Pride 2023

Happy Pride Month! To celebrate Pride, from 1st to 30th June, we have created a display using a range of e-books which focuses on the history and experiences of the LGBT+ community.

All of these e-books are available for Oxford University members to read remotely – just make sure you sign into SOLO with your ‘Single Sign On’ first. By clicking on the book covers below you can access the SOLO records of a few of the texts featured on our display.

For more information about upcoming events in Oxford celebrating Pride click here.

History Thesis Fair for undergraduates on 4 May (week 2): explore – discover – meet specialists

We are delighted to run the History Thesis Fair for second-year undergraduates this year. Come and meet over 50 specialists to talk about resources for your dissertation topic.

Thursday 4 May afternoon (week 2)

Colleges B-N: 2-3pm & College O-W: 3-4pm

North Writing School, Examination Schools

A collage of different archival materials to advertise the History Thesis Fair on Thurs 4 May 2023, afternoon. Colleges B-N 2-3pm. Colleges O-W 3-4pm. It's an opportunity to explpre, be curious, meet, network, and learn.

The Fair is an excellent opportunity for students to gain a wider perspective on the wealth and riches of research sources available for your field of study.

At the Fair you can learn about resources you may not yet have yet considered and meet the curators of collections who can guide you towards relevant material or useful finding tools.

Over 30 stalls will cover many areas:

  • Special Collections, libraries and archives, e.g.
    • Archives and Manuscripts 1500-1800
    • Archives and Modern Manuscripts 1800-
    • College Libraries (Special Collections)
    • College Archives’ Collections
    • Early Printed Books
    • Institute of Historical Research Library / Senate House Library
    • Oxford Brookes University Special Collections and Archives
    • Oxfordshire History Centre
    • UK Government and International Intergovernmental Publications
  • Topical stalls, e.g.
    • Biography
    • Community History
    • Digital Scholarship
    • Disability History
    • Legal History
    • LGBTQ+ History
    • History of Science & Medicine
    • Oxford and Empire
    • and more
  • Geographical stalls, e.g.
    • Africa & Commonwealth
    • East Asia & South Asia
    • Eastern Europe and Russia
    • Great Britain & West Europe
    • Middle East, Hebrew & Judaica, Caucus & Central Asia
    • Latin America
    • United States

You will also have an opportunity to speak to other students who have previously written dissertations and learn about their TOP 10 TIPS.

The format of the Fair encourages you to explore and discover new materials at your own pace, to be curious, to network and to make connections to experts and their peers while also learning about creative use of sources in Digital Scholarship.

Accessibility

The main entrance to the Examination Schools is stepped. There is a ramped entrance immediately to the left of the main entrance. There is lift access throughout the building, two wheelchair accessible toilets and hearing support systems that can be deployed where needed throughout the building. Most areas of the building have level access.

The accessible toilet is gender neutral and is at the bottom of the staircase opp. Room 8.

If you have any queries, please email library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Get yourself kitted out for your research 

Hand cupping a seedling.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Doing research on your thesis also means that you will need to learn new skills, deepening your knowledge of resources and sources and how to go about locating and using them.

To help you on this exciting journey, the library has organised a series of talks, classes, and workshops which are designed to

  1. Upskill your information searching and research skills;
  2. Learn about the rich sources available to them in Oxford (and beyond) and know how to access them;
  3. Learn how to handle the material, incl. archives, correct citation practices, ethical research practice, etc.;
  4. Get to know relevant experts in Oxford libraries and archives.

Check out the classes and workshops set up for you to help you learn the skills you will need.

Calling 2nd year UG historians: get ready for your thesis research in Trinity Term

Hand cupping a seedling.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Throughout Trinity term, the library is offering a range of classes and talks (History Faculty Canvas – restricted access) designed to support Oxford second-year UG historians who are working towards their thesis.

It’s a very exciting time for all budding historians, as it offers you the opportunity to engage in primary research on a subject of your own devising, and to work out arguments which are entirely your own (not a synthesis of the conclusions of others). You will work as a historical scholar in your own right and will taste the kind of academic work undertaken professionally by your tutors. To understand more about the requirements and support for your thesis, check out the History Faculty guidance on the compulsory thesis (History Faculty Canvas – restricted access).

