Tag Archives: 19th century

New: online access to Deutsche Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger 1819-1945

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Oxford reseachers now have access to the digitised Deutsche Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger 1819-1945. It is listed in Databases A-Z and will soon also appear in SOLO.

The Deutsche Reichsanzeiger and Preußische Staatsanzeiger was a newspaper that appeared until April 1945 and acted as the official press organ of the state of Prussia and then the German Reich. The history of the newspaper goes back to 2 January 1819, changing title and scope in the course of time. Included in this online resource are:

  • Allgemeine Preußische Staats-Zeitung, 1819 (1) (2 January) – 1843 (179) (30 June)
  • Allgemeine Preußische Zeitung, 1843 (1) (1 July) – 1848 (119) (30 April)
  • Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, 1848 (1) (1/3 May) – 1851 (179) (30 June)
  • Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, 1851 (1) (1 July) – 1871 (116) (2 May)
  • Deutscher Reichs-Anzeiger und Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, 1871 (1) (4 May) – 1918 (267) (9 November)
  • Deutscher Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger, 1918 (268) (12 November) – 1945 (49) (14 April)

The content also changed over time. Alongside interesting government-controlled editorial sections, the value of this resource lies in an enormous treasure of orderly gathered microdata.  While the gazette published official government notices, in the course of the second half of the 19th century it also published details relating to trade and commerce (e.g. bankruptcies) and between 1873 and Deb 1943 also stock market information.

Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, no. 3, 4 January 1871

This resource will also be of interest to those engaged in genealogical studies in Germany in as far as it published extensive lists of casualties during the First World War and expatriation lists during the Third Reich.

Deutscher Reichs-Anzeiger und Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, no 137, 13 June 1916

The text is in German Gothic script. You can zoom in and out to enlarge the text and easily create a snippet image to save or print out. Full-text searching is possible also.

Also of interest:

New: The Waterloo Directories of English, Irish and Scottish Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900 (series 3)

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Oxford researchers working on Victorian periodical literature may have noticed the recent absence of our access to Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900 (Oxford researchers only).

 

I am very pleased report that access to a more updated online version (series 3) is now available to our readers via Databases A-Z and also via SOLO shortly.

Furthermore, you will now also have online access to The Waterloo Directory of Irish Newspapers and Periodicals:1800-1900 (series 3) and The Waterloo Directory of Scottish Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900 (series 3).

Please note these doesn’t work well with Internet Explorer (IE).

All three resources are an alphabetical listing and description of 19th century newspaper and periodical publications in England, Scotland and Ireland covering all fields, including the arts, sciences, culture, professions, industry, finance, trades, labour, agriculture, entertainment, sports, church, women and children.

Between them, the directories include approximately 86,000 titles from 4,600 towns, lists 85,000 personal names and covers over 2,000 subjects.

As well as being an ongoing project to record the bibliographic record of Victorian periodical publications, tracking innumerable title changes for instance, it is indispensable for those studying the all-important context of periodical literature during an important historical period.

Each entry provides details of how and where the title is indexed, title changes, editor, proprietor/publisher/printer, key contributors, political and religious orientation, size, price, circulation, and frequency. It is therefore a useful resource to discover the editorial policy and political leanings of newspapers.

There is some overlap between the three directories, especially where a periodical was issued from multiple or different locations in the course of time.

The resource can be searched by title, issuing body, people, town, county, and subject as well as combine searches in advanced searching or doing a global searching.

It is currently not possible to search across all three Directories.

Also useful:

New: BelgicaPress – digitised Belgian newspapers 1831-1950

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Landing page of Belgica Press, showing the search box and some introductory information which is at https://www.belgicapress.be/On 24 April, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek België (Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Royal Library of Belgium) launched BelgicaPress, an online resource providing access to nine digitised historical Belgian newspapers. Over 4 million pages have been digitised. They cover 1831 to 1950 for the following newspapers:

L’Echo De La Presse, Gazet Van Brussel, Het Handelsblad, L’Indépendance Belge (printed in Britain), Le Messager De Gand, De Nieuwe Gids, De Nieuwe Standaard and Het Nieuws Van Den Dag.

However, only content before 1919 is freely accessible over the internet. That is still an amazing 1.2 million pages and particularly good news for 19th century and World War I historians.

How do you spot free content? In your search results list, look out for:BelgicaPress - screenshot - online availableContent after 1919 can only be consulted in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek België itself. And how do you spot those? In your search results list, look out for:

BelgicaPress - screenshot - available in KB onlyThanks to OCR, the content is full-text searchable. However, I have found it somewhat temperamental. For instance, Hitler also retrieves bitter and Ritter.

Once you have an image on the screen, you can zoom in really well and you can pick up a permalink. I particularly like the ability to select a section which then automatically gets enlarged. A nice touch.

Despite a few niggles, this resource should be hugely welcomed by researchers and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek België should be praised for its work.

As it’s so useful, it is now also listed in Databases A-Z and SOLO.

Related resources:

[updated 3 August 2023]

New: Records relating to the slave trade at the Liverpool Record Office

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I am pleased to report that Oxford users now access to the online Records relating to the slave trade at the Liverpool Record Office (British Online Archives: British Records on the Atlantic World, 1700-1900) via SOLO and Databases A-Z.

Records relating to the slave trade at the Liverpool Record Office - pamphlet

This full-text database provides access to one of the best collections in British archives of private merchants’ papers relating to the transatlantic slave trade.

Liverpool was the leading slave trading port in the world in the eighteenth century when these documents were compiled.

 

The material includes

  • correspondence with ship captains and Caribbean agents about the acquisition of Africans and their sale; statistics on the Liverpool slave trade
  • sales accounts of the lots of Africans disembarked in the Americas, often with the names of purchasers and prices; information on dealings with diverse African groups along the coast of West Africa; and details of payments for slave sales.
  • account books of ships’ voyages with material on the outfitting of vessels and the cargoes of goods exported to Africa.
  • Records of the wealthy merchant and banker, Thomas Leyland (c.1752-1827), who was three times Mayor of Liverpool.
  • Letters by the slave trade captain, John Newton (1725-1807), who later became a clergyman, the composer of the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’, and a prominent abolitionist.

Other useful resources

Enjoy! If you have any problems, please contact library staff.

Launched: Welsh Newspapers Online (beta)

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Great news! Yesterday the beta version of Welsh Newspapers Online was launched.

Welsh Newspapers Online (http://welshnewspapers.llgc.org.uk) is a free online resource from the National Library of Wales where readers can discover millions of articles from the Library’s rich collection of historical newspapers.  It’s a great resource for esp. 19th century research. Over 250,000 pages from 24 newspaper publications are currently accessible and the aim is to provide over 1 million pages during 2013. Newspapers include Aberystwyth Observer, South Wales Star, Aberdare Times, Celt (Bala) and many others.

It will be added to SOLO and OxLIP+ shortly.

welsh newspapers online

New: Queen Victoria’s Journals (1832-1901)

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Sample from a journal page in Queen Victoria’s handwriting

Queen Victoria’s Journals is a website which reproduces every page of the surviving volumes of Queen Victoria’s journals (including draft volumes and copies made by Lord Esher and Princess Beatrice). It provides full transcriptions and keyword searching of the journal entries covering the period from Queen Victoria’s first diary entry in July 1832 to 13 January 1901. In total 141 volumes of her journal survive, numbering 43,765 pages.

As well as detailing household and family matters, the journals reflect affairs of state, describe meetings with statesmen and other eminent figures, and comment on the literature of the day. They represent a valuable primary source for scholars of nineteenth century British political and social history and for those working on gender and autobiographical writing.

Queen Victoria’s sketch of the children

This website reproduces as high-resolution colour images, every page of the surviving volumes of Queen Victoria’s journals, along with separate photographs of the many illustrations and inserts within the pages.

Each page is also being meticulously transcribed and re-keyed, allowing for journals to be searched. At the time of launch, only a portion of the transcribed text will be available. More transcriptions are being added regularly as the project progresses.

The project to digitize Queen Victoria’s Journals has been undertaken in partnership with the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, the Royal Archives, London and Proquest. The release of Queen Victoria’s Journals has been timed to coincide with the celebrations to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II – the only British Monarch other than Queen Victoria to have reigned for 60 years.

The Queen Victoria’s Journals website is mobile-compliant and can be viewed from all iPhones, Blackberry and Android phones.  The website is supported by a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/queenvictoriasjournals and Twitter at @QueenVictoriaRI.

Oxford users: it will shortly be added to OxLIP+.

Related websites:

Bodleian Libraries news: HM the Queen launches online resource of all Queen Victoria’s Journals 

BBC: Diamond Jubilee: Queen Victoria’s diaries go online (with little video clip)

The Independent: Queen Victoria’s diaries to go online

The Guardian: Queen Victoria’s private journals published online