LibGuides: History: Primary Sources by Era or Topic: British Empire, 1801-1900

Web projects

Vision of Britain
Travel writing combined with maps to produce a vision of Britain from 1801 to now, integrating maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions

British Primary Source Collections, 1801-1900

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.

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
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1500-1900.
Searchable collection of women's letters and diaries.
Women’s Voices and Life Writing, 1600-1968 This link opens in a new window
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Digitized diaries and oral histories of lesser-known women of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales providing narratives that reveal personal perspectives on race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, aging, and more.

Use the date range limit to narrow your search to a relevant time period.

British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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1732-1950
National and regional British newspapers representing different political and cultural views.
Historical Newspapers: The Irish Times and The Weekly Irish Times This link opens in a new window
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1859-2022
Newspaper from Dublin, Ireland published daily except Sundays.
Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
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1785-2019
The Times (London) newspaper.

Search for articles published in popular magazines and journals from different times in history.

Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals, part I: Women's, Children's, Humour, and Leisure This link opens in a new window
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1800-1900
Magazines revealing British life in the Victorian age and the events, lifestyles, values, and ideas that shaped their world.
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals, part II: Empire This link opens in a new window
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1800-1900
Magazines by and for British imperial colonizers, settlers, missionaries, and travelers.
Gale Primary Sources
British Periodicals Collection I and II This link opens in a new window
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1681-1920
Popular British periodicals mostly from the 19th century.
Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2015 This link opens in a new window
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1843-2015
Issues of The Economist, a news magazine with a global scope published in London.
Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
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1685-1835
Literary, satirical, political, religious and theatrical magazines and newspapers from Britain, Ireland, Scotland, India and the Caribbean.

Nineteenth Century Periodicals list
List of freely available 19th C periodicals compiled by Elizabeth Clarke at Marist College.

Collections of several types of primary sources curated around a topic or theme.

Age of Exploration This link opens in a new window
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1420-1920
Primary sources like manuscripts, maps and illustrated documents, diaries and ship logs recording the experiences of Europeans as they explored trade routes, colonized the Americas and Australasia, and raced to the North and South Poles.
Archives Direct (all) This link opens in a new window
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1833-1981
Government and agency records from the British National Archives.
Collections sourced from The National Archives, Kew - the UK government's official archive. Subsets are: Apartheid South Africa, Confidential Print: Africa, Confidential Print: Latin America, Confidential Print: Middle East, Confidential Print: North America, Foreign Office Files for China, Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Foreign Office Files for Japan, Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, The Nixon Years, Macmillan Cabinet Papers, Women in The National Archives, Kew.
China and the Modern World: Missionary, Sinology and Literary Periodicals, 1817-1949 This link opens in a new window
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1817-1949
Academic and literary journals, journals of sinology, and missionary periodicals in English about China.
China and the Modern World: Records of the Maritime Customs Service of China, 1854-1949 This link opens in a new window
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1858-1949
Primary source collection for the study of China and its relations with the West in the late Qing and Republican periods.
China Studies This link opens in a new window
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1750-1980
Primary source documents like printed books, pamphlets, paintings, manuscripts, diaries, newspapers and periodicals offer evidence of Chinese life and culture over the past 300 years
Combined search of: China, America and the Pacific, China: Culture and Society, and China: Trade, Politics and Culture.
Churchill Archive This link opens in a new window
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1690-1965 (mainly 1940-1955)
Primary source historical documents from the archives of Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during and after World War II.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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1804-2009
Newspapers, journals and reports offering the perspective of Anglican missionary administrators and workers on cultural encounters and historical events.
Colonial America This link opens in a new window
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1606-1822
British government documents from the CO 5 series about administering the American colonies.
Part of Americana combined search portal
Confidential Print: Africa This link opens in a new window
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1834-1966
Primary source documents about African colonies generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices of the British government between 1834 and 1966.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Confidential Print: Africa This link opens in a new window
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1834-1966
Primary source documents about African colonies generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices of the British government between 1834 and 1966.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Confidential Print: Latin America This link opens in a new window
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1833-1969
Government and agency records from the British National Archives concerning Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Confidential Print: Middle East This link opens in a new window
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1839-1969
Government and agency records from the British National Archives concerning the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Confidential Print: North America This link opens in a new window
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1824-1961
Government and agency records from the British National Archives concerning the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Defining Gender This link opens in a new window
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1500s-1920
Primary sources selected to illustrate changing views about gender, themed around conduct, domesticity, consumption and leisure, education, and the body.
Early Modern England This link opens in a new window
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1500-1700
Records, correspondence and manuscript collections support research into early modern governance, the networks of prominent families, the organization and dissemination of knowledge in health and medicine, humanities and the sciences, and material cultures.
Includes correspondence, diaries, essays, family papers, and church, legal, government and tax records.
East India Company This link opens in a new window
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1599-1947
British government records from the India Office chart the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
Eighteenth Century Drama: Censorship and the Stage This link opens in a new window
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1737-1824.
Archive of plays submitted for license in England between 1737 and 1824, as well as diaries, playbills, theatre records and correspondence.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
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1492-1969
Primary sources about British colonies in Africa, North and South America, Australia, and South Asia, 1492-1969.
Food and Drink in History This link opens in a new window
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9th century-2015
Cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and other primary sources revealing the evolution of food and drink within everyday life and the public sphere.
Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan This link opens in a new window
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1947-1980
Archival collection from the British Foreign Office focused on the political and social history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement and Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window
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1650-1920
Primary sources like expedition records, letters, diaries and government records from Europeans creating colonies in North America, Africa, and Australasia.
Gender: Identity and Social Change This link opens in a new window
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1800-present
Primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations, like women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, family and the body.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
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1500-present
Primary source materials 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.
The Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
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1550-1850
Firsthand travel accounts of British tourists visiting Europe.
India, Raj and Empire This link opens in a new window
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1615-1947
Documents recording the history of South Asia between the initial involvement of the East India Company and Indian and Pakistani independence.
Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture: The History of Tourism This link opens in a new window
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1850-1980
Archival material from the travel agency Thomas Cook, a pioneer of package tourism. Includes periodicals such as the Excursionist magazine, personal accounts from travelers on early Cook’s tours, photographs, advertising brochures, guidebooks, posters and ephemeral items.
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers Company Archive This link opens in a new window
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1554-2007
Collection of primary source documents related to the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding.
London Low Life This link opens in a new window
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1800-1910
Primary sources like ballads, slang dictionaries, brothel guides and posters sold on the street during the 19th century in London.
Medical Services and Warfare This link opens in a new window
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1850s-1930s
Primary sources from Crimean War, the American Civil War and the First World War tell the story of medical advances during warfare, including the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927.
Meiji Japan This link opens in a new window
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1850s-1930s
Publications, papers, journals and diaries of Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925), a polymath notable for his work in natural history, ethnography and art history – but, perhaps most famous for his work in bringing Japan and the West closer together.
Migration to New Worlds This link opens in a new window
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1800-1924
Primary sources like personal accounts, correspondence, maps, plans and photos documenting the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Politics and Society This link opens in a new window
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- 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
Also searchable in Gale Primary Sources.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest This link opens in a new window
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- Good for: Finding primary source documentation related to the European “Scramble for Africa,” colonial conquest and the legacy of slavery, missionaries, explorers, economics, world politics, and international strategy.
- Contains: Books, manuscripts, government records and newspaper accounts
- Dates covered: 1800-1906
Nineteenth Century Literary Society This link opens in a new window
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1768-1900s
Archival collection digitizing more than 1,400 letters, literary works, and financial records from the historic John Murray publishing company. Includes annotated drafts of Byron’s works and correspondence from Jane Austen, Charles Darwin and Isabella Bird.
Also features correspondence charting the founding of the business by John Murray in 1768, the completed, first edition file copy of On the Origin of Species, with related correspondence from Charles Darwin, and financial papers charting the sales success of hundreds of Murray titles.
Poverty, Philanthropy and Social Conditions in Victorian Britain This link opens in a new window
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1834-1930
Archival collections of records from philanthropic organizations and the British government documenting social conditions in Victorian England.
Discover the conditions of workhouses and the administration of the new poor relief system through the official government correspondence of the Poor Law Commission, and explore the demonstrable shift in social conditions and welfare reform. Topics include workhouses and outdoor relief, health and medicine, disability, housing, sanitation, education, and social reform.
Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War This link opens in a new window
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1873-1953
From The National Archives, U.K., documents encompass signals intelligence reports and government-directed policy and strategy from the period of Appeasement right through to the early Cold War.
British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files from 1873 to 1953, with the majority of files dating from the 1930s and 1940s, across four major conflicts – the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, the early years of the Cold War and the Korean War.
Sex & Sexuality This link opens in a new window
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1800s-2010s
Archival research collections exploring changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities and sexual behaviors and investigating the breadth and complexity of human sexual understanding through the work of leading sexologists, sex researchers, organizations and personal accounts.
Please be aware that this resource contains material of a sexually explicit nature. Includes official records of pressure groups and community organizations, anonymous qualitative surveys, diaries, correspondence, periodicals, photographs, erotic fiction and visual erotica, papers of sexologists, newsletters, reports, pamphlets and ephemera.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
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1490-2007
Case studies documenting slavery in America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba, along with material examining European, Islamic and African involvement in the slave trade.
Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History This link opens in a new window
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1818-1974
Travel writing in manuscripts, diaries and correspondence as well as drawings, guidebooks and photographs.
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
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- 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.
World’s Fairs This link opens in a new window
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1851-2000s
Official records, monographs, publicity, artwork and artifacts about world’s fairs, exhibitions and expos.

