"The British Foreign Office Confidential Print have long been recognised as
an extraordinary valuable source for the study of nineteenth and early
twentieth century history; a resource that no other national archive can
match. At present sets of these documents (one complete, one almost
complete and the others very patchy) are only available in a small number
of repositories although a small selection has been made available in
facsimile. This Adam Matthew Digital initiative will make the complete set
universally available for the very first time and can only enhance their
usefulness."
William A. Noblett
Under-Librarian, Cambridge University Library
The Confidential Print series issued by the Foreign and Colonial Office since c1820 is one of the fundamental building blocks for research that should be possessed by any academic library and one of the most important series produced by the British Government.
The series originated out of a need for the Government to preserve all of the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Some of these were one page letters or telegrams – others were large volumes or texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet, and to Heads of British missions abroad.
Over the next few years we will be offering complete series of Confidential Print relating to different regions including the Middle East, Africa and South America. All documents are full text searchable.
We commence with coverage of key classes concerning:
- Canada
- The Caribbean
- The USA
We include the following classes from The National Archives, Kew in their entirety:
CO 880/1-32 North America, 1839-1914
CO 884/1-38 West Indies, 1826-1961
FO 414/1-278 North America 1824-1941
FO 461/1-13 America, 1942-1956
FO 462/1-10 USA, 1947-1956
The bulk of this material covers the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century.
Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961 is an Archives Direct © project. For further information on Archives Direct, please see this link.