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.
Managing citations can be like herding cats! It’s impossible to keep track of them all, they have a mind of their own, are beholden to no one and hide in the most unlikely places!
Beyond that there are also tools to help you generate a citation in a particular style. Library discovery tools (like SOLO) and many databases (e.g. Bibliography of British and Irish History) offer you choice how to format your reference and then copy or export it. Remember, though, that you are still responsible for the accurate presentation of the citations. If you are a student, make sure you know what the tutors expect from you. If you are researcher, publishers will give their own preferred styles. The beauty of using reference management software is that you can easily convert them into other styles.
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is the most frequently used citation style in the Humanities, esp. the Notes and Bibliography system. It is an authoritative and popular reference work for writers, editors, proof-readers, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers. The 18th edition is most extensive revision in two decades. Major changes include updated and expanded coverage of pronoun use and inclusive language, revised guidelines on capitalization, a broader range of examples, new coverage of Indigenous languages, and expanded advice on making publications accessible to people with disabilities.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024
The Manual’s traditional focus on nonfiction has been expanded to include fiction and other creative genres on topics such as punctuation and dialogue, and its attention to the needs of self-published authors has also widened.
The guide gives examples for citations in various instances: Bibliography & footnotes or Author-Title styles. It also clearly marks up changes. So even if you are a seasoned CMOS user, this resource is still useful to keep up-to-date and follow the latest standards.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024
Historians, you now have ten new source databases at your fingertips. With your University SSO, you can do your research anywhere whether you are researching in a café, library or on a sofa.
The new resources will be of interest to historians working across early modern to modern history, from England to the far reaches of America, South Africa and India. Resources are on a variety of topics such as trade, administration, foreign affairs, slavery and anti-slavery, culture and environment. Most resources are digitised archival material (letters, accounts, reports) but also include historical newspapers.
In line with the Bodleian Libraries’ strategy (pdf) to enhance our collections, we have committed funding to a set of selected purchases of electronic research resources. These acquisitions reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting the University of Oxford’s world-class research community by providing access to high-quality, authoritative digital content across a wide range of disciplines.
These resources, and others in our extensive list of source databases, are all accessible via SOLO or Databases A-Z. University staff and students can access them anytime, anywhere, using their Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials.
This resource 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.
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.
Sources
The source materials include full runs of all extant court minute books and wardens’ account books from six of the Great Twelve livery companies, up to the year 1750. These records are the heart of the companies’ day-to-day business. Some supporting records have also been selected from each company, including ordinances, charters, ledgers, and other financial records. Where indexes or handwritten transcripts exist for the court minutes or wardens’ account books, these have also been included and can be viewed alongside the original document using comparison functionality.
Handwritten Text Recognition has been applied to the handwritten materials but palaeographical skills will still be needed. Research Tools are provided to help users to find the hidden narratives.
Themes
Each record is rich in content and broad in scope and all of these themes below might be useful:
• 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
Contributing Archives
Trade in Early Modern London includes material from three UK archives:
The Drapers’ Company
The Goldsmiths’ Company
The London Archives, from which source is included:
This newly digitised collection complements the existing Burney Newspaper Collection by offering new titles and additional issues of already digitised titles. The expansion includes c 200 additional newspapers, newsbooks, and broadsheets.
For historians, literary scholars, and researchers in related fields, Burney Newspapers Collection offers a rich collection of primary sources that highlight the cultural, political, and social landscapes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. You can gain deeper insights, cross-reference information, and explore previously unavailable content, enriching your research and contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of this pivotal era.
This module complements others already available. It includes India Office Records F The Board of Commissioners: Expansion, Control and Education and focuses on the Board of Commissioners, which exercised supervision over the Company’s policies. Material covers key events in the history of India and the Company including the Government of India Act 1833, which removed the Company’s trade monopolies and gave the Board of Control full power and authority over the Company, the First Opium War, the Anglo-Afghan War, and the English Education Act, which reallocated funds from the East India Company towards education and literature in India.
The Age of Emancipation includes numerous rare documents related to emancipation in the United States, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. This collection supports the study of many areas, including activities of the federal government in dealing with former slaves and the Freedmen’s Bureau, views of political parties and postwar problems with the South, documents of the British and French government on the slave trade, reports from the West Indies and Africa, and other topics.
Content advisory: This archive provides access to primary sources created by groups and individuals that were products of their time. Therefore, users may come across content that is upsetting such as outmoded language, cartoons and caricatures, and other imagery that may be offensive because of its representation of race, gender, sexuality, beliefs, or other characteristics.
Due to the nature of the subject and the time period in which the sources were published, Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, contains racist and outdated discussions of race, racial stereotypes and offensive imagery.
This resource brings together primary source material from archival collections in the UK, USA and Australia to reveal the shifting and expanding theatre world of the nineteenth century. Featuring material such as prompt books, programmes, company records, photographs and playbills, users can explore the multi-faceted nature of the nineteenth-century theatre industry, the lives and careers of well-known actors and actresses and the production, performance and reception of popular plays of the time.
This resource brings together material from within former British colonies and Commonwealth nations, alongside some from former French and Portuguese territories, to provide valuable primary source material created for local audiences by local actors during a period of enormous global change. After the Second World War, decolonization movements around the world gathered pace, and from the small port colony of Aden to the vast Indian sub-continent, new borders were set, and new nations built.
The development of party politics, trade unions and other local and national movements in former colonies and Commonwealth nations across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Australasia, and the Americas took many different forms. This archive allows insight into the variety of systems and modes of national and international political thought that became prominent in the twentieth century, including socialism and communism, anti-imperialism, regional independence movements, trade unionism, student activism, Pan-Africanism, and many modes of constitutional democracy.
The range of materials from across the world permits analysis and comparison of different political movements within a country, as well as the different paths and politics in the transition to self-rule in different nations, and the ways in which former colonies and Commonwealth nations negotiated their own agency and their own futures. Researchers can explore economic and social development, domestic politics and international relations, media and culture, labor history and strikes, civil rights movements and moments of political violence, alongside the constitutions and manifestos of many different parties and groups.
Content advisory: This database contains material representing various historical viewpoints related to race, gender, terrorism, and other subjects, and includes a variety of terms applied to different groups of people reflecting ideas and prejudices at their point of creation. Some of these terms and attitudes will appear pejorative and expressive of ideas that are no longer regarded as acceptable, such as segregated and apartheid systems, and imperial or colonial rhetoric.
This resource brings British government files from the Foreign Office, Colonial Office and the Ministry of Overseas Development and Overseas Development Administration together to provide information and insight into environmental issues and human-environment interactions throughout the globe, particularly in those places of influence of the former British Empire.
The files chart the development of colonial attitudes towards the natural world. They also provide insight into global colonial policy, changing attitudes towards land and natural resources, and the relationship between people and the natural world before the advent of environmental movements and activism later in the century. The environmental impact of colonialism can be explored through these files, from large-scale forestry and mining, to irrigation, soil surveys, pollution, industrial change, research into tropical diseases, agriculture, industry and conservation, as well as material on trade and commodities such as oil, cocoa, animal hides and skins, minerals and timber.
Continues Part I. Includes documents which chart the continued development towards the attempted implementation of grand apartheid. Sources are largely British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominions, and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1975. These previously restricted letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies and first-hand accounts of events give unprecedented access to the history of South Africa’s apartheid regime.
This archive treats U.S. foreign affairs during the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Notable subjects include the Arab-Israeli Conflict; the Camp David Accords; China; Panama Canal treaties; Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT); the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and U.S. responses to the intervention; the Iran Hostage Crisis; human rights; among other topics.
This collection complements our existing subscription to BBC Monitoring which provides access to the broader BBC Monitoring service and current content.
BBC Monitoring tracks, translates, summarises and analyses local media sources around the world. Its stated specialisms include: Russia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Disinformation.
BBC Monitoring was founded in 1939 at the start of WWII. Its purpose was to listen to radio broadcasts and gather open-source intelligence to help Britain and its allies understand global dynamics and assess emerging global threats. Over the next 60 years, the scope of its monitoring grew quickly. Trained specialists transcribed broadcasts of speeches, current affairs, political discussions, and social and cultural events worldwide. Transcripts, in turn, were translated into English and critical content was selected for publication. Finally, selections were curated into daily reports that comprise the Summary of World Broadcasts. These original daily reports often included commentary and evaluation by subject experts, as well as synopses and specialist briefings.
We are delighted to run the History Thesis Fair for second-year undergraduates this year on Wednesday 30 April, 3-5pm at the Examination Schools (North Writing School).
The Fair is aimed at 2nd year history undergraduates embarking on their thesis research and who are looking to explorethewealth of research source material available for their field of study.
It is the ideal opportunity to learn about resources you may not yet have considered for your undergraduate thesis, andto connect with librarians, archivists, researchers, and collection curators who can guide you towards relevant material or useful finding tools. You can also speak to other students who have previously written dissertations and learn about their TOP 10 TIPS.
30 stalls will cover many areas:
Topical stalls, e.g.
Biography
Disability History
Legal History
LGBTQ+, Gender and Sexuality
History of Science & Medicine
Maps and Mapping
Medieval History
Oral History
Visual Culture
and more
Special Collections, libraries and archives, e.g.
Archives and Manuscripts 1500-1800
Archives and Modern Manuscripts 1800-
College Libraries (Special Collections)
College Archives
Digital primary source providers: Gale Primary Sources, AM – Adam Matthew Digital
Early Printed Books
Oxford Brookes University Special Collections & Archives
Oxfordshire History Centre
Printed Ephemera (John Johnson Collection)
UK Government and International Intergovernmental Publications
Geographical stalls, e.g.
Africa & Commonwealth
East Asia & South Asia
Eastern Europe and Russia
Great Britain & Western Europe
Middle East, Hebrew & 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, to network and to make connections to 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.
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:
Throughout Trinity term, the Bodleian Library is offering a range of classes, events and workshops 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.
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. This includes:
Information searching and research skills;
Awareness of the rich sources available to you in Oxford (and beyond) and knowing how to access them;
The right way to handle material, including archives, correct citation practices, ethical research practice, etc.;
Knowing the relevant experts in Oxford libraries and archives.
THE TRAINING SCHEDULE
Most sessions require SSO for bookings. You can find the training programme below – subdivided into research skills and referencing training.
Some sessions are open to other members of the University. Others are exclusively aimed at undergraduates of the History Faculty, University of Oxford.
[Hist Fac UGs] History Thesis Fair – Wed 30 April 2025 (week 1)@ 3-5pm – In person, North Writing School, Exam Schools
This highly popular Fair has Librarians, Academics, Information Skills advisors, Subject Specialists and many 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 3pm; all other colleges should try to come at 4pm – but if you can’t make it during your time slot, just come when you can.
This short and practical webinar will introduce the new interface of the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH). Advance registration required.
This workshop will introduce participants to the key catalogues and finding aids for post-1800 archives and manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries. In particular the session will focus on Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts, the online catalogue for post-1800 archives and manuscripts. The session will also briefly introduce some of the major UK online gateways for discovering archives.
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.
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.
This beginner-friendly workshop introduces three GenAI tools (ChatGPT, Elicit, and Perplexity), showing how they can support information discovery and analysis. Designed for those new to AI, it will allow you to independently experiment with these tools and will explore their strengths, limitations, and suitability for different tasks.
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.
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.
This 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.
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.
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.
This online session provides a general overview of a wide range of e-resources relevant for British and Western European early modern history: bibliographical databases, biographical/reference tools, online collections of early printed books, newspapers, state papers touching on the political, social and religious upheavals during this period.
A workshop outlining some of the key principles to bear in mind when working with sensitive or restricted research. Issues of confidentiality, informed consent, cybersecurity and data management will be covered. The role of support services at Oxford will also be outlined and in particular the role of the Bodleian Data Librarian.
This 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.
B. REFERENCING TRAINING: USING SOFTWARE TO CITE SOURCES
Formatting your in-text citations, footnotes and bibliography correctly for your thesis or publication is crucial. Reference management tools make this easier and save you time. This classroom-based 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 four different packages (RefWorks, EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero) so that you can work out which one is best for you.
Referencing: Zotero (Bodleian iSkills) – In person: Fri 09 May 2025 (week 2) @ 1.30-4.30pm – IT Services, 7-19 Banbury Road| On Teams: Wed 28 May 2025 (week 5) @ 9.30-11.00am
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 introduction is available in both online and face-to-face formats.
Referencing: EndNote (Bodleian iSkills) – In Person: Mon 12 May 2025 (week 3) @ 1.30-4.30pm – IT Services, 7-19 Banbury Road | On Teams: Wed 21 May 2025 (week 4) @ 9.30am-11.30am
EndNote is a desktop-based reference management tool for Windows and Mac users. It helps you to build libraries of references and insert them into Word documents as in-text citations or footnotes, and to automatically generate bibliographies. This introduction is available in both online and face-to-face formats.
RefWorks is web-based and helps you to collect and manage references and insert them into your word processed document as in-text citations or footnotes, and you can generate bibliographies. Being web-based, RefWorks can be used with any operating system and, to cite your references in a document, provides a plugin for Microsoft Word on Windows or Mac computers.
Best of luck training and preparing for your thesis research!
We are delighted to announce that researchers now have access to more eresources supporting the study of global history and the history of underrepresented minorities. The resources are veritable treasure troves of documents, reports, maps, letters, ephemera and more. They have a global coverage from the Far East, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
In line with the Bodleian Libraries’ strategy (pdf) to enhance our collections, we committed substantial funding to a set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University.
Thsee resources and others in our ever-growing list of source databases are all accessible via SOLO or Databases A-Z. University staff and students also have remote access using their Single-Sign On (SSO) credentials.
History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century provides historical evidence demonstrating how society has interacted with and regarded individuals considered to have disabilities.
The resources provides online access to digitised books, manuscripts, and ephemera that provide a historical view of disabilities from the seventeenth to twentieth century.
Some materials include personal memoirs of experiences with disabilities or the accounts of those who treated them. Rehabilitation, treatments, