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.
Books and Other Materials
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British Literary Manuscripts This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1100-1900
Provides access to facsimile images of letters, poems, plays, novels, and other literary works of British authors over seven centuries.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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C19: The Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 19th century
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index is an index with more 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.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1473-1700
Early English Books Online contains over 140,000 titles listed in Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661), and the Early English Tract Supplement. All titles are full text digital facsimiles from the Early English Books microfilm collection. Highlights of the collection include works by Shakespeare, Malory, Erasmus, Newton, and Galileo.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1701-1800
Provides access to works from history, geography, various social sciences, fine arts, music, art, architecture, medicine, science, technology, literature, language, religion, philosophy, and law. Resources include books, pamphlets, broadsides, and reference works. Significant English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the UK, along with important works from the Americas, are included. ECCO is based on The English Short Title Catalog (ESTC).
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Florilegium UrbanumA selection of primary source texts illustrative of various aspects of medieval urban life, in modern English.
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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.
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HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
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 downloading or viewing the full text of books that are still under copyright.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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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.)
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London Low Life This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 18th-20th centuries
A digital collection of full-text and color images of rare books, ephemera, maps, posters, slag dictionaries, children's chapbooks, street cries, playbills, cartoons, and other materials relating to the 18th, 19th, and early 20th century Victorian London. This database also includes a chronology, interactive map, essays, visual galleries, and exhibitions. Topics covered include the underworld, religion, women and gender, politics, popular music, urban topography, slang, working-class culture, prostitution, the Temperance Movement, and police and criminality.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1450-1850
The Making of the Modern World, Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection covers the expansion of world trade, the Industrial Revolution, and the development of modern capitalism. Resources include rare books and primary source materials covering a variety of subjects, including commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Nineteenth Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1545-1900
Nearly 26,000 pamphlets bringing together a corpus of primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain. 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).
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowAccess to full text resources covering a variety of topics from the 19th century, including British politics and society, diplomatic and cultural exchange between Asia and the West, British theatre and music, and European literature from the Corvey Collection. Content is drawn from the world's preeminent libraries and archives and includes monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, maps, photographs, maps, manuscripts, and ephemera.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
NOTE: History Sleuth students: The British Politics and Society unit includes more than 400 documents on the "Jack the Ripper" killings. Scroll down to the "Whitechapel Murders Papers."
Primary Sources: Newspapers and Magazines
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British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1800-1900
Contains full runs of influential national and regional newspapers representing different political and cultural segments of British society during the 19th century.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1681-1939
Provides access to hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth century. Formats include magisterial quarterlies, scholarly and professional organs, coterie art periodicals, penny weeklies and illustrated family magazines.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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C19: The Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 19th century
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index is an index with more 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.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Economist Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1843-2020
Provides full text access to over 150 years of The Economist, a premier weekly publication providing timely reporting, concise commentary, and comprehensive appraisal of global news, spanning centuries and continents.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1685-1835
Access rare eighteenth century newspapers and periodicals from around the world. Topics covered are wide-ranging and include social customs, world events, colonial life, provincial and rural affairs, the French and American revolutions, reviews of literature and fashion throughout Europe, political debates, and London coffee house gossip and discussion.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Financial Times Historical Archive 1888-2021 This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1888-2021
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.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Guardian and Observer Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1791-2003
Archive of the historical The Guardian and The Observer British newspapers, including full page digital reproductions of every page from all available issues.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Nineteenth Century U.K. Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1800-1900
Provides access to periodicals published in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1785-2019
Complete searchable digital archive of The Times (London), except for the Sunday edition. Includes all articles, advertisements, illustrations, and photos.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
Primary Sources: Government Materials
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Avalon Project (Yale)Includes digital documents relevant to law, history, government, etc. from ancient times to the present.
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British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential PrintThe 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.
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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
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Cabinet Papers, 1915-1984 (National Archives)Records of the senior ministers of the British government.
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Chancery Rolls (Medievalgenealogy.org.uk)Directory of medieval source material.
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Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1574-1757
Provides access to primary source documents from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. 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 are all covered in this database.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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English Reports, Full Reprint (1220-1867; HeinOnline)Important legal cases.
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Georgian Papers Online (1714-1837; Royal Collection Trust)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.
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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.
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Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1800-1926
From one of the most important periods of legal development, this archive is a comprehensive full text collection of Anglo-American legal treatises. It allows for full text searching of more than 21,000 works from casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, speeches and more - all separated into 99 subject areas.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Making Of Modern Law: Trials 1600-1926 This link opens in a new window
Contains works pertaining to the United States, Britain, Ireland, Canada, as well as English-language titles about trials in other jurisdictions, such as France. Resources include published trial transcripts, popular printed accounts of sensational trials for murder, unofficially published trial documents, official records of legislative proceedings, administrative proceedings, arbitration sessions, and books and pamphlets about specific trials. Topics include adultery, commercial law, constitutional law, dueling, elections, impeachment, international law, land, military offenses, murder, sexuality, slavery, torts, treason, and wills.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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National Archives (U.K.) CatalogSearching is free but there may be a fee to download records.
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Nineteenth Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1545-1900
Nearly 26,000 pamphlets bringing together a corpus of primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain. 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).
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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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.
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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.
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Proceedings of the Old Bailey (1674-1913; Digital Humanities Institute)Contains 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
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State Papers Online: The Government of Britain This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1509-1714
State Papers Online is published in four parts covering two hundred years of British and European history. Includes documents from the 16th-18th century British government, including correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts.
For more information about using this resource, view the publisher's online tutorial.
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Statutes of the Realm (1205-1713; HeinOnline)Acts of Parliament.