Our collections

The definitive collection of primary source documentation to explore life under British colonial rule.

Colonial Office, Dominions Office and Foreign Office documents from the British Government. The Confidential Print series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All were circulated around the highest offices of the British state.

Colonial Office, Dominions Office and Foreign Office documents from the British Government. The Confidential Print series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All were circulated around the highest offices of the British state.

Colonial Office, Dominions Office and Foreign Office documents from the British Government. The Confidential Print series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All were circulated around the highest offices of the British state.

Colonial Office, Dominions Office and Foreign Office documents from the British Government. The Confidential Print series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All were circulated around the highest offices of the British state.

Discover five centuries of advice literature from the mid-15th to early 20th century. Research the ideals of social conduct, power distribution within the family, consumption and leisure, education of men and women and gendered perceptions of the body to analyse and challenge the changing views and ideas surrounding traditional gender roles.

This collection of primary sources looks at two centuries of everyday, political, religious, working, trading and administrative life in England during this pivotal epoch. Documents cover an array of topics relating to England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a significant focus on the lives of ‘everyday’ people.

Delve 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.

Unique 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.

Spanning five centuries and charting the rise and fall of empires around the world, Empire Online is a digital archive enabling research of colonial history, politics, culture and society. There is a focus on the British Empire, but documents also give information on other European empires and the experience of colonised people.

This collection offers an array of sources for the study of the British Empire. It features material on British colonial policy and government; perspectives on life in British colonies; the relationship between gender and empire; race; and class.

Presenting content from across the globe, this diverse and comprehensive resource features thousands of audio field recordings and interviews, educational recordings, film footage, field notebooks, slides, correspondence and ephemera from over 60 fields of study, including sites in West Africa, North America, South East Asia and more.

American social, cultural, and popular history during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.

AM’s Open Access collection, First Folios Compared, represents a major milestone in Shakespearean scholarship and cultural heritage

Revealing the voices and experiences of the men and women who served in the First World War, this rich and varied collection will be an invaluable source for anyone studying and researching the ‘Great War’. Material includes letters and diaries of service people, maps, photo albums, artwork, oral histories, official documents, newspapers, posters and much more, covering all aspects of the global conflict.

A wide range of primary source material, including printed and manuscript cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films and illustrated content. It reveals the evolution of food and drink within everyday life and the public sphere. The material in this collection has been sourced from across the globe to reflect a wide range of food cultures and traditions.

Formerly restricted British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980.

Survey the high politics of Independence and Partition, social and cultural interchange after 1947 and the ramifications that these changes continue to have throughout South Asia today.

British Government Foreign Office files relating to Japan. An important resource due to the UK maintaining diplomatic ties to Japan for more of this period than many other nations, and the destruction of many Japanese Government records in 1945.

British Government Foreign Office files relating to the significant changes that took place in Southeast Asia during 1963-1980, including the creation of Malaysia and the response to this from the wider region.

British Government Foreign Office files relating to the Middle East. From invasions and civil wars to revolutions and revolts, explore a rich period of Middle Eastern history.

Through a large array of unique documents, this multi-archive collection captures the lives, experiences and colonial encounters of people living at the edges of the Anglophone world from 1650-1920. It ranges across the various colonial frontiers of North America before touching on the settlers of Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand.