Primary Sources
A primary source is usually a record made at the time of an event by participants or by firsthand observers. Examples include books and other materials from the time period, newspaper or magazine accounts from the time period, government materials from the time period. Because historians cite their primary sources, look at their bibliographies to locate sources for your own research.
Primary Sources: Books and Other Materials
- British Literary Manuscripts Online (1100-1900;Gale)Access to facsimile images of letters, poems, plays, novels, and other literary works of British authors over seven centuries.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO, 1473-1700; Proquest)English-language books published in Great Britain or British North America.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO, 1701-1800; Gale)English-language and some foreign-language books. The majority were printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, and the United States
- Florilegium UrbanumA selection of primary source texts illustrative of various aspects of medieval urban life, in modern English.
- Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs to 1516Provides 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 NOTE: This site is archived and no longer updated.
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryShared digital repository of library books and journals converted from print owned by research institutions. 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.
- Local Catalog (OU)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.)
- London Low Life (19th-early 20th C.; Adam Matthew)Digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps, and other materials relating to London. Includes posters, advertising, playbills, ballads and broadsides, penny fiction, cartoons, Swell’s guides to London prostitution, gambling and drinking dens, tourist guides, etc.
- Making of the Modern World: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection of Economic Literature (1450-1850; Gale)Full text of books, serials, pamphlets, and more.
- Nineteenth Century British Pamphlets (1545-1900; JSTOR)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).
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale)Full text of 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 - Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals (1824-1900; Proquest)NOTE: Now part of C19: The 19th Century Index.
Primary Sources: Newspapers and Magazines
- British Library Newspapers (1800-1900; Gale)Sixty-nine regional and local newspapers.
- British Periodicals (1681-1939; Proquest)Full text of British magazines and journals. Formats include magisterial quarterlies, scholarly and professional organs, coterie art periodicals, penny weeklies and illustrated family magazines.
- C19: The Nineteenth Century IndexMore than 20 million records for books, periodicals, newspapers, government publications, reference material, and archival collections. This database includes The Wellesley Index for Victorian Periodicals, The Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, Periodicals Index Online, and American Periodicals Series
- Economist Historical Archive (1843-2015; Gale)The Economist, a weekly publication providing timely reporting, concise commentary and comprehensive appraisal of global news, spanning centuries and continents.
- Eighteenth Century Journals (ca. 1685-1815; Adam Matthew)Full text of British magazines.
- Guardian and Observer Historical Newspapers (1700/1800s-2003; Proquest)The British newspapers, Guardian, 1821-2003, and Observer, 1791-2003.
- Nineteenth Century U.K. Periodicals (Gale)Full text of British periodicals.
- Times Digital Archive (London, 1785-2014; Gale)Does NOT include the Sunday edition.
Primary Sources: Government Materials
See also this guide to British government documents.
- Avalon Project (Yale)Includes digital documents relevant to law, history, government, etc. from ancient times to the present.
- British History Online (Institute of Historical Research)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
- Cabinet Papers, 1915-1984 (National Archives)Records of the senior ministers of the British government.
- Chancery Rolls (Medievalgenealogy.org.uk)Directory of medieval source material.
- Colonial State Papers (1574-1757; Proquest)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).
- English Reports, Full Reprint (1220-1867; HeinOnline)Important legal cases.
- Georgian Papers Online (1714-1837; Royal Collection Trust)This catalogue currently contains descriptions and digitised images of over 200,000 pages of documents dating from the reigns of George I to William IV, including personal letters, diaries, account books and records of the Royal Household.
- London Lives: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis (1690-1800; Digital Humanities Inst.)A fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.
- Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises (1800-1926; Gale)Full text of more than 21,000 Anglo-American works from casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, etc.
- Making Of Modern Law: Trials (1600-1926; Gale)Documents from 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.
- National Archives (U.K.) CatalogSearching is free but there may be a fee to download records.
- Nineteenth Century British Pamphlets (1545-1900; JSTOR)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 (OU Library Research Guide)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.
- Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (1272-1509; Scholarly Digital Editions)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.
- Proceedings of the Old Bailey (1674-1913; Digital Humanities Institute)Contains 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
- State Papers Online, The Government of Britain (1509-1714; Gale)Full text of British government materials, including State Papers, Domestic and Foreign. Click here for more information on State Papers.
- Statutes of the Realm (1205-1713; HeinOnline)Acts of Parliament.