We are delighted to announce that researchers now have access to more eresources supporting the study of global history and the history of underrepresented minorities. The resources are veritable treasure troves of documents, reports, maps, letters, ephemera and more. They have a global coverage from the Far East, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
In line with the Bodleian Libraries’ strategy (pdf) to enhance our collections, we committed substantial funding to a set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University.
Thsee resources and others in our ever-growing list of source databases are all accessible via SOLO or Databases A-Z. University staff and students also have remote access using their Single-Sign On (SSO) credentials.
Diversity & inclusion
History of disabilities (Archives unbound)
History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century provides historical evidence demonstrating how society has interacted with and regarded individuals considered to have disabilities.
The resources provides online access to digitised books, manuscripts, and ephemera that provide a historical view of disabilities from the seventeenth to twentieth century.
Some materials include personal memoirs of experiences with disabilities or the accounts of those who treated them. Rehabilitation, treatments, methods of education, and other forms of remediation are documented.
Reports and proceedings of organizations and institutions that sought to help or heal those with disabilities are available for review. Policies and programs concerning persons with disabilities are also available (i.e. labor laws, legal rights, rehabilitation programs, etc.).
Researchers can examine disability as a form of institutional discrimination and social exclusion as well as an empowered movement. Documentation shows how people deemed to be disabled were classified and treated, while some materials show how people have overcome physical or mental challenges in their lives and challenged perceptions of what it means to be disabled.
Want more? See also our Disability History Resources guide (LibGuide).
Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century [accompanies Archives of Sexuality and Gender LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 Part I and Part II]
This resource looks at gender and sexuality in the centuries leading up to, and inclusive of, the period covered in Archives of Sexuality and Gender Parts I and II, providing context to the materials in those collections. It examines topics such as patterns of fertility and sexual practice; prostitution; religion and sexuality; the medical and legal construction of sexualities; and the rise of sexology. It not only offers a reflection of the cultural and social attitudes of the past, but also a window into how sexuality and gender roles were viewed and changed over time.
From The Exhibition of Female Flagellants. [With plates.]. London: Theresa Berkley, [c. 1840].
Image Source: The Private Case of the British Library
- The Private Case from the British Library, comprised of printed books segregated from the main library from the 1850s to 1990 on grounds of obscenity. It is an interesting study in social mores as the definition of obscenity has seen many changes since the mid-nineteenth-century.
- Special Subject Units from Sex Research: Early Literature from Statistics to Erotica, a collection from the Alfred C. Kinsey Institute for Sex Research dating from 1700 to 1860. This is a portion of Dr. Kinsey’s original library which he used to study human sexual behavior from a variety of academic and literary viewpoints.
- A collection of rare and unique books from the New York Academy of Medicine, consisting of more than 1,400 monographs covering a variety of topics in sex, sexuality and gender studies. From sex education to erotica, manners to medicine, the Academy collection offers a rich combination of materials from the humanities to the hard sciences.
The archive presents content in fourteen different languages, with a predominance in French, English, and German and including Old French, Old English, and Old High German.
Want more? See also our Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies resources guide (LibGuide)
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, part III: The Institution of Slavery [accompanies part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World]
The Institution of Slavery module explores, in vivid detail, the inner workings of slavery from 1492 to 1888. Through legal documents, plantation records, first-person accounts, newspapers, government records, and other primary sources, this collection reveals how enslaved people struggled against the institution. These rare works explore slavery as a legal and labor system, the relationship between slavery and religion, freed slaves, the Shong Massacre, the Demerara insurrection, and many other aspects and events.
Indiana Narratives, Volume V. n.d. TS, Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project. Library of Congress. Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive (accessed August 9, 2024).
