Our collections

Explore the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations.

Discover the histories of fifteen key commodities that changed the world through a wide range of manuscript sources, rare books, maps, advertising memorabilia, paintings, photographs and ephemera. Explore themes of exploration and discovery; imperialism and attempts at monopoly, trade Wars, translocation and economic geography, slavery, mass production, luxury, taste and the evolution of global branding.

The National Library of Scotland has wonderful collections documenting this history from the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 to the granting of independence for India and Pakistan in 1947. They are made available online through this collection.

From early contacts between European settlers and Indigenous Peoples and the subsequent political, social and cultural effects of those encounters on Indigenous American life, these materials tell both the historical and the personal stories of the colonisation of the Americas. 

Discover North American Indigenous journalism spanning two centuries with this major digital resource. Featuring publications from a range of communities, with an extensive list of periodicals produced in the United States and Canada, including Alaska, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Nevada and Oklahoma, from 1828 to 2016.

From entertainment and technology to relationships and current affairs, explore everyday life and society on both sides of the Atlantic through popular and lesser-known periodicals.

The online version of the J Walter Thompson Company archive - the single most complete and informative corporate record of the history of modern advertising. It includes the account files of some of the world’s biggest brands, such as Kraft, Kodak, Oscar Mayer and Pan Am.

Material is sourced from the American Jewish Historical Society, New York. It contains primary sources on the history of Jewish immigration to the United States, life and culture among the Jewish population there, and records of business and trade from Jewish-owned companies.

Primary sources on the history of tourism. Bringing together collections from multiple archives, including Thomas Cook, this resource presents an untapped multi-national perspective on the evolution of affordable tourism around the world.

Explore three centuries of life at sea through the individual histories of ships’ crews during the Age of Sail and into the era of steam.

The 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. This collection makes them available online, and includes unpublished poems, working notebooks, holograph manuscripts and drawings that trace the inspiration and genesis behind the period’s greatest works.

Materials include 17th and 18th century poetry from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.

The digital version of the Stationers' Company Archives, London. Explore the history of printing, publishing and bookselling dating from 1554 to the 20th century. Includes a complete run of the Stationers' Register, an essential resource for book history and a record publications prior to 1927.

Literary manuscripts, rare printed works, and personal papers of a range of leading literary figures, as well as rare and obscure literary texts and genres. This collection covers both British and US Literature.

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.

This digital collection casts new light on Britain's relationship with the EEC, Anglo-American ties, the Cold War, Decolonisation, and issues of public and political morality.

Delve into the pseudo-psychological world behind the advertising of some of America’s biggest brands. What motivates women and men to buy and how can knowing that be used to sell?

The Archive of Mass-Observation, a pioneering social research organisation, has been described as a "treasure trove", "an invaluable resource for sociologists and cultural historians" and "a fascinating source of precious data for researchers across the widest range of disciplines". 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.

Explore the history of Britain through three turbulent decades, written by those living through it.

Explore the history of illness, treatment and disease on international front lines from 1850 to 1949.

A huge range of primary sources covering social, cultural, political, scientific and religious perspectives, from the 12th to early 19th centuries.

Only five major letter collections exist from fifteenth century England and they are all available online for the first time in this digital resource.

An extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy.

Manuscripts for the study of Meiji society, culture, ethnology and education from the papers of Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925).

A selection of original documents that tell the story of European and Asian migration to North America, Australia and New Zealand during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Official records from governments, shipping lines and agencies are found alongside the letters, oral histories and diaries of the migrants themselves. The resource includes material on life for successive generations, refugees and displaced persons, and those who were transported as criminals.

This collection includes primary sources for the study of missionary work, educational work, medical work, evangelism, political conflict, and the emergence of indigenous churches.

An unparalleled resource for nineteenth century culture and the literary luminaries who shaped it.

This resource is produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University. Their goal was to identify and describe all manner of writing by early modern women from diaries to works of drama. The resource links digital scans of the original documents with the researchers' catalogue and notes.

A 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.

Explore the medicine chests and bookshelves of the everyday nineteenth-century American through a colourful array of advertisements, popular texts and much more. This resource offers access to an outstanding collection of highly visual primary source material, together with supplementary features designed to aid research and teaching.

This digital resource documents the interactions between government policy and public philanthropy in Victorian and early twentieth-century society, tracing developments in welfare reform and the social tensions surrounding poverty. Includes a variety of material on conditions of workhouses and the administration of the new poor relief system through the official government correspondence of the Poor Law Commission.

Surveys and Papers from The Amistad Research Center, 1943-1970

Develop students' primary source literacy and critical thinking skills and introduce key approaches to working with source material.

A digital version of the single largest collection of working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers anywhere in the world. Highlights include annotated full manuscripts of such notable works as The Prelude and Michael, or Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode.

Insights into the RSC and its most innovative and pioneering productions.

Contains an extensive range of both rare and well-known wartime publications for soldiers serving in major theatres around the world. Publications are included from many key nations involved in the conflict, such as the US, Canada, New Zealand, India, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Sex & Sexuality covers a broad range of topics and is drawn from leading archives around the world. From papers of leading sexologists to LGBTQI+ personal histories, the collection is an essential resource for the study of human sexuality, its complexities and its history.

Rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. The prompt books tell the stories of key performances as they were put on in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and further afield, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.

Documenting over 300 productions from 1997-2016 from the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, this digital collection is a critical resource for the study of Shakespeare, theatre, cultural history and early-modern literature.

This resource brings together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world covering an extensive time period from 1490. Close attention has been given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.

Sourced from the British Film Institute (BFI), this collection of documentary, newsreel and feature films reveals the world as seen by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, East European, and Latin American filmmakers. Ranging from the early 20th century to the 1980s, material encapsulates the themes of war, revolution, news, current affairs, culture and society.

A range of archival sources charts the contradictions of the age. The resource includes the personal and business papers of key industrialists and financiers; records of rail, steel and oil corporations; material on labour disputes, politics and progressivism; rich visual content on fashion, material culture and architecture.

A digital collection of manuscript, visual and printed works that allows students and researchers to explore and compare a range of sources on the history of travel. Many come from private or neglected collections.

British Government documents on North America during Nixon's presidency.