Trial-Aris & Phillips Classical Texts Online – Until 24th February 2024

We now have access to Aris & Phillips Classical Texts Online – Trial until 24th February 2024

Aris & Phillips Classical Texts Online makes available over 150 invaluable editions of Greek and Latin texts. The Classical Texts series was founded in 1979 to publish modern editions of Classical Greek and Latin texts, with substantial introductions, facing-page text and English translation, with extensive accompanying commentaries. Volumes are designed to be accessible to those without Greek or Latin and support those learning the original language.

Please send feedback to Charlotte.Goodall@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Trials – Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement; Papers of Amiri Baraka (until 17 February 2024)

We have trial access to two collections on Gale’s Archives Unbound platform until 17 February 2024.

Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement: The Papers of Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford): This collection of RAM records reproduces the writings and statements of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and its leaders. It also covers organizations that evolved from or were influenced by RAM and persons that had close ties to RAM. The most prominent organization that evolved from RAM was the African People’s Party. Organizations influenced by RAM include the Black Panther Party, League of Revolutionary Black Workers, Youth Organization for Black Unity, African Liberation Support Committee, and the Republic of New Africa. Individuals associated with RAM and documented in this collection include Robert F. Williams, Malcolm X, Amiri Baraka, General Gordon Baker Jr., Yuri Kochiyama, Donald Freeman, James and Grace Lee Boggs, Herman Ferguson, Askia Muhammad Toure (Rolland Snellings), and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael).

Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement: This collection of Amiri Baraka materials was made available by Dr. Komozi Woodard. Dr. Woodard collected these documents during his career as an activist in Newark, New Jersey. The collection consists of rare works of poetry, organizational records, print publications, over one hundred articles, poems, plays, and speeches by Baraka, a small amount of personal correspondence, and oral histories. The collection has been arranged into eighteen series. These series are: (1) Black Arts Movement; (2) Black Nationalism; (3) Correspondence; (4) Newark (New Jersey); (5) Congress of African People; (6) National Black Conferences and National Black Assembly; (7) Black Women’s United Front; (8) Student Organization for Black Unity; (9) African Liberation Support Committee; (10) Revolutionary Communist League; (11) African Socialism; (12) Black Marxists; (13) National Black United Front; (14) Miscellaneous Materials, 1978-1988; (15) Serial Publications; (16) Oral Histories; (17) Woodard’s Office Files.

The collection consists of materials from the years 1913 through 1998 that document African American author and activist Amiri Baraka and were gathered by Dr. Komozi Woodard in the course of his research. The extensive documentation includes poetry, organizational records, print publications, articles, plays, speeches, personal correspondence, oral histories, as well as some personal records. The materials cover Baraka’s involvement in the politics in Newark, N.J. and in Black Power movement organizations such as the Congress of African People, the National Black Conference movement, the Black Women’s United Front. Later materials document Baraka’s increasing involvement in Marxism.

Please send feedback on these trials to bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Trial – Publications Romanes et Françaises (until 14 February 2024)

We have trial access to Publications Romanes et Françaises from Librairie Droz until the 14 February 2024.

This collection offers a wide range of important critical works on French medieval literature. Authors examined include Christine de Pizan, Jean de Salisbury, Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France while the many themes which are explored include the continuing influence of the ancient world on French culture of the Middle Ages, the apocalyptic imagination in French literature in the 12th and 13th centuries and the use of punctuation in the medieval period.

NOTE: After selecting a the text, you can use the red circular tab on the far left of the screen to view its table of contents.

Please send any feedback to nick.hearn@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

New resources – United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) archives

We are pleased to announce that Oxford researchers now have online access to 14 collections of the Anglican missionary archive, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG), via the British Online Archives platform. Previously only available in the Weston Library, the digitised material can now be accessed throughout the University and remotely with the Oxford SSO.

The USPG is a UK-based Anglican missionary organisation, founded in 1701, which sent missionaries to many parts of the world and was involved in educational,  charitable and medical work as well as evangelization. The material also throws light on social conditions, travel and daily life abroad from the view point of British missionaries and their families.

The digitized material is relevant to British, Commonwealth and global history, covering the 17th to mid-20th centuries. It has been organised into 14 collections which can be found via SOLO or Databases A-Z:

  1. America in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1635-1928
  2. ‘Bray Schools’ in Canada, America and the Bahamas, 1645-1900
  3. Indigenous Cultures and Christian Conversion in Ghana and Sierra Leone, 1700-1850
  4. Colonial missionaries’ papers from America and the West Indies, 1701-1870
  5. The West Indies in records from colonial missionaries, 1704-1950
  6. Canada in records from colonial missionaries, 1722-1952
  7. Indian and Sri Lankan records from colonial missionaries, 1770-1931
  8. Australia in records from colonial missionaries, 1808-1967
  9. South Africa in records from colonial missionaries, 1819-1900
  10. New Zealand & Polynesian records from colonial missionaries, 1838-1958
  11. Tanzania and Malawi in records from colonial missionaries, 1857-1965
  12. Colonial women missionaries of the Committee for Women’s Work, 1861-1967
  13. Ghana in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1886-1951
  14. ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’: Missionaries in Asia during the World Wars, 1914-1946

Read more about the types of materials, topics covered, and geographical reach on the History Faculty Library blog post.