When looking for research paper topics, and examining the available body of primary sources, don’t get too hung up on what any particular source is “about”. Sometimes a source is about much more than it seems. For example, Canary and Cage-Bird Life, a weekly newspaper published in England, would make an excellent source for researchers interested in the history of domestic life, history of leisure, history of collecting, history of natural science, history and ethics of human-nonhuman relationships, rural history, and more. Continue reading “Research Paper Tip”
Tag: british history
Daily Mail Historical Archive, 1896-2004
One of the most popular, “middle market” tabloid newspapers in Britain, the Daily Mail is now available in a digitized historical archive of searchable, facsimile reproductions. The Daily Mail Historical Archive also includes issues from the Atlantic Edition (1923-1931), which was published for cruise ship passengers.
Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957
British magazine founded in 1938 by a group of mainland European photographers who had fled Europe to escape fascism, the Picture Post had an influence that far outlived its brief and tumultuous history. In her entry on the magazine for the Oxford Companion to the Photograph (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), historian Amanda Hopkinson describes the magazine’s back issues as a “social history of Britain over two decades”.
British Records on the Atlantic World, 1700-1900
Previously available only on microfilm, this collection provides online access to 20 record series from multiple repositories in Britain: Series 1, Records Relating to the Slave Trade at the Liverpool Record Office; Series 2, American Material in the Archives of the USPG (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel); Series 3, Papers of William Davenport & Co., 1745-1797; Series 4, Jamaican Materials in the Slebech Papers; Series 5, Papers Relating to the Jamaican Estates of the Goulburn Family of Betchworth; Series 6, Papers of the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies, 1694- ; Series 7, Journal, Annual Sermons and Reports of the SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel), 1701-1870; Series 8, South American Missionary Society Records, 1844-1919; Series 9, Liverpool Street and Trade Directories, 1766-1900; Series 10, Early Colonial and Missionary Records for West Africa; Series 11, West Indies Material in the Archives of the USPG, 1710-1950; Series 12, Archives of the Associates of Dr. Bray to 1900; Series 13, Collected Papers of the Bolton Whitman Fellowship; Series 14, Canadian Papers of the 4th Earl of Minto; Series 15, American Material from the Tarleton Papers; Series 16, Liverpool Customs Bills of Entry, 1820-1900; Series 17, Tudway of Wells Antiguan Estate Papers, 1689-1907; Series 18, Bristol Presentments, 1770-1917; Series 19, Annual British Army Lists, 1740-1784; and Series 20, American Prisoners of War, 1812-1815.
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
The Sessional Papers of the British House of Commons. Until now, these Sessional Papers have been available at University of Illinois only in uncataloged print volumes and microforms. The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Digital Collection comprises the Sessional Papers from 1715 to the present. The Sessional Papers were documents printed by order of the House, and include Bills (public and private), committee reports, reports of the ministries and non-Parliamentary government organizations, and any other document submitted by order of the House. The collection does not include the debates of the House (“Hansards”) or the proceedings of the House (House of Commons Journal).
The Nixon Years, 1969-1974
Record Series FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) 7 and 82 from the British National Archives.
Foreign Office Files for China, 1949-1980
Complete British Foreign Office Files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, from 1949-1980.
India, Raj, and Empire
Digital collection of diaries, journals, official papers, letters, sketches, paintings, histories and literary works documenting the British presence in India.
Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest: Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
Digitized collection of archival material from the Browne Popular Culture Library (Bowling Green State University), the Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkeley), the British National Archives, the University of Sussex Library, and the Rock Source Archive.
Perdita Manuscripts
Over 230 manuscripts, authored by women, that document life in Early Modern England.