Our collections

A wide range of sources - from writers, diplomats, tourists, businessmen, missionaries and others - documenting the political, cultural and social history of Japan.

This exciting new video resource comprises around 7,000 early twentieth century Topical Budget newsreels drawn from British Film Institute and Imperial War Museums.

Explore the history of twentieth century broadcasting in America through the papers of early pioneer, David Sarnoff, and the Radio Corporation of America.

A range of important sources from Britain and America, covering key subjects within this field including a complete run of The Stock Exchange Official Year-Book for 1875-1945.

Official British government records relating to the region, from the decline of the Silk Road, through the diplomatic confrontation between the British and Russian Empires known as the “Great Game”, to the influence of the emergent Soviet Union in the 20th century.

A collection of rare books, games, ephemera and artwork from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that reveals the socio-cultural history of these times. Showcasing innovative new publishing methods characteristic of the golden age of children’s literature, from mass-produced chapbooks to richly illustrated ‘book-beautifuls’, this resource examines the way in which new concepts were introduced to young readers, encouraging an engagement with the imagination which went on to fundamentally shape established notions of childhood.

Covering the 18th and 19th centuries, China, America and the Pacific provides primary source materials for the study of the history of North American trade and cultural exchange with China. This collection also provides coverage of China’s and the United States' economic dealings with the whole of East Asia and the Pacific.

Spanning three centuries (c1750-1929), this digital collection makes available for the first time extremely rare pamphlets from the Charles W Wason Collection on East Asia, at Cornell University Library; one of the oldest and most distinctive collections of its kind, and a very rich source for research on China.

With documents encompassing events from the earliest English embassy to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic, this resource collects sources from nine archives to give an incredible insight into the changes in China during the period of 1793-1980.

A repository of source materials on the work of this globally influential organisation, founded in 1799 as an Anglican evangelical movement and still active today. It includes records of both the CMS and the many other missionary societies which have become associated or amalgamated with it over its lifetime.

Discover two hundred years of worldwide missionary history. This online portal makes available periodicals from the Church Missionary Society Archive, a vital collection for students, researchers and teachers of missiology and world Christianity. It also contains valuable material on wider themes in global history, in particular the history of global education, healthcare and medicine.

The complete CO 5 files from the National Archives, UK, 1606-1822, Colonial America is a 'game changing' development for historians and researchers of early America, the Atlantic world, the Caribbean and the nascent British Empire. Colonial America enables online access to the vast archive of circa 70,000 documents of manuscript materials that tell the story of British involvement in North America.