Collections
Other Digital Collections Online--Primary Sources
Selected other (non-LWL) digital collections of primary source textual materials that support research in British eighteenth-century studies can be found here. Resources marked with the symbol 
indicate resources that the Yale University Library licenses. Access to licensed resources is freely available through the Lewis Walpole Library wireless internet connection for readers at the Library. For information on other off-campus access for other members of the Yale community, click here. Other resources listed below are freely available on the internet.
General Databases of Eighteenth-Century and British Texts--Primary Sources
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British History Online digital library contains some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Early English Books Online (EEBO) Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English. Based on the Bell & Howell microfilm collections Early English Books 1475-1640 and Early English Books 1641-1700. The bibliographies behind these collections are the Short Title Catalogues compiled by Pollard and Redgrave (STC I) and Wing (STC II). The later collection also includes the Thomason tracts. Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) Over 180,000 titles (200,000 volumes); includes books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more; based on the English Short Title Catalogue; works published in the UK during the 18th century plus thousands from elsewhere; primarily in English - also includes other languages The Electronic Enlightenment offers access to the correspondence of over 6000 18th century individuals. Over 53,000 letters and documents from the best critical editions are presented in their original languages; the scholarly annotations are cross searchable. In addition EE presents over 80,000 document sources including both manuscripts and early editions. Special Topics or Other Locations ARTFL _ American & French Research on the Treasury of the French Language At present the corpus consists of nearly 2000 texts, ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing. The eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries are about equally represented, with a smaller selection of seventeenth century texts as well as some medieval and Renaissance texts. A collection of original source material from British and European archives for the study and analysis of gender, leisure and consumer culture with 21 libraries for comparative study and research. Manuscripts, printed works and illustrations address the key issues from both masculine and feminine perspectives. Documents include ephemera, pamphlets, college records and exam papers, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, account books, educational practice and pedagogy, government papers from the Home Office and Metropolitan police, illustrated writings on anatomy, midwifery, art and fashion, manuscript journals, poetry, novels, ballads, drama, receipt books, literary manuscripts, travel writing, and conduct and advice literature. Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment This database, assembled from hundreds of primary sources, documents the relationships among peoples and with the environment in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. It includes works by American Indians as well as a wide range of Europeans. It captures first impressions, records hundreds of years of observations of flora and fauna, describes encounters with native peoples, presents a new literature with words and metaphors created in response to new places, and much more. The database includes prints, drawings, paintings, maps, bibliographies, letters, photographs, and original facsimile pages - all searchable by standardized vocabulary. Two segments with Periodical Series and the Monograph Language Series containing books, pamphlets and periodicals that reflect the revolution of feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights for the study of women's history in the world, with materials spanning four centuries and 15 languages including continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, dating from 1543-1945. The anti-feminist case and the pro-feminist as well as many other titles with an objective record of the condition of women are presented.
The broad scope of the collection allows scholars to trace the evolution of feminism within a single country, as well as the impact of one country's movement on those of the others. In many cases, it also provides easy access to primary sources otherwise available only in a few rare book rooms. These accounts of the English abroad, c1550-1850, highlight the influence of continental travel on British art, architecture, urban planning, literature and philosophy. This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works allows scholars to compare a range of sources on the history of travel for the first time, including many from private or neglected collections. We include letters; diaries and journals; account books; printed guidebooks; published travel writing; paintings and sketches; architectural drawings and maps. Drawing upon the wonderfully rich and diverse manuscript collections of the National Library of Scotland this resource will be of great value to all those teaching or researching into the History of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947. JSTOR--19th Century British Pamphlets This collection, created by RLUK (Research Libraries UK), contains the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in UK research libraries. Pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. (for more information click here)
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Archival and Manuscript Materials--Primary sources
British & Irish Women's Letters & Diaries British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (BWLD) includes the immediate experiences of 91 women, as revealed in diaries and letters. The collection includes more than 100,000 pages of primary materials spanning more than 300 years. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database. British Literary Manuscripts Online 1660-1900 British Literary Manuscripts Online presents facsimile images of literary manuscripts, including letters and diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels, and other literary works, and similar materials. Searching is based on tags and descriptive text associated with each manuscript. Images of the complete manuscript can be viewed, manipulated and navigated on screen. Please note that the text of the manuscripts themselves is not searchable. The home page also has links to related resources available online. (for more information click here). Footnote History and Genealogy Archives Plus Footnote History and Genealogy Archives Plus combines an unprecedented collection of original historical documents and personal histories, creating a unique historical and genealogical resource. This database offers a vast, growing array of valuable and unique content currently consisting of over 60 million pages of historical documents, including millions of records available from a content partnership with the National Archives and other institutions. The manuscripts in this site were written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and they have been sourced from archives and libraries across the United Kingdom and the USA. One of the key attractions of Perdita Manuscripts is that it brings together little known material from widely scattered locations. The provision of a powerful searching facility, biographical and bibliographical resources, and contextual essays by academics working in the field, makes this an indispensable resource for students and researchers. Individuals: This edition makes available all the known correspondence of the Irish painter James Barry (1741-1806). n.b. the Lewis Walpole Library collection includes Barry family papers and correspondence. The James Barry letters are included in this online collection. Browse the collected letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle by date, by recipient, by subject, and by volume. Explore correspondence that features some of the most influential artistic, philosophic, and literary personalities of the day. The Thomas Gray Archive is a long-term research project devoted to the life and work of eighteenth-century poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771). The Archive makes available a comprehensive digital collection of high-quality primary sources and secondary materials. Horace Walpole's Correspondence The electronic version of The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937-1983) provides free online access to all 48 volumes of W.S. Lewis’s scholarly edition of the correspondence of Horace Walpole (1717-1797), youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, England's first Prime Minister. Other Locations North American Women's Letters & Diaries, Colonial-1950 North American Women's Letters and Diaries (NAWLD) includes the personal experiences of women, as revealed in their diaries and letters. When complete the collection will include approximately 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, plus 6,000 pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn from more than 600 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, much of the material is in copyright. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous. More than 300 biographies enhance the use of the database. Rotunda -- American Founding Era Rotunda’s American Founding Era Collection is your gateway into one of the great conversations in history. These newly prepared digital editions of the papers of many of the major figures of the early republic are presented in a fully searchable and interoperable online environment. Yale Indian Papers Project -- New England Indian Papers Series Database The New England Indian Papers Series Database is a scholarly critical edition of New England Native American primary source materials gathered into one robust virtual collection, offering students, educators, researchers, Native American tribal members, and the general public, visual and intellectual access to significant historical knowledge for the purposes of teaching, scholarly analysis, and research. Other Locations--Individuals This electronic archive presents images of manuscripts and digital transcriptions from the Adams Family Papers, one of the most important collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Index to the Papers of Benjamin Franklin
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Government and Legal Documents, Economics --Primary Sources
Cobbett’s Parliamentary History History of Parliament -- Parliamentary Texts Texts about Parliamentary proceedings, or generated by Parliament in the course of these proceedings, are not only a source for the history of politics and of Parliament as an institution but are invaluable for all historians. Parliamentary papers contain a huge amount of evidence about social, economic, local and cultural history, and much of this has been scarcely tapped.The History of Parliament has been working with a number of bodies to promote the digitisation of Parliamentary texts, and effective co-ordination among them. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers With all collections enabled, HCPP now includes over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688. HCPP delivers page images and searchable full text for each paper, along with detailed indexing. London Lives 1690-1800 -- Cirme, Poverty, and Social Policy in the Metropolis A fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names. Contains legal treatises published from 1800-1926, from the Nineteenth-Century Legal Treatises and Twentieth-Century Legal Treatises microfilm collections. Includes more than 21,000 works on U.S. and British Commonwealth law. The nearly 10 million page images are fully searchable by keyword, author, title, date, subject, and full-text. Making Of The Modern World:
The Goldsmiths Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450-1850 The Making Of The Modern World: The Goldsmiths'- Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450-1850 (formerly The Making of the Modern Economy) provides digital facsimile images on every page of works of literature on economic and business published in Europe and North America from 1450 through 1850. Works in numerous European languages from Catalan, Danish, and Dutch through Spanish, Swedish, and Welsh are included. Full-text searching on more than 12 million pages provides researchers unparalleled access to this vast collection of material on commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport. Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 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. Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 (RPS) is a fully searchable database containing the proceedings of the Scottish parliament from the first surviving act of 1235 to the union of 1707. State papers online-- The Government of Britain, 1509 - 1714 State Papers Online, 1509-1714 ('SPO') offers a completely new working environment to researchers, teachers and students of Early Modern Britain. Whether used for original research, for teaching, or for student project work, State Papers Online offers original historical materials across the widest range of government concern, from high level international politics and diplomacy to the charges against a steward for poisoning a dozen or more people. The correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants and provincial administrators, present a full picture of Tudor and Stuart Britain. Other Locations American Foreign Relations since 1600 The product of a unique partnership between the publisher and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), this title is an exhaustive updating of the original 2003 edition. It will be conveniently updated twice a year. Includes 18,000+ primary and secondary sources that cover the breadth of American history from the 17th century to the present. Avalon Project - Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. Chronology of US Historical Documents Colonial State Papers provides access to thousands of papers concerning English activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
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British Literature Database of Early English Playbooks (through 1660) DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks allows scholars and students to investigate the publishing, printing, and marketing of English Renaissance drama in ways not possible using any other print or electronic resource. An easy-to-use and highly customizable search engine of every playbook produced in England, Scotland, and Ireland from the beginning of printing through 1660, DEEP provides a wealth of information about the original playbooks, their title-pages, paratextual matter, advertising features, bibliographic details, and theatrical backgrounds. Early English Prose Fiction: 1500-1700 A collection of more than 200 works from the period 1500–1700, exploring the rich diversity of prose fiction in English in the period preceding the emergence of the realist novel as its dominant form. Editions & Adaptations of Shakespeare Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare contains eleven major editions from the First Folio of 1623 to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6, twenty-eight separate contemporary printings of individual plays and poems, selected apocrypha and related works. In addition, it contains more than one hundred adaptations, sequels and burlesques from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, including the whole of Bell's Acting Edition of Shakespeare's Plays (1774). A collection of 96 complete works of English prose from the period 1700–1780 by writers from the British Isles. English Poetry contains essentially the complete English poetic canon from the 8th century to the early 20th. English Poetry, Second Edition English Poetry, Second Edition redefines the English poetic canon for the 21st century, building on the achievement of the original English Poetry collection with enhanced functionality and the addition of more than 20,000 poems. The most comprehensive archive of English verse available now offers incomparable representation both of the literary heritages of former colonial countries and of the poetic legacies of English writers who have only been brought back to scholarly attention during the last thirty years. A unique collection of more than 3,900 plays in verse and prose tracing the development of drama in English from the medieval mystery cycles to the comedies of Oscar Wilde. A fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 337 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources. Lit Finder is a literature resource, international in scope and covering all time periods, comprised of five databases that provide extensive full-text content in English or English translation of the works included. Poetry of the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731 – 1800:
An Electronic Database of Titles, Authors, and First Lines The database is designed to provide users with a comprehensive, fully browsable and searchable list of the 12,365 poems (of which 4,763 are by identified authors) printed in the Gentleman’s Magazine from its beginning in 1731 through 1800. Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period (SWRP) contains 60 volumes of Romantic Poetry, extensive contemporary critical reviews, as well as material specially written for this database by leading scholars Other Locations African-American Poetry 1750-1900 The early history of African American poetry, from the first recorded poem by an African American (Lucy Terry Prince's 'Bars Fight', c.1746) to the major poets of the nineteenth century, including Paul Laurence Dunbar and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Containing more than 1,500 dramatic works from the early eighteenth century up to the beginning of the twentieth, American Drama 1714–1915 reflects American dramatic writing in all its richness and diversity: plays in verse, farces, melodramas, minstrel shows, realist plays, frontier plays, temperance dialogues and a range of other genres are represented. Created in partnership with the Electronic Text Centre at the University of New Brunswick Libraries, this unique collection contains the full text of more than 19,000 poems by 177 poets including Bliss Carman, Isabella Valancy Crawford, Archibald Lampman, Charles G. D. Roberts and Duncan Campbell Scott, offering a comprehensive survey of Canadian poetry from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth. Early American Imprints (Evans), Series I Early Americas Digital Archive The University of Michigan, NewsBank/Readex Co., and the American Antiquarian Society are cooperating in a Text Creation Partnership to create 6,000 accurately keyed and fully searchable SGML/XML text editions from among the 40,000 titles available in the Evans Early American Imprints Collection. Evans Digital consists of works issued in America from 1639 to 1800.
