Primary Source Collections - A.M. Explorer

Explore five centuries of journeys across the globe, scientific discoveries, the expansion of European colonialism, conflict over territories and trade routes, and decades-long search and rescue attempts in this multi-archive collection dedicated to the history of exploration.

Colonial Caribbean covers the history of the various territories under British colonial governance from 1624 to 1870. This extensive resource includes administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, as well as details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern of absentee landlords.

Primary sources including, correspondence, college records, commonplace books, conduct and advice literature, diaries, ephemera, government papers, account books, literature, pamphlets and periodicals. These sources document the changing representations and lived experiences of gender from the fifteeneth to early twentieth century. This collection offers sources for the study of masculinity, femininity, the body, family, education, conduct and leisure.

From 16th century origins as a trading venture to the East Indies, through to its rise as the world’s most powerful company and de facto ruler of India, to its demise amid allegations of greed and corruption – the East India Company was an extraordinary force in global history for three centuries.

Delve into the theatrical world of eighteenth-century society and explore how the Larpent plays reflect the politics of the time, the role of women, views on race and religion, opinions on empire, and European and British history.

Unique and extremely rare eighteenth-century periodicals, each chosen to convey the eclecticism and evolution of the publishing world between 1685 and 1835. Highlights include a complete run of The Lady's Magazine, and rare titles missed out of other collections focused on the Eighteenth Century.

Spanning five centuries and charting the rise and fall of empires around the world, Empire Online is a digital archive enabling research of colonial history, politics, culture and society. There is a focus on the British Empire, but documents also give information on other European empires and the experience of colonised people.

British Government Foreign Office files relating to Japan. An important resource due to the UK maintaining diplomatic ties to Japan for more of this period than many other nations, and the destruction of many Japanese Government records in 1945.

Discover the histories of fifteen key commodities that changed the world through a wide range of manuscript sources, rare books, maps, advertising memorabilia, paintings, photographs and ephemera. Explore themes of exploration and discovery; imperialism and attempts at monopoly, trade Wars, translocation and economic geography, slavery, mass production, luxury, taste and the evolution of global branding.

A digital collection of manuscript, visual and printed works that allows students and researchers to explore and compare a range of sources on the history of travel. Many come from private or neglected collections.

From entertainment and technology to relationships and current affairs, explore everyday life and society on both sides of the Atlantic through popular and lesser-known periodicals.

Primary sources on the history of tourism. Bringing together collections from multiple archives, including Thomas Cook, this resource presents an untapped multi-national perspective on the evolution of affordable tourism around the world.

The digital version of the Stationers' Company Archives, London. Explore the history of printing, publishing and bookselling dating from 1554 to the 20th century. Includes a complete run of the Stationers' Register, an essential resource for book history and a record publications prior to 1927.

From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers an unparalleled insight into the dark underworld of the Victorian city.

This digital collection casts new light on Britain's relationship with the EEC, Anglo-American ties, the Cold War, Decolonisation, and issues of public and political morality.

The Archive of Mass-Observation, a pioneering social research organisation, has been described as a "treasure trove", "an invaluable resource for sociologists and cultural historians" and "a fascinating source of precious data for researchers across the widest range of disciplines". Mass Observation Online makes the Mass Observation Archive available to researchers in its entirety, included diaries, surveys and questionnaires that reveal everyday life in Britain between the 1930s and 1960s.

Explore the history of illness, treatment and disease on international front lines from 1850 to 1949.

An extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy.

Only five major letter collections exist from fifteenth century England and they are all available online for the first time in this digital resource.

A selection of original documents that tell the story of European and Asian migration to North America, Australia and New Zealand during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Official records from governments, shipping lines and agencies are found alongside the letters, oral histories and diaries of the migrants themselves. The resource includes material on life for successive generations, refugees and displaced persons, and those who were transported as criminals.

British Government documents on North America during Nixon's presidency.

This resource is produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University. Their goal was to identify and describe all manner of writing by early modern women from diaries to works of drama. The resource links digital scans of the original documents with the researchers' catalogue and notes.

A wide range of material, from government documents to fanzines, video content to posters and scrapbooks, tells the story of a time of music, political unrest, fashion and new technology.

A digital version of the single largest collection of working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers anywhere in the world. Highlights include annotated full manuscripts of such notable works as The Prelude and Michael, or Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode.

Contains an extensive range of both rare and well-known wartime publications for soldiers serving in major theatres around the world. Publications are included from many key nations involved in the conflict, such as the US, Canada, New Zealand, India, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

This resource brings together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world covering an extensive time period from 1490. Close attention has been given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.

Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930, and shows how interconnected these worlds were. Taking its cue from the source material, Victorian Popular Culture welcomes readers into the darkened halls, small backrooms and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to magic and spiritualist séances.

Discover the British Film Institute's Victorian Film Collection and the Mitchell and Kenyon Collection, as well as a selection of special early large format films. This material provides a glimpse into the lives of the late Victorians and Edwardians captured between 1895 and 1913 by some of Britain's earliest film pioneers and innovators.

Material covers the founding and economic development of Virginia as seen through the papers of the Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624. It is also a crucial source for London's economic history in the Early Modern era and will be of interest to social and religious historians.

A finding aid to the collections of The National Archives, UK, at Kew. Also includes a selection of rare documents relating to women's suffrage in the UK and the British Empire.