Search across descriptions of archives held at over 390 UK institutions, including universities, museums, galleries, charities, specialist repositories and business archives. New archive descriptions are added every week.
Access to 79 digitised primary source collections spanning over 500 years of global history, drawn from UK institutions such as The National Archives and the British Library. Covers a vast range of subjects including history, politics, sociology, and international relations.
Approx. 700 volumes of newspapers and news pamphlets from the seventeenth and eighteenth century, 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.
Digitised and fully searchable records of the British Cabinet from 1915-78. Contains papers, precedent books, and notebooks, including minutes, memoranda, and conclusions from meetings. Divided into three themes: ‘The United Kingdom and the World,’ ‘The Economy, Business, and Resources,’ and ‘Society and the Welfare State.’
A searchable full-text collection of the Cambridge Histories, first published in 1902. This series contains over 400 volumes detailing US and British history. It also includes volumes focused on other subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, with a concentration on political and cultural history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, music and the arts.
A database of primary source documents from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, integrating two archives: ‘Privy Council and related bodies: America and West Indies, Colonial Papers’ and ‘The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739.’ The collections relate to the British governance of early settlements, encounters with Native Americans, piracy, the slave trade, and conflicts with the Spanish and French.
A collection of John Thomas (J.T.) Murphy and Molly Murphy’s personal and political papers, covering his imprisonment in 1925, his campaign to become a Member of Parliament, and his travels in post-revolutionary Russia. It also includes documents detailing Molly’s time as a suffragette, nursing on the frontlines of the Spanish Civil War and her time in the Soviet Union. Together, these materials provide insight into the internal debates occupying the British and European left during the 1920s and 1930s.
Contains full-color, high-resolution facsimile images of all works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, as well as some works published further afield. Includes a broad range of print sources dating back to the 15th century.
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.
Access to a collection of primary and secondary source material on the history of feminism in the 19th century, from 1776 to 1928.
Full-text access to House of Commons papers from 1715–present, including bills, command papers, committee reports, statistical accounts, and government papers. Covers British policy, social reform, trade, and international affairs.
Digitised archive of around 65,000 items from the Bodleian Library, illustrating everyday life in Britain from the 18th to early 20th century. Covers five themes: crime, advertising, the book trade, popular entertainment, and prints. Includes posters, playbills, handbills, broadsides, pamphlets, and other ephemera reflecting social, cultural and commercial life.
A digital collection of over 500 volumes of Greek and Latin literature with parallel English translations. Covers classical texts from Homer to late antiquity, including philosophy, history, drama, poetry, and oratory. Features include full-text search and tools for citation and annotation
Documents everyday life in Britain from 1937 to the mid-1960s through diaries, surveys, reports, and publications created by investigators and volunteer writers. Covers topics such as wartime experiences, consumer habits, media, gender roles, and social attitudes. Includes personal diaries, directive responses, thematic studies, file reports, and publications.
A searchable fascimile archive of 19th-century British periodicals reflecting the social, cultural, and political life of the era. Drawn from major libraries, the titles were selected by leading scholars in nineteenth-century studies and cover topics from art and leisure to empire and reform.
A digital archive documenting social, political, and cultural change from post-war austerity to the 1970s. Includes pamphlets, letters, photographs, underground press, ephemera, and video footage. Covers topics such as youth culture, protest movements, music, fashion, and media in Britain and the US.
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.
Contains thousands of U.K. government documents relating to Britain’s international relations, including foreign policy instructions, letters and memos, business reports. Brings together three digitised print collections:
A digital archive of British government documents from 1509 to 1715, including the papers of the Secretaries of State. Covers domestic administration and foreign affairs under monarchs from Henry VIII to early George I. Includes letters, reports, and correspondence from officials, monarchs, and European rulers.
An annual reference work providing detailed information on the political, economic, and cultural status of every country, as well as major international organizations. Published since 1864, it offers authoritative, up-to-date data compiled by a dedicated editorial team.
A digital archive of over 100,000 images documenting Nazi persecution and the Holocaust (1889–1965). Includes eyewitness accounts, photographs, propaganda, synagogue postcards, and biographical records. Drawn from the Wiener Library, the world’s first Holocaust archive.
Verbatim transcripts from the 1961 High Court case exposing Communist Party influence in the Electrical Trades Union. Offers rare insight into post-war trade union politics, with contextual essays by historian Kevin Morgan.
