The full text of letters and diary entries, often from works that have been previously published as books containing collections of letters or diaries. Use the Browse indexes to find works about specific historical or life events.
Good for: Researching the lives of women in Great Britain and Ireland.
Contains: Women's letters and diaries.
Dates covered: 1500-1900.
Good for: Studying early modern governance, material culture, prominent families, and the organization of knowledge in health, medicine, humanities, and sciences.
Contains: Records, correspondence, and manuscript collections.
Dates covered: 1500-1700.
Good for: Investigating the lives of lesser-known UK women.
Contains: Diaries and oral histories.
Dates covered: 1600-1968.
Use the date range limit to narrow your search to a relevant time period.
Good for: Finding newspaper reports about life, culture and historical events published in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland.
Contains: National and regional newspapers representing multiple political and cultural views.
Dates covered: 1732-1950.
Good for: Finding newspaper articles about news and events in Ireland.
Contains: Newspaper pages.
Dates covered: 1859-2022.
Good for: Researching British essays, news and events from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Contains: Newspapers, pamphlets, proclamations, and newsbooks.
Dates covered: 1603-1800.
Good for: Researching British essays, news and events from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Contains: British newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets, and broadsheets.
Dates covered: 1672-1737.
Good for: Finding articles from The Times (London).
Contains: The Times newspaper.
Dates covered: 1785-2019.
Search for articles published in popular magazines and journals from different times in history.
Good for: Searching articles in magazines about British culture and society.
Contains: Popular British periodicals, mostly from the 19th century.
Dates covered: 1681-1920.
Good for: Finding out about 18th-century British and Irish culture through magazines and newspapers.
Contains: Literary, satirical, political, religious and theatrical publications from England, Ireland, Scotland, India and the Caribbean.
Dates covered: 1685-1835.
Collections of several types of primary sources curated around a topic or theme.
Good for: First hand accounts of European exploration, trade and colonization worldwide using primary sources.
Contains: Manuscripts, maps, illustrated documents, diaries, and ship logs.
Dates covered: 1420-1920.
Good for: Searching multiple American history primary source collections.
Contains: Archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Dates covered: 1493-1975.
Good for: Exploring Chinese life and culture over the past 300 years.
Contains: Primary source documents like printed books, pamphlets, paintings, manuscripts, diaries, newspapers, and periodicals.
Dates covered: 1750-1980.
Good for: Researching the life and career of Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during and after World War II.
Contains: Primary sources including personal papers and official records.
Dates covered: 1690-1965 (mainly 1940-1955).
Good for: Primary source evidence of the British administration of the American colonies.
Contains: British government documents from the Colonial Office (CO 5).
Dates covered: 1606-1822.
Good for: Evidence of changing views about gender, themed around conduct, domesticity, consumption and leisure, education, and the body.
Contains: Primary sources like correspondence, advice literature, periodicals, ephemera and government documents.
Dates covered: 1500s-1920.
Good for: Studying early modern governance, material culture, prominent families, and the organization of knowledge in health, medicine, humanities, and sciences.
Contains: Records, correspondence, and manuscript collections.
Dates covered: 1500-1700.
Good for: Researching British trade and colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent.
Contains: British government records from the India Office.
Dates covered: 1599-1947.
Good for: Examining scripts of plays submitted for license in England before 1824.
Contains: Archive of plays, diaries, playbills, theatre records, and correspondence.
Dates covered: 1737-1824.
Good for: Exploring colonial history, politics, culture and society from British and European perspectives.
Contains: Primary sources from archival collections.
Dates covered: 1492-1969.
Good for: Exploring the evolution of food and drink.
Contains: Cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and other primary sources.
Dates covered: 9th century-2015.
Good for: Studying European colonization in North America, Africa, and Australasia.
Contains: Primary sources like expedition records, letters, diaries, and government records.
Dates covered: 1650-1920.
Good for: Examining primary sources that tell the story of global trade in chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, oil, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits.
Contains: Archival collections.
Dates covered: 1500-present.
Good for: Exploring firsthand travel accounts of British tourists in Europe before 1850.
Contains: Travel accounts.
Dates covered: 1550-1850.
Good for: Studying the history of South Asia between the initial involvement of the East India Company and Indian and Pakistani independence.
Contains: Primary sources from colonial government and archival collections.
Dates covered: 1615-1947.
Good for: Documents revealing the history of the book trade and printing/publishing community.
Contains: Primary sources from the Stationers Company in London.
Dates covered: 1554-2007.
Good for: Finding primary sources about the development of urban centers and of the restructuring of society that took place during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.
Contains: Government and archival collections.
Dates covered: 1750-1916.
Good for: Researching the trade in enslaved people in America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba using material examining European, Islamic, and African involvement in the slave trade.
Contains: Case studies and primary source documents.
Dates covered: 1490-2007.
Good for: the study of the history of early modern London through the lens of the livery companies and trade
Contains: Records of livery companies in early modern London over three-hundred year period, with commentary on pivotal events such as the Reformation, the Civil War, the Great Plague, and the Great Fire of London.
Dates covered: 1450-1750
Good for: Finding primary sources related to popular entertainment in America, Britain, and Europe.
Contains: Books, posters, scrapbooks, and optical toys.
Dates covered: 1779-1930.
Good for: Primary sources recording details of agriculture, business and enslaved people in the Atlantic world and early Colonial period.
Contains: Archival collection (Ferrar Papers).
Dates covered: 1590-1790.
Good for: Studying witch hunts and related topics.
Contains: Manuscripts, pamphlets, and books.
Dates covered: 1500-1930.
Digitized collections of books published during different time periods.
Good for: Finding primary source materials on exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions, and more.
Contains: Historical books, pamphlets, serials and other documents about North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Dates covered: 1500-1926.
Good for: Researching early English literature and culture.
Contains: Most extant printed books in English published before 1700.
Dates covered: 1475-1700.
Good for: Researching 18th-century English literature and culture.
Contains: Most extant books published in English.
Dates covered: 1701-1800.
Good for: Reading primary sources that document the evolution of feminist consciousness and the women's rights movement.
Contains: Books and periodicals.
Dates covered: 1543-1945.
Good for: Access to nearly any public domain (pre-1929) book owned and scanned by a library.
Contains: Digitized books.
Good for: Researching historical legal materials.
Contains: Treatises, primary sources, trials, and foreign, comparative, and international law.
Dates covered: 1600-1926.
Good for: Researching U.S. legislative information.
Contains: Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, and more.
Dates covered: 1789-present.
Good for: Researching U.S. legislative history.
Contains: Searchable full text of U.S. bills and resolutions.
Dates covered: 1789-present.
Good for: Researching legal topics.
Contains: Law journals and federal legal materials.
Great Britain
Good for: Studying significant British historical documents.
Contains: Primary sources like treaties, statutes, declarations, government and cabinet proceedings, plus editorial commentary.
Dates covered: 476-1914.
Good for: Researching historical legal materials.
Contains: Treatises, primary sources, trials, and foreign, comparative, and international law.
Dates covered: 1600-1926.
Digitized photos and art images.
Good for: Finding and using digital images for research and teaching.
Contains: Art digital images and related data.
These links allow you to search across multiple databases at the same time.
Good for: Searching across all primary source collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Contains: Archival collections.
Good for: Searching historical periodicals.
Contains: Magazine and journal articles.
Dates covered: 1740-1940 with some more recent.
