virtue of a royal charter. NOTE: This site is archived and no longer updated.

Shared digital repository of millions of library books and journals converted from print resources owned by research institutions around the world. HathiTrust Digital Library does not permit viewing or downloading of books that are still under copyright. NOTE: The individual titles in this database are only listed in Discover not the Local Catalog.

Many books and other materials in the catalog may be primary sources. Trying using these keywords with your topic to search for them: correspondence, diaries, interviews, papers, personal narratives. For example, click here to see results of a search on those keywords and the name Henry VIII. (Please note that the catalog also contains secondary sources.)

Materials relating to London, including rare books, maps, posters, advertising, playbills, ballads and broadsides, penny fiction, cartoons, Swell’s guides to London prostitution, gambling and drinking dens, tourist guides, etc.

(The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection of Economic Literature.) Books, serials, pamphlets, and more.

Nearly 26,000 pamphlets. Collections include Cowen Tracts (1603-1898), Earl Grey Pamphlets Collection (1800-1900), Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection (1545-1900), Hume Tracts (1769-1890), Knowsley Pamphlet Collection (1792-1868), Selections – University of Manchester British Political Pamphlets Collection (1799-1900), Selections – London School of Economics and Political Science (1800-1899), Selections – University of Bristol (1800-1899), and Wilson Anti-Slavery Collection (1761-1900).

Books, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages. Includes:
-British Politics and Society History Sleuth Students: This unit includes more than 400 documents on the "Jack the Ripper" killings.
-British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture

NOTE: Now part of C19: The 19th Century Index.

Sixty-nine regional and local newspapers.

British magazines and journals.

References to or full text of books, periodicals, newspapers, government publications, reference material, and archival collections. This database includes The Wellesley Index for Victorian Periodicals, Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, Periodicals Index Online, and more.

The Economist, a weekly publication providing timely reporting, concise commentary and comprehensive appraisal of global news, spanning centuries and continents.

British magazines.

A key international business paper based in London, the Financial Times Historical Archive provides access to fully searchable digital reproductions of every issue from 1888-2021. Coverage includes critical financial and economic events, industry, energy, international politics, and more recently management, personal finance and the arts.

The British newspapers, Guardian, 1821-2003, and Observer, 1791-2003.

Primarily published in England, but also in Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, and elsewhere.

Does NOT include the Sunday edition.

Includes digital documents relevant to law, history, government, etc. from ancient times to the present.

The library holds this large set covering the mid-1800s to the mid 1900s. The books are shelved throughout the library. See link for catalog records.

Digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Most of the material is free, but some is not. See this page for a list of material that is NOT free. We have access to some of that subscription material in State Papers Online

Records of the senior ministers of the British government.

Directory of medieval source material.

Covers the earliest English settlements in North America, encounters with Native Americans, piracy in the Atlantic and Caribbean, English conflicts with the Spanish and French, maritime history, plantations, and slavery. Includes CO 1 Privy Council and Related Bodies: America and West Indies, Colonial Papers (hard to read) and Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies (easy to read summaries).

Important legal cases.

This catalogue currently contains descriptions and digitised images of documents dating from the reigns of George I to William IV, including personal letters, diaries, account books and records of the Royal Household.

A fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.

More than 21,000 Anglo-American works from casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, etc.

Documents on Anglo-American trials including published trial transcripts; popular printed accounts of sensational trials for murder; unofficially published accounts of trials, briefs, arguments, and other trial documents; official records of legislative proceedings, administrative proceedings, and arbitration sessions; and books and pamphlets about specific trials.

Searching is free but there may be a fee to download records.

Nearly 26,000 pamphlets. Collections include Cowen Tracts (1603-1898), Earl Grey Pamphlets Collection (1800-1900), Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection (1545-1900), Hume Tracts (1769-1890), Knowsley Pamphlet Collection (1792-1868), Selections – University of Manchester British Political Pamphlets Collection (1799-1900), Selections – London School of Economics and Political Science (1800-1899), Selections – University of Bristol (1800-1899), and Wilson Anti-Slavery Collection (1761-1900).

Parliamentary debates (often referred to as Hansard) are records of what is said in Parliament. Only since 1909 has Hansard been a verbatim report and official publication; before then, publications were based on secondary sources such as newspaper accounts. Link is to several sources of the debates.

Full text of the rolls of parliament (translated and in the original Latin, Anglo-Norman or Middle English). The rolls were the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I until the reign of Henry VII.

Contains 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

Full text of British government materials, including State Papers, Domestic and Foreign. Click here for more information on State Papers.

Acts of Parliament.