LibGuides: British and European History: Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are firsthand accounts of history. Some examples of primary sources include:

Adam Matthew Digital Explorer This link opens in a new window
Millions of pages of primary source content from the 15th-21st centuries.
Avalon Project This link opens in a new window
Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy (ancient through 21st century).

British History Online
Digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, it aims to support academic and personal users around the world in their learning, teaching and research.
British Newspaper Archive
Digitized newspapers from the British Library from the 18th to 21st centuries. Some content is freely accessible; for items requiring payment, submit a request using Request-It and the library can provide it for free!

Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK.
Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 This link opens in a new window
Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK.
Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969 This link opens in a new window
Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK.
Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961 This link opens in a new window
Official British Documents from the National Archives, UK, covering Canada, the Caribbean and the USA.

Dickens Journals Online
Complete online edition of Charles Dickens' weekly magazines, Household Words and All the Year Round.
Digital Bodleian
Over a million images of rare books, manuscripts, and other treasures from the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford college libraries.

East India Company This link opens in a new window
Sources from the British Library. Module I: Trade, Governance and Empire, 1600-1946; Module II: Factory Records for South Asia and Southeast Asia, 1595-1830.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Manuscript and rare printed sources documenting cultural contacts and literature of empire. Section I: Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Section II: Literature and Empire; Section III: The Visible Empire; Section IV: Religion and Empire; Section V: Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007.

European Views of the Americas : 1493 to 1750 This link opens in a new window
A index of printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. Covers the history of European exploration, portrayals of Native American peoples, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and slavery.

Hathi Trust
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

JSTOR Journal Archive This link opens in a new window
A full-text archive of over 1,000 of the best scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities, mathematics, life sciences, etc. Full-text is available from the first issue, but does not include the most recent 2-5 years.

Locating London's Past
Search digital resources relating to early modern and eighteenth century London. Map the results on a GIS version of John Rocque's 1746 map.
London Lives
Online primary sources about eighteenth-century London.

London Low Life This link opens in a new window
Street Culture, Social Reform & the Victorian Underworld. Sources from the Lilly Library, Indiana University.

Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (UK)
Free, online edition of 6 nineteenth-century periodicals and newspapers from the United Kingdom.
Old Bailey Online, 1674-1913
A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
The Palace Journal Online
Weekly chronicle of the People's Palace reform group of London's East End, from 1887-1895.
Teesdale Mercury Archive
Full text articles from the Teesdale Mercury, one of the last independent local newspapers in England, from July 1855 to December 2005.
Transatlantic Slave Trade Database
Information on more than 35,000 slave voyages
that forcibly embarked over 12 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
UK Parliamentary Archives
Digitized records from the United Kingdom Parliament; many materials are freely accessible. Includes Hansards Debates, Parliamentary papers and reports, legislation, and more.

Victorian Popular Culture: A Portal This link opens in a new window
Featuring a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe. Section I: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Section II: Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Section III: Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Section IV: Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema.
Women in The National Archives This link opens in a new window
Original documents on the Suffrage Question in Britain, Empire and Colonial Territories combined with a Finding aid to Women's Resources in The National Archives, UK.