History of Great Britain and Ireland

Early English Books Online contains page images of virtually every work printed, between 1473 and 1700, in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere during this period. Over 146,000 titles, and over 17 million scanned pages of content are available. EEBO begins with the very first book published in English, and draws from four authoritative bibliographical resources: revised versioins of both Pollard & Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing’s Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700); Thomason Tracts (1640-1661); and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Transcribed texts (TCP I and TCP II) are also included, adding transcriptions to approximately 50% of the texts featured. EEBO also covers texts in more than 30 languages, ranging from Algonquin to Welsh, and incorporates variant editions and multiple copies.
[Coverage: 1450-1700]

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) provides full-text searchable access to the digital images of 150,000 books and other materials published during the 18th Century. Based on the English Short Title Catalog bibliography, it includes English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
[Coverage: 1701-1800]

Consists of four thematic collections drawn from many different archival sources. Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange; British Politics and Society; British Theatre, Music and Literature: High and Popular Culture; European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection

Political Extremism and Radicalism provides insight on unorthodox (by contemporary standards), fringe groups from both the right and left of the political spectrum through rare, hard to access primary sources. Content supports scholars and students answering questions on philosophical, social, political, and economic ideologies as well as on contemporary issues surrounding gender, sexuality, race, religion, civil rights and universal suffrage. It offers a diverse mixture of materials, including periodicals, campaign propaganda, government records, oral histories, and various ephemera, which allow researchers to explore unorthodox social and political movements in new and innovative ways and to understand the impact they have had on today’s society.
[Coverage: 1900s-2010s]

Primary source collection presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings and publications of the activists themselves. Covering the period 1830-1865, the approximately 15,000 articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of almost 300 Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany. The digital collection reproduces in full the 17 reels of microfilmed content from the original collection and provides a searchable, easily accessible format for research, teaching, and study.
[Coverage: 1830-1865]

Empire Online contains several thousand searchable scanned images of original documents on the history of empires and empire building in the modern era. Includes documents from English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and German points of view, and that from indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America. Sections also include thematic essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies.
[Coverage: 1492-present]

Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. The commodities featured in this resource have been transported, exchanged and consumed around the world for hundreds of years. They helped transform societies, global trading operations, habits of consumption and social practices.

Explores five centuries of primary source material documenting the story of food and drink. Collectively, these materials illustrate linkage between food, identify, politics, power, gender, race and socio-economic status. Includes printed and manuscript cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and illustrated content documenting evolution within everyday life and the public sphere. International content includes a range of food cultures and traditions.
[Coverage: 1500s-2005]

Includes images, documents, maps and streaming video interviews that explore the existence and consequences on the various frontiers that arose from the movements of Europeans to Africa, Australasia and North America.
[Coverage: 1650-1920]

Coverage is primarily from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but there are also several hundred classics in European international law since the seventeenth century. The Foreign Law component features foreign legal treatises from a variety of countries, covering the national and sub-national (e.g., provincial) laws or jurisdictions. Because the term "treatise" is more of a common-law category, the equivalent works in civil-law systems may have other names such as commentaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, monographs, or festschriften. Access is courtesy the UC Davis School of Law, Mabie Library.
[Coverage: 1600-1926]

This is a full-text collection of the publications of the British philanthropic institutions, the Church Missionary Society and the South American Missionary Society from 1804-2009. Documenting missionary work from the 19th to the 21st century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounter. The CMS was active in many African countries, the "Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.
[Coverage: 1804-2009]

This full-text primary source collection includes materials on the international relations between Asian countries and the United States and Britain during the 19th century. It contains government reports, diplomatic correspondence, periodicals, newspapers, treaties, trade agreements, NGO papers, and more. Documents are sourced from The National Archives, Kew; The National Archives, United States; and other collections. Most of the collection focuses on China and Japan, but significant material addresses Siam, Korea, the Philippines, Sumatra and Vietnam as well. Note: The link takes you to a gateway site. Select this collection from the options at that site.

Please note: The British Library is experiencing a major technology outage as a result of a cyber-attack. Access may be limited or unavailable at this time.

This is a diverse set of over 23,000 freely accessible sound recordings organized into the following collections: Accents and dialects, Arts, Literature and Performance, Classical Music, Environment and Nature, Jazz and Popular Music, Oral History, Sound Recording History, World and Traditional Music. These collection names only hint at the rich and varied content–covering everything from symphonies to traditional drumming in India; from the lives of Nobel laureates to the daily lives of Yorkshire farmers.