The collection is comprised of the non-serial titles recorded by Charles Evans in his American Bibliography and additional items identified by Roger Pattrell Bristol in Supplement to Charles Evans' American Bibliography. When complete North American Women's Drama will bring together more than 1,500 plays, along with related biographical, production, and theatrical information. The collection begins with the works of Mercy Otis Warren and Susanna Haswell Rowson in colonial times and will span the 19th and 20th centuries to the present. |
Newspapers and Periodicals--Primary Sources
British Newspapers and Periodicals Access NewspaperARCHIVE contains tens of millions of searchable newspaper pages, dating as far back as the 1700s. It is your gateway to searching and reading historical newspapers online. NewspaperARCHIVE.com, the world's largest archive of online newspapers, is providing this valuable research tool. The Annual Register is a year-by-year record of British and world events covering 1758 to the present and including contemporary opinion, historical context and biographical information. From the American War of Independence, through western industrialisation and world wars, The Annual Register has chronicled and reported events across the globe from the perspective of a contemporary witness. British Periodicals Collection I British Periodicals Collection I consists of journals spanning the late 17th through early 20th centuries, and covering a range of topics such as literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences. British Periodicals Collection I consists of journals spanning the late 17th through early 20th centuries, and covering a range of topics such as literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences. Burney Collection -- See 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers below Eighteenth Century Journals Portal Portal to newspapers and periodicals c1685-1815 offers integrated access to the Hope Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Eighteenth Century Journals I), the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center University of Texas (Eighteenth Century Journals II) and the British Newspaper Library at Colindale, London and the Cambridge University Library (Eighteenth Century Journals III) and Chetham's Library, Manchester and Brotherton Library, University of Leeds (Eighteenth Century Journals IV). It brings together rare journals printed between c1685 and 1815, illuminating all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Historical Newspapers Online's index to The Times (London) is based on Palmer's Index to the Times, which covers the period from 1790 to 1905. Palmer's Full Text Online covers 1785-1870, providing access to the full articles referenced in Palmer's Index to The Times. The full facsimile run of the world’s most iconic illustrated newspaper; includes over 260,000 pages, including specials and presentation pieces; full colour imaging of every page; search every word of the complete text; browse individual issues, including specials and supplements; save articles and pages in the marked list; bookmark, e-mail and print results. Covers 1842-2003. Internet Library of Early Journals A joint project by the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford, conducted under the auspices of the eLib (Electronic Libraries) Programme. It aimed to digitise substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals, and make these images available on the Internet, together with their associated bibliographic data. The project finished in 1999, and no additional material will be added. 19th Century British Library Newspapers Searchable full text of full runs of newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent nineteenth-century Britain. This new collection includes national and regional newspapers, as well as newspapers from: established country or university towns; the new industrial powerhouses of the manufacturing Midlands; and Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Special attention was paid to include newspapers that helped lead particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule. Penny papers aimed at the working and clerical classes are also included. An archive of hundreds of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
It provides researchers with access to more than 200 years of scholarship, spread across a wide variety of subject areas, direct from their computer. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Guardian and The Observer (1791-2003) The Guardian (1821-2003) and its sister paper, The Observer (1791-2003), both part of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers program, give readers online access to facts, firsthand accounts, and opinions of the day about the most significant and fascinating political, business, sports, literary, and entertainment events from the past 200 years. 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers The newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) represent the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. The present digital collection, that helps chart the development of the concept of 'news' and 'newspapers' and the "free press", totals almost 1 million pages and contains approximately 1,270 titles. Many of the Burney newspapers are well known, but many pamphlets and broadsides also included have remained largely hidden. Newly digitized, all Burney treasures are now fully text-searchable in Gale Digital Collection. Researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching. Other Locations: Accessible Archives (American newspapers) Accessible Archives provides a searchable collection of American newspapers from the 18th & 19th centuries. Eras covered include the Colonial Period, the French & Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, African-American History, Industrial Revolution, and Genealogy. African American Periodicals 1825-1995 This historical collection contains books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera printed in America over three centuries. Explore African American history, culture and society in the 19th and 20th centuries. American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1 (for information click here) America's Historical Newspapers This archive of American historical newspapers provides access to full text digitized versions of primary source material, Early American Newspapers, Series I, II, III, IV, and V. It includes titles from all 50 present states. Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971 Selected from America's Historical Newspapers (see above) Historical Newspapers Complete Repertorium deutscher wissenschaftlicher Periodika des 18. Jahrhunderts
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Selected Yale Digital Collections and Research Guides by Subject