Doing research on your thesis also means that you will need to learn new skills, deepening your knowledge of resources and sources and how to go about locating and using them.

To help you on this exciting journey, the library has organised a series of talks, classes, workshops and a Thesis Fair which are designed to

  1. Upskill your information searching and research skills;
  2. Learn about the rich sources available to them in Oxford (and beyond) and know how to access them;
  3. Learn how to handle the material, incl. archives, correct citation practices, ethical research practice, etc.;
  4. Get to know relevant experts in Oxford libraries and archives.

THE TRAINING SCHEDULE

Snippet of a calendar

Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay

Most sessions require SSO for bookings.

Some are open to other members of the University.

Others (*) are exclusively aimed at undergraduates of the History Faculty, University of Oxford.

If you have any queries regarding these or have problems with registration, please email library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

*Researching Bibliography – Wed 26 April 2023 @ 2-3pm (week 1)

This online session aims to give you a head start on the skills you will need to track down secondary literature and primary source material for your thesis. A range of library catalogues, databases, web portals and more will be explored to help you make the best use of your time.

*Researching Archives – Wed 3 May @ 2-3.30pm (week 2) – In person, Lecture Theatre, Weston Library

This in-person talk provides an introduction to using archives for research and will cover:

  • defining archives
  • archival arrangement
  • the practicalities of working with archival material
  • finding relevant archives
  • archives in the Bodleian, the University and further afield
  • web archives.

No booking required.

Optional: after the talk, join a 20mins tour to learn how to navigate the Weston Library, what facilities and reading rooms there are. Booking is essential as there are only 12 spaces. Book a place on the Weston Library tour.

*History Thesis Fair – Thurs 4 May @ 2-4pm (week 2) – In person, North Writing School, Exam Schools

This highly popular Fair has Librarians, Academics, Information Skills advisors, Subject Specialists and lots more covering many different subjects and aspects of your Thesis prep. Come and talk to dedicated specialists and find out what there is on offer in Oxford and further afield! If you are in a college beginning letters B-N, please come at 2pm; all other colleges should try to come at 3pm – but if you can’t make it during your time slot, just come when you can.

Referencing: Choosing and using software for referencing (Bodleian iSkills)Fri 5 May @ 9.30am-12.30pm (week 2)

Formatting your in text citations, footnotes and bibliography correctly for your thesis or publication is a chore. Reference management software makes it easier and saves you time. This introductory session gives an overview of how reference management works, explores the advantages and disadvantages of a range of software packages and gives you the opportunity to try out three different packages (RefWorks, EndNote and Zotero) so that you can work out which one is best for you.

Online Resources for Historians (Bodleian iSkills) – Thurs 11 May @ 2.3.30pm (week 3)

A general online introduction to the vast range of electronic resources which are available for all historical periods of British and Western European history. Learning outcomes are to: Gain an overview of some of the key online resources for Medieval, Early Modern and Modern British and Western European History. Know how to access subscription resources. Gain awareness of key examples of useful resources: bibliographic databases; reference sources; primary sources; maps; audio-visual resources, and data sources.

*Research Skills for your Thesis: a workshop – Wed 17 May @ 2-4pm (week 4)

This classroom-based session is designed to equip you with key information skills in order to make best use of electronic information and discovery resources. A range of finding aids and databases will be explored, as well as advanced search techniques which can be used in SOLO and other online search tools. There will be practical exercises which are designed to start work on your research.

Newspapers and other online news sources from the 17th-20th centuries (Bodleian iSkills) – Thurs 18 May @ 2-3.30pm (week 4)

Newspapers are a valuable resource for researching not only news but also many other aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life. In this online session we will introduce key online sources of news and how to make best use of them. The focus will be on historical and contemporary newspapers from the 17th century across most countries of the world.

Referencing: Zotero (Bodleian iSkills) – Fri 19 May @ 9.30am-12.30pm (week 4)

Zotero is a reference management tool that helps you build libraries of references and add citations and bibliographies to word processed documents using your chosen citation style. This classroom-based introduction covers the main features of Zotero with the opportunity for practical exercises.

