Research Guides: HIST 4600: The British Empire: Primary Sources

Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary means written at or near the time of the historical event.

Secondary means written many years later, probably by a scholar researching the historical event.

Newspapers and Magazines

Times Digital Archive
Historical newspaper archive with full-text coverage of the Times from 1785 to 2013. Supports research across multiple disciplines including business, humanities, political science, and philosophy with coverage of all major international historical events.
Gale NewsVault
Platform for cross-searching a range of historical UK newspaper and periodical collections, including 19th century British Library Newspapers (Parts I and II); 19th Century UK Periodicals, Series 1; Times Digital Archive (1785-2006); and, Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive (1902-2007)
London Low Life (Adam Matthew)
Contains color digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to street culture and social reform in 18th,19th and early 20th century London.
19th Century British Library Newspapers

Contains full runs of 48 newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent nineteenth century Britain.
19th Century British Pamphlets
Contains the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in UK research libraries. Pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day.
Eight Centuries (formerly 19th Century Masterfile)
Eight Centuries (formerly 19th Century Masterfile) is a database covering primary source materials from 1106 until 1960. Provides access to articles, newspapers, books, U.S. patents, government documents, and images.
19th Century UK Periodicals
A major multi-part series of periodicals which covers the events, lives, values and themes that shaped the 19th century world.
Trench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War
A unique source of information on the common serviceman and woman’s experience of the war. Limit your search by language, unit name, type, origin or location, etc.
Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992
Iconic British humor and satire magazine. For research on 19th and 20th century political social history.

Primary Source Collections

Avalon Project
Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy.This project provides digital copies of hundreds of original documents from a myriad of topics in US History.

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Digital facsimile page images of historical works from 1473 to 1700.
Eighteenth Century Collection Online (ECCO)
Works published in the UK during the 18th century.

EuroDocs
Europeana 1914-1918
Untold stories and official histories of WW1.
Hansard (British Parliamentary Debates)
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
A compilation of primary source materials made available online by Fordham University
Foreign Relations of the United States
1914-1980. Official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication.
Foreign Relations of the United States
Access to cumulative indexes for 1861-1899 and 1900-1918

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From University of Wisconsin Digital Collections