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: Understanding the Civil War through personal accounts.
Contains: Previously published memoirs, letters, and diaries.
Dates covered: 1860-1865.
Good for: Researching the lives of women in Great Britain and Ireland.
Contains: Women's letters and diaries.
Dates covered: 1500-1900.
Good for: Exploring women’s letters and diaries to learn about historical events and details of daily life in the past.
Contains: Handwritten letters and diaries with a detailed index
Dates covered: 1770s-1970s
Good for: Reading letters about medieval family life, business, relationships, trade, politics, and community.
Contains: Archive of correspondence.
Dates covered: 1400-1500.
Good for: Exploring personal narratives of immigrants to the U.S. or Canada.
Contains: Letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories.
Dates covered: 1840-present.
Good for: Exploring the lives and experiences of North American women.
Contains: Diaries, journals, and letters.
Dates covered: 1770-1950.
Good for: Investigating the lives of lesser-known UK women.
Contains: Diaries and oral histories.
Dates covered: 1600-1968.
Search for articles published in popular magazines and journals from different times in history.
Good for: Gaining insights into British home life and leisure reading in the Victorian age.
Contains: Magazines.
Dates covered: 1800-1900.
Good for: Evidence of the activities and interests of British imperial colonizers, settlers, missionaries, and travelers.
Contains: Magazines.
Dates covered: 1800-1900.
Good for: Searching periodicals published by African American churches, educational and service institutions.
Contains: Newspapers and magazines.
Dates covered: 1816-1922.
Good for: Searching articles published in popular 19th century magazines, newspapers, and journals in the United States.
Contains: Periodicals.
Dates covered: 1684-1912.
Good for: Searching American magazines and journals published mostly before 1900.
Contains: Magazines and journals.
Dates covered: 1740-1940.
Good for: Studying Hispanic culture in the United States.
Contains: Publications in Spanish and English.
Dates covered: 1750-present.
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: Reading articles with perspective on historical events and trends from The Economist magazine.
Contains: Issues of The Economist.
Dates covered: 1843-2015.
Good for: Reading firsthand accounts of 19th-century American society, history and culture.
Contains: PDF images and scanned text of articles from the popular magazine.
Dates covered: 1830-1898.
Good for: Studying changes in American fashion, culture, and society.
Contains: Harper's Bazaar magazine.
Dates covered: 1867-present.
Good for: Researching fashion and culture.
Contains: Images and text from Vogue Magazine.
Dates covered: 1892-present.
Good for: Searching North American women's magazines and their historical context.
Contains: Women's magazines including Better Homes and Gardens, Chatelaine, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents Magazine, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan and Essence.
Dates covered: 1887-2005.
Good for: Studying fashion industry history and trends.
Contains: Trade publication Women’s Wear Daily.
Dates covered: 1910-present.
Collections of several types of primary sources curated around a topic or theme.
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.
Good for: Searching multiple American history primary source collections.
Contains: Archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Dates covered: 1493-1975.
Good for: Searching historical product catalogs and exploring advertising and marketing campaigns.
Contains: Archival records of ad agencies, marketing campaigns and catalogs.
Dates covered: 1850-1990s.
Good for: Researching LGBTQ activism and the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1940-present.
Good for: Studying China's relations with the West in the 19th and early 20th century.
Contains: Academic and literary journals and missionary periodicals in English about China.
Dates covered: 1817-1949.
Good for: Understanding the perspective of Anglican missionary administrators and workers on cultural encounters around the world.
Contains: Newspapers, journals, and reports.
Dates covered: 1804-2009.
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: Learning the history of disability rights and disability studies around the world.
Contains: Primary and secondary sources, including videos, diaries, brochures, advertisements, and more.
Good for: Studying American social, cultural, and popular history in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Contains: Primary sources like periodicals, pamphlets and books.
Dates covered: 1800-1920.
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: Understanding the history of food and culture.
Contains: Archival materials, images, secondary works, documentaries, series, and visual ephemera.
Dates covered: 1900-present.
Key themes and disciplines with extensive coverage represented include marketing and consumerism, production and technology, food history, food movements, culinary and food design, food and identity, health, policy, religion, sociology, anthropology, and history. Coverage from the 1940s.
Good for: Studying 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.
Contains: Primary sources like personal papers, diaries, and organizational records.
Dates covered: 1800-present.
Good for: Studying 20th-century American advertising through the archives of a prominent ad agency.
Contains: Primary sources like brand case studies and account files.
Dates covered: 1880s-1990s.
Clients included: Kellogg’s, Kodak, Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Pan Am, the U.S. Marine Corps, and more.
Good for: Exploring American Jewish history through organizational records and archival collections.
Contains: Archival collections from the American Jewish Historical Society in New York.
Dates covered: 1654-1954.
Good for: Studying the works of Hispanic-American writers and activists.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1800-1960.
Good for: Studying the history of tourism.
Contains: Archival material from Thomas Cook travel agency.
Dates covered: 1850-1980.
Good for: Studying 19th-century London street culture.
Contains: Primary sources like ballads, slang dictionaries, brothel guides, and posters.
Dates covered: 1800-1910.
Good for: Learning about the everyday lives of ordinary British people who participated in social science research.
Contains: Personal diaries, surveys, questionnaires, photos, and printed research analysis.
Dates covered: 1937-1960.
Good for: Studying historical medical advances during warfare.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1850s-1930s.
Good for: Reading letters about medieval family life, business, relationships, trade, politics, and community.
Contains: Archive of correspondence.
Dates covered: 1400-1500.
Good for: Studying migration from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe, and Asia to the New World and Australasia.
Contains: Personal accounts, correspondence, maps, plans, and photos.
Dates covered: 1800-1924.
Good for: Studying popular culture in the US and Britain through music and alternative publications.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1950-1975.
Part of Americana combined search portal
Good for: Exploring the industry around 19th-century American commercial health products.
Contains: Advertising pamphlets, trade cards, posters, and promotional work.
Dates covered: 1800-1900.
Good for: Examining records of humanitarian aid for displaced persons and refugees after World War II.
Contains: Records from the National Archives of the UK.
Dates covered: 1945-1950.
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: Viewing documentaries, newsreels, and feature films from a socialist perspective.
Contains: Films by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, East European, British and Latin American filmmakers.
Dates covered: 1918-1990.
Good for: Studying consumer advertising, marketing, and life in America.
Contains: Catalogs, price lists, and brochures.
Dates covered: 1850-1950.
Good for: Examining primary sources about the history of department stores in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Contains: Company archives, union records, trade journals, advertisements, catalogs.
Dates covered: 1830-1994
Good for: Exploring travel writing and its history.
Contains: Manuscripts, diaries, correspondence, drawings, guidebooks, and photographs.
Dates covered: 1818-1974.
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: Gaining an in-depth look at the women's suffrage movement in the US.
Contains: Newspaper collections.
Dates covered: 1849-1913.
The Lily. 1849-1856
National Citizen and Ballot Box. 1878-1881
The Revolution. 1868-1872
The New Citizen. 1909-1912
The Western Woman Voter. 1911-1913
The Remonstrance. 1890-1913
Good for: Documents recording the experiences of colonized women.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1820-present.
Good for: Studying women's reform activities.
Contains: Books, images, historical documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies.
Dates covered: 1600-2000.
Good for: Primary sources about woman suffrage and women’s roles in Britain and its territories.
Contains: Archival collection, finding aid for women’s studies in the National Archives U.K.
Dates covered: 1903-1962.
Good for: Primary sources collected from world's fairs, exhibitions, and expos.
Contains: Official records, monographs, publicity, artwork, and artifacts.
Dates covered: 1851-2000s.
Digitized collections of books published during different time periods.
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.
Digitized photos and art images.
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.
Good for: Finding and using digital images for research and teaching.
Contains: Art digital images and related data.
Good for: Finding images held by the Library of Congress.
Contains: Images.
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.
Includes American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society, Archives of Sexuality and Gender, Archives Unbound, British Library Newspapers, Chatham House Online Archive, China and the Modern World, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Environmental History, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals, Political Extremism and Radicalism, Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney and Nichols Newspapers Collections, The Economist Historical Archive, The Times Digital Archive and The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.
Good for: Searching all ProQuest U.S. historical newspaper collections simultaneously.
Contains: Newspapers.
Dates covered: 1841-2014.
Good for: Searching historical periodicals.
Contains: Magazine and journal articles.
Dates covered: 1740-1940 with some more recent.
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
Good for: Searching across historical newspapers and books for primary sources about American life and culture.
Contains: American historical newspapers, printed books, pamphlets, and ephemera.
Dates covered: 1639-1922.
Search multiple collections of historical primary sources from Readex simultaneously: America's Historical Imprints; America's Historical Newspapers, including Hispanic American Newspapers; American Underworld - the Flash Press; Territorial Papers of the United States.