Subject Guides: History: Resources

Books

Books can be a great place to start your reading around a topic.

History books are located in the Q section on the second floor of the JB Morrell Library. Many books will also be available online as e-books. Look for the links in YorSearch, under the View It section of each book.

Shelf location	Subject
Q	History
Q 30	Ancient History
Q 40	Europe
Q 50	Asia
Q 60	Africa
Q 70	North America
Q 80	South America
Q 90	Australasia and islands of the Pacific

Key History eBook Collections

ACLS Humanities E-Book This link opens in a new window
A curated collection of over 5,400 full text ebooks covering a broad range of subjects in the humanities. The titles are recommended by scholars and the learned societies of the American Council of Learned Societies and are offered in collaboration with over 120 contributing publishers.

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BAR Digital Collection Archive (1974-2019) This link opens in a new window
This collection gives access to over 3,000 archaeology reports from BAR Publishing published between 1974 and 2019, including more than 2,500 reports from the BAR International Series and over 500 reports from the BAR British Series.

The collection encompasses all periods from prehistory, through classical archaeology, to 20th century archaeology around the globe. The reports are presented as data rich monographs, edited collections of papers, excavation and site reports and conference proceedings.

Please note that the University does not have access to reports published from 2020 onward.

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Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
The full-text of volumes from the Cambridge Histories series. The volumes are grouped into topics covering: American History; British History; Economic History; General History; History of Science; History of the Book; Language and Linguistics; Literary Studies; Music; Philosophy; Political and Social Theory; Regional History; Religious Studies; Theatre Studies and Performing Arts; Warfare.

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Codices Vossiani Latini Online (Brill) This link opens in a new window
The Codices Vossiani Latini Online gives access to all 363 codices which form the world-famous Latin part of the manuscript collection compiled by Isaac Vossius (1618-1689) and held at Leiden University Library. Together the codices comprise 40,278 openings, resulting in 84,266 images, including covers and flyleaves. The collection includes a large number of early medieval manuscripts (76 Carolingian manuscripts dating from before 900), including major sources of many classic texts.

The manuscript collection is enriched by detailed information drawn from K. A. de Meyier's catalogues of the codices, providing users with essential information on the content, context, and physical appearance of each codex.

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Early American Imprints Series 1: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
With more than 36,000 items, this collection includes virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Early American Imprints Series 2: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
With more than 36,000 items, this collection includes virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in the U.S. during the 19th century along and a large number of state papers and early government materials.
Early English Books Online [EEBO] (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains over 100,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).

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Early European Books Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The University has access to Collections 1 to 4 and the Wellcome Trust Collection.
Early European Books Online aims to make available all works printed in Europe before 1701 together with all pre-1701 works in European languages printed further afield. Works are presented via high-resolution full-colour page scans and each work has been scanned in its entirety including covers, spines, edges, endpapers, blank pages and any loose inserts.

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Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is the most ambitious single digitisation project ever undertaken which offers wide access not only to a century of the nation's intellectual heritage, but also works from earlier periods which were valued and printed or reprinted during the eighteenth century.

A library of over 180,000 eighteenth-century printed books, with more than 33 million scanned facsimile pages. Each title has a full citation record from the English Short Title Catalogue and is fully searchable - including full-text and illustrations multi-disciplinary. A research resource for all disciplines.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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English Short Title Catalogue (British Library) This link opens in a new window
The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) lists over 460,000 items published between 1473 and 1800, mainly in Britain and North America from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries.

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Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
More than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

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Loeb Classical Library This link opens in a new window
With over 530 volumes of Latin and Greek texts with English translations this resource gives online access to the full text of every Loeb volume in print including epic and lyric poetry; tragedy and comedy; history, travel, philosophy, and oratory; the great medical writers and mathematicians; and the Church Fathers who made particular use of pagan culture.

Loeb Classical Library is fully searchable and includes a Greek keyboard, it also allows single- and dual-language reading modes. With a My Loebs account you can manage bookmarks and annotations and save searches; you can also share these with other users.

The resource is regularly updated with new and revised volumes.

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Manchester Medieval Sources Online This link opens in a new window
Thirty-four titles from the Manchester University Press Medieval Sources series providing translations of key medieval texts accompanied by introductory and explanatory material. Titles in the series focus on the diverse cultural and social as well as political conditions that affected the functioning of all levels of medieval society.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Medieval Studies This link opens in a new window
An up-to-date and authoritative guide to the literature across a wide range of topics in medieval studies. Sources covered include journal articles, reference works, monographs and book chapters.

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Oxford Bibliographies Online: Renaissance and Reformation This link opens in a new window
An up-to-date and authoritative guide to the literature across a wide range of topics in the study of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Sources covered include journal articles, reference works, monographs and book chapters.

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Oxford Handbooks Online: History This link opens in a new window
Access to the full text of complete titles and chapters from titles not yet available in print. You will have access to content published online up to and including the year 2022, plus selected individual titles.

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Translated Texts for Historians E-Library This link opens in a new window
Titles from the Translated Texts for Historians book series giving access to the full text of historical sources published between 300 and 800 AD translated into English from Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Arabic, Georgian and Armenian. Each volume provides an expert scholarly translation, with an introduction setting texts and authors in context, and with notes on content, interpretation and debates.

You will not have access to titles published after March 2019

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Universal Short Title Catalogue This link opens in a new window
The Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) is a bibliography of all books published in Europe between the invention of printing and the end of the sixteenth century. It provides access to bibliographic information, book locations and, where available, digital full text of approximately 355,000 editions and around 1.5 million surviving copies, located in over 5,000 libraries worldwide.

Please note that access to some full text requires a subscription. Where the University has a subscription you may need to login to access the full text.

Search for books and journals on YorSearch

Journals & databases

All journal titles are listed on YorSearch, and can be found by searching the journal title.

If you don't have a specific title in mind, you can browse journals in your subject area on Browzine. Journals are organised by field of research, such as:

Browse all History

Browse History by geographic region

Ancient History

Medieval and Renaissance History

Modern History

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century History

You can also search across hundreds of journals simultaneously using one of our journal databases:

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
For alumni access please see the Virtual Library JSTOR section on Alumni Learning.
A digital archive collection of core scholarly journals starting with the first issues (many of which date from the 1800s). See JSTOR's online help guide for further information.

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Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
A major online archive that makes the backfiles of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the page image of a growing number of digitized periodicals that are already indexed in the Periodicals Contents Index (PCI).

The University has access to Collections 1, 2 and 8 plus a selection of 130 titles purchased by JISC drawn from other collections.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE, founded by Johns Hopkins University Press, is a database of over 380 full text scholarly journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences from over 70 (mainly university press) publishers.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Free online resources

UK and European history resources freely available online

British Association for Local History
Encourages and assists the study of Local History as an academic discipline and as a leisure pursuit. Their site includes a directory of some of the county and local history organisations.
British History Online
British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles, including most volumes of the Victoria County History.
Connected Histories
A search facility for a wide range of distributed digital resources relating to early modern and nineteenth-century British history.
The Digital Panopticon
This web resource covers London Convicts in Britain & Australia, 1780-1925. The website draws from various contemporary records to provide data relating to the lives of 90,000 convicts from the Old Bailey.
Early Modern Resources
Research portal for the early modern period (c.1500-1800 CE).
EGO - European History Online
Collection of multi-media resources examining 500 years of modern European history.
English Regional History and Record Societies
Links to most county history society websites, with lists of their publications.
Granger Historical Picture Archive
Over 850,000 hi-res digitised historical images available for download
Historical Text Archive
Collections of both primary and secondary material.
History.ac.uk
The website of the Institute of Historical Research, which includes information about online resources for historians.
History of the United Kingdom - primary documents
A useful range of primary documents compiled by librarians at Brigham Young University in the U.S.
Labyrinth
Medieval resources.
National Archives
Pre-1707 Scottish parliaments
Records of the Parliaments of Scotland from 1235 to 1707.
Punch Cartoon Archive
A Vision of Britain Through Time
Allows you to search for 19th century historical statistics relating to a particular place; good collections of historical maps; a searchable collection of travel writing about Britain (mainly 18th and 19th century).

