LibGuides: Guide to Online Primary Sources: England / United Kingdom

England / United Kingdom

17th-19th Century British Religious, Political, and Legal Tracts
Digital images of 17th, 18th, and 19th-century British pamphlets dealing with legal, political, religious, and other controversial topics of the day. From the University of Missouri Digital Library.

America and Great Britain : diplomatic relations, 1775-1815 [British government documents]
This 9-volume set provides 7000 pages of primary documents, written by contemporary diplomats, charting the emergence of an independent America. Documents are sourced from Colonial Office, Foreign Office, State Papers, and Admiralty records.

Annals of the Famine in Ireland
The author, Asenath Hatch Nicholson, was an involved eyewitness to the great Irish famine in 1847-1848.

Archives Unbound (British and European History)
This collection focuses on historical events in the United Kingdom and Europe in the 20th century. Included are US classified country reports, newspapers, pamphlets, propaganda, and many other primary sources that give insight on specific regional changes during and after the war.

Bracton Online
Bracton "attempts to describe rationally the whole of English law." The work is remarkable both for its wealth of detail and for its attempts to make sense out of English law largely in terms of the ius commune, the combination of Roman and canon law that was taught in the universities in Bracton's time.
British History Online
A digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles.
British Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons
1800-1900. British House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, a detailed primary source for the United Kingdom, its colonies and the wider world. Searchable full text; displays page images with tables, maps, illustrations.
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
Texts that Irish literary and historical culture, from the medieval period to the 20th century.
Eurodocs
One of the best places to start for all time periods of European history. Extensive collection of primary sources and links to other sites. Browse by broad era (prehistory/ancient, medieval/renaissance, modern) or by country.
Gazettes Online
Digital archive of the London (1665- ), Edinburgh (1797- ) and Belfast (1922- ) Gazettes.

Grand Tour
These accounts of the English abroad, c1550-1850, highlight the influence of continental travel on British art, architecture, urban planning, literature and philosophy. This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works allows scholars to compare a range of sources on the history of travel for the first time, including many from private or neglected collections. We include letters; diaries and journals; account books; printed guidebooks; published travel writing; paintings and sketches; architectural drawings and maps.

Hanover Historical Texts Project
Presents texts from ancient to modern times. Material touches on the Crusaders, Italian Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, French Revolution, and many other topics.
Holinshed Project
An ongoing effort to produce a parallel text of the first two editions of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577, rev. 1587), which was a major source for many works by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers.
Journals of the House of Commons
The official record of the House. Includes volumes 1-12 (1547-1699) & 85 (1830).
Journals of the House of Lords
The official record of proceedings in the House (1509-1764, 1832-4).
Legislation.gov.uk
Includes all legislation since 1988, as well as most primary legislation since 1267.
LSE Digital Library
Digital collections from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Topics include women's rights, Brexit, posters, street life in London, and more.

Mass Observation Online
Archive of social survey project on many aspects of British society, collected 1937-1972. Includes essays, file reports, diaries, day surveys, photographs and links to other sites.

Moving Here: 200 Years of Migration to England
"Moving Here explores, records and illustrates why people came to England over the last 200 years and what their experiences were and continue to be. It offers free access, for personal and educational use, to an online catalogue of versions of original material related to migration history from local, regional and national archives, libraries and museums."
National Archives (U.K.)
List of online exhibitions; browse by name or historical period. Includes selections dating from 1066 through the 20th century.

Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913. A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
Vision of Britain Through Time
Provides a geographical survey of Britain from 1801 to 2001, including census reports, historical maps, election results, and full texts of British travel writing.
Word on the Street
An online collection of nearly 1,800 broadsides printed and posted in Scotland between 1650 and 1910, on politics, crime, romance, royalty, humor, etc. Search by keyword or year, or browse by title or subject.
The Workhouse
This site is dedicated to primary sources about the workhouse (primarily of Victorian Britain) -- its buildings, inmates, staff and administrators, even its poets -- a mixture of architecture, economics, social history, politics, and literature.
York's Archbishops Registers Revealed
Images of Registers produced by the Archbishops of York, 1225-1650. 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.