Our collections

Study military conflicts, political and diplomatic rivalries, exploration, Christian missions, technological advancements, slavery and encounters between European colonisers and African communities during this major period of colonial expansion.

Explore five centuries of journeys across the globe, scientific discoveries, the expansion of European colonialism, conflict over territories and trade routes and decades-long search and rescue attempts in this multi-archive collection dedicated to the history of exploration.

Comprised of original manuscripts, rare printed books, maps and ephemeral material from the Everett D Graff Collection of Western Americana at the Newberry Library in Chicago, American West is a source for the study of westward US expansion from the 18th to the 20th century. Including documents from 1718-1968, it has tales of frontier life, Native Americans, vigilantes and outlaws, as well as evidence of the growth of urban centres, the environmental impact of westward expansion and life in the borderlands.

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.

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.

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.