LibGuides: History: Key Resources

Key Resources for History

The following databases contain a variety of material, including journal articles, for your specific subject area. The brief descriptions beneath the titles will explain what each hold. To access, click on the title.

Alexander Street Press Video Collection
Access to thousands of videos across a wide range of subject areas.
America: History & Life with full text
An index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present, providing full text access to articles. 1,700 journals from 1964 to present with citations and links to book and media reviews.
American Periodicals
Periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals. Collections from American Periodicals Series Online (APS Online) and American Periodicals from the Center for Research (APCRL).
ArchiveGrid
Searches through historical documents, personal papers and family histories held in archives around the world.
Archives Hub
National gateway to descriptions of archives in UK universities and colleges. Fully searchable.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940
Presents important aspects of LGBTQ life in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. Covers experiences not just of the LGBTQ community as a whole, but of individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations that constitute this community.
Bibliography of British and Irish History
Covers not only British and Irish domestic history, but also the history of British and Irish relations with the rest of the world, including the British empire and the Commonwealth.
British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB)
References to publications from 1695 to the present day on archaeology and the historic environment, historic buildings, maritime and industrial archaeology, environmental history and the conservation of material culture.
British Humanities Index (BHI)
Now known as Humanities Index.
An international abstracting and indexing tool for research in the humanities, BHI indexes over 400 internationally respected humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK.
British Library Newspapers
A comprehensive resource of regional and local newspapers in Britain between the mid 18th and 20th centuries. Supports research in History, Literature, Victorian Studies, Genealogy, Fine Arts, Finance/Economics, Political Science, and more. Access to parts 1-4, covering titles from 1732 to 1950.
British Museum Images
One of the most comprehensive collections of prints and drawings in world culture and history.
British Newspapers 1600-1950
The most comprehensive digital historic newspaper archive. Includes 17-18th Century Burney Collection, 19th Century British Newspapers, 3 million pages of historic newspapers, news books & ephemera, National & Regional papers from British Isles.
British Online Archives
Access over 70 primary source collections on the history of the Atlantic world ranging from colonial, missionary and transatlantic relations to twentieth century political and social development.
British Online Archives
Access over 70 primary source collections on the history of the Atlantic world ranging from colonial, missionary and transatlantic relations to twentieth century political and social development.
British Periodicals
Access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.
Burney Collection
Approx. 700 volumes of newspapers and news pamphlets collected by the Reverend Charles Burney. Mostly published in London, but includes English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers and a few from the American colonies, Europe and India.
Cabinet Papers 1915-1978
Digitised and fully searchable records of the British Cabinet from 1915-78.
Cambridge Digital Library
Contains original scientific manuscripts, including the papers of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, along with the papers of the Board of Longitude from the Foundations of Science Collection and important works from many religious traditions, particularly Judaism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism from the Foundations of Faith Collection.
Cambridge Histories Online
Hundreds of volumes covering histories of the US and Britain, as well as more general areas covering economics, politics, religion, music, literary studies and language.
Caribbean Newspapers 1718-1876
The largest online collection of 18th and 19th century newspapers published in this region and provides a comprehensive primary resource for studying the development of Western society and international relations within this important group of islands. Covers colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, international commerce, New World slavery and U.S. relations with the region as far back as the early 18th century.
Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL)
Full text repository on Eastern Europe, its histories, languages and literatures, and its cultural, social and political realities. Access journals, ebooks and grey literature. UoS LIbrary does not subscribe to this resource, however, there is a large amount of Open Access content available. To access you will need to create an account.
Chicago Defender Archive 1910-1975
A key newspaper of the African-American press. Easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Chinese Newspaper Collection
Provides insight into Chinese political and social life during the turbulent 120 year period from 1832 to 1953 with 12 English-language Chinese historical newspapers. Included are critical perspectives on the ending of more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China, the Taiping Rebellion, the Opium Wars with Great Britain, the Boxer Rebellion and the events leading up to the1911 Xinhai Revolution, and the subsequent founding of the Republic of China.
