History
Primary sources are the raw materials of history - original documents and objects which were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience.
The collections below are rich sources of primary material but this is not an exhaustive list of primary materials held in the library. Use Primo to search for published letters, diaries, household accounts, wills, inventories, records, etc. Try using the type of material you hope to find as part of your Primo search term.
- British History Online: Primary ResourcesBritish History Online is a digital library of sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, 1300 - 1800. It contains over 1,270 volumes. As well as primary sources it also contains useful datasets, maps, guides, calendars, and some secondary material.
- Camden Series in the libraryThe RHS (and its predecessor body, the Camden Society) has published editions of primary sources on British History since 1838. It is an excellent collection of editions of sources and important unpublished texts for historians, with expert commentary. The library has access to the fifth series online and a number of individual volumes in print.
- Devon and Cornwall Record SocietyThe Devon and Cornwall Record Society was founded in 1904 to transcribe and publish local records. Most of these volumes are in the library but some are available online.
- English Historical DocumentsIncludes treaties, personal letters, statutes, military dispatches, diaries, declarations, newspaper articles, government and cabinet proceedings, orders, acts, sermons, pamphlets, agricultural instructions, charters, grants, guild regulations and voting records. Plus extra apparatus including genealogical tables, lists of officials, chronologies, diagrams, graphs and maps.
- Historical Manuscripts Commission eBook CollectionThe Historical Manuscripts Commission was established in 1869, with a remit to survey and publish original records of 'Institutions and Private Families'. The library has access to a number of these publications online. It also has the complete 18 volume collection of Cecil Papers from Hatfield House on the shelves at 942.05 HMC
- Library online archives pageLinks to our online archive collections on a wide variety of topics.
- Newspapers and Periodicals pageLinks to newspaper collections dating back to 1757 and periodicals from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
- JISC Historical Texts This link opens in a new window
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Includes Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Collections Online and Nineteenth Century books from the British Library.
There are many useful primary sources freely available on the internet but do be mindful of who is responsible for producing these resources.
- Digital BodleianA million images of rare books, manuscripts, and other treasures from the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford college libraries.
- DiscoveryDiscovery holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country. Of these some 9 million records are available for download but be aware that not everything is available online.
- Parker Library on the WebCorpus Christi College and the Stanford University Libraries have created Parker Library on the Web, a digital exhibit designed to support use and study of the manuscripts in the historic Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It contains rare medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, as well as early printed books.
- The Serving SoldierProvides online access to unique original documents and photographs held by the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's College London.