Category Archives: Collections

Updates on new collections, monthly acquisitions, etc.

Earth Day

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Banner with a logo reading: "Earthday.org." The background is a digital drawing of a sunset over the ocean.

To raise awareness about the ecological impact of human activity, Earth Day has been held every April 22nd since 1970. The campaign aims to encourage the larger structural change necessary to address the factors responsible for environmental crisis throughout the world, as well as more local practices. Recognising that the heaviest burden of environmental disaster will fall on the most vulnerable and marginalised populations before all else, the campaign also stresses the importance of including these communities in the movement and giving voice to their concerns.

A display has been arranged in the Upper Gladstone Link in Radcliffe Camera, consisting of History Faculty Library material. It addresses the past of human environmental intervention, as well as featuring current and future issues. This display also includes relevant e-resources, which can be accessed by clicking on the book cover pictures further below.

Accessing these e-resource materials will require a Single-Sign-On Login for Oxford University members. External readers will need to log in with their Bodleian accounts while using the Bodleian libraries network (either the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or using the reader PCs within the library.)

Book cover for "Wild by Design" by Laura J. Martin featuring leaf designs.
Book cover for "Toxic Water Toxic System: Environmental Racism and Michigan's Water War" by M. Mascarenhas featuring a photograph of protesters set to a warm-toned gradient
Book cover for "Environmental thought in The Greco-Roman World" O. D. Cordovana featuring a mosaic of a griffin/chimera
Book cover for "Colonial Seeds in African Soil: A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone" featuring a black and white photograph of a boy in a forested landscape.
Book cover for "Civilizing Nature: National Parks in Global Historical Perspective" by B. Gissibl, S. Hohler and P. Kupper featuring a photograph of a Rhino being airlifted in a grassy landscape.
Book cover for "The Ends of the Earth" edited by D. Worster, featuring a block colour print-style illustration of a fisherman in front of a lake set in front of mountains on a yellow background.
Book cover for "An Environmental History of Australian Rainforests Until 1939" by W. Frost, featuring green repeating floral patterns.
Book cover for "Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in San Fransisco" by L. Dillon, featuring a photograph of a powerplant against the sky.
Banner with a logo reading: "Earthday.org." The background is a digital drawing of a sunrise over the ocean.

Women’s History Month

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Banner reading "International Women's day" in white text inside a black box. This box is paired with ink illustrations of flowers in black and white, as well as flecks of gold in the background. A sun design in the same gold rests in the middle of the image.

International Women’s day is an annual event that occurs on March 8th, aiming to commemorate the achievements of women while also advocating for gender equality. To celebrate this, the History Faculty Library at the Radcliffe Camera has arranged a display in the Upper Gladstone Link for Women’s History Month that will be held until the end of March.

This year, the display is focusing on women in the visual arts throughout history, specifically as active participants in the discipline: creators, curators, critics and patrons.

Photograph of women's history month display. The book titles include, from the top left: Women, art and patronage from Henry III to Edward III, 1216-1377 by Loveday Lewes Gee, Vision and difference : femininity, feminism and the histories of art by Griselda Pollock, Old mistresses : women, art and ideology by Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock, Women and art in early modern Europe : patrons, collectors, and connoisseurs edited by Cynthia Lawrence, Women and visual culture in early nineteenth-century France 1800-1852 by Gen Doy, Women in the Victorian art world edited by Clarissa Campbell Orr, The obstacle race : the fortunes of women painters and their work by Germaine Greer, Women artists : recognition and reappraisal from the early Middle Ages to the twentieth century by Karen Petersen and J. J. Wilson, Women, art, and society by Whitney Chadwick, Pre-raphaelite women artists vy Jan Marsh & Pamela Gerrish Nunn, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1755-1842 by Joseph Baillio and Our hidden heritage : five centuries of women artists by Eleanor Tufts.

In addition to the display in the Radcliffe Camera, a series of 8 e-books have also been selected according to this theme. Click on any of the pictures below to be taken to the SOLO record for each resource. Accessing the materials will require a Single-Sign-On Login for Oxford University members. External readers will need to log in with their Bodleian accounts while using the Bodleian libraries network (either the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or using the reader PCs within the library.)

Book cover of "Angelica Kauffman: Art and Sensibility" by Angela Rosenthal, which includes a self-portait of the artist in warm brown tones.
Book cover for "Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art" by Christopher Marshall. It includes a self-portrait of the artist as St. Catherine of Alexandria.
Book cover for " Berthe Morisot's Images of Women " by Anne Higonnet. Includes self-portrait of the artist in a yellow dress, the image is surrounded by a blue background.
Book cover for "Tamara de Lempicka" by Patrick Bade. The cover includes the painting by the artist titled " The green Turban" which depicts two women leaning against one another.
Book cover of " Mary Cassatt : a life" by Nancy Mowll Mathews. The cover includes a self-portrait of the artist in a white dress lounging against a sofa with a beige background.
Book cover of "Modern women artists in the Nordic countries, 1900-1960" by Kerry Greaves. It includes an abstract experssionist painting in various jewel tones and alternating white and burgandy text and background beneath the painting.
Book cover for " Sturtevant : Warhol Marilyn" by Patricia Lee. The cover includes the famous portrait of Marilyn on a white background with black text.
Book cover for "Women artists of the harlem renaissance" edited by Helen Hirschke. It features an art noveau- style figure in black and white with text above in ombres of red and black.

Trial until 29 March: British Colonial Policy and Intelligence Files on Asia and the Middle-East, c. 1880-1950

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We are currently trialling British Colonial Policy and Intelligence Files on Asia and the Middle-East, c. 1880-1950 from De Gruyter. 

The files detail British colonial administration and intelligence gathering. They comprise a wide variety of papers received from the Government of India Foreign Department and other sources in India, and from the Foreign Office in London, together with India Office-generated minuting, comment and replies.

“British Legation/Embassy, Tehran. Military Attaché’s Intelligence Summaries. Foreign Office, London, Confidential Print.” In British Intelligence and Policy on Persia (Iran), c. 1900–1949. Leiden: De Gruyter, 2024. https://www-degruyter-com.ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/database/IRAN/entry/iran.L_PS_12_3504/html

The files are divided into collections as follows:

You can access the trial via the New/Trial databases on Databases A-Z and it will run until 29th March 2025. 

Please send feedback and comments to Emma Mathieson, Lydia Wright and Mamtimyn Sunuodula.

LGBT+ History Month 2025

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In the UK, February marks LGBT+ History month, an initiative started by the education charity Schools OUT. Now in its twentieth year, the month provides an opportunity for LGBTQ+ people from a variety of backgrounds to explore their histories. You can learn more about the national campaign here.

This year, our display highlights some lesser known queer stories in history, from the medieval islamicate world to Brighton in the 50s and 60s. Be sure to check out the physical books on display, as well as our e-book display below.

Oxford University members can access all e-books remotely by signing into SOLO with their ‘Single Sign On.’ Click on the book covers below to view the SOLO records for some of the featured texts.

Our physical display includes:

  1. Black on Both Sides : A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton.
  2. Re-Dressing: America’s Frontier Past by Peter Boag.
  3. Daring Hearts : Lesbian and Gay Lives of 50s and 60s Brighton by The Brighton Ourstory Project.
  4. Male Colors : The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan by Gary P. Leupp.
  5. Masculinity, Class and Same-sex Desire in Industrial England, 1895-1957 by Helen Smith.
  6. Islamicate Sexualities : Translations Across Temporal Geographies of Desire, edited by Kathryn Babayan and Afsaneh Najmabadi.
  7. Female Masculinity by Jack Halberstam.
  8. The Pink Triangle by Richard Plant.
  9. True Sex : The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Emily Skidmore.
  10. Autobiography of an Androgyne by Ralph Werther/Earl Lind, edited by Scott Herring.
  11. Intimate Friends : Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928 by Martha Vicinus.
  12. Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson.
  13. Gay Life and Culture : A World History by Robert Aldrich.
  14. Good as You by Paul Flynn.
  15. It’s Not Unusual: A History of Lesbian and Gay Britain in the Twentieth Century by Alkarim Jivani.
  16. Out on Stage by Alan Sinfield.

History of Writing

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Banner reading "History of Writing" in black text over a light grey background. In the background, there are illustrations in white depicting: a lighthouse with a wave next to it, a bouquet of violets, and a manor surrounded by blighted trees and framed by heather flowers and buds.

This January marks the birth month of many widely acclaimed writers, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, J.D. Salinger, Virginia Woolf, Anne Brontë, A. Milne, Edgar Alan Poe, Isaac Asimov and many more contemporary writers like Haruki Murakami. It is also the beginning of the 250th year since Jane Austen’s birth, which will be celebrated in December 2025.

To celebrate this, a display showcasing the history of writing has been prepared in the Radcliffe Camera. It will follow the broad history of writing as a medium of storytelling, from ancient times to the modern world as well as the print and publishing processes that go along with it. An e-book display, which can be accessed below by clicking on the book cover pictures, goes into more detail with the historical context of the writers mentioned above, as well as following the histories of writing outside of Europe.

These e-book resources can be accessed via SOLO, which will require an Oxford University SSO login. Alternatively, they can be used through a Bodleian reader account for external readers who can access the material by connecting to the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or logging on to the reader PCs within the library.

Book cover for "Virginia Woolf in context" edited by Bryony Randall. Cover includes a sketch of Virginia Woolf in the background.
Version 1.0.0
Book cover for "Tolkien the medievalist" edited by Jane Chance. Cover depicts a medieval manuscript style ink illustration of a procession of people walking over a precarious bridge with dismembered bodies in the water below.
Book cover for "Routledge Handbook of Ancient, Classical and Late Classical Persian Literature" Photograph on cover depicts architecture with a dome and columns behind a canal.
Book cover for "J. D. Salinger's The catcher in the rye : a cultural history" by Josef Benson. Background depicts a photograph of carousel horses edited in red.
Book cover for "East of Delhi: Multilingual Literary Culture and World Literature" by Francesca Orsini. Gold text on a burgundy background.
Book cover for "Bleak houses : marital violence in Victorian fiction" by Lisa Surridge. Illustration depicts a sketch of a man holding a sword while throwing a newspaper at a woman on the floor in bandages.
Book cover of 'A history of Chinese literature' by Zhang Longxi, with an illustration of trees and mountains done in ink.
Book cover for "A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe" edited by J. Gerald Kennedy. Depicts an illustration of a woman lying in a bed with flowers.
Banner reading "History of Writing" in black text over a light grey background. In the background, there are illustrations in white depicting: a raven on a branch with twigs and branches in the background and a dragon on a pile of sparkling treasure including goblets, crowns and jewels.

Trial until 1 Jan 2025: Trade in Early Modern: London Livery Company Records, 1450-1750

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Home page of Trade in Early Modern London: Livery Company Records, 1450-1750. Showing decorative digitised documents and a single search screen.

(c) AM. Trade in Early Modern London: Livery Company Records, 1450-1750

Trade in Early Modern: London Livery Company Records, 1450-1750 is useful for the study of the history of early modern London through the lens of the livery companies and trade. It provides access to the various livery companies’ records, providing a unique overview of trade in early modern London over a key three-hundred year period. They are also a useful commentary on pivotal events such as the Reformation, the Civil War, the Great Plague, and the Great Fire of London.

Oxford students and researchers need to use SSO for remote access. The resource is accessible via SOLO.

Livery companies evolved from London’s medieval guilds, becoming corporations under royal charter responsible for training in their respective trades, as well as for the regulation of aspects such as wage control, labour conditions, and industry standards. The companies’ rich and varied records document the central role that these institutions played in the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the city.

The documents provide a rich source for a variety of aspects of early modern trade but also beyond the purely mercantile aspect. The resource is also useful for the study of early modern…

• Charity and Philanthropy
• Citizenship
• Civic Ceremonies, Music, Drama and Pageantry
• Civic Government
• Commerce
• Craft and Regulation
• Education
• Immigration
• Politics
• Prices and Wages
• Property and Estates
• Religion

Archives included

Three archives contribute the content to this database:

  1. The Drapers’ Company
  2. The Goldsmiths’ Company
  3. The London Archives, from which source is included:
    • The Fishmongers’ Company collection
    • The Merchant Taylors’ Company collection [accounts go back to late C14]
    • The Skinners’ Company collection
    • The Vintners’ Company collection

Highlighted collections include:

  • Institutional records of churches, workplaces, alms-houses, and schools detailing the daily lives and work of a large proportion of the city’s inhabitants
  • Company records documenting the livery companies’ involvement in the Lord Mayor’s Show, providing a wealth of material relating to civic culture and pageantry, including payments to musicians and performers
  • Beautifully illuminated ordinances and memoranda books, including the Goldsmiths’ Company Books of Ordinances, the Book of the Fraternity of the Assumption of Our Lady (Skinners’ Company), and The Book of the Fraternity of Corpus Christi (Skinners’ Company)
  • A range of contextual features bring the resource to life for students and researchers, including a Chronology, a Glossary of Terms, a Guide to Reading Early Modern Records, and Livery Company Histories

There is a range useful supplementary materials such as contextualised essays by leading historians, including Ian Archer (University of Oxford). There is also a glossary and chronology, and helpful information on weights & measures, and the Julian (OT) and Gregorian (NT) dating systems.

The challenge of using archival material

The two digitised documents are displayed side-by-side on the screen.

(c) AM – Comparison of The Fishmongers’ Company Committee minutes of 13 Oct 1741 with the Letter A in the Index to committee minute books (1731-1758).

Like other AM databases, Trade in Early Modern London uses Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technology to allow full-text searching of manuscript documents. Users can download the transcript (where it exists) but should note that the HTR technology is still developing and that it’s advisable to check for accuracy. The database allows users to compare the original with the transcript or with other related documents.

Searching and reading the documents will be challenging to the non-expert. The resource provides various ways to find material and guidance is available how to best search and browse. Additionally, uses can view side-by-side related documents, such as contemporary indices.

The trial ends on 1 January 2025. Please send any feedback to isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

While you are here, other early modern databases might be useful:

  1. British History Online
  2. The Cecil Papers
  3. Early English Books Online
  4. Eighteenth Century Collections Online
  5. Electronic Enlightenment
  6. Making of the Modern World
  7. Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO)
  8. Medieval and Early Modern Studies (AM Scholar)
  9. Proceedings of the Old Bailey, The: London’s Central Criminal Court, 1674 to 1913 (free on the web)
  10. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection
  11. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Nichols Newspapers Collection
  12. State Papers Online I – IV: The Tudors, Stuarts & Commonwealth 1509-1714 (Foreign & Domestic)

Or, to find more early modern materials, check out our LibGuide for Early Modern History (British & West European).

Disability History Month

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Banner with a gold background with "Disability History." written in black in the middle. The background is decorated with black and white triangles in shadow and reflection patterns

Disability History Month is an annual event that endeavours to document the history of inequality experienced by people with disabilities. The purpose of which, as stated by the official Disability History Month organisation, is to encourage for greater social change and human rights protections to improve the lives of those at present and in the future. It will be running from the 14th of November until the 20th of December.

This year, the official theme is “Employment and Livelihood,” which examines the factors that impact the employment of disabled people and how they have made a living throughout history, as well as in the present day. This will hopefully create a better understanding of these issues, so that a fair and just future might develop.

From our collections in the History Faculty Library, we have selected five books to work in accordance with this theme, as well as a further eight e-books which will be linked below. The remainder of the display commemorates the lives, accomplishments of people with disabilities as well as studying the challenges and attitudes they have faced throughout the world and over millennia.

Photograph of the Disability History Month display in the Gladstone Link of the Radcliffe Camera, 12 books and 3 posters.

Banner with a gold background with "Online Resources." written in black in the middle. The background is decorated with black and white triangles in shadow and reflection patterns

To view the SOLO catalogue record for each of these online resources, please click on the front cover pictures! Please note that you will need to log in to SOLO with your Oxford University Single-Sign-On in order to access the full text. External readers will be able to access these resources by using the Bodleian Wi-fi network within the library or by using our reader PCS with their Bodleian Log-in details.

  Work requirements : race, disability, and the print culture of social welfare by Todd CarmodyNo Right to Be Idle : The Invention of Disability, 1840's to 1930's by Sarah F. Rose

Global histories of disability, 1700-2015 : power, place and people by Esmee Cleall Blind in early modern Japan : disability, medicine, and identity by Wei Yu Wayne Tan

Black disability politics by Sami Schalk Curating access : disability art activism and creative accommodation by Amanda Cachia

Out of the Horrors of War : Disability Politics in World War II America by Audra Jennings Disability and labour in the twentieth century historical and comparative perspectives by Radu Harald Dinu and Staffan Bengtsson

On the 22nd of December, the History Faculty at Lincoln College will be hosting a Disability Month Workshop which you can find out more about by clicking here.

Banner with a gold background decorated with black and white triangles in shadow and reflection patterns

 

 

 

Come & Hack: Help find resources for LGBTQ+ History – Hackathon on Fri 29 Nov 2-5.30pm

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Two hands holding hands in front of an LGBTQ+ flag. The logos of the History Faculty, Oxford and Bodleian Libaries are displayed at the top on either side.Are you interested in LGBTQ+ history? Do you want to be part of an informal collective research effort?

Join a group of volunteers at the LGBTQ+ History Hackathon to help locate historical resources for an LGBTQ+ history online research guide. All are welcome!

When: Fri 29 November 2024 @ 2-5.30pm, drinks’ reception 5.30-6.30pm
Where: History Faculty, George Street, Oxford or remotely via Teams

Image of a hand writing writing Register in blue.How does it work?

After a brief training session on advanced Google searches, you will work individually or in small groups to identify research resources (databases, archives, websites, etc.) on a particular aspect of LGBTQ+ history. You will create brief descriptions for each resource which will then be added to the LibGuide in the course of 2024/5. We expect to spend up to 2 hours on the Hackathon with a tea/coffee break in between – and will celebrate our joint achievement at a drinks’ reception!

You will be able to join in person in the History Faculty, George St, or remotely via Teams. You will need to register to attend.

Image of a woman working on a laptop. The image is in green.

What will you get out of it?

  • Discover research materials for LGBTQ+ history
  • Learn advanced Google search from a professional librarian
  • Network with other researchers
  • Join a community-led project to create an online guide for LGBTQ+ history

What do you need?

  • An interest in, knowledge of and enthusiasm in LGBTQ+ resources, esp. for historical study.
  • If dialling in from remote: computer with Teams or Zoom, camera and microphone
  • If onsite: a laptop; ideally Eduroam wifi account (wifi access can be provided)

This LGBTQ+ Hackathon follows the success of the Disability History Hackathon Home – Disability History Resources – Oxford LibGuides at Oxford University

Black History Month

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As of the start of October, we at the Radcliffe Camera History Faculty Library are celebrating Black History Month! The theme for this year is “Reclaiming Narratives,” which aims to highlight underexplored aspects of black history and experience, as well as encouraging aspects of global history to be examined and told by members of the black community through their perspectives. Another goal of this theme, as mentioned by the official UK Black History Month organisation, is to honour the work of black people throughout history with accomplishments in fields such as the arts, sciences, law, and of everyday life, the “unsung heroes.”  In accordance with this, we have curated a collection of History Faculty Library material in the Gladstone Link to suit this theme, as well as an array of online material which will be linked below.

Our online collections can be accessed via SOLO with a Single-Sign-On Oxford University Login, as well as from our reader PCs and Bodleian WIFI network within the library for Bodleian card holders. If you are a member of the university and would like to access our online collections remotely, then please check out our remote access service (note that this service is not available to external readers.)

Click on the images to be directed to the SOLO record for each resource!

Oxford University will be running a series of events and lectures during this month, which you can find through this link. In addition to this list, Kellogg College will be hosting its annual Black History Month lecture on the 15th of October, which you can find details for here. 

History of Sport

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With the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics having drawn to a close and the 17th Summer Paralympic Games beginning on 26th August, there is still time to check out our History of Sport display in the Upper Gladstone Link. 

A book display on the history of sport. Titles displayed (left to right): Laduma! : soccer, politics and society in South Africa; Sports in American life : a history; City games : the evolution of American society and the rise of sports; Women, sport and modernity in interwar Britain; The FIFA World Cup, 1930-2010; The game of our lives; Marrow of the nation : a history of sport and physical culture in Republican China; Scoring for Britain; The changing politics of sport; And the sun shines now; Sports in world history; Sport and politics in modern Britain; A social history of English rowing; Sport under Communism

As well as the physical books on our display, the Bodleian Libraries have a number of e-books and e-resources covering sporting history. Oxford University members can access all e-books remotely by signing into SOLO with their ‘Single Sign On.’ Click on the book covers below to access the record.

The international journal of the history of sportSwimming against the tide : true story of para swimmer Madhavi Latha by Madhavi Latha PrathigudupuRoutledge handbook of sport history The History of Women's Football by Jean Williams Athlete first : a history of the paralympic movement by Steve BaileyHow Football Began by Tony Collins Games people played : a global history of sport by Wray VamplewMore than medals : a history of the Paralympics and disability sports in postwar Japan by Dennis J. Frost

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more e-resources, including the Paralympic Archive, check out our Disability History LibGuide under the heading ‘Sport’. The Bodleian also holds the archive of athlete and neurologist Sir Roger Bannister (1929-2018), and you can view the catalogue online at Bodleian Archives and Manuscripts.