The material contained in this module include:
- Edward Dixon Papers
- Edmund Ruffin diaries, 1856-1865
- J.F.H. Claiborne Papers, 1818-1885
- John J. Crittenden Papers, 1783-1913
- Blair family papers, 1755-1968
- British Library Collections II
- Caribbean Documents collection, 1699-1959
- Court Cases and other documents from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
- Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission: Records
- Records related to Slavery from the Colonial Office, Commonwealth and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices, Empire Marketing Board, and related bodies
- Records related to Slavery from the Exchequer, and its related bodies
- Records related to Slavery from the Court of King’s Bench, Privy Council, and Treasury: Selected Records
- Records of the Senate Select Committee that Investigated John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
- Apellate Case File No. 3230, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 US 393 (19 Howard 393), Decided March 6, 1857 and Related Records
- Rice C. Ballard Papers
- Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project
- Records of East Florida
- Benjamin Tappan Papers
- Caleb Cushing Papers
- James Henry Hammond Papers
Want more? See also our American History resources guide and Caribbean Studies guide.
Eastern European LGBTQ Ephemera Collection
This collection of ephemera (brochures, clothing items, booklets, flyers, etc.) offers important insights into LGBTQ activism in Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the past decade. It includes 140 items (more than 2,000 pages) of valuable research materials collected by East View in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland and Serbia.
Asia and Middle East
China and the Modern World: Imperial China and the West, Part II, 1865–1905 [accompanies Part I, 1815-1881]
Provides access to British Foreign Office General Correspondence relating to China. The material relates to the internal politics of China and Britain, their relationship, and the relationships among other Western powers— keen to benefit from the growing trading ports of the Far East—and China’s neighbours in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
The FO 17 series provides a vast and significant resource for researching every aspect of China-West relations during the nineteenth century, ranging from diplomacy and war, to trade, piracy, riots and rebellions within China, international law, treaty ports and informal empire, transnational emigration, and translation and cross-cultural communication.
Want more? See also our Chinese Studies guide.
Foreign Office Files for Japan: Module III: Japan and Great Power Status, 1919-1930[accompanies Module II: Occupation of Japan 1946-1952]
Contains British Foreign Office files relating to Japan between 1919 and 1930. In 1919, as a vital member of the Allied Powers, Japan found itself occupying a new position of international power within a reorganized world order. The files in this section trace the development of this power and Japan’s relationship with the West during a decade of turbulent economic, political and social change in the wake of the First World War. Beginning with the Paris Peace Conference and the ‘Shantung Question’, the files offer insight into the events of the 1920s, from the termination of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the devastation of the Kantō Earthquake, and the end of the Taishō democracy, to the beginning of the Shōwa period, financial crisis and Japan’s increasingly imperialist policies in Manchuria.
Images including crown copyright images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England.
Want more? See our Japanese Studies guide.
East India Company Module 6: Board of Commissioners: Establishment of the Board [accompanies previous parts]
This module contains 1257 documents comprising of the correspondence of the Board of Commissioners along with IOR/Z/F/4 index volumes. These documents offer valuable insight into the Company’s decisions in the political, financial and military aspects of controlling the East India Company’s vast territory. It also places the India Office into the wider global context of the company’s influence.
Correspondence regarding the progress of vaccination in the Bengal Presidency, Apr-Nov 1812. East India Company, IOR/F/4/427. Adam Matthew
Highlights of Module 6 include:
- Letters regarding vaccination in Bengal IOR/F/4/427/10455
- Letters discussing the sample of Bourbon cotton sent to the Directors IOR/F/4/840/22475
- Material about the establishment of Hindu Colleges at Nadia in Bengal IOR/F/4/408/10172
- Communications between the Nepal government and the Court of the Chinese Emperor at Peking IOR/F/4/809/21721
- Discussion of the plants and seeds sent from the Calutta Botanic Garden to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew IOR/F/4/540/12989
- Documents relating ot the introduction of new native commissioned rank of Subador Major IOR/F/4/565/13914
Want more? See also our South Asia studies guide.
Baghdad Observer Digital Archive (1967-1996)
The official English-language newspaper of the Iraqi government from its establishment after the 1963 coup and through the Ba’athist period following 1968, until it ended publication in 2003 due to the Iraq War. It covered significant events in Middle Eastern history, including the Iranian Revolution (1978-1979), the presidency of Saddam Hussein (1979-2003), the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), and the Gulf War (1990-1991).
Palestine and Israel: Records of the US Department of State, 1945-1959 (Archives Unbound)
This archive traces the period that saw the end of the British mandate in Palestine. Documents address the role of the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations and that of the United States in the creation of the state of Israel. Included here are the Palestine Reference files of Dean Rusk and Robert McClintock, as well as documents from the Mission of the United States in Tel-Aviv. The years 1955-1959 contain instructions and correspondences of the U.S. Department of State.
Most of the State Department’s internal documentation as well as correspondence between the State Department and other federal departments and agencies, in addition to documents from private individuals and organizations, are included in the central files. Documents types comprise official and unofficial correspondence, inquiries, memoranda, situation reports and studies, special reports, and telegrams. The files offer insight into a range of subjects including the politics, laws, military, economy, industry, natural resources, public works, and media of Palestine and Israel. The documents in this collection are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State.
Egypt and the Rise of Nationalism
Includes more than 4,000 primary source documents from the UK National Archives relating to the period of the British military occupation in Egypt. Consisting of British Foreign Office, Cabinet Office and War Office files. This collection captures the development of nationalist sensibilities, movements, and publications in Egypt from the 1870s until the third decade of the twentieth century, culminating with the formal dissolution of the British protectorate in 1924.
Muteferriqa
An online research portal containing an exceptionally rich collection of printed materials published in the Ottoman Empire from the 18th to mid-20th century. It consists of virtually all the books and a large majority of periodicals ever printed in Ottoman Turkish.
Want more? See our Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies guide.
Africa
Apartheid South Africa 1948-1994. Section 1, 1948-1966
British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion, and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices. These previously restricted letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies and first-hand accounts of events give unprecedented access to the history of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The files explore the relationship of the international community with South Africa and chart increasing civil unrest against a backdrop of waning colonialism in Africa and mounting world condemnation.
Images including crown copyright images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Want more? See also our African Studies guide.
Britain and Europe
Bloomsbury Churchill Archive: Churchill Acquired Papers [accompanies Churchill Archives]
The Churchill Acquired Papers contain more than 1,700 documents, spanning previously unseen items such as personal letters, speech notes and diary entries. This resource further enhances the insights that the Churchill Archive has to offer.
- Notes for Churchill’s first political speech in 1897
- Letters sent during Churchill’s time at the Western Front in 1916
- The Prime Minister’s appointment diary for 1944
- Material regarding the bombing of Dresden in 1945
- Notes on Churchill’s famed Iron Curtain Speech of 1946
Want more? See also our History (British & West European) guide.
Eastern European LGBTQ Ephemera Collection
This collection of ephemera (brochures, clothing items, booklets, flyers, etc.) offers important insights into LGBTQ activism in Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the past decade. It includes 140 items (more than 2,000 pages) of valuable research materials collected by East View in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland and Serbia.
Klassiki
This is a video-on-demand platform which is dedicated exclusively to cinema from Eastern Europe – including Ukraine, Russia, and the Baltics – the Caucasus and Central Asia. Klassiki features a library of over 100 titles, spanning silent cinema to the 2020s, a film Pick of the Week feature, and a Journal area of related content including interviews, essays and national cinema overviews. A potentially useful resource to students of film, visual culture and modern languages.
You will need to register the first time you use this resource.
Want more? See also our Film Studies guide.
- our guides to history collections (LibGuides)
- Databases A-Z
- our Diigo library of bookmarked websites
Consisting of approximately twenty-five million pages, the UNESCO Memory of the World-listed archives of the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) offer a unique view on interactions between European and non-European actors in Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 5 million scans of the ‘Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren’ (1610-1796) of the VOC are now fully searchable. From early October 2023, a prototype of the GLOBALISE transcriptions viewer is online at: 