Chronicle: BBC Northern Ireland's television news from the 60s and 70s
Contains material digitally transferred from the BBC NI news archive between 1963-1975. Notable events or broadcasts missing from this period have either not yet been digitised, are absent from the original film collection, or may not have been recorded. To access this resource, select your institution in the "where are you from" box then login. The first time you access it, you will need to create an account by selecting "new user".
Colonial State Papers
Thousands of documents and bibliographic records concerning Britain's colonial relations with the Americas and other European rivals, the Caribbean and Atlantic world. Covers early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery.
Communisms and the Cold War, 1944-1986
Communisms and the Cold War, 1944-1986 covers 1000 years of world history: from politics & warfare, to slavery & revolution
Communist Party of Great Britain Archive
Access to primary sources dating from the 1940s. Includes extensive records of central departments and notes taken at meetings by leading party officials.
Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969
Confidential print documents issued by the UK Foreign and Colonial Office since c. 1820. The collection covers the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the 19th century, the Middle East Conference of 1921, the Mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Suez Crisis in 1956, to the partition of Palestine, post-Suez Western foreign policy and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Connected Histories
Brings together a range of digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain with a single search that allows sophisticated searching of names, places and dates, as well as the ability to save, connect and share resources within a personal workspace.
Creation of Israel
The British Foreign Office Political Correspondence files on Palestine and Transjordan, 1940-1948 are essential for understanding the modern history of the Middle East, the establishment of Israel as a sovereign state, and the wider web of postwar international world politics.
Debate and Division on the British Left, 1917-1964
Contains the personal and political papers of J.T. Murphy, which cover a wide range of subjects, from his imprisonment in 1925 and campaign to become a Member of Parliament to his travels in post-revolutionary Russia and disagreements with the CPGB leadership. Documents detailing his wife Molly's time as a nurse on the frontlines of the Spanish Civil War are also included. Together, these materials provide an invaluable insight into the internal debates that plagued the British and European left during the 1920s and 1930s
Dictionary of National Biography
50,000 illustrated biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800
Monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and and other imprints listed in the renowned bibliography by Charles Evans. Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800.
Early American Newspapers 1690-1876
Hundreds of historic newspapers listed in Clarence Brigham's authoritative bibliography and in additional subsequent bibliographies.
Early American Newspapers 1801-1900
500,000 issues from more than 500 historical newspapers. Includes weeklies, dailies and historical significant newspapers. Key titles include the New York Herald, New York Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, South Carolina City Gazette, Dallas Morning News, Kansas City Star, San Jose Mercury News.
Early American Newspapers 1803-1916: The American West
The largest online collection of 19th-century U.S. newspapers from the American West. Approx. 2,500 titles published in all 24 states west of the Mississippi River, plus a number of titles published east of the Mississippi for valuable political and economic context.
Early English Books online (EEBO) via Historical Texts
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Early European Books Online
Provides access to a diverse array of printed sources from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (via Historical Texts)
Access the digital images of every page of books published during the 18th Century. Provides information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more. You will need to select log in via UK Federation, then select University of Sussex from the dropdown list.
Eighteenth Century Journals Online
Rare journals printed between c. 1685 and c. 1815, illuminating all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Topics include: 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.
Electronic Enlightenment
A extensive online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period containing 70,057 letters and documents and 8,560 correspondents. Links people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century.
Encyclopedia of Islam Online
An encyclopaedia of academic Islamic studies.Articles on distinguished Muslims, tribes and dynasties, crafts and sciences, political and religious institutions, geography, ethnography, flora and fauna of various countries and history, topography and monuments of the major towns and cities. Its geographical and historical scope covers the old Arabo-Islamic empire, Islamic countries of Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Ottoman Empire and all other Islamic countries.
Frontier Life
Through a large array of unique documents, this multi-archive collection captures the lives, experiences and colonial encounters of people living at the edges of the Anglophone world from 1650-1920. It ranges across the various colonial frontiers of North America before touching on the settlers of Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Georgian Britain
Looks at all aspects of Georgian Britain, from poverty, crime and punishment, to politics and entertainment.
Green's Dictionary of Slang
Green’s Dictionary of Slang is the largest historical dictionary of English slang.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text
Covers world history from the 15th century to the present. Coverage extends to related disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology and sociology.
Historical Texts (formerly Jisc Historic Books)
Contains over 350,000 books published between 1475 and 1900. The collection draws together the content of Early English Books Online (EEBO), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), and titles from the British Library's 19th Century Collection.
History of Feminism
Access to a collection of primary and secondary source material on the history of feminism in the 19th century, from 1776 to 1928.
History Vault
Primary source materials, digitised letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. The Civil Rights modules features records of NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, and federal records on the black freedom struggle. The World War II module includes formerly confidential reports of U.S. diplomats and military officers on planning, operations, intelligence, Axis war crimes, and refugees.
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
Now known as UK Parliamentary Papers
House of Lords Parliamentary Papers 1800-1910
Enables researchers to explore the British perspective on historical and contemporary events through an archive of official government documents spanning three centuries.
Independent Voices
A digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals from the special collections of academic institutions. Materials produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
John Johnson Collection
Printed ephemera, held at the Bodleian Library, offering unique insights into the changing nature of everyday life in Britain in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
JSTOR
A trusted archive of important scholarly journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences
Kanopy (now via Library Search)
You can now look for Kanopy films using Library Search. The benefit of this is that it will also search across our other film collections, to make sure that you don't miss out. Simply enter your search terms and select 'Video' from the drop down list at the end of the Library Search bar.
Loeb Classical Library
Contains more than 520 volumes of Latin, Greek and English texts, aiming to be a virtual library of all that is important in Greek and Latin Literature: epic and lyric poetry, history, travel, philosophy and oratory, medical writers and mathematicians, and the Church Fathers who make particular use of pagan culture.
Manchester Political Studies
Provides a collection of 96 books, written by leading names in the field, covering political evens, ideas, movements, roles of government, voters, parties and leaders and the way that these elelments shape society as a whole.
Mass Observation Online
An archive for the study of Social History in the modern era. Access to the new online material, microfilm series, and physical and digital material in the archive itself.
Mass Observation Online Resources
Online resources including 'Observing the 80s' project, Mass Observation Project Database, podcasts and occasional papers
Migration to New Worlds
Explores the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia.
Nation Digital Archive
150-year archive (1865-present) of reporting opinion and criticism. Primary source material including thousands of historic articles, editorials, letters, reviews, poems, and puzzles in America and the world.
Nineteenth Century British Pamphlets
Contains the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th-century held in UK research libraries.
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals Online
Covers the events, lives, values and themes that shaped the 19th century world. It's mainly based on the repositories of the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
50,000 illustrated biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
Oxford Scholarship Online History ebooks Collection
Ebooks on American History from early to 20th Century; British Early Modern, Medieval and Modern History; Cultural History; Economic History; European Early Modern, Medieval and Modern History; History of Ideas; History of Science, Technology and Medicine; Military History and Social History.
Oz Magazine
Access to the entire London run of the underground, subversive magazine.
Picture Post
Complete archive from its first issue in 1938 to its last in 1957.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975: Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest
Explores the dynamic period of social, political and cultural change between 1950 and 1975. Contains colour digital images of archival material sourced from key libraries and organisations in Britain and America. Includes material from the Mass Observation Archive. Search archive at the Mass Observation online
Punch Historical Archive 1841 to 1992
Access to 150 years of Punch, the great satirical magazine
Queen Victoria's Journals
Access to diaries written by Queen Victoria with coverage from childhood days, through her accession to the throne, marriage to Prince Albert and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees.
Rock's Backpages
Archive of music journalism covering all genres of popular music; 1950s to the present day. Articles, video interviews, concert and album reviews from major magazines and newspapers.
Rock's Backpages
Archive of music journalism covering all genres of popular music; 1950s to the present day. Articles, video interviews, concert and album reviews from major magazines and newspapers.
Scopus
Abstracts and citations for over 22,800 peer-reviewed titles from more than 5,000 international publishers in science, technology, medicine, social science, arts and humanities
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice
Brings together documents and collections between 1490 and 2007. Looks at varieties of slavery, its legacy, the social-justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today. Also useful secondary sources; including an interactive map, scholarly essays, tutorials, a visual sources gallery, chronology and bibliography.
South Eastern Gazette 1852-1912
A newspaper archive covering much of the South-East of England from East Hampshire through to Surrey and Sussex to South Essex and parts of London.
State Papers Online
Access to State Papers starting with the Tudors in 1509, up to the end of the reign of Queen Anne, finishing in 1714.
Statesman's Yearbook 1864-2004
Provides accurate and comprehensive information on the current, political, economic and social status of every country in the world.
Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016
A fully searchable digital archive of content up to 2000, includes Sunday Telegraph from 1961.
Testaments to the Holocaust
Digitized, searchable full-text and image resource for studying Nazi Germany and its crimes through testimonies, family narratives and documents of its activities.
Times Digital Archive 1785-2012
Complete digital edition of The Times of London for the period 1785-2008. Includes all articles, advertisements and illustrations or photographs.
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive 1902-2012
Searchable, facsimile reproduction of TLS, 1902-2012, including identification of anonymous contributors.
Trade Unions in Crisis: the 1961 ETU Ballot-Rigging Scandal
The ETU ballot-rigging trial was a case brought to the High Court by prominent union members John Thomas Byrne and Frank Chapple in 1961. They alleged that members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) had engaged in "a conspiracy to defraud" in the most recent elections of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), a relatively successful body that represented electricians, wire fitters, and telephone engineers. The judge ultimately ruled in the plaintiffs' favour.

This collection contains verbatim transcripts of the court case. The transcripts provide a unique insight into the CPGB’s influence in the post-war trade union movement.
Twentieth Century American Newspapers, Series 1
Includes the following titles: The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana; 1923-1988), The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio; 1923-1991), The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon; 1923-1987.
UK Parliamentary Papers
The most detailed primary source for twentieth-century Britain, its colonies, and the wider world. Covers the working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic, and foreign policy, showing how issues were explored and legislation was formed.
United Nations Treaties Series
A collection of treaties and international agreements registered or filed and recorded with and published by the Secretariat since 1946.
Victorian Britain
Access to expert articles, posters, newspapers, illustrations and more on the Victorian era.
Vogue Archive
The entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to present. Subjects include textiles and dress, fashion history, popular culture, gender studies, photography and graphic design, marketing and advertising.
Washington Post Archive 1877-2001
News articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more from 1877 to 2001.
Web of Science
Access to the Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900
Citations for articles from 45 monthly and quarterly periodicals of the Victorian era. In particular British Periodicals I and II. Subject areas, literature, history and Victorian life; politics, religion, women's writing, economics, art, science, archaeology and philosophy.
Women's Magazine Archive
Contains archives of the foremost titles of consumer magazines aimed at a female readership, including Good Housekeeping and Ladies’ Home Journal, which serve as canonical records of evolving assumptions about gender roles and cultural mores. In combination, the publications cover topics such as family life, home economics, health, careers, fashion, and culture.
Women's Studies Archive: Women's Issues and Identities
Access to perspectives on women's experiences from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Historical records from Europe, North and South America, Africa, India, East Asia, and the Pacific Rim with content in English, French, German, and Dutch.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Documents women's activism in public life by bringing together books, images, pamphlets, advice literature, training guides, documents (including primary documents), scholarly essays, commentaries, bibliographies, links to other websites, and other ephemera.