Global history resources freely available online

Central Intelligence Agency
The CIA's Freedom of Information Act electronic reading room.
Digital Archive: International History Declassified
Declassified documents from governments across the globe, collecting the interrelated histories of the Cold War, Korea and Nuclear Proliferation.
The Digital Panopticon
Web resource on London Convicts in Britain & Australia, 1780-1925. The website draws data from various legal records relating to the lives of 90,000 convicts from the Old Bailey.
FBI Records: The Vault
An online archive of thousands of FBI files, covering FBI investigations and activities relating to a broad range of subject areas. It includes sections on World War II, organised crime, unexplained phenomena and the Civil Rights movement.
Foreign Relations of the United States
Edited collections of post-1945 American diplomatic communications and policy documents, also available on the 'Office of the Historian' website listed below.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Library of Congress: Frontline Diplomacy Oral History Collection
The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
The National Security Archive
Library and archive of declassified U.S. documents
Office of the Historian
Full description and list of online volumes of the 'Foreign Relations of the United States'.
Truman Library Oral History Interviews
United Nations, Official Documents and Bibliographic Databases
United States National Archives and Records Administration
World Digital Library

FBI Records: The VaultInternet History Sourcebooks Project
A collection of freely available primary texts.
Gallica
Electronic books in French, from the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
Google Books
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
Internet Archive eBooks and Texts
Over 11,000,000 fully and freely accessible books, journals and texts.

Archaeology Data Service
A key database of resources on UK Archaeology and the Historic Environment from the Palaeolithic to the present day.
ArchSearch - national sites and monuments metadata
Archives - data-rich archaeological collections
ADS Library - journals, books and reports; incorporating BIAB.
City of York Historic Environment Characterisation Project
Part of English Heritage's characterisation programme, an excellent free tool for tracing changes to the historic environment in York through archaeological and historical evidence.
Historic England
The Historic England (formerly English Heritage) website includes links to the Historic England Archive where you can access photographs, reports from the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments and the full text of many Historic England Research Reports.
Heritage Gateway
The website provides access to local and national records on the historic environment including Historic Environment Records, Historic England Research Records (replaces PastScape), and records from the National Trust Historic Buildings Sites and Monuments Record.
National Library of Scotland Historic Maps
Free access to over 250,000 images of historic maps, dating between the 1560s and 1970s.
Raids Over York Interactive Digital Map
This interactive map of the Baedeker Raids on 29th April 1942 records how and where people experienced the raids at the time. It includes structures that were built to allow them to best cope with the raids, and also where there’s evidence of the war still remaining today.

Google newspapers
Google's newspaper archive search engine; contains mostly US 19th century newspapers.
Welsh Newspapers Online
Online access to the National Library of Wales' collection of historical newspapers.

Dictionaries

Bloomsbury World Englishes Online Encyclopaedia This link opens in a new window
Volumes 1-3 of this series, which presents a comprehensive, detailed survey of English as it is spoken all over the world and includes maps, facts and detailed descriptions for each region.

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Dictionary of Irish Biography This link opens in a new window
Over 11,000 signed biographical articles outline the careers at home and overseas of prominent men and women born in Ireland, north and south, and the noteworthy Irish careers of those born outside Ireland. Articles describe and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavour, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, the stage, science, medicine, engineering, entertainment and sport.

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000.

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Oxford English Dictionary Online This link opens in a new window
For access off-campus select the Sign in through your institution option on the OED site.
Search on words, definitions, etymology and quotations. The OED Online contains the complete text of the 20-volume Second Edition, first published in 1989, together with later additions. New and revised entries are added every quarter.

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Oxford Reference Online: Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
A fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of over 100 dictionaries, companions, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.

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Language Reference Resources

Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources (Brepolis) This link opens in a new window
The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources (DMLBS) is the most comprehensive dictionary of Medieval Latin to have been produced and the first ever to focus on British Medieval Latin. It covers the period from Gildas (fl. 540) to William Camden (1600) and is based on the close reading of thousands of Medieval Latin texts and systematic searches within computer databases.

This online version includes the complete text of the printed volumes and allows searching by headwords, Latin word-forms, non-Latin word-forms, textual references and the full text.
Dictionary of Old English: A to Le This link opens in a new window
Defines the vocabulary of the first six centuries (600 - 1150 A.D.) of the English language drawing on as wide a range of texts as possible. For details of those texts see the Dictionary of Old English Corpus.
Dictionary of Old English Corpus This link opens in a new window
A complete record of surviving Old English, except for some variant manuscripts of individual texts.
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics This link opens in a new window
The full text of the 10 volume print editon with over 1,000 entries covering 27 key areas in applied linguistics, the philosophy and history of applied linguistics, and major applied linguists.

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Lexicons of Early Modern English This link opens in a new window
Lexicons of Early Modern English (LEME) is a database of books and manuscripts from 1480 to 1702 which document the English language. LEME has an index of over 1,200 lexicons, with 157 of these fully searchable, and contains over half a million entries composed by contemporary speakers of early modern English describing the meaning of words and giving their equivalents in a variety of languages.

Included in LEME are monolingual, bilingual, and polyglot dictionaries, lexical encyclopaedias, glossaries, spelling lists, and other lexically valuable linguistic treatises, encyclopaedic and topical works.
Middle English Compendium This link opens in a new window
Consists of the Middle English Dictionary, a HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse based on the MED bibliographies, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Middle English Compendium help.

Resources by period

Texts and translations:

Acta Sanctorum (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Brings together materials on the lives of the saints from the beginning of the Christian era to the end of the sixteenth century, in critical editions with commentaries on the source documents. This database version currently contains the volumes for the ecclesiastical months from January to June.

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Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Large collection of Christian texts mostly in translation. Includes the Latin texts of Augustine, Aquinas and Rolle.
Digital MGH

English Historical Documents Online This link opens in a new window
For access off-campus: on the site select Sign in via Shibboleth then search for and select University of York to login with your IT services username and password
Over 5,500 fully searchable primary documents from the years 500 to 1914 covering a wide range of topics, from political and constitutional issues to social, economic, religious and cultural history.

The sources include treaties, statutes, declarations, government and cabinet proceedings, military dispatches, orders, acts, sermons, newspaper articles, pamphlets, personal and official letters and diaries.

Each section of documents and many of the individual documents themselves are accompanied by editorial commentary.

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Fathers of the Church
Large collection of Patristic texts in translation.

Library of Latin Texts (Brepolis) This link opens in a new window
Full texts in Latin of Church fathers and others from antiquity into the Middle Ages. It contains texts from the beginning of Latin literature (Livus Andonicus, 240BC) through to the texts of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Texts are taken from the Corpus Christianorum and many other sources.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.
Monumenta Germaniae Historica This link opens in a new window
A collection of medieval historical sources for the study of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the Middle Ages. The collection consists of five main divisions, Antiquitates, Diplomata, Epistolae, Leges and Scriptores.
Parker Library on the Web This link opens in a new window
The Parker Library on the Web is an interactive, web-based workspace designed to support use and study of the manuscripts in the historic Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It gives access to almost 200,000 manuscript page images, page images of secondary sources, manuscript descriptions, and extensive bibliographic data. Bibliographic records are linked to page images wherever possible. The manuscripts date from the 6th to 16th centuries and include works on various subjects such as theology, music, history, travel, alchemy and politics.
Patrologia Latina (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The Patrologia Latina Database contains 221 volumes and represents a complete electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina (1844-1855 and 1862-1865).

