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Trial – Records from Bethlem Royal Hospital, 1559-1932 (until 12 October 2023)

Trial

We have trial access to Records from Bethlem Royal Hospital, 1559-1932 through British Online Archives until 12 October 2023. This resource is useful for the study of mental health care throughout the ages.

Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric facility in London. It was established as a priory of the Order of St Mary of Bethlehem in 1247, before beginning to care for mentally ill patients sometime in the 14th century. Often referred to colloquially as ‘Bedlam’—and generally accepted to be the origin of the very same noun—past incarnations of the institution were infamous for their questionable diagnosis of mental illness and poor treatment of patients.

This collection contains four centuries’ and 130,000 images’ worth of records from Bethlem. The records are diverse in both form and subject matter. They include: voluntary and criminal admission registers; discharge and death registers; male and female patient casebooks; minutes of the Court of Governors; and staff salary books. All handwritten items have been fully transcribed.

Scholars and students alike will find that, together, the records provide a unique insight into the evolution of so-called lunacy laws—from an early reliance on control of the mentally ill through coercion and restraint to the later emergence of doctrines of self-discipline and moral management.

Please email feedback to Isabel Holowaty.

Numérique Premium (access until 24 September 2023)

General

Oxford users have access to all books on the Numérique Premium platform. Numérique Premium have made this material available to celebrate the release of their new platform.

Numérique Premium contains over 600 French-language Humanities e-books. The main focus is on medieval and modern history, but the collection also covers politics, history of French-speaking literature, and history of cinema.

Please send feedback to Nick Hearn.

New resources – additional Archives Unbound collections

New resource
We have acquired ten additional collections of digitised archival documents through Gale’s Archives Unbound interface. This means Oxford users now have access to over 30 collections in Archives Unbound. The new collections are:
  • Aden: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1880-1906: Aden’s strategic location long made it a strategic asset. The British captured Aden in 1839, and it served as a key port on the route from the Mediterranean to India via the Suez Canal. The documents in this collection are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State.
  • Confederate Newspapers: A Collection from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama: This collection is a mixture of issues and papers from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama ranging from 1861-1865. These newspapers “recorded the real and true history of public opinion during the war. In their columns is to be found the only really correct and indicative ‘map of busy life, its fluctuations and its vast concerns’ in the South, during her days of darkness and of trial.” From the collections of Western Reserve Historical Society.
  • The Dublin Castle Records, 1798-1926: The Dublin Castle administration in Ireland was the government of Ireland under English and later British rule, from the twelfth century until 1922, based at Dublin Castle. The records cover a crucial period which saw the rise of Parnell and the Land War in 1880 through to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1921. They cover Nationalist movements, the efforts of the authorities against the Nationalists, and personalities who figured prominently in the struggle.
  • Egypt: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1853-1962: This archive covers Egypt from the years before the opening of the Suez Canal through the era of British domination, Egyptian nationalism, and independence. The documents are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State.
  • Election of 1948: Documents and perspectives of the four base camps from the 1948 United States presidential election: Harry S. Truman, Thomas E. Dewey, Henry A. Wallace and J. Strom Thurmond. Sources include Papers of Harry S Truman, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Papers of Americans for Democratic Action as well as selections from several southern newspapers.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945: Materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement from FDR’s Official File-concerned with the issues of Lynching, Segregation, Race riots, and Employment discrimination.
  • Global Missions and Theology: Documents the broad range of Nineteenth Century religious missionary activities, practices and thought in the United States through personal narratives, organizational records, and biographies. Includes materials on missionary activities among Native Americans and African Americans, both slaves and freedmen, and in regions and countries such as Africa, Fiji and Sandwich Islands, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Hawaii. From the collections of the Lost Cause Press.
  • Iraq: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1888-1944: Iraq, from Ottoman rule through British colonial occupation and independence, is treated here from the perspective of the United States. The documents are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State.
  • Libya: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1796-1885: This archive documents the American consulate in Tripoli. Included here are correspondences of Secretary of State James Madison during the Tripolitan War, 1801-1805, between the United States and the piratical North African Barbary States. Handwritten correspondences from Secretary of State William H. Seward in the Lincoln Administration, relating to the opening of the port of New Orleans in 1862, and exchanges from Secretary of State James G. Blaine, in the Garfield Administration, make this a rich resource in U.S. diplomatic history. The collection is sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State.
  • The Persian Gulf States and Yemen, 1950-1959: U.S. State Department Central Classified Files relating to the internal affairs of the Persian Gulf states and Yemen, containing a wide range of materials from U.S. diplomats. These documents highlight the structure and activities of the Persian Gulf States’ and Yemen’s political system, government, judiciary, laws, military, customs, economy, finance, agriculture, natural resources, industry, communications, and media.

Churchill Archive: personal accounts and bookmarks will need re-creating

General

Bloomsbury will move the Churchill Archive to a redesigned platform during July 2023. This is expected to happen in the week beginning 10 July.

If you already have a personal account on the Churchill Archive, this will not be migrated to the new platform, and you will need to create a new personal account in order to continue using it. Bookmarks saved to personal accounts on the current site will not be maintained, so Bloomsbury recommends bookmarking pages within your browser if you wish to keep a note of them. After you create a personal account on the new platform, it will again be possible to save items there.

More information is available on the Churchill Archive website: Platform Migration Info & FAQs