What are Primary Sources?
Primary Sources are original sources: they were created by someone who participated in or observed an event. They include diaries, letters, newspapers, government documents, photographs, and other manuscripts.
General Primary Source Collections
- NEW: LMA Documents OnlineMain page has many guides of interest. Digital documents (middle of the page) has 1,000 documents and links to 370,000 more.
- English Historical DocumentsEnglish Historical Documents Online contains over 5,500 expertly indexed and fully searchable primary documents from 500-1914.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new windowEighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is a digitized library representing most of the significant English- and foreign-language texts published in Great Britain and the colonies during the eighteenth century.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
NCCO is an ongoing digitization project focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century. Drawn from libraries worldwide and representing multiple languages, the collection includes books, newspapers, periodicals, diaries, letters, manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, maps, and more.
- British History Online"British History Online is a digital library of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800." A freely accessible website, but one with "premium content." You'll want to limit your searches to "free content."
- The National Archives"The official archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales." A freely accessible website.
- Europeana"Multi-lingual online collection of millions of digitized items from European museums, libraries, archives and multi-media collections." A freely accessible website.
- EuroDocsKey works of European history, organized by country. A freely accessible website.
- The Digital Humanities Institute - Sheffield"The Digital Humanities Institute at the University of Sheffield is one of the UK's leading Digital Humanities centres." Includes some projects related to London and its history. A freely accessible website.
- British Library: Online GalleryOver 30000 images, documents, books, maps, and other items related to British history. A freely accessible website.
Government Documents
- State Papers Online This link opens in a new window
State Papers Online is a collection of historical materials on early modern Britain & Europe across a wide range of government concerns. It includes correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants, and provincial administrators from 1509-1782. It includes the following:
Part I: The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Domestic
Part II: The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign, Scotland, Borders, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council
Part III: The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I - Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic
Part IV: The Stuarts, 1603-1714: State Papers Foreign
Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part 2: State Papers Foreign, Low Countries and Germany
Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part 3: State Papers Foreign, Western Europe - House of Commons Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window“The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP) contains documents from the U.K. Houses of Parliament which include sessional papers, command papers, bills, reports and accounts from the 18th to the 21st century."
- Georgian PapersThe catalogue of the Georgian Papers held in the Royal Archives and the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.
This catalogue currently contains descriptions and digitised images of material dating from the reigns of George I to William IV, including personal letters, diaries, account books and records of the Royal Household. - HansardThe official report of all parliamentary debates.
- Cabinet PapersBrowsable British cabinet papers, including extensive information on WWI and WWII.
- Papers of the Board of LongitudeThe sixty-eight volumes of the papers of the Board of Longitude document in rich detail many of this public institution’s remarkably wide-ranging activities over more than a century (1714-1828).
- Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963 This link opens in a new window
Provides access to documents from the highest level of the British Government during the Macmillan Administration, 1957-1963 with complete coverage of the Cabinet conclusions (minutes) (CAB 128) and memoranda (CAB 129) of Harold Macmillan's government, plus selected minutes and memoranda of policy committees (CAB 134).
Social History/Local History
- London Lives"a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. A fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names."
- Old Bailey OnlineA collection documenting the "197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court" - a good resource for studying everyday lives.
- John Strype's Survey of London"John Stow’s Elizabethan classic, A Survey of London, was first published in 1598, with a second edition following in 1603." Includes images and maps.
- London Low Life : Street, Culture, Social Reform and the Victorian Under World This link opens in a new window
From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers an unparalleled insight into the dark underworld of the Victorian city.
- Crace Collection of Maps of London"This is the essential guide through the history of London: some 1200 printed and hand-drawn maps charting the development of the city and its immediate vicinity from around 1570 to 1860."
- AncestryNot just genealogical records, but also city directories, medical journals, service records, and other items of interest.
- Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new windowThe Archive of Mass-Observation, a pioneering social research organisation, has been described as a "treasure trove." Mass Observation Online makes the Mass Observation Archive available to researchers in its entirety, included diaries, surveys and questionnaires that reveal everyday life in Britain between the 1930s and 1960s.
- Trench JournalsTrench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War is an archival research resource containing a large collection of rare magazines by and for servicemen and women of all nations during the First World War. It contains periodicals written and illustrated by serving members of the armed forces and associated welfare organizations published between 1914 and the end of 1919.
- First World War This link opens in a new window
This collection provides a comprehensive look at the First World War through the perspectives of those who served, offering valuable insight for researchers and students studying this significant period in history.
- Bomb SightThe Bomb Sight project is mapping the London WW2 bomb census between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941.
- Battle of BritainBBC News Archives of the Battle of Britain
- Vision of BritainA vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions - Survey of London: WhitechapelThe history of every building in Whitechapel, including historical documents and images.
- Our Migration StoryExploring migration in England from 43 CE to the present day, including links to other primary sources and resources more generally.
- Caring on the Home FrontThe Red Cross' interviews and oral histories of those volunteering during WWII.
- Art of WarFilm, images, and other art from WWII.
- Studies in Scarlet: Marriage and Sexuality in the U.S. & U.K., 1815-1914Drawn from the Harvard Law School Library’s extensive trial collections, Studies in Scarlet features over 420 trial narratives involving the crimes and passions of both renowned and ordinary people.
- British Library's LGBTQ ArchivesIncludes a number of items, e.g. pamphlets, interviews, etc.
- Charles Booth's LondonCharles Booth's London enables you to search the catalogue of over 450 original notebooks from the Inquiry into Life and Labour in London (1886-1903), view 41 digitised notebooks and explore the London poverty maps.
- Digital PanopticonThis project will bring together genealogical, biometric and criminal justice datasets held in the UK and Australia in order to explore the impact of the different types of penal punishments on the lives of 66,000 people sentenced at The Old Bailey between 1780 and 1925.
- Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological SocietyOften includes transcriptions of documents, descriptions of buildings (some now destroyed), and other primary source material. Browseable not searchable.
- Virginia Company Archives This link opens in a new windowMaterial covers the founding and economic development of Virginia as seen through the papers of the Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624. It is also a crucial source for London's economic history in the Early Modern era and will be of interest to social and religious historians.
- World's Fairs This link opens in a new windowPrimary source material from hundreds of fairs, including London’s Great Exhibition of 1851, American fairs of the 19th and 20th centuries and 21st century EXPOs
Religious and Intellectual History
- Religion in London ProjectResource guides for a number of minority religions in London, including links to archives.
- Science in the Nineteenth-Century PeriodicalWelcome to Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical, a searchable electronic index to the science content of sixteen nineteenth-century general periodicals.
- Cause Papers DatabaseWelcome to the Cause Papers Database, a searchable catalogue of more than 14,000 cause papers relating to cases heard between 1300 and 1858 in the Church Courts of the diocese of York.
- Clergy of the Church of England DatabaseIt makes available and searchable the principal records of clerical careers from over 50 archives in England and Wales with the aim of providing coverage of as many clerical lives as possible from the Reformation to the mid-nineteenth century.
Newspapers/Periodicals
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowCross-searches from a number of (mostly) British newspapers and magazines. Experiment with the "limit by your collections" option to pick newspapers/magazines from your time period.
- London GazetteA key British newspaper covering most of the 1900s.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new windowBritish Periodicals traces the development and growth of the periodical press in Britain from its origins in the seventeenth century through to the Victorian 'age of periodicals' and beyond.
- Wellesley Index to Victorian PeriodicalsForty-five important monthly and quarterly titles are included, covering the period from the beginning of the Westminster Review in 1824 to the end of the century.
- Newspapers.com – World Collection This link opens in a new windowNewspapers.com Library Edition offers full page newspaper images with searchable full-text of newspapers. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to both full runs and portions of runs of newspapers. Includes some London area newspapers.
- Heaton's Newspaper CollectionA variety of regional and local papers of Britain for the early and mid-1800s.
- The Word on the Street"The most popular form of this for nearly 300 years was 'broadsides' - the tabloids of their day. Sometimes pinned up on walls in houses and ale-houses, these single sheets carried public notices, news, speeches and songs that could be read (or sung) aloud."
- Burney CollectionThe largest single collection of English news media from the 17th and 18th century, the Burney Collection Newspapers provides rare and often unique content for scholarly research into a wide range of political, educational, economic and journalistic study.
- Illustrated London News Historical Archive: 1842-2003The full facsimile run of the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper. The publication presents a vivid picture of British and world events — including news of war, disaster, ceremonies, the arts, and science — with coverage in the first issue ranging from the Great Fire of Hamburg to Queen Victoria’s fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace.
- 19th Century British NewspapersThis collection offers a broad, comprehensive range of national, regional and local British newspapers during the 19th century.
- Lewis Walpole Library Digital CollectionThe collection of digital images represents a portion of the Lewis Walpole Library’s collections of eighteenth-century British prints, drawings, ephemera, and material related to the world in which Horace Walpole lived.
- Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new windowUnique and extremely rare eighteenth century periodicals, each chosen to convey the eclecticism and evolution of the publishing world between 1685 and 1835. Highlights include a complete run of The Lady's Magazine, and rare titles missed out of other collections focused on the Eighteenth Century.
Literary History
- The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson OnlineA fully searchable version of the print edition that presents Jonson's complete writings ... Includes all the original introductions, collations, and commentary, but it complements, develops, and vastly extends the print edition with a large and flexible array of textual and contextual materials. It also includes a comprehensive body of essays and archives necessary for full study of Jonson's life, performance history, and afterlife.
- Shakespeare CollectionAn interdisciplinary, multimedia collection of resources supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies
- Database of Mid-Victorian wood-engraved Illustrationcontains records and images of 868 literary illustrations that were published in or around 1862, providing bibliographical and iconographical details, as well as the ability for users to view images at exceptionally high quality.
- Literary Manuscripts. Victorian manuscripts from the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of the New York Public Library This link opens in a new windowThe Berg Collection is recognised as one of the finest literary research collections in the world, and the Victorian holdings are the undisputed jewel in its crown...includes unpublished poems, working notebooks, holograph manuscripts and drawings that trace the inspiration and genesis behind the period’s greatest works.
Theatre, Popular Culture, etc.
- Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new windowVictorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930...Victorian Popular Culture welcomes readers into the darkened halls, small backrooms and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to magic and spiritualist séances.
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new windowA wide range of material, from government documents to fanzines, video content to posters and scrapbooks, tells the story of a time of music, political unrest, fashion and new technology.
- Eighteenth Century Drama This link opens in a new windowDelve into the theatrical world of eighteenth-century society, and explore how the Larpent plays reflect the politics of the time, the role of women, views on race and religion, opinions on empire, and European and British history.