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Records of Early English Drama (REED) This link opens in a new window
Records, drawn from historical documents, containing evidence of drama, secular music, and other communal entertainment and ceremony from the Middle Ages until 1642.

This online version of REED includes records published from 2017 onwards. The REED website has links to PDF versions of some earlier print volumes of REED. To find print volumes available in the library please search YorSearch.

Historical Documents

Brepols Miscellanea Online - Essays in Medieval Studies This link opens in a new window
The full text of over 300 miscellany volumes with over 5,000 essays covering a wide range of subject areas in Medieval Studies.

The Library currently has access to volumes published between 1998 and 2012.

Cause Papers
A searchable catalogue of more than 14,000 cause papers relating to cases heard between 1300 and 1858 in the Church Courts of the diocese of York. The original records are held in the Borthwick Institute for Archives. A valuable resource for scholars interested in social, ecclesiastical, economic and legal history.
DMMap: Digitized Medieval Manuscripts app
The DMMapp (Digitized Medieval Manuscripts app) links to more than 500 libraries in the world. Each one of these contains digitized medieval manuscripts that can be browsed for free.
York Archbishops' Registers
York's Archbishops Registers Revealed provides free access to over 20,000 images of Registers produced by the Archbishops of York, 1225-1650, in addition to a growing searchable index of names, subjects, places and organisations. The registers are a valuable, and in many cases, unexploited source for ecclesiastical, political, social, local and family history - covering periods of war, famine, political strife and religious reformation in the Archdiocese of York and the wider Northern Province.

Primary texts & documents

Archive of Americana This link opens in a new window
Archive of Americana is a major database of over 30 million primary documents which brings together historical collections of books, broadsides, ephemera, government documents, and newspapers to give an insight into every aspect of United States history, culture and daily life across three centuries from 1639 to 1980.

The following collections are available:

- American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1769-1900
- American State Papers, 1789-1838
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker 1801-1819
- Early American Newspapers, Series I-V, 1690-1922
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is a major collection of diaries and correspondence spanning more than 400 years and giving access to the personal experiences of nearly 500 women. It contains around 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries and over 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Letters and diaries of famous historic and literary figures can be found alongside the thoughts and experiences of ordinary women, including the unpublished letters and diaries of women who served during both world wars. The texts themselves are accompanied by biographies of the authors and bibliographic details of the sources.

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Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection This link opens in a new window
A selection of titles from Cornell University Library's extensive collection of materials on Witchcraft digitally scanned from microfilm. The collection focuses on witchcraft as theology and as religious heresy and includes material about the earliest and the latest manifestations of the belief in witchcraft with works on canon law, the Inquisition, torture, demonology, trial testimony, and narratives.

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European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
A bibliographic database of European printed records relating to the Americas, created from "European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750".

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Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Over 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material 1492-1962 from libraries and archives around the world.

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Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
More than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

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Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works gives an insight into the English abroad c1550 to 1850. The primary material includes letters, diaries and journals, account books, printed guidebooks, published travel writing, maps, paintings, sketches, and architectural drawings. Secondary sources include introductory essays; a searchable, full-text version of John Ingamells Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800; a selection of digitised source material from the Brinsley Ford Archive at the Paul Mellon Centre, London, and an indexed collection of hundreds of modern photographs of Italy, providing a detailed visual source of all the historical sites, palaces and streets visited by tourists.

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Locating London's Past This link opens in a new window
An interactive map, exploring the social history of early modern and eighteenth century London. Information is drawn from a variety of resources, and includes trial acts from the Old Bailey and archaeological data.
Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new window
This collection has been produced in association with the Perdita Project and brings together complete digital facsimiles of nearly 270 original manuscripts containing little know material written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The manuscripts represent a wide variety of womens writing and include account books, almanacs, diaries, notebooks, receipt books, sermon notes, speeches, and treatises. The types of writing include biography and autobiography, drama, history, prayers, psalms, meditations, advice, translations, travel writing, cookery and medical recipes, and poetry.

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Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 This link opens in a new window
A searchable edition of texts detailing the lives of ordinary people, including 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
Records of Early English Drama (REED) This link opens in a new window
Records, drawn from historical documents, containing evidence of drama, secular music, and other communal entertainment and ceremony from the Middle Ages until 1642.

This online version of REED includes records published from 2017 onwards. The REED website has links to PDF versions of some earlier print volumes of REED. To find print volumes available in the library please search YorSearch.

Primary texts & documents

American Periodicals Series Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
American Periodicals Series Online is a major database containing digitized images of the pages of American magazines, journals and newspapers originating between 1741 and 1900. APS Online has over 7 million pages of content spanning nearly 200 years of American history up to Americas entry into World War II, and includes over 1,500 titles ranging from America 's first scientific journal, Medical Repository, to popular magazines like Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal.

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Archive of Americana This link opens in a new window
Archive of Americana is a major database of over 30 million primary documents which brings together historical collections of books, broadsides, ephemera, government documents, and newspapers to give an insight into every aspect of United States history, culture and daily life across three centuries from 1639 to 1980.

The following collections are available:

- American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1769-1900
- American State Papers, 1789-1838
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker 1801-1819
- Early American Newspapers, Series I-V, 1690-1922
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is a major collection of diaries and correspondence spanning more than 400 years and giving access to the personal experiences of nearly 500 women. It contains around 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries and over 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Letters and diaries of famous historic and literary figures can be found alongside the thoughts and experiences of ordinary women, including the unpublished letters and diaries of women who served during both world wars. The texts themselves are accompanied by biographies of the authors and bibliographic details of the sources.

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Early American Imprints Series 1: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
With more than 36,000 items, this collection includes virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Eighteenth Century Drama This link opens in a new window
Documents from the John Larpent Collection, an archive of almost every play submitted for licence between 1737 and 1824. Larpent was the English Inspector of Plays from 1778-1824 and preserved plays submitted for licence under the 1737 Licensing Act.

The collection includes over 2,500 plays, epilogues, prologues, addresses and songs submitted for licence along with the diaries of Larpents wife and professional collaborator Anna, recording her criticisms of plays, and hundreds of further documents including playbills, theatre records and correspondence between key theatrical figures.

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Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
Rare printed journals, periodicals and newspapers of the long eighteenth century not covered in EEBO, ECCO or Early English Newspapers. The Portal features many short run items and very rare materials. The five separate collections included in the Portal are:
- Module 1: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1693-1793, from the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
- Module 2: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1699-1812, from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
- Module 3: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1680-1816, from British Library Newspapers, Colindale and Cambridge University Library.
- Module 4: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1708-1820, from Chetham's Library, Manchester and the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
- Module 5: The Ladys Magazine and other titles, 1712-1835, from Birmingham Central Library, British Library, Cambridge University Library and Liverpool John Moores University Library.
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Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Over 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material 1492-1962 from libraries and archives around the world.

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Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
More than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

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Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works gives an insight into the English abroad c1550 to 1850. The primary material includes letters, diaries and journals, account books, printed guidebooks, published travel writing, maps, paintings, sketches, and architectural drawings. Secondary sources include introductory essays; a searchable, full-text version of John Ingamells Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800; a selection of digitised source material from the Brinsley Ford Archive at the Paul Mellon Centre, London, and an indexed collection of hundreds of modern photographs of Italy, providing a detailed visual source of all the historical sites, palaces and streets visited by tourists.

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International Historical Statistics, 1750-2010 This link opens in a new window
Includes 260 years of statistical data covering a wide range of key economic and social indicators. Data is available on the Americas and Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Data tables can be downloaded as PDFs and/or Excel files.

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Locating London's Past This link opens in a new window
An interactive map, exploring the social history of early modern and eighteenth century London. Information is drawn from a variety of resources, and includes trial acts from the Old Bailey and archaeological data.
London Low Life This link opens in a new window
London Low Life contains a wealth of full colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London. It also gives access to a range of secondary resources, including a chronology, interactive maps, essays, online galleries and links to other websites.

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Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 This link opens in a new window
A searchable edition of texts detailing the lives of ordinary people, including 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of primary source material, mostly digitised in colour, relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930. There is an emphasis on visual sources and rare printed material including rare books, periodicals, playbills and handbills, posters, prints, scrapbooks, photographs, programmes, pamphlets, ephemera (e.g. ticket stubs, postcards, newspaper cuttings), and songbooks.

The University has access to:
- Spiritualism, Sensation & Magic
- Circuses, Sideshows & Freaks
- Music Hall, Theatre & Popular Entertainment

Accessibility information

Bibliographical

C19: The Nineteenth Century Index (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index is the major bibliographic resource for 19th century research, providing integrated access to 10 indexes covering books, official publications, archives, newspapers, and periodicals at the article level. Currently C19 contains nearly 17 million records but is continuously updated as more records become available.

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Primary texts & documents

19th Century British Pamphlets (JSTOR) This link opens in a new window
This collection over 20,000 19th Century British Pamphlets provides online access to some of the most significant collections of this type of material held in UK research libraries, and gives a valuable an insight into the key political, social, technological and environmental issues of the time. The digitisation process is ongoing and new collections and pamphlets are still being added.

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Archive of Americana This link opens in a new window
Archive of Americana is a major database of over 30 million primary documents which brings together historical collections of books, broadsides, ephemera, government documents, and newspapers to give an insight into every aspect of United States history, culture and daily life across three centuries from 1639 to 1980.

The following collections are available:

- American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1769-1900
- American State Papers, 1789-1838
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker 1801-1819
- Early American Newspapers, Series I-V, 1690-1922
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980
British Association for the Advancement of Science Archive (Wiley Digital Archives) This link opens in a new window
The BAAS archive documents the efforts of the British scientific community to establish science as a professional activity and make Britain into a globally competitive centre for science.

Many of the prominent names of British science since the early 19th century are associated with the BAAS. These include past Presidents such as William Ramsay; Norman Lockyer; John Scott Burden Sanderson; Albert, Prince Consort; Charles Lyell; William Fairbairn; Thomas Henry Huxley; and Oliver Lodge.

The BAAS archive contains a broad collection of document types: administrative records, correspondence, illustrations, reports, manuscript materials, newspaper clippings, photographs, brochures and catalogues, field reports and minutes, annual reports, prototypes, personal papers, and gray literature.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is a major collection of diaries and correspondence spanning more than 400 years and giving access to the personal experiences of nearly 500 women. It contains around 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries and over 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Letters and diaries of famous historic and literary figures can be found alongside the thoughts and experiences of ordinary women, including the unpublished letters and diaries of women who served during both world wars. The texts themselves are accompanied by biographies of the authors and bibliographic details of the sources.

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British Cartoon Archive This link opens in a new window
Digitised images from the the national collection of British social and political cartoons housed at the University of Kent. This includes the entire Carl Giles Archive of 15,000 cartoon images and 5,000 pages of related paperwork.
Carlyle Letters Online This link opens in a new window
The Carlyle Letters Online gives access to the full text of over 10,000 of the collected letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle.

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Digital National Security Archive (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The DNSA gives access to thousands of declassified primary documents relating to U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. The material is organised into 36 collections covering countries such as Afghanistan, China, Columbia, Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, the Soviet Union and Vietnam, and themes including terrorism, espionage, intelligence, weapons of mass destruction, the military use of space, nuclear arms, non-proliferation, national security, and the telephone conversations of Henry Kissinger.

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Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Over 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material 1492-1962 from libraries and archives around the world.

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Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
More than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

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Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works gives an insight into the English abroad c1550 to 1850. The primary material includes letters, diaries and journals, account books, printed guidebooks, published travel writing, maps, paintings, sketches, and architectural drawings. Secondary sources include introductory essays; a searchable, full-text version of John Ingamells Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800; a selection of digitised source material from the Brinsley Ford Archive at the Paul Mellon Centre, London, and an indexed collection of hundreds of modern photographs of Italy, providing a detailed visual source of all the historical sites, palaces and streets visited by tourists.

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History of Feminism This link opens in a new window
Primary and secondary resources charting the history of feminism over the long nineteenth century (17761928). The collection is organised into eight subject areas covering education, empire, literature and writing, movements and ideologies, politics and law, religion and belief, society and culture, and women at home; with primary source documents accompanied by secondary source book chapters, journal articles, thematic essays, and images.

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International Historical Statistics, 1750-2010 This link opens in a new window
Includes 260 years of statistical data covering a wide range of key economic and social indicators. Data is available on the Americas and Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Data tables can be downloaded as PDFs and/or Excel files.

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London Low Life This link opens in a new window
London Low Life contains a wealth of full colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London. It also gives access to a range of secondary resources, including a chronology, interactive maps, essays, online galleries and links to other websites.

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Manufacturing Pasts This link opens in a new window
A range of multimedia resources illustrating industrial change in twentieth century Britain using Leicester as an example.

Four major themes are used to illustrate the changing industrial city: deindustrialization, conservation and regeneration, social life of the factory, the factory and the community.

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Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new window
Mass Observation was a pioneering social research organization whose papers provide insights into the cultural and social history of Britain from 1937 to 1972. The University has purchased the complete Mass Observation Online collection giving access to:
- File reports 1937-1951.
- Publications by Mass Observation between 1937 and 1966.
- Topic Collections, 1937-1965 (87 collections).
- Day Surveys 1937-1938.
- Diaries 1939-1967.
- Directives 1939-1955.
- Worktown Collection
- Support materials (essays, maps, a bibliography, a chronology, and photographs).
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Migration to New Worlds: The Century of Immigration This link opens in a new window
Concentrating on the period 1800 to 1924, this collection of primary materials covers all aspects of the migration experience, from departures to arrival and permanent settlement.

Included in the collection are letters, travel journals, diaries and oral histories giving first-hand accounts of the experience of emigration and settlement alongside scrapbooks, government papers, hand-drawn maps, watercolours, objects, emigration pamphlets, shipping papers and rare printed material which provide context to the history of migration, legislation and living conditions during this period.

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Social and Political Change in Britain: Gallup Polls 1945-1991 (Roper iPoll) This link opens in a new window
You will need to register to access the Gallup Polls. For Your Affiliation select British Opinion Project (ESRC); select Register and complete the registration process using your York email address; you can then login as British Opinion Project (ESRC) and download datasets from the project.
Datasets consisting of hundreds of thousands of respondents to survey items included in the regular Gallup political omnibus survey fielded at regular monthly intervals. The series includes voting intention, government approval, prime ministerial and party leader approval, the ‘most important problem’ facing the nation and other recurring survey items.

The datasets are an output of a project run by the University of Southampton and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

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Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of primary source material, mostly digitised in colour, relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930. There is an emphasis on visual sources and rare printed material including rare books, periodicals, playbills and handbills, posters, prints, scrapbooks, photographs, programmes, pamphlets, ephemera (e.g. ticket stubs, postcards, newspaper cuttings), and songbooks.

The University has access to:
- Spiritualism, Sensation & Magic
- Circuses, Sideshows & Freaks
- Music Hall, Theatre & Popular Entertainment

Accessibility information
Visualising China This link opens in a new window
A virtual archive of 8,000 photographs of Chinese life, taken between 1850 and 1950.

Film material

Box of Broadcasts (BoB) This link opens in a new window
You will need to register for an account the first time that you access Box of Broadcasts.

Please note that you may only access and use Box of Broadcasts in the United Kingdom..
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is an on demand TV and radio service for education. Users can record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels and access an extensive archive of programmes already available. Users can also create clips from programmes and compile playlists.

Please note that you may only access and use BoB in the United Kingdom.

For help with this resource, take a look at the BoB FAQs.

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British Council Film Collection This link opens in a new window
An archive of over 120 short documentary films made by the British Council during the 1940s and designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played.

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National Archives: Focus on Film
More Info Less info
This site presents film as a historical source and considers its advantages and disadvantages as evidence for the past.

The archive contains a range of original footage from the twentieth century as well as some reconstructions of earlier periods of history. All clips have full background information and can either be viewed online or downloaded for free.

Official publications

Much of the current government information is available via the Web. The Politics Subject Guide is also a useful place to start.

Historical government publications

British History Online (Calendars of State Papers: Domestic, Scotland and Ireland) This link opens in a new window
The premium subscription content includes all the volumes of the Calendars of State Papers, Domestic and the Calendars of State Papers for Scotland and Ireland. British History Online also gives free access to digitised versions of a range of other primary and secondary sources for the medieval and early modern history of Britain.

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Cabinet Papers 1915-1978 This link opens in a new window
Gives full text access to Cabinet papers, including minutes, memoranda, conclusions of cabinet meetings, Cabinet Office precedent books, and some Cabinet Secretary's notebooks. This primary source material is accompanied by a range of supporting and background material and resources.

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Eighteenth Century Official British Parliamentary Publications Portal 1688 - 1834 This link opens in a new window
This portal provides access to 1,400 volumes of core 18th century official Parliamentary publications which include Sessional Papers, Journals and Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament, Parliamentary Registers, Private Bills, Private Acts and Local and Personal Acts.

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English Historical Documents Online This link opens in a new window
For access off-campus: on the site select Sign in via Shibboleth then search for and select University of York to login with your IT services username and password
Over 5,500 fully searchable primary documents from the years 500 to 1914 covering a wide range of topics, from political and constitutional issues to social, economic, religious and cultural history.

The sources include treaties, statutes, declarations, government and cabinet proceedings, military dispatches, orders, acts, sermons, newspaper articles, pamphlets, personal and official letters and diaries.

Each section of documents and many of the individual documents themselves are accompanied by editorial commentary.

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Hansard 1803-2005 This link opens in a new window
The full text of Hansard, the Official Report of debates in Parliament. This is a prototype digitisation project still under development and the information has been provided by the Hansard Digitisation Project, led by the Directorate of Information Services of the House of Commons and the Library of the House of Lords.

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House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (ProQuest UK Parliamentary Papers) This link opens in a new window
The University has access to the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (18th - 21st centuries).
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers gives access to over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to 2023, with supplementary material back to 1688. It includes page images and searchable full text for each paper, along with detailed indexing.

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Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504 This link opens in a new window
The rolls of parliament were the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272 – 1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485 – 1509), after which they were superseded by the journals of the lords and, somewhat later, of the commons. The rolls, which amount in total to over four million words, were first edited in the eighteenth century and published in 1783 in six folio volumes entitled Rotuli Parliamentorum ( RP) under the general editorship of the Reverend John Strachey. This new edition reproduces the rolls edited in RP in their entirety, plus those subsequently published by Cole, Maitland, and Richardson and Sayles as well as a substantial amount of material never previously published, together with a full translation of all the texts from the three languages used by the medieval clerks (Latin, Anglo-Norman and Middle English).
State Papers Online This link opens in a new window
The Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle are on trial until 3rd March 2025.
This major archive gives access to the following collections:

- The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Domestic
- The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign, Scotland, Borders, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council
- The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I - Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic
- The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I - Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Foreign, Ireland
- Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part I: State Papers Domestic, Military, Naval and Registers of the Privy Council

The resource reproduces the original historical manuscripts in facsimile and links each manuscript to its corresponding fully-searchable Calendar entry.

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Historical legislation

See the Law Subject Guide for full details of searching for legal sources.

Printed copies of law reports are available in the Morrell Library at J REPORTS. These include:

Selden Society publications: for Medieval and Tudor law reports containing the original text and a modern translation
English Reports and The Law Reports: semi-official publications of cases available via Westlaw UK. These are more authoritative than the All England Law Reports
All England Law Reports: a commercially produced alternative to the "official" reports. Print copies cover 1558-present. Available online via Lexis Library or Westlaw UK for 1936-present

Historical legal resources online

Lexis+ UK (formerly Lexis Library including LexisPSL) This link opens in a new window
Personalisation options are available via the link above.

Alternative link without personalisation if you have problems with the link above (please clear the cookies and cache in your browser): Lexis+ UK
A large full text database of UK legal resources including all cases from the All England Law Reports, UK legislation (the consolidated text of all UK legislation and some point-in-time versions of Acts) and legislation from the Scottish Parliament, the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, Halsbury's Laws of England, selected commentaries, a number of specialist resources in the area of employment law, and a selection of UK law journals.

Practical Guidance (formerly LexisPSL) gives access to up-to-date practice-area specific guidance, checklists, precedents, forms, drafting notes, legal analysis and news.

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Westlaw UK including Practical Law This link opens in a new window
You will need to register the first time you use Westlaw UK. Practical Law subscription provided by York Law School for educational use only.
An extensive full text database which includes UK case law and legislation (the consolidated text of all UK legislation and some point-in-time versions of Acts), EU case law and legislation, the Legal Journals Index covering English language legal journals published in the UK and Europe, and a broad selection of journals and commentary in full text.

Practical Law is an online legal know-how service which provides practice area overviews, practice notes, standard documents, step by step transactional guides, precedents, checklists and current awareness services.

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The following resources can be used to research individual histories of British people through access to records such as birth, marriage, death certificates, census information and in some cases employment/service records. Wider sources offer the opportunity to examine first person accounts, organisational records, and historic maps, to build up a picture of an individual's life and times. We additionally recommend making use of our historic newspaper collections and the other primary sources that you find elsewhere on this page to further enrich your research.

American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1 (1749-1900) This link opens in a new window
Includes approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1749 and 1900 all reproduced as full colour digital editions.

The broadsides cover a range subjects from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports.

The ephemera includes such items as: clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, billheads, menus and invitations for civic, political and private celebrations, stock certificates illustrated with manufacturers’ vignettes, theater and music programs, autobiographies and dying confessions of convicted criminals, theater playbills, sheet almanacs, publishers’ prospectuses, advertisements, newspaper carriers’ addresses, patriotic and popular songs and poems and more.
Ancestry Institution This link opens in a new window
To access Ancestry Institution off-campus you will need to connect to the University network via the VPN or VDS.
Gives access to a wide selection of historic records including census data, UK parish records, UK birth, marriage, and death records, and British Military records.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is a major collection of diaries and correspondence spanning more than 400 years and giving access to the personal experiences of nearly 500 women. It contains around 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries and over 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Letters and diaries of famous historic and literary figures can be found alongside the thoughts and experiences of ordinary women, including the unpublished letters and diaries of women who served during both world wars. The texts themselves are accompanied by biographies of the authors and bibliographic details of the sources.

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British Cartoon Archive This link opens in a new window
Digitised images from the the national collection of British social and political cartoons housed at the University of Kent. This includes the entire Carl Giles Archive of 15,000 cartoon images and 5,000 pages of related paperwork.
Digimap This link opens in a new window
You will need to register for an account the first time you access Digimap.
Maps and map data of Great Britain. The University subscribes to:

- Digimap Ordnance Survey Collection
- Historic Digimap
- Geology Digimap
- Marine Digimap
- Environment Digimap
- Aerial Digimap
- Lidar Digimap
- Global Digimap
- Society Digimap
- Pilot Digimap (free)
- Verisk Digimap (free)
- agCensus Digimap

For Digimap help and information see the Digimap Resource Centre.

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Early English Books Online [EEBO] (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains over 100,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).

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Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is the most ambitious single digitisation project ever undertaken which offers wide access not only to a century of the nation's intellectual heritage, but also works from earlier periods which were valued and printed or reprinted during the eighteenth century.

A library of over 180,000 eighteenth-century printed books, with more than 33 million scanned facsimile pages. Each title has a full citation record from the English Short Title Catalogue and is fully searchable - including full-text and illustrations multi-disciplinary. A research resource for all disciplines.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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English Historical Documents Online This link opens in a new window
For access off-campus: on the site select Sign in via Shibboleth then search for and select University of York to login with your IT services username and password
Over 5,500 fully searchable primary documents from the years 500 to 1914 covering a wide range of topics, from political and constitutional issues to social, economic, religious and cultural history.

The sources include treaties, statutes, declarations, government and cabinet proceedings, military dispatches, orders, acts, sermons, newspaper articles, pamphlets, personal and official letters and diaries.

Each section of documents and many of the individual documents themselves are accompanied by editorial commentary.

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Findmypast This link opens in a new window
To access Findmypast off-campus you will need to connect to the University network via the VPN or VDS.
Gives access to a wide selection of historic records including census data, UK parish records, Irish records and British Military records.
Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
HSUS contains more than 37,000 annual time series of quantitative historical information covering virtually every quantifiable dimension of American history: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations, all from the earliest times to the present. Each series is fully documented and placed in historical context and tables can be downloaded as Excel or CSV files.

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John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed Ephemera (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This collection provides access to a wide range of different types of printed documents from the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries selected from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera. It includes posters and handbills for theatrical and non-theatrical entertainments, broadsides relating to murders and executions, book and journal prospectuses, popular topographical prints, and a variety of printed advertising material. Each item is presented as a full-colour, high-resolution facsimile.

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International Historical Statistics, 1750-2010 This link opens in a new window
Includes 260 years of statistical data covering a wide range of key economic and social indicators. Data is available on the Americas and Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Data tables can be downloaded as PDFs and/or Excel files.

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Locating London's Past This link opens in a new window
An interactive map, exploring the social history of early modern and eighteenth century London. Information is drawn from a variety of resources, and includes trial acts from the Old Bailey and archaeological data.
London Low Life This link opens in a new window
London Low Life contains a wealth of full colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London. It also gives access to a range of secondary resources, including a chronology, interactive maps, essays, online galleries and links to other websites.

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Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new window
Mass Observation was a pioneering social research organization whose papers provide insights into the cultural and social history of Britain from 1937 to 1972. The University has purchased the complete Mass Observation Online collection giving access to:
- File reports 1937-1951.
- Publications by Mass Observation between 1937 and 1966.
- Topic Collections, 1937-1965 (87 collections).
- Day Surveys 1937-1938.
- Diaries 1939-1967.
- Directives 1939-1955.
- Worktown Collection
- Support materials (essays, maps, a bibliography, a chronology, and photographs).
Accessibility information
Migration to New Worlds: The Century of Immigration This link opens in a new window
Concentrating on the period 1800 to 1924, this collection of primary materials covers all aspects of the migration experience, from departures to arrival and permanent settlement.

Included in the collection are letters, travel journals, diaries and oral histories giving first-hand accounts of the experience of emigration and settlement alongside scrapbooks, government papers, hand-drawn maps, watercolours, objects, emigration pamphlets, shipping papers and rare printed material which provide context to the history of migration, legislation and living conditions during this period.

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National Maritime Museum Archives This link opens in a new window
The National Maritime Museum's collection contains over two million objects related to seafaring, navigation, astronomy and measuring time with over 10,000 objects available online including charts and maps, manuscript and fine art collections.

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Royal College of Physicians Archive, Part 1: 1200-1862 (Wiley Digital Archives) This link opens in a new window
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) was founded so that physicians could be formally licensed to practice. Part I of the archive includes a diverse and eclectic range of content from 1101 through to 1862 including materials defining the RCP’s changing role in setting standards in medical practice alongside manuscripts and papers from RCP members on a wide range of medical and non-medical topics. Personal papers of past fellows from the 16th century to the 20th century provide glimpses into the personal lives and social concerns of many distinguished physicians.
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of primary source material, mostly digitised in colour, relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930. There is an emphasis on visual sources and rare printed material including rare books, periodicals, playbills and handbills, posters, prints, scrapbooks, photographs, programmes, pamphlets, ephemera (e.g. ticket stubs, postcards, newspaper cuttings), and songbooks.

The University has access to:
- Spiritualism, Sensation & Magic
- Circuses, Sideshows & Freaks
- Music Hall, Theatre & Popular Entertainment

Accessibility information

Bibliographic Databases

To start a more detailed search for articles and other research evidence, you'll need to use bibliographic databases. These are large indexes that allow you to search for articles from hundreds of different journals at the same time. The databases do not necessarily give you access to the full text, instead they will usually include the citation information and a brief abstract that gives a summary of the work. If you find citations for resources that we don't hold at York you can request the full text via the "Tell us what you need" link on YorSearch.

The University holds many subject specific bibliographic databases as listed below. If your work is more interdisciplinary we recommend using one of the larger databases such as Web of Science which, despite the name, covers all subject areas and allows you to search effectively across multiple disciplines.

Interdisciplinary Databases

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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History Databases

Anthropological Index Online This link opens in a new window
Index to current periodicals in the Museum of Mankind Library (incorporating the former Royal Anthropological Institute library).
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science) This link opens in a new window
Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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BIAB: the British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (via ADS Library) This link opens in a new window
The BIAB online database contains datasets covering publications from AD 1695 to the present day on archaeology and the historic environment, historic buildings, maritime and industrial archaeology, environmental history, and the conservation of material culture - with a geographical focus on Britain and Ireland.

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Bibliography of British and Irish History (Brepolis) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
You can still access the legacy BBIH interface.
Previously known as the Royal Historical Society Bibliography this is a comprehensive guide to historical writing about the history of Britain, Ireland, and the British overseas from 55BC to the present.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.
International Medieval Bibliography Online (Brepolis) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
You can still access the legacy IMB interface.
This is an interdisciplinary bibliography of the Middle Ages, covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the period 400-1500.

The publication years covered by this resource are from 1967 onwards.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

Newspapers & Magazines

Historic and contemporary newsreel, newspaper & magazine collections. These resources can be a valuable tool when researching, giving insight into how a specific topic has been perceived by the general public over time.

Magazines

19th Century UK Periodicals, Part 1: Women's, Children's, Humour, and Leisure This link opens in a new window
Formerly 19th Century UK Periodicals Series 1: New Readerships
Provides access to facsimile editions of almost 100 periodicals from the 19th century focusing on women, sports and leisure, children, and humour and satire. The collection is mainly based on the repositories of the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.

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American Periodicals Series Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
American Periodicals Series Online is a major database containing digitized images of the pages of American magazines, journals and newspapers originating between 1741 and 1900. APS Online has over 7 million pages of content spanning nearly 200 years of American history up to Americas entry into World War II, and includes over 1,500 titles ranging from America 's first scientific journal, Medical Repository, to popular magazines like Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal.

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Artforum Archive,1962-2020 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This archive gives access to the full text of Artforum (later Artforum International) from 1962 to 2020. Artforum is the leading magazine for coverage of international contemporary art reporting on art in all media through features, reviews, and interviews relating to artists, exhibitions, publications, and other art world events / trends.

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Art and Architecture Archive (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The University has access to Collection I.
A full text, full colour archive of some of the foremost art and architecture magazines published between 1895 and 2005. The twenty six titles cover subjects including fine art, decorative arts, architecture, interior design, industrial design, and photography.

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Country Life Archive This link opens in a new window
This archive gives access to the full text of Country Life from the first issue as Country Life Illustrated (1897-1901) to 2005. All pages are reproduced in high-resolution full colour and are fully searchable.

All editorial content and pictorial features are presented as separate documents, the featured company and brand names from advertisements have been assigned to the document records where possible, and all image captions are indexed, allowing for precise retrieval of photographs and illustrations. Contributor names that appear in image credits are also indexed.

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Education Magazine Archive (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
An archive of the backfiles of 26 magazines and trade publications in the field of education covering the period 1910 to 2015. The titles were originally aimed at teachers, policy makers, administrators, and other education professionals, and offer insights into educational history, theory, and perspectives while reflecting more than a century of evolving trends, issues, values, and practice in areas such as teaching methods, policy, administration, and resources.

The archive includes general titles, subject-specific publications, titles aimed at educational leaders, and titles devoted to women and ethnic minorities in education. Many educational sectors and levels are represented including early years teaching, higher education, vocational education, independent schools, and distance learning.

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Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Independent Voices gives access to the full text of alternative press publications from the U.S. and Canada published in the latter half of the 20th century. These publications were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals and the New Left, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBTs, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines.

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LGBT Magazine Archive (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The University has access to Collection 1 .
This archive documents more than six decades (1954 - 2015) of the history and culture of the LGBT community through the full text of the most influential and longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Titles available include: The Advocate, Gay Times, The Pink Paper, Transgender Tapestry, and Man and Society.

Due to the rarity of some of the original print volumes, there are small gaps (issues or pages) in the runs of some publications.

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Listener Historical Archive, 1929-1991 This link opens in a new window
The Listener Historical Archive gives access to a fully searchable facsimile archive of The Listener, the BBC periodical published from 1929-1991. The online archive consists of the complete 62 year run of the paper, with 129,000 pages and more than 226,000 articles, all digitised from originals in full colour.

The Listener was initially developed as the medium for reproducing broadcast talks on radio, and in later years on television. It covered a diverse range of subjects, commenting and expanding on the intellectual broadcasts of the week. It also provided an important platform for new writers and poets, previewed major literary and musical programmes and regularly reviewed new books.

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Vogue Archive (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution colour page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with indexing enabling images to be searched for by garment type, designer and brand name.

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Women's Magazine Archive (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Women's Magazine Archive gives access to three collections of full text backfiles from leading women’s interest consumer magazines from the US, UK and Canada. Titles are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution colour ensuring that the original print artefacts are faithfully reproduced and that valuable non-article items, such as advertisements, are included. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005.

The following magazines are included in the archive:

Collection 1 - Better Homes & Gardens (US); Chatelaine (Canada); Good Housekeeping (US); Ladies’ Home Journal (US); Parents (US); Redbook (US).

Collection 2 - Cosmopolitan (US); Essence (US); Seventeen (US); Town and Country (US); Woman’s Day (US); Women’s International Network News (US).

Collection 3 - Company (UK); Cosmopolitan (UK); Good Housekeeping (UK); Prima (UK); She (UK).

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Newsreel

Box of Broadcasts (BoB) This link opens in a new window
You will need to register for an account the first time that you access Box of Broadcasts.

Please note that you may only access and use Box of Broadcasts in the United Kingdom..
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is an on demand TV and radio service for education. Users can record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels and access an extensive archive of programmes already available. Users can also create clips from programmes and compile playlists.

Please note that you may only access and use BoB in the United Kingdom.

For help with this resource, take a look at the BoB FAQs.

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BUND: British Universities Newsreel Database This link opens in a new window
160,000 digitised records of British cinema newsreels, 80,000 digitised production documents, online texts, a Who's Who of British Newsreels and much more, dating back to 1910.

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European Newsstream (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
European Newsstream gives access to the full text of over 550 news sources from across Europe including newspapers, newswires, websites, blogs, magazines, trade and scholarly journals, and reports. It includes UK national daily and regional newspapers alongside major European titles such as Le Monde.

The database is updated daily and the back issues archive varies by title.

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Newspapers

17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A digitised version of the newspapers, news-books, pamphlets, ephemera, and other early forms of newspapers from the Reverend Charles Burney Collection held at the British Library. The collection includes almost 1 million pages from around 1,270 titles and while the majority of these originate from London, there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the colonies.

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17th & 18th Century Nichols Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
This collection gives access to the full text of material from the Nichols newspaper collection held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The collection covers the years 1672 to 1737 and includes more than 300 newspaper and periodical titles along with over 250 pamphlets and broadsheets.

The material covers a broad range of important events and topics in both British and international early modern history, including the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Jacobite rebellion, the deaths of notable monarchs and the Treaty of Utrecht.

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American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1 (1749-1900) This link opens in a new window
Includes approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1749 and 1900 all reproduced as full colour digital editions.

The broadsides cover a range subjects from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports.

The ephemera includes such items as: clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, billheads, menus and invitations for civic, political and private celebrations, stock certificates illustrated with manufacturers’ vignettes, theater and music programs, autobiographies and dying confessions of convicted criminals, theater playbills, sheet almanacs, publishers’ prospectuses, advertisements, newspaper carriers’ addresses, patriotic and popular songs and poems and more.
American Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A collection of full text archives of American newspapers with page and article facsimile images. The University has access to: Atlanta Constitution; Atlanta Daily World; Chicago Defender; Chicago Tribune; New York Times; New York Tribune; Washington Post.

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British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Includes: Parts I & II (1800-1900); Part III (1741-1950); Part IV (1732-1950); Part V (1746-1950); Part VI (Ireland, 1797-1950).

Also known as: 19th Century British Newspapers
A major collection of almost 6.4 million facsimile pages from more than 240 national, regional, and local newspapers published between the 1700's and 1950. The collection includes both daily and weekly publications with titles from established country or university towns, the industrial towns of the Midlands and the North, and from Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Newspapers associated with particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule have also been included along with penny papers aimed at a working class and clerical readership.

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Daily Mail Historical Archive, 1896-2016 This link opens in a new window
The Daily Mail from 2017 onward is also available via YorSearch.
More than one hundred years of this major UK national newspaper can be viewed in full digital facsimile form, with copious advertisements, news stories and images that capture twentieth-century culture and society. As well as the regular edition of the newspaper, the Daily Mail Historical Archive also includes the Daily Mail Atlantic Edition, which was published on board the cruise ships that sailed between New York and Southampton from 1923 to 1931.

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Daily Mirror Historical Archive, 1903-2000 This link opens in a new window
The Daily Mirror from 2001 onward is also available via YorSearch.
A full text archive of the Daily Mirror from 1903 to 2000 and the Sunday Mirror from 1916 to 2000 (know as the Sunday Pictorial from 1916 to 1963). All issues are fully searchable with facsimile images of the original pages available to view and download.

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Early American Newspapers, Series I-V, 1690-1922 (America's Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Early American Newspapers gives access to the full text of over 1200 newspaper titles from across the United States published between 1690 and 1922.
Economist Historical Archive, 1843 - 2015 This link opens in a new window
A complete facsimile edition of The Economist with full-colour images, topic and area supplements and surveys, a gallery of front covers and a selection of exportable financial tables.

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Far Eastern Economic Review Archive, 1946-2009 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The Far Eastern Economic Review was published weekly between 1946 and 2004 and then monthly until 2009. This archive gives full text access to the full run of over 3,000 issues. Far Eastern Economic Review covered many topics including politics, economics, international relations, the arts, and culture. Although the initial focus was on China and Hong Kong, coverage was expanded to other regions and countries including Japan, India and Australia, as well as smaller Asian states.

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Financial Times 1982 onwards (excluding the last 30 days) (Nexis) This link opens in a new window
Due to a problem with Nexis you cannot currently search the Financial Times as a specific source but you can still access it, see More info for further details.

Due to a problem with Nexis you cannot currently search the Financial Times as a specific source (i.e. select to search just the Financial Times), however results from the Financial Times will be returned from general searches and you can then use the Publication Name filter to only show results from the Financial Times.

Please note that the Financial Times coverage in Nexis excludes the last 30 days.

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Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2010 This link opens in a new window
This fully-searchable facsimile edition of the FT offers the complete run of the London edition of the paper from its first issue onwards. Every individual article, advertisement and market listing is included and shown individually and in the context of the full page and issue of the day.

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Global Press Archive (East View) This link opens in a new window
A collection of digitised historical news sources from around the world available open access with each newspaper presented in full-image and full-text format. The archive gives access to stand-alone titles and collections of multiple titles from a specific region and time period. Wherever possible, titles are presented in their complete runs from the first issue. The collections currently available include titles from the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Late Qing and Republican-Era China, Imperial Russia, and Mexico.

The archive is an initiative of Stanford Libraries and the Hoover Institution Library & Archives to digitally preserve and make more accessible thousands of original print newspaper publications collected by the Hoover Institution and now housed by Stanford Libraries.
Guardian, 1821-2003 and Observer, 1791-2003 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The Guardian from 2004 onward is also available via YorSearch.
The Observer from 2004 onward is also available via YorSearch.
A full text archive of page and article facsimile images of the Guardian (1821 - 2003) and the Observer (1791 - 2003).

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Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 This link opens in a new window
The complete facsimile archive of the Illustrated London News, the worlds first fully illustrated weekly newspaper published between 1842 and 2003. The archive includes over 260,000 pages of text and more than 1.5 million full colour images.

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Irish Times, 1859 onwards (excluding the most recent 2 years) and Weekly Irish Times, 1876 - 1958 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The Irish Times current content is also available via YorSearch.
A full text archive of page and article facsimile images of The Irish Times (1859 onwards, excluding the most recent 2 years) and The Weekly Irish Times (1876 - 1958). Coverage includes The Times Pictorial.

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Nexis This link opens in a new window
Personalisation is available via the link above.

Alternative link without personalisation if you have problems with the link above (please clear the cookies and cache in your browser): Nexis.
Nexis is a major source of global news and business information. It provides full-text access to over 34,000 publications, with more than 12,000 news sources including UK daily and regional newspapers, current affairs magazines, and professional journals. Updated daily; back issues archive varies by title.

Nexis also includes 80 sources of company information, plus thousands of biographies of government officials, politicians, celebrities, investors and business contacts.

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Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822-2016 This link opens in a new window
The Sunday Times from 1985 onward is also available via YorSearch.
This archive gives access to the full text of The Sunday Times, including the supplements, with full page and article scans making over 800,000 pages and 3.5 million articles available for browsing and searching.

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Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016 This link opens in a new window
The Telegraph from 2017 onward is also available via YorSearch.
Launched in 1855 as an affordable newspaper, by 1876 The Telegraph was the largest-selling newspaper in the world, with a circulation of 300,000. The Telegraph Historical Archive has over 1 million pages of content and includes the Sunday edition from its inception in 1961.

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Times 1985 - present (Nexis) This link opens in a new window
Also includes access to The Times website (thetimes.co.uk) from 2011.
Gives access to the full-text of The Times from 1 July 1985 and The Times website (thetimes.co.uk) from 23 December 2010.

For The Times 1785 - 2019 see the entry: Times Digital Archive, 1785 - 2019

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Times Digital Archive, 1785 - 2019 This link opens in a new window
A full-image archive of every page published by The Times (London) from 1785 until 2019. The text within the images is fully searchable at the article level.

For The Times from 2020 onwards see the entry: Times 1985 - present.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Times Higher Education (THE) This link opens in a new window
For access you need to register for a personal THE account at the site.

You must register using your York email address @york.ac.uk and create your own username and password (the username will display on public parts of the site e.g. comments).
Times Higher Education provides analysis, news, comment and insight regarding the world of higher education.

Our subscription gives access to all THE online content, including weekly digital editions and rankings supplements. To access the digital editions click the “Professional” tab, then click “Digital Editions”.

You can also access the THE app for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices. You can download the app from your app store provider.
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive, 1902 - 2014 This link opens in a new window
Some Times Literary Supplement content from 2015 onward is also available via YorSearch.
This fully-searchable full colour facsimile edition of the TLS includes every page of every copy published from 1902 until 2014.

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Times of India, 1838 onwards (excluding the most recent 9 years) (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Times of India current content is also available via YorSearch.
A full text archive of page and article facsimile images of The Times of India from 1838 onwards (excluding the most recent 9 years).

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Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers & Periodicals, 1800-1900 (Series 2) This link opens in a new window
For access off-campus please use the VPN.
The Waterloo Directory provides a comprehensive, dynamic bibliography of 19th century periodical literature with information about 50,000 titles from a wide variety of subject areas. Facsimile title pages are available for 9,000 titles and many entries have additional commentary drawn from secondary sources. Library locations are provided for the UK and North America and the Directory is regularly updated.

Theses and dissertations

Information about theses is available on the main Library website.

All University PhD and MPhil theses are available in the Library in hard copy (find them using YorSearch). For Masters theses, only certain Departments make these available via our Digital Collections, which you can find linked to in the top pane in YorSearch.

All York PG Research students are required to upload their thesis into the White Rose Research Online, a shared online respository for academic publications from the Universities of York, Sheffield and Leeds. You can also access theses from outside the University:

British Library EThOS Service
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The British Library's electronic online theses service. Free access to over 300,000 full-text theses from UK universities.

DART-Europe E-theses Portal This link opens in a new window
A searchable database of details of doctoral-level electronic theses which are held in European repositories. The theses listed are publicly available, in full, without charge. The DART-Europe Portal does not store theses, but it provides a link to at least one electronic copy of every thesis listed in its database.

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
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Useful for searching for international theses.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations This link opens in a new window
An index of over 1.6 million graduate-level electronic theses and dissertations that are freely available online.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I (ProQuest) [accessible until 31st March 2025] This link opens in a new window
PQDT provides a listing of theses and dissertations accepted for higher degrees by universities around the world since 1743 including abstracts for nearly all content from 1986 onwards. Over 130,000 new citations are added to the database each year.

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History

Resources

Finding Resources

Books

Books

Key History eBook Collections

Journals & databases

Journals

Free online resources

UK and European history resources freely available online

Global history resources freely available online

Dictionaries

General Reference Works

Language Reference Resources

Language Reference Resources

Resources by period

Texts and translations:

Historical Documents

Primary texts & documents

Primary texts & documents

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Primary texts & documents

Film material

Official publications

Historical government publications

Historical legislation

Historical legal resources online

Bibliographic Databases

Bibliographic Databases

Interdisciplinary Databases

History Databases

Newspapers & Magazines

News Reporting & Magazines

Magazines

Newsreel

Newspapers

Theses and dissertations

Theses & Dissertations