History Thesis Fair for Undergraduates – 30 April 2026

Posted on 20 April 2026 by mendonckw

We are delighted to run the History Thesis Fair for second-year undergraduates this year on Thursday 30 April, 3-5pm at the Examination Schools (North Writing School).

All info can be found here: History Thesis Fair for Undergraduates.

Mosaic of pictures depicting several historical events, documents, and artwork. It includes a portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, an early modern map of the African continent, an illumination for a medieval Book of Hours, a Diego Riveira mural in Detroit, a picture of the 1955 Bandung Conference, a portrait of the British Queen Anne, a mosaic depicting the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and a photograph from the May 1968 student protests in France.

The Fair is aimed at 2nd year history undergraduates embarking on their thesis research and who are looking to explore the wealth of research source material available across Oxford libraries and archives for their field of study.

It is the ideal opportunity to talk to librarians, archivists and subject specialists who can help you navigate the vast collections available, support you to unlock more relevant sources, and point you towards useful finding tools. Plus, you’ll be able to chat to students who have gone before you and learn about their top dissertation tips!

Stalls will cover many areas, including:

Topics and Themes

Biographical Sources for Political, Religious and Social History
Disability History
English Literature
Environmental History
LGBTQ+, Gender and Sexuality History
History of Science & Medicine
Maps and Mapping
Medieval History
Oral History
Visual Culture
Women’s History

Special Collections, Libraries and Archives

Archives and Manuscripts 1500-1800 (Bodleian)
Archives and Modern Manuscripts 1800 onwards (Bodleian)
College Libraries (Special Collections)
College Archives
Digital primary source providers: Gale Primary Sources, AM – Adam Matthew Digital
Early Printed Books (Bodleian)
Oxford Brookes University Special Collections & Archives
Oxfordshire History Centre
Printed Ephemera (John Johnson Collection)
UK and Ireland Parliament and Government Publications + Intergovernmental Publications

Geographical Areas

Africa & Commonwealth
East Asia & South Asia
East-Central and Southeast Europe
Eastern Europe and North Asia incl. Russia
Great Britain & Western Europe
Middle East, Hebraica & Judaica, Caucasus & Central Asia
Latin America
United States

Plus, at our Information Skills stall, learn what courses are laid on to help you develop the research and referencing skills you will need.

The format of the Fair encourages you to explore and discover new materials at your own pace, to be curious and to make connections with experts and your peers.

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.

Research skills training

Working on your thesis means that you will need to learn new or improve existing research skills, including:

Effective searching for information;
Awareness of the rich sources available in Oxford (and beyond) and how to access them;
Ability to correctly handle physical source material, such as archives;
Correct citation practices, ethical research practice, etc.;
Awareness of the relevant experts in Oxford libraries and archives.

The Bodleian Libraries have many classes and workshops set up to help you learn the skills you need – check out the research training page on this Libguide: Research Training for Historians

We hope to see you at the Fair!

Trial until 8 May 2026: Mass Observation Project, 1981-2019

Posted on 14 April 2026 by iholowaty

We are pleased to invite Oxford researchers to trial Mass Observation Project, 1981-2019.

An image from the home page of the resource showing a collage of various images: photo of an anti-Brexit demonstration, 1997 General Election poster showing Tony Blair and John Major, photo of a house, and handwritten response about voting intentions.

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.

A snippet from this directive reads:
The emphasis this quarter falls on services both public and private, that is those that you pay for indirectly by rates and taxes etc and those that you pay for directly..

1. Public Services: we want to hear about changes in the quality and efficiency in the health service, education, public transport etc. What have been the effect of cuts in local government spending on you, and your neighbourhood? — (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.

The trial ends 8 May 2026. Feedback should be sent to isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or jo.gardner@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

While you are here, check out some other related resources:

Earth Day 2026

Posted on 2 April 2026 by ljones

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.

Photograph of the book display in the Gladstone Link of the Radcliffe Camera.

Books on the display above, from the top left:
“The Chimney of the World: A History of Smoke Pollution in Victorian and Edwardian Manchester“ by Stephen Mosley | “A Cultural History of Climate“ by Wolfgang Behringer | “Rummage: a History of the Things We Have Reused, Recycled and Refused to Let Go“ by Emily Cockayne | “Dark Laboratory: on Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis“ by Tao Leigh Goffe | “Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First“ by Frank Trentmann | “Climate, History and the Modern World“ by H. H. Lamb | “Footprints: in Search of Future Fossils“ by David Farrier | “Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914“ by John Robert McNeil | “The Afterlife of Used Things: Recycling in the Long Eighteenth Century“ edited by A. Fennetaux, A. Junqua, and S. Vasset. | “An Environmental History of Britain Since the Industrial Revolution“ by B.W. Clapp | “Science and Nature: Essays in the History of of the Environmental Sciences“ edited by Michael Shortland | “An Environmental History of the Middle Ages: The Crucible of Nature“ by John Aberth | “Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change“ by Nathaniel Rich |

banner reading "E-Books", white text on a green background with line illustrations of roses in a darker green.

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.

Book cover for "Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse" by Dave Goulson. An illustration of various moths, butterflies and beetles in a circular pattern on a black background.

book cover for "At Nature's Edge: The Global Present and Long-Term History" by Gunnel Cederlof and Mahesh Rangarajan. White text on black borders with a photograph in the middle of a woman walking across sand with a water container in her hand.

banner reading "More Resources", white text on a green background with line illustrations of roses in a darker green.

If you would like to get involved in making a difference, please check out these links:

Volunteering in Oxfordshire
Lifestyle and consumer choices in Oxford (And further to that, have a look at: SHARE Oxford to borrow instead of buying, or Ethical Consumer to consider your options.)
Read up on Oxford University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy, and check out the Climate and Environment page
Talk to a Student Union representative

International Women’s Day 2026

Posted on 4 March 2026 by ljones

This March, to mark International Women’s Day 2026, the History Faculty Library’s book display shines a light on women whose lives, labour, and influence have too often been overlooked. The theme, untold and forgotten female histories, invites us to look beyond familiar names and stories, and to consider how history is shaped by power and access. These books challenge us to ask why so many women have been left out of historical narratives.

Among the works on display is The Graces: The Extraordinary Untold Lives of Women at the Restoration Court, which uncovers the political, cultural, and personal influence of women navigating the male-dominated world of seventeenth-century England. Similarly, Immaculate Forms: Uncovering the History of Women’s Bodies explores how women’s bodies have been understood, controlled, and represented across time, revealing the deep connections between gender, medicine, and social power. Together, these texts show how women’s experiences were central to historical change, even when they were excluded from official accounts.

We are also highlighting HFL’s online materials such as Thanks for Typing: Remembering Forgotten Women in History, dedicated to recovering the uncredited female contributions throughout history. From court insiders to clerical workers, these books and resources remind us that history is full of hidden lives waiting to be rediscovered.

This International Women’s Day, we invite you to explore the display, reflect on whose stories have been marginalised, and consider how recovering women’s histories can reshape our understanding of the past.

Books featured on the display above, from left to right:

Legenda : the real women behind the myths that shaped Europe by Janina Ramirez | Medieval women religious, c. 800-c. 1500 : new perspectives by Kimm Curran and Janet Burton | I am not afraid of looking into the rifles : women of the resistance in World War One by Rick Stroud | Femina : a new history of the Middle Ages, through the women written out of it by Janina Ramirez | The graces : the extraordinary untold lives of women at the Restoration court by Breeze Barrington | Not just a man’s war : Chinese women’s memories of the war of resistance against Japan, 1931-45 by Yihong Pan | La Duchesse : the life of Marie de Vignerot : Cardinal Richelieu’s forgotten heiress who shaped the fate of France by Bronwen McShea | Women, witchcraft and the Inquisition in Spain and the New World by María Jesús Zamora Calvo | Public faces, secret lives : a queer history of the women’s suffrage movement by Wendy L. Rouse | Immaculate forms : uncovering the history of women’s bodies by Helen King | Bringing home the White House : the hidden history of women who shaped the presidency in the twentieth century by Melissa Estes Blair.

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.

Referencing and Citation Guidance Drop-ins for History Undergraduates

Posted on 12 January 2026 by mendonckw

Are you an OU history undergraduate unsure how to format references for footnotes or bibliographies, and don’t know where to turn? Then you can drop in to the staff office in the Upper Radcliffe Camera on any Wednesday during Full Term between 1-2pm, to get some quickfire 1-to-1 advice on the best resources to help you.

We can help with:

Where to find History Faculty guidance on citation and referencing
How to use reference management software
Where to check citation style conventions for particular source types

This is not a proofreading service, and we can’t check or create your footnotes or bibliographies, but we can show you where to find answers to your referencing conundrums. And we can try to show why referencing doesn’t have to be a source of anxiety!

Check the Oxford Historians Hub (SSO required) for all Faculty guidance: https://ohh.web.ox.ac.uk/referencing-and-citation

Wednesdays during Full Term, 1-2pm
Upper Radcliffe Camera Staff Office

Any queries? Get in touch at library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

International Day of Education – 24th January 2026

Posted on 7 January 2026 by ljones

24^th January marks International Day of Education, with the theme for 2026 focusing on AI and education. To mark the occasion, our HFL book display highlights some historical research on access to education, and the development and dissemination of knowledge. Among these books are historical studies on segregated education, the impacts of war on learning, and AI technology in the classroom.

Alongside these historical perspectives, these books invite us to consider how today’s debates around artificial intelligence fit into longer histories of educational change and technological innovation. From the printing press to digital learning, new tools and perspectives have continually reshaped education and how we share knowledge. By exploring these books, we can place contemporary discussions about AI in education within a broader historical and social context of equitable access to quality education.

Books featured on the display from the top left:

“The impact of the First World War on British universities : emerging from the shadows” by John Taylor | “Scholars and sultans in the early modern Ottoman Empire” by Abdurrahman Atçıl | “Education and empire : children, race and humanitarianism in the British settler colonies, 1833-1880” by Rebecca Swartz | “The history of education under apartheid, 1948-1994 : the doors of learning and culture shall be opened” by Peter Kallaway | “Histories of scientific observation” by Lorraine Daston | “The men and women we want : gender, race, and the progressive era literacy test debate” by Jeanne D. Petit | “Education in Britain : 1944 to the present” by Ken Jones | “Jim Crow moves North : the battle over northern school desegregation, 1865-1954” by Davison M. Douglas | “In her hands : the education of Jewish girls in tsarist Russia” by Eliyana R. Adler | “The new empire of AI : the future of global inequality” by Rachel Adams | “The scientific life : a moral history of a late modern vocation” by Steven Shapin | “Brown v. Board of Education : a civil rights milestone and its troubled legacy” by James T Patterson | “Education and fascism : political identity and social education in Nazi Germany” by Heinz Sünker |

Disability History Month 2025

Posted on 20 November 2025 by ljones

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 20^th 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.

Books featured on the display from the top left:
“War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race” by Edwin Black | “Disability in Eighteenth Century England: Imagining Physical Impairment” by David Turner | “The Routledge History of Disability” edited by Roy Hanes | “Ramping Up Rights: An Unfinished History of British Disability Activism” by Rachel Charlton-Dailey | “The Problem of Mental Deficiency: Eugenics, Democracy and Social Policy in Britain c.1870-1959” by Mathew Thomson | “Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court and Buck v. Bell” by Paul Lombardo | “Death and Deliverance: ‘Euthanasia’ in Germany c.1900-1954” by Michael Burleigh | “Medical Films, Ethics and Euthanasia in Nazi Germany: The History of Medical Research and Teaching Films of the Reich Office for Educational Films– Reich Institute for Films in Science and Education, 1933-1945” by Ulf Schmidt | “Treatment Without Consent: Law, Psychiatry and the Treatment of Mentally Disordered People Since 1845” by Phil Fennell | “A Historical Sociology of Disability: Human Validity and Invalidity from Antiquity to Early Modernity” by Bill Hughes | “Colonising Disability: Impairment and Otherness Across Britain and its Empire c. 1800-1914” by Esme Cleall | “A History of Disability in England: From the Medieval Period to the Present Day” by Simon Jarrett.

Book cover for "The Staff of Oedipus: Transforming Disability in Ancient Greece" by Martha L. Rose. White text on a grey illustration of Oedipus seated, with his staff and a woman crying at his feet. The highlights of the illustration are in an orange-toned cream rather than white.

Book cover for "The Good Death: Nazi Euthanasia on Trail, 1945-1953" by Michael S. Bryant. Alternating white and orange text overlaid on a black background. Behind this, an illustration of men in long coats having a discussion stand in the top left corner. Underneath them, distressed people stuck in square-shaped holes in the floor hold their faces in their hands.

Referencing and Citation Guidance Drop-ins for History Undergraduates

Posted on 14 November 2025 by mendonckw

Are you a history undergraduate? Do you get confused by how to format references for footnotes or bibliographies, and don’t know where to turn? Drop in to the staff office in the Upper Radcliffe Camera on any Wednesday during Full Term between 1-2pm, to get some quickfire 1-to-1 advice on the best resources to help you!

We can help with:

Where to find History Faculty guidance on citation and referencing
How to use reference management software
Where to check citation style conventions for particular source types

This is not a proofreading service, and we can’t check or create your footnotes or bibliographies, but we can show you where to find answers to your referencing conundrums. And try to explain why referencing doesn’t have to be a source of anxiety!

Check the Oxford Historians Hub (SSO required) for all Faculty guidance: https://ohh.web.ox.ac.uk/referencing-and-citation

Wednesdays during Full Term, 1-2pm
Upper Radcliffe Camera Staff Office

Any queries? Get in touch at library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Black History Month 2025

Posted on 1 October 2025 by ljones

This month we are celebrating Black History Month! This years theme is “Standing Firm in Power and Pride”, which aims to highlight those people and communities who have resisted racism, lead social change, and stood firm in their pride for the Black community in Britain.

Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE, the Editor in Chief of the Black History Month UK Magazine, wrote in this years issue that “The need to stand firm is especially clear against a backdrop of rising nationalism and systemic inequalities… Yet the story of power in Black history is not only about struggle — it is also about resilience and pride.” To read more of Inko-Tariah’s thoughts, and learn about Black History Month, go to their website, here.

Our physical display takes material from the History Faculty collection and tackles a range of eras, with a focus on resistance, liberation in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Books on the display above, from left to right:

Making the revolution global : black radicalism and the British socialist movement before decolonisation by Theo Williams | Police power and black people by Derek Humphry | Black for a cause– not just because : the case of the “Oval 4” and the story it tells of Black Power in 1970s Britain by Winston N. Trew | Slaves to fashion : black dandyism and the styling of black diasporic identity by Monica L. Miller | Ambivalent affinities : a political history of Blackness and homosexuality after World War II by Jennifer Dominique Jones | There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The cultural politics of race and nation by Paul Gilroy | We were there by Lanre Bakare | Britons through negro spectacles by A.B.C. Merriman-Labor | Black voices on Britain : selected writings edited by Hakim Adi | Black England : a forgotten Georgian history by Gretchen Gerzina | Rhodes must fall : the struggle to decolonise the racist heart of empire by the Rhodes Must Fall Movement (Oxford) | A black boy at Eton by Dillibe Onyeama | Black Liverpool : the early history of Britain’s oldest Black community, 1730-1918 by Roy Costello | The struggle is eternal : Gloria Richardson and black liberation by Joseph R. Fitzgerald | Black Tommies : British soldiers of African descent in the First World War by Ray Costello | The motherland calls : Britain’s black servicemen & women, 1939-45 by Stephen Bourne | The other special relationship : race, rights, and riots in Britain and the United States edited by Robin D.G. Kelley and Stephen G.N. Tuck

As part of Black History Month, Oxford University will be holding their annual lecture, this year given by Dr José Lingna Nafafé on the topic of Lourenço da Silva Mendonça early abolitionists. Please check out the website here for more information and to book tickets.

Welcome to New History Undergraduates! Discover our Library Induction Programme

Posted on 26 September 2025 by mendonckw

We warmly welcome all new History undergraduates starting in Oxford!

Libraries will play a big part during your time at Oxford, whether providing access to online articles on your reading list or helping you find that elusive book on the open shelves. There are over 100 libraries in Oxford and it can be quite confusing (and daunting) as you learn how to best use them.

Within the Bodleian Libraries, the main university library system, the chief History collections for your study are available online 24/7 or are located in the Radcliffe Camera (which houses the History Faculty Library, whose books can be borrowed). College Libraries also have extensive collections for your course. To know where to find the books, journals and databases you might need, use SOLO, which is Oxford’s discovery tool for libraries.

We also have organised a number of welcome sessions to help you get started! For a more detailed overview of the induction and support we offer students in the first few weeks, see the relevant page on our online teaching portal Canvas (requires your oxford Single Sing-On for access): Canvas – Library Induction and Information Skills training.

Welcome Webinars

Webinars are taking place Wednesday to Friday of 0th Week (8 – 10 October) and have been scheduled into your timetable with further details provided by your college. If you miss your slot, you are very welcome to join any of the timetabled sessions. Further details (and MS Teams link) are available via Canvas – Welcome to Bodleian Libraries webinars.

Tours

Like most other Bodleian Libraries, we are running in-person tours during noughth week of both the Old Bodleian Library and the Radcliffe Camera. To see the timetable, visit Getting started: Undergraduates and taught postgraduates | Bodleian Libraries.

Undergraduate tours to do not require booking and are run on a drop-in basis. They last 30 minutes.

Note that there are two different tours, one that starts in the Radcliffe Camera (and stays there) and one that starts in the lobby (Proscholium) of the Old Library.

Of course, you are also very welcome to just come along to the library at any time, and staff will be more than happy to help you if you have any questions.

Online Guidance

See the library’s ‘Getting started’ documentation for guidance on how to find resources, the different library services we offer, etc.

See also our general ‘How To’ Guides to help you navigate your way around Bodleian Libraries’ collections and finding aids.

We also have a series of online subject and research guides (called LibGuides) to help students find out about books and online resources for their discipline, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases. There are multiple guides for different areas of History, all accessible from the general History LibGuide: Home – History – Oxford LibGuides at Oxford University.

Help

The libraries are here to help you in your studies. If anything is not clear or you are struggling to find or access your readings, please do get in touch with library staff. You can do so in a variety of ways:

Live Chat – accessible from the front page of our online catalogue SOLO or the Bodleian website
General enquiries: reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
History-related enquiries, including loans: library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

We wish you all the very best as you start a new chapter of your life in Oxford!

Bodleian History Faculty Library at Oxford

A Bodleian Libraries blog

Category Archives: Uncategorized

History Thesis Fair for Undergraduates – 30 April 2026

Accessibility

Research skills training

Trial until 8 May 2026: Mass Observation Project, 1981-2019

While you are here, check out some other related resources:

Earth Day 2026

International Women’s Day 2026

Referencing and Citation Guidance Drop-ins for History Undergraduates

International Day of Education – 24th January 2026

Disability History Month 2025

Referencing and Citation Guidance Drop-ins for History Undergraduates

Black History Month 2025

Welcome to New History Undergraduates! Discover our Library Induction Programme

Welcome Webinars

Tours

Online Guidance

Help