AM Primary Sources: History - British History

A collection of primary sources documenting popular culture in the second half of the 19th century and in the early 20th century, primarily in Great Britain but also in the United States. The four modules of this collection are: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema.

This collection focuses on European maritime exploration from the voyages of Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, through the age of discovery, to the eventual discovery of the Northwest and Northeast Passages, and the race for the Poles. Coverage is from 1410-1920 and includes ships' logs and journals, correspondence and travel accounts, and an interactive map with in-depth visualisation of over 50 voyages.

Primary source collection from The National Archives, UK for the study of the apartheid, South African politics, trade relations, international opinion and humanitarian issues. Includes diplomatic dispatches, institutional records, biographies of prominent personalities, press reports, correspondence, books, maps, statistics, reports, analyses, and ephemera.

Colonial America makes available all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 series from The National Archives, UK, covering the period 1606 to 1822. CO 5 consists of the original correspondence of the colonial governments with the British govenment, specifically the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, together holding responsibility for the British possessions in mainland North America and the Caribbean.

This collection consists of the Confidential Print for the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America, and covers such topics as slavery, Prohibition, the First and Second World Wars, racial segregation, territorial disputes, the League of Nations, McCarthyism and the nuclear bomb. The bulk of the material covers the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century.

India Office Records from the British Library, London, containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other primary sources documenting the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1599 to 1947. Includes Factory Records for South Asia, South-East Asia, China, Japan, and the Middle East.

Bringing together rare journals printed between c.1685 and 1835, this resource illuminates all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Topics covered are wide-ranging and 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.

Covers 500 years of the rise and fall of empires, this features a wide variety of material, including exploration journals & logs; correspondence; periodicals; diaries; government papers; missionary papers; travel writing; slave papers; memoirs; fiction; children's adventure stories; folk tales; exhibition catalogs; maps; marketing posters; photographs; and illustrations, with many in color.

Showcases a wealth of primary source material for the study of the Great War, complemented by a range of contextual secondary features. The three available modules are: Personal Experiences, Propaganda & Recruitment, and Visual Perspectives and Narratives.

British Government documents dealing with Japan in the interwar period, during Word War II and during subsequent American occupation. Sourced from the FO 371 and FO 262 series at The National Archives, UK, in addition to a selection of FO 371 Far Eastern General sub-series, and Western and American Department papers.

This collection covers settlements across North America, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand from 1650-1920. It includes documents on the creation of new states, trade networks, and movements of people alongside the marginalisation and decline of indigenous peoples.Highlights include expedition records, gold rush materials, and the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Primary sources on the social history of 19th century London, sourced from Lilly Library, Indiana University.

Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963 provides complete coverage of the Cabinet conclusions (minutes) and memoranda of Harold Macmillan’s government, plus selected minutes and memoranda of policy committees.

Archive of Mass Observation, the pioneering social research organization that studied the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain from 1937 to 1950s. Archive includes materials collected by investigators (thematic studies through raw data, surveys, and covert observation) and materials submitted by volunteers (diaries and other personal writing).

Five major family letter collections from the 15th century England: Paston Family Papers, Cely Family Papers, Plumpton Correspondence, Stonor Correspondence and Amburgh Family Papers.

Primary sources documenting the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia, concentrating on the 19th and 20th centuries, and dealing with immigration, refugees, labor migration, immigration politics, religious, ethnic and community relations, and responses to emigration from local and indigenous communities. Includes personal accounts, oral histories, correspondence, printed books, pamphlets, leaflets, reports, shipping papers, logbooks and plans, photographs, maps, and ephemera.

Complete facsimile images of over 230 manuscripts written or compiled by women living in the British Isles from 1500-1700. Contents include account books, advice, meditations, receipts, travel writing, and verse. Perdita manuscripts can be searched by name, genre, and first lines of both poetry and prose.

Primary sources on social protest, student activism, counterculture, and women's liberation against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam conflict and the growth of the consumer society.

This collection contains both rare and well-known wartime publications for soldiers serving in major theaters around the world. Publications are included from the US, Canada, New Zealand, India, and countries of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Both Allied and Axis publications are presented, offering a broad view of the war and the experiences of those on its front lines.

Travel writing, diaires and correspondence by British men and women from their journeys through Europe, 1550-1850.

British and Commonwealth perspectives on the Nixon presidency though FCO 7 and FCO 82 files from The National Archives, UK.

Papers and records of the Virginia Company of London documenting the development of the Colony of Virginia and colonization of North America from Jamestown to the Bermudas, 1890-1790.

A finding aid to women's studies resources in The National Archives and original documents on the suffrage question in Britain, the Empire and colonial territories.