MRU Library Website: History: Primary Sources for British & European History

Primary Sources for British & European History

Primary Sources for British & European History

Advice on Primary Source Research
General Digital Collections
Government, Legal, Church and Regal Sources
Historical Newspapers, Magazines and Other Periodical Publications

General Digital Collections

Allied Propaganda in World War II and and the British Political Warfare Executive
Files of the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) from the U.K. National Archives, along with the secret minutes of the special 1944 War Cabinet Committee "Breaking the German Will to Resist." Included here is all the correspondence, minutes and agents’ mission files along with a complete collection of all the airborne propaganda leaflets dropped over mainland Europe during the war by the British and American air forces. Includes leaflets, single sheets and miniature books.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Access to all the Gale Primary Source Collections.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.

British National Archives
Access to a wide range of British documents; includes finding aids for print and microfilm collections, as well as digital documents. To search for only digital items, limit to DocumentsOnline. To view digital items, add them to your "shopping cart" then download. Includes free and pay-per-view content.

Defining Gender (1450-1910)
This collection of original source material from British and European archives will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology, education and cultural studies from a gendered perspective.
Early English Books Online
Contains digital facsimile page images of works printed in English from 1470-1700. Includes the ages of Spenser, Shakespeare and of the English Civil War.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online I
Access to over 180,000 digitized books, pamphlets, and broadsides from 1701–1800, with over 32 million searchable pages. It is based on the English Short-title Catalogue (ESTC) of works from Britain, Ireland, the U.S., and British colonies.
ECCO digitizes 18th-century works from the English Short-title Catalogue (ESTC), covering publications from Britain, Ireland, British colonies, and the U.S., as well as significant English-language texts from elsewhere. Most are in English, with some in French, Latin, and other languages. It provides a wide range of materials, from encyclopedias and government papers to literature and personal writings, offering a detailed view of 18th-century life and thought.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.
Empire Online
Primary source material focusing on colonial history, politics, culture and society, spanning 5 centuries of the rise and fall of empires around the world. Includes maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, paintings, drawings, and rare books.
English Historical Documents
Contains expertly indexed and fully searchable primary documents from 500-1914. This is a perpetual package with unlimited simultaneous user access.

EuroDocs
Transcriptions, facsimiles and translations of primary documents from across Europe, covering history from the ancient to modern periods.
Internet Archive
A very large collection of historical documents from many eras; includes many early modern texts.
Internet History Sourcebooks
Primary sources covering the ancient, medieval history and modern periods. Includes Reformation and Renaissance texts. Hosted by Fordham University.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Access to a curated list of primary sources from the 19th century, including monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive
Slavery and Anti-Slavery contains books, pamphlets, newspaper and periodical titles, and major manuscript collections that explore the inner workings of slavery from 1492-1888.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.
Witchcraft in Europe and America
A comprehensive collection that offers a broad range of documents, dated between 1500 and 1930. Included are many rare and fragile manuscripts containing eyewitness accounts and court records of the trials of witches. Documents are primarily in Latin, English, and German.

Government, Legal, Church & Regal Sources

British Cabinet Papers
British government documents, including papers, memos, minutes and reports covering all major British government decisions from 1915-1980. Topics covered include the Empire, decolonisation and the development of the Commonwealth; diplomacy, foreign policy and British involvement in the world wars.
British Hansard 1803-2005
The Official Report of debates in British Parliament, from the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
British History Online
A digital collection of some of the key primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Includes parliamentary documents, royal papers, church documents, amongst other things. Includes some pay-per-view content.
CommonLii
A collection of legal documents from around the Commonwealth, include legal decisions as far back as 1220 CE.
Connected Histories
Major British historical resources for the period 1500-1900. Includes Parliamentary, government, church/ecclesiastical and local records, British Museum images, history of science, and more.
Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913
Collection of criminal court proceedings of London's Old Bailey from 1674 to 1913, and of the Ordinary of Newgate's Accounts between 1676 and 1772. Includes trials & biographical details of men and women executed at Tyburn.
Sadler Report
More formally known as the 'Report from the Committee on the "Bill to regulate the labour of children in the mills and factories of the United Kingdom." Available via the HathiTrust.

State Papers Online: 1509-1782
Access to the domestic state papers from the Tudors through the reign of George III.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.

Historical Newspapers, Magazines and Other Media

19th Century British Pamphlets
Pamphlets were an important means of public debate in British history and addressed important social, technological, political and environmental issues. This collection holds 26 000 significant 19th century pamphlets.
British Caricature and Satire
Collection of 184 British satirical prints dating from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries.
British Library Newspapers
1732-1950. Content ranging from early tabloids to radical papers covering more than 160 newspaper titles from the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Publications span a vast range of national, regional, and local interests.
Daily Mail Digital Archive
1896-2004. Includes more than one hundred years of this major UK national newspaper, viewable in full digital facsimile form, includes advertisements, news stories, and images that capture twentieth-century culture and society.

Economist Historical Archive
Every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2013. The archive features full-colour images and browsability for each and every issue.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.
Financial Times Historical Archive
1888-2010. 1888-2010. Financial Times began as a City of London news sheet, covering international financial, economic and industry events from the late nineteenth and entire twentieth centuries to today.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.
Illustrated London News Historical Archive (1842-2003)
The Archive includes every published issue, from the first in 1842 to the last in 2003.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.

Internet Library of Early Journals
Includes Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Notes & Queries and Gentleman's Magazine, journals which included literary works and commentary/reviews.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
Dating back to the 17th century, this is one of the world's oldest English-language scientific journals still in publication. Open access (free of charge) for issues from 1665 - 70 years ago.

Punch Historical Archive (1841-1992) This link opens in a new window
Punch was a well known magazine of British wit and satire linked to campaigns for social justice and to British identity.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new window
A digital archive of 19th century periodicals covering topics such as politics, rural life, children's literature, leisure and humour.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection
A collection of early English newspapers, newsbooks, Acts of Parliament, addresses, pamphlets, and proclamations from London, British Isles, and colonies.
Authorized users: Include any person within the geographically defined area of Alberta that can authenticate via IP address using the Gale Geo IP authentication service.

Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Scholarly sharing: Allowed with adherence to MRU's fair dealing guidelines.
Times Digital Archive: 1785-2014
An online, full-text facsimile of every complete page of every issue of The Times over a span of 200 years, from 1785 to 2014.
Over 200 years of full-text, facsimile articles from The Times newspaper, providing access to more than 12 million articles from 1785 onwards. Articles are presented as original page images with full-text search capability, allowing readers to view them as they appeared in print
Data mining: Licensed content available via text and data mining hard drives available from the Library for use in accordance to terms of use.

Alice Swabey

Contact:

Drop-in help Mondays 12-2 at the Library Service Desk. Appointments available via Google Meet or in-person. Email help is also available.
Email: aswabey@mtroyal.ca

History | Primary Sources for British & European History

Primary Sources for British & European History

General Digital Collections

Government, Legal, Church & Regal Sources

Historical Newspapers, Magazines and Other Media