Digitized collections of books published during different time periods.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: European Literature, the Corvey Collection This link opens in a new window
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All subscribed NCCO collections can be searched from this portal.
Works are in English, French and German.
Gerritsen Collection-Women's History Online, 1543-1945 This link opens in a new window
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1543-1945
Books and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights.
Hathi Trust This link opens in a new window
Access to nearly any public domain (pre-1924) book owned and scanned by a library. UNLV users can login with their ACE accounts and download entire "full view" books/documents.
Making of Modern Law (MOML) This link opens in a new window
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1600-1926
Cross-search five Making of Modern Law databases: Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative and International Law 1600-1926, Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources, Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources 1620-1926, Making of Modern Law: Treatises, 1800-1926, and Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600-1926.
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas This link opens in a new window
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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

Official government publications, including laws, treaties, and records of legislative proceedings.

United States

Congressional Publications (ProQuest Congressional) This link opens in a new window
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1789-
U.S. legislative information, including access to many full-text Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, and more. Includes the U.S. Serial Set.
Comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information, including access to many full-text Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, and more. Additionally, searchers can retrieve CIS Legislative Histories for public laws. Contains an index of congressional publications from 1789 to the present and locate information about members and committees. Statutes at Large and Congressional Indexes from 1789-1969 are included.
Digital U.S. Bills and Resolutions 1789-2016 This link opens in a new window
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1789-present
Contains searchable full text of all U.S. bills and resolutions from 1789 to the present.
Individual bills may be directly accessed or searched via a composite bill profile page that links out to its various versions.
HeinOnline Law Journal Library This link opens in a new window
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Online law journals and full text federal legal materials.
HeinOnline is an image-based, fully searchable database made up primarily of law journals. Newer content is not added until the end of a volume year so the most recent issues are likely a year old. Coverage varies by title, but most sources go back to volume one. In addition to journals, it also contains treaties, the federal register, some classic treatises and some federal legislative materials. Subscription to HeinOnline is sponsored by the Wiener-Rogers Law Library.

Great Britain

Routledge English Historical Documents This link opens in a new window
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476 -1914
Primary sources with editorial commentary representing significant British historical documents, like treaties, statutes, declarations, government and cabinet proceedings and more.
U.K. Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window
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1801-2000
Bills, reports, correspondence and command papers all highlight Britain's role in the political, social, economic and foreign policy arenas.
Archives Direct (all) This link opens in a new window
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1833-1981
Government and agency records from the British National Archives.
Collections sourced from The National Archives, Kew - the UK government's official archive. Subsets are: Apartheid South Africa, Confidential Print: Africa, Confidential Print: Latin America, Confidential Print: Middle East, Confidential Print: North America, Foreign Office Files for China, Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Foreign Office Files for Japan, Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, The Nixon Years, Macmillan Cabinet Papers, Women in The National Archives, Kew.
Making of Modern Law (MOML) This link opens in a new window
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1600-1926
Cross-search five Making of Modern Law databases: Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative and International Law 1600-1926, Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources, Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources 1620-1926, Making of Modern Law: Treatises, 1800-1926, and Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600-1926.
Confidential Print: Africa This link opens in a new window
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1834-1966
Primary source documents about African colonies generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices of the British government between 1834 and 1966.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Confidential Print: Latin America This link opens in a new window
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1833-1969
Government and agency records from the British National Archives concerning Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Confidential Print: Middle East This link opens in a new window
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1839-1969
Government and agency records from the British National Archives concerning the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Confidential Print: North America This link opens in a new window
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1824-1961
Government and agency records from the British National Archives concerning the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan This link opens in a new window
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1947-1980
Archival collection from the British Foreign Office focused on the political and social history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Part of the Archives Direct combined search portal.
Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War This link opens in a new window
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1873-1953
From The National Archives, U.K., documents encompass signals intelligence reports and government-directed policy and strategy from the period of Appeasement right through to the early Cold War.
British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files from 1873 to 1953, with the majority of files dating from the 1930s and 1940s, across four major conflicts – the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, the early years of the Cold War and the Korean War.

Digitized photos and art images.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Photography This link opens in a new window
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- Good for: Texts on the invention and early history of photography, collections of photographs, photograph albums, and early books illustrated with photos.
- Contains: Books, photographs
- Dates covered: 1800s-early 1900s
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
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Art digital images and related data.
A repository of hundreds of thousands of digital images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, social sciences and related data; the tools to actively use those images; and a restricted usage environment that seeks to balance the rights of content providers with the needs and interests of content user.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog This link opens in a new window
Images held by the Prints and Photographs division of the Library of Congress.
The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and other units of the Library of Congress. About 90% of the records are accompanied by one or more digital images. In some collections, only thumbnail images display to those searching outside the Library of Congress because of potential rights considerations.

Life Photo Archive
Millions of news and editorial photographs and other images dating from 1750 to the present. Includes many iconic images, but most were never published.
NYPL Digital Photo Collections
Includes several fashion design collections as well as many historical photos from the NY Public Library.
Smithsonian Photography Initiative
Online database of photographs dating from the 1850s to the present. Subjects cover the arts and literature, culture and society, nature and science, industry and technology, history and geography. Includes both professional photos and amateur snapshots.
UNLV digital photo collections
Search collection of photos of Nevadans and more held in UNLV Libraries Special Collections and Archives.

These links allow you to search across multiple databases at the same time.

Accessible Archives combined search
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Cross search 19thC American periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, and clippings.
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Collections include African American Newspapers, The Civil War A Newspaper Perspective, Godey's Lady's Book, South Carolina Newspapers (colonial), and antislavery and woman suffrage publications.
EBSCO 19th C periodicals
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Cross search American Antiquarian Society periodicals with African American Serials, Gateway to North America collections.

AM Explorer This link opens in a new window
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1493-1975
Search all archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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Includes 19th Century UK Periodicals, Archives of Sexuality & Gender (LGBTQ History), British Library Newspapers, The Economist (1843-2014), Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Sabin Americana (1500-1926), China and the Modern World, London Times Digital Archive, and London Times Literary Supplement.
Historical U.S. Newspapers from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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1841-2000 with some more recent
Search all ProQuest U.S. historical newspaper collections simultaneously.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Defender‎ (1909 - 1975)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune‎ (1849 - 1993)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Christian Science Monitor‎ (1908 - 2003)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times‎ (1881 - 1993)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times‎ (1851 - 2013)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Tribune‎ (1841 - 1922)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post‎ (1877 - 2000)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: U.S. West, including Reno Gazette-Journal (1876-2008), San Francisco Examiner (1889-2007), and Spokane Statesman-Review (1894-2009)
Historical Periodicals from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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1740-1940 with some more recent
Search all ProQuest historical periodical collections simultaneously.
American Periodicals‎ (1740 - 1940)
British Periodicals‎ (1681 - 1939)
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive‎ (1880 - 2000)
The Harper's Bazaar Archive‎ (1867 - current)
Periodicals Archive Online‎
The Vogue Archive‎
Women's Magazine Archive‎ (1846 - 2005)
The Women's Wear Daily Archive‎
Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
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1639-1922
Combined search of American historical newspapers (1690-1922), printed books (1639-1819), and pamphlets and ephemera (1749-1922).
Search all collections of historical primary sources from Readex simultaneously: America's Historical Newspapers, American Broadsides and Ephemera; American Pamphlets; Early American Imprints (Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker).

History: Primary Sources by Era or Topic

Web projects

British Primary Source Collections, 1801-1900

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