Information Resources for Modern Global History (Bodleian iSkills) – Tues 23 May @ 11.15am-1pm (week 5)

This in-person session introduces key archival, printed and electronic resources, such as finding aids, bibliographic resources and primary sources for post-1800 global history. The focus will be on non-European history but will draw predominantly on English and European language resources.

State Papers Online: an introduction to documents on Tudor and Stuart society, life, and government (Bodleian iSkills) – Thurs 25 May @ 2-3.30pm (week 5)

State Papers Online I – IV: The Tudors, Stuarts & Commonwealth 1509-1714 (Foreign & Domestic) is a database containing everyday working papers of the British royal government. They bring to life Tudor and Stuart society and government, religion and politics in all its drama, allowing scholars to trace the remarkable – and frequently violent – transformations of the 16th & 17th centuries. The papers are digitised images and are accompanied by the Calendars. The demonstration will show how to search for and browse. Drawing on the Weston Library’s own collection of State Papers, the session will show case of an original example.

*Sources for Medieval History – Thurs 1 June @ 2-3.30pm (week 6)

This online session provides a general overview of a wide range of e-resources relevant for British and Western European medieval history: bibliographical databases, biographical/reference tools, web portals and collections of online primary source materials of Anglo-Saxon sources, chronicles, charters and more.

Sources for US History (Bodleian iSkills) – Tues 6 June 2023 @ 2-3.30pm (week 7)

An online introduction to primary sources for the study of American history, from the colonial period to the 20th Century. The session will provide an overview of the different kinds of information sources (early printed books, newspapers, databases and official records), and guidance on locating material for research. Collections highlighted include physical materials available in Oxford, Bodleian databases and other online resources.

Guides to resources, 1-1 sessions & more training

A woman and man sitting together in front of laptops.

Image by Tammy Duggan-Herd from Pixabay

A wide-range of guides on history resources can help you find key print and online resources for your subject.

If you need more specialist and tailored support, check out the list of Bodleian Libraries’ subject librarians and experts. In one-to-one sessions, subject librarians can discuss in detail which resources are best for your topic.

For information about other training opportunities, such as palaeography or languages, check out Research Training for Historians.

There are more Bodleian iSkills workshops and IT Services run many sessions designed to improve your digital skills.

Re-trial until 25 April: Early Modern England: Society, Culture & Everyday Life, 1500-1700

We decided to repeat a trial of Early Modern England: Society, Culture & Everyday Life, 1500-1700. The trial ends 25 April.

This resource offers access to rare and invaluable sources for examining the lived experience of people in England between 1500 and 1700. From ‘ordinary’ people through to more prominent individuals and families, these documents show how everyday working, family, religious and administrative life was experienced across England.

Rather than dealing specifically with the great political and religious upheavals of these years, the project aims to look at the everyday happenings of people in different parts of England.

What topics can you research?

The sources are useful for the study of many aspects of life in early modern England. They include:

  • Agriculture
  • Arts, literature and culture
  • Births, marriages and deaths
  • Family life and relationships
  • Finance
  • Foreign affairs
  • Health and medicine
  • Land and property
  • Law and order
  • Monarchy
  • Politics and government
  • Possessions
  • Poverty
  • Religion
  • Scholarship: science and humanities
  • Trade and economics
  • Travel
  • War
  • Women’s history
  • Work and employment

What type of documents are included?

These experiences are revealed through a wide range of materials including legal records, family correspondence, tax records, administrative records, wills, inventories, petitions, military papers and commonplace books and more.

There is a strong material culture element to this project with the inclusion of images of everyday objects used in early modern households. Many can be viewed in 360-degree rotation.3 early modern objects: cream coloured cap, a chamberpot, a fire bellowsWhich regions are covered?

The different collections of documents enable a regional comparison, for example with court records from the South East, London, the West Midlands and the North West.A guide to the different collections incl. Commonplace books, local legal documents, quarter sessions, archives, etc.Searching

You can browse or search in many different ways. Useful are, for instance, indices for names, themes, regions and places.

The resource also offers searching of manuscripts using Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technology. This is still a developing area and results may not always be perfect.

Tell us what you think

The trial ends on 25 April. While there currently is no funding for this resource, your feedback is still helpful to gauge interest amongst the scholarly community. Please email  isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to comment on the usefulness of the content, who would benefit from it and whether the searching functionality is adequate.

Bibliographie de l’histoire de France (BHF) now in Databases A-Z

Snippted from Eugène Delacroix's La Liberté guidant le peuple (1830): A woman of the people with a Phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads a varied group of people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen.

Snippet from Eugène Delacroix’s La Liberté guidant le peuple (1830)

Are you looking for critical readings on French history? The Bibliographie de l’histoire de France (formerly Bibliographie annuelle de l‘histoire de France) will be able to help you.

BHF is a freely accessible bibliographic and historiographical tool for anyone interested in the history of France. It indexes a large number of French and foreign journals and lists articles, monographs, collective works (whose content is systematically detailed) and theses as well as websites relating to the history of France from the fifth century to 1995.

Please note that this is a work in progress. The paper volumes (1953 to 2012) will be gradually added online.

You can browse by author, quoted person / organisation, subject, period and geographical location:

screenshot from BHF showing advanced search: quoted person/ organisation, author, language, subject, geographical location, period.This resource is now listed in Databases A-Z > History > Finding Critical Literature and will very shortly be in SOLO also.

While you are here:

Check out our guides to

Easter Vacation Loans 2023

As we enter the final week of Hilary Term, our Easter vacation borrowing begins today on standard loan items. Items can be taken out throughout the vacation with a due date of Monday 24th April in week one of Trinity Term. Loan limits will increase on Thursday 9th March to allow for 20 items to be taken out over this period and short loans can also be borrowed from Thursday as vacation loans. We hope you have a lovely break.

Women’s History Month 2023

To mark Women’s History Month, from 1st to 31st March, we have produced a display from our collections which focuses on first-hand accounts of women throughout history.

As well as physical books we also have a selection of e-books exploring the personal histories of women. The following texts are available online for Oxford University members to read remotely – just make sure you sign into SOLO with your ‘Single Sign On’ first. Click on the book cover below to access the SOLO record.

For more information about upcoming events in Oxford celebrating women click here.

New: Africa and the New Imperialism

Faded image of a black person superimposed over a manuscript excerpts and photo of a small steam boat.We are delighted to report that Oxford researchers now have access to Africa and the New Imperialism.

This Adam Matthew Digital resource documents the period of rapid colonial expansion by European powers across the African continent during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Many documents come from the Bodleian Libraries collections, esp. the Papers of Frederick Dealtry Lugard, Baron Lugard of Abinger.

As well as digitised archives, diaries, logbooks, minutes, official records, petitions, reports, telegrams, and more, the resource has rich visual resources, such as maps, photographs, artwork, and film.

[From the Adam Matthew Digital: Nature and Scope]
From the accounts of missionaries and European explorers navigating the interior of the continent in the early nineteenth century; to the rise in European desire for increased power, empire and wealth culminating in the Berlin Conference 1885-1886; to the subsequent power struggles, negotiations and conflicts that raged across the continent at the turn of the twentieth century, the documents within Africa and the New Imperialism charts Africa’s encounters with European imperialist regimes and their impact on the lives of peoples across the continent.

Some collection highlights:

  • Diaries, journals and sketch books from key figures including David Livingstone, John Kirk and James Augustus Grant, whose sketchbooks from his Nile expedition are illustrated with watercolours of landscapes and peoples he encountered.
  • The journals of British soldier Major General Charles Gordon, which includes his final journal written before the fall of Khartoum to the Mahdist forces led by Muhammad Ahmad of Sudan.
  • Correspondence from Roger Casement and the resulting Casement Report which investigated, and confirmed, the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State under King Leopold II.
  • British Foreign Office files for the Berlin Conference, the event which ignited the spark of late-nineteenth century European imperialist efforts across Africa, including papers relating to European intervention in the Congo, the involvement of Belgium and Germany, and the Malet papers which include the private correspondence of Sir Edward Baldwin Malet who was the British Ambassador to the German court, 1884-1895.
  • The papers, photographs and correspondence of Frederick Lugard, a British soldier and administrator in Africa, covering British involvement in East Africa and West Africa from the 1870s to the early twentieth century. These are along with the papers of journalist and colonial commentator, Flora Shaw, Lugard’s wife.
  • Correspondence, journals and reports from French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza that provide insight into his expeditions to the Congo Basin; the establishment of the French Congo; de Brazza’s administration of the French Congo as Commissioner General; and de Brazza’s 1904 investigation into injustice, forced labour and brutality within the French Congo.
  • London Missionary Society correspondence from Central Africa and Matabeleland, including first-hand accounts of audiences with King Lobengula of the Ndebele people and the activities of the British South Africa Company controlled by Cecil Rhodes.
  • Imperialism
  • Slavery and forced labour
  • Diplomacy
  • Religion and missionaries
  • Race and ethnicity
  • War and violence
  • Resistance to colonialism
  • Technology and infrastructure

Each document within Africa and the New Imperialism has been tagged with a region. These regions have been designated in consultation with our editorial board, they are broad and are intended to provide support in browsing and navigating the documents presented within this resource. However, due to the nature of the material, many documents cover several regions and where this is the case, the most relevant regions have been added; there may be more regions covered by events within documents.

  • Central Africa
  • East Africa
  • Horn of Africa
  • North Africa
  • Southern Africa
  • West Africa
  • Rest of the World

Source libraries and archives

  • Archives nationales d’outre-mer
  • Bibliothèque nationale de France
  • Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
  • British Film Institute
  • British Library
  • National Library of Scotland
  • Sanford Museum, Florida
  • School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
  • Senate House Library, University of London
  • The National Archives, UK
  • University of Birmingham Library

A variety of research tools provide further contextual information or guidance for teaching and research. From Essays and Biographies to Guide to Regions and Places and Guide to the Archival Collections, explore the options under Research Tools or view the full list in Teaching Tools.

Also of interest:

Finding critical readings on colonial history:

Key source databases

See Databases A-Z for more and our LibGuides on African newspapers.

The Royal College of Physicians – Part I (Wiley Digital Archives)

Search screen of Wiley Digital Archive Royal College of Physician Part 1.Great news! Wiley is making the The Royal College of Physicians – Part I (Wiley Digital Archives) available to Jisc members in perpetuity as a gesture of thanks for participating in the Wiley transitional agreement in 2022. History of medicine researchers can now benefit from access to this resource.

The Royal College of Physicians – Part I (Wiley Digital Archives) will be of most interest to those studying history of Western medicine covering the 12th century to 1862. The archive is useful for researchers studying the history of anatomy, folk medicine, herbal medicine, healers and domestic medicine, medical law and policy, medical research (disease/treatment), medical and biological Illustration, and health education during the early modern and parts of the modern period.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) was founded so that physicians could be formally licensed to practise and those who were not qualified could be exposed and punished. There are many archive records defining the RCP’s changing role in setting standards in medical practice. RCP members have always collected manuscripts and papers on a wide range of medical and non-medical topics.

The Royal College of Physicians – Part I includes content from the 12th century to 1862, though some papers are dated later. Most of the collections are from British sources. A notable exception is the (Arthur Stanley) Tritton Oriental Manuscripts collection, which contains early Arabic medical manuscripts.

Important papers relate to William Harvey, Edward Jenner, John Latham, Thomas Lawrence, and other physicians. Papers will typically include notebooks containing medical extracts and observations, prescriptions, lecture notes, admissions tickets, diaries, correspondence, treatises, etc. Collections of 17th and 18th century polymaths may also include history of science material (e.g. John Dee on astronomy or mathematics).

The rest of Part I contains papers relating to the founding and running of the RCP itself and throw light on the history of the professionalisation of the medical profession. There are records relating to college officers & staff, education, examination, finance, events, legal status, estates records, trusts & bequests, membership, professional affairs, Regulation of Clinical Practice and Standards, and the college library.

Also of interest: