We are currently trialling South Asia Commons, an online resource comprising two modules, South Asia Archive and South Asian History and Culture.
(C) Coherent Digital
South Asia Archive, the first module, is a collection of 4.5 million pages of documents and published material from across the Indian subcontinent from 1700 to 1953. The collection was originally amassed by the South Asian Research Foundation in Kolkata and contains material relating to economics, politics, law, Indology, gender, archaeology, anthropology, culture, history and education. The content is mostly English, with 15% in South Asian languages, primarily Bengali and Sanskrit.
The second module, South Asian History and Culture, is a comprehensive, full-text repository providing centralised access to millions of pages of South Asian primary source materials from across the internet.
The trial will run until 30th May 2026 and can be accessed via the New/Trial Databases section on Databases A-Z. Please send any comments and feedback to emma.mathieson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
This major resource provides digital access to a remarkable life-writing archive, offering a rare window into the everyday lives, thoughts and emotions of ordinary people living through the turbulent final decades of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first.
At its heart are the voices of hundreds of Mass Observers: individuals who responded to open-ended questionnaires (“directives”), reflecting on their experiences, opinions and personal lives. Their writing captures moments that are rarely recorded elsewhere: private reflections on relationships, family life and identity, alongside candid accounts of work, health, routines and the small details of daily life. It is precisely this combination of the intimate and the everyday that makes the archive so distinctive and valuable.
At the same time, these personal testimonies are deeply connected to wider historical events. Contributors record their reactions as events unfold, offering immediate, unfiltered perspectives on major social and political developments. The archive therefore allows researchers to trace how national and global events were experienced, understood and felt at the level of individual lives.
The directives span an extraordinary range of topics, including: 9/11, AIDS, climate change, the Criminal Justice Act, the death of Princess Diana, disability, education, the EU referendum and Brexit, the Falklands War, the First Gulf War, general elections, the rise of the internet and social media, the Iraq War, the Millennium, natural disasters, the NHS, railway strikes, security and crime, and university life.
Together, these materials create a uniquely rich and textured record of modern life—one that brings history closer to lived experience and gives voice to perspectives that are so often absent from the historical record.
(C) Mass Observation Archive Trustees. Mass Observation Project. 1982 Summer directivem (p1): Public and private services, the Budget, gas and electricity bills, royalty, inflation, currency, food, EEC
Individual responses also capture basic demographic information, such as marital status, employment status and occupation. This makes it possible to identify and analyse the views of specific cohorts in different circumstances.
Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has been applied to all documents to allow full text searchability. The resource offers automatically-generated transcript for download for this document but please note that during the trial, the downloading function has been disabled.
To raise awareness of the impact of anthropogenic climate change, Earth day will be held on the 22nd of April. This campaign spotlights the many challenges faced throughout the world due to the mounting effects of ecological changes as well as championing the work being done to limit this, acknowledging especially how this will disproportionately affect impoverished and marginalised communities. In accordance with this, the History Faculty Library has arranged a display in the Upper Gladstone Link of the Radcliffe Camera exploring the history of human impact and research on the environment, as well as current social and political issues surrounding climate change. This also includes a spotlight for our E-book collections, which you can browse further down this post. Please click on the book covers to be directed to the SOLO catalogue record for each entry.
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.) Please note that one of the entries below: “Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse” by Dave Goulson is an Electronic Legal Deposit item, and will need to be consulted on a reader PC within the Bodleian Libraries using the ELD browser.
If you would like to get involved in making a difference, please check out these links:
This collection is drawn from the personal papers of a multitude of Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) activists throughout the twentieth century. This includes those at the heart of party (such as full-time “national organisers”), “full-time” CPGB activists such as Mariam Ramelson and Jack Dunman, and peripheral figures who supported the communist cause (such as Labour MP Dennis Nowell Pritt).
The works of trade unionists are featured extensively, and the papers of Peter Kerrigan and Arthur Horner shed light on the activities and campaigns of the Amalgamated Engineering Union and the Welsh Miners Federation, respectively.
The collection houses material from regions ranging from colonial Africa to war-torn Northeast Asia. The collection also hosts material related to militant activism, with biographical material concerning British volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, as well as accounts of those who fought against fascism in the Second World War.
The collection is accompanied by three contextual essays written by Kevin Morgan.
The 2026 theme for LGBT+ History Month aims to highlight the contributions of LGBT+ people, both historically and today, and to raise awareness of the individuals behind them.
Just in time for LGBT+ History month, we warmly invite Oxford researchers to explore and give feedback on two databases Sex & Sexuality and LGBTQ+ Life in America (see the VHL Blog post for more information).
Sex & Sexuality is an online resource providing access to key archival material related to human sexuality from leading archives across the world. It will be useful to students and researchers in gender / sexuality studies, history, sociology, anthropology, and medicine.
Please be aware that this resource contains material of a sexually explicit nature. Content includes, but is not limited to, descriptions and imagery of sexual violence; non-consensual sexual activity; sexual activity including minors; surgery and suicide.
The trial ends on 28 February 2026.
(c) AM Digital / Institute for Sex Research
From papers of leading sexologists to LGBTQI+ personal histories, Sex & Sexuality allows researchers to explore changing attitudes to human sexuality, gender and sexual behaviour. Geographic coverage is primarily in the United States, but also includes archival material from the UK and Australia.
Module I is sourced solely from the Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections, making available the papers of the first three institute directors (including Dr Alfred C. Kinsey), papers and research files of sexologists and researchers, publications and ephemera from the Institute and other organisations and advocacy groups, as well as correspondence and queries from members of the American public.
Module II is sourced from US, UK and Australian archives, and focus on personal experiences and self-expression. It includes personal histories, as well as accounts of grass-roots organisations and activism from the late 19th Century to the present day. Resources include official records of pressure groups and community organisations, diaries and correspondence, photographs, objects, erotic fiction, papers of noted sexologists and more.
Oxford historians are now warmly invited to trial three databases which are useful for research into British trade, economy and shipping of the late 17th century to the early 20th century. The trials end on 24 February 2026.
The resources provide historical insight into the colonial, economic, and maritime dimensions of British history throughout this period. It should also interest those exploring broader themes, such as the escalation of global trade and the development of the fiscal-military state.
Throughout this pivotal period of British and global trade expansion, these resources shine a light on Britain’s increasing naval capabilities and the expansion of lucrative maritime trade networks fuelled significant economic growth. Frequently built upon exploitation and enslaved labour, the establishment of British trading outposts and plantations throughout Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Caribbean laid the foundations for a worldwide empire and secured access to sought after commodities, such as sugar, tobacco, and textiles.
A collection of trade ledgers, registers and indexes that supply detailed statistical data on trade throughout the Long Eighteenth Century. It also includes official registers of “Mediterranean passes” which include information on which vessels were issued passes, their port of embarkation and destinations, as well as additional information on their size, crew, and defences.
(c) British Online Archives (Microform Academic Publishers). CUSTOMS 3/2: Imports and Exports, September 1698 to December 1698. Ref: 73808-A03
A significant collection of digitized primary source documents, primarily Bristol Presentments (bills of entry), offering insights into nearly 150 years of maritime trade for Bristol, detailing ship arrivals, departures, goods traded (like sugar, tobacco, coffee), and key merchants, crucial for maritime history, economic, and social research, accessible via libraries and archives.
(c) 2014 Microform Academic Publishers, scanned & published with the permission of Bristol Central Library. Bristol Shipping Records: Exports 49, nos. I (4 January) – XLIX (27 December).
Provides access to over 85,000 digitized bills of entry, manifests, and related documents. It offers insights into 19th-century Liverpool’s trade via bills of entry, detailing cargo, ships, dates, people, and routes, crucial for understanding the city’s rise as a global port, its links to colonial goods (cotton, sugar, tobacco), the slave trade, and evolving international commerce,
(c) 2013 Microform Academic Publishers, scanned & published with the permission of Liverpool City Council and the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside. Bills of Entry for the year 1820
It’s Christmas time – and we bring you good tidings!
Oxford students and researchers now have access to the online El País Historical Archive, 1976-2023. You have remote access with your Single Sign On (SSO). Access is made available thanks to colleagues at the Taylor Institution Library.
Founded on 4 May 1976, six months after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, El País was created as an independent paper dedicated to the promotion of democratic ideals in post-Franco Spain.
Today, El País is the most circulated daily newspaper in Spain and it is a national newspaper of record, covering local, national, and international news. El País has been offering coverage of global events since 1976. This offering represents a rich historical archive of Spanish-language news from a pro-democracy newspaper. With El País, researchers can dive deeply into a distinctly European-Spanish perspective on historical events, culture, society, politics, sports, and more.
This year, the official theme for Disability History Month is “Disability, Life and Death.” This theme addresses concerns about the legislation being considered in parliament regarding assisted suicide and how it could be used against disabled people. Instead, as explained by the DHM website, it should be the responsibility of our society to properly accommodate disabled people to be able to live their lives to the fullest. They also address the history of ideas that have attacked disabled people’s right to life, including the history of eugenics and the sterilisation or mass murder campaigns that it led to.
From the 20th of November through December, a collection of History Faculty Library material will be displayed on this topic in the Upper Gladstone Link of the Radcliffe Camera. In addition, a selection of relevant e-resources have been listed below. Please click on the book cover pictures to be taken to the SOLO catalogue record for each resource. For further reading on the subject of disability history, please check out our LibGuide by clicking here.
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.)
Oxford researchers and students are invited to trial Interwar Culture Module 1: 1919-1929 & Module 2: 1930-1939.
This resource provides access to runs of both prominent and lesser-known periodicals published throughout the interwar period, covering various facets of culture, entertainment, fashion, home and family life, world current affairs, class, social and welfare issues. These historically significant and visually rich magazines provide an important insight into these dynamic yet turbulent decades, as well as allowing examination of a growing media industry that both shaped and reflected society.
Module 1 reflect the social, artistic and cultural dynamism that characterised the ‘Roaring Twenties’ in fashion, music, literature, dance and entertainment as well as post-war intellectual thought and modernism. As the world emerged from the Great War into a new era, periodicals navigated a myriad of issues such as the ongoing undercurrent of feminism, the muddy waters of post-war recovery and the eternal question of youth and morality.
Module 2 tracks these cultural shifts through periodicals of the 1930s, a turbulent decade of contradictions. Against a backdrop of the Great Depression, mass unemployment and the rise of fascism, the 1930s also witnessed a renewed and fierce appetite for entertainment and culture seen in the booming film industry, seminal works of art and literature and ground-breaking innovations in technology, architecture and aviation.
First observed in Haiti on August 23rd 1998, this remembrance day reflects on the lives of the victims of the Atlantic slave trade, as well as the institutional machinations that perpetrated it. In doing so, this project reveals the depths, the causes, and the continued legacy of ramifications that find their roots in this atrocity.
In accordance with this, a display featuring History Faculty Library material relevant to this topic has been arranged in the Upper Gladstone Link of the Radcliffe Camera for perusal. Alternatively, there is an e-book collection to browse through at the bottom of this page, please scroll down and click on the book covers to be taken to the SOLO record of each resource.
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.)
The National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House under Royal Museums Greenwich will be holding their annual exhibition with a range of talks and activities on the 23rd of August for Slavery Remembrance Day. Click here for more details on the itinerary. In addition, this date coincides with the anniversary of the opening for the International Museum of Slavery in 2007, a part of the collective of National Museums Liverpool. Which, in partnership with the black community of Liverpool, participates in events for Slavery Remembrance Day. There are a range of in-person events and online resources, click the link here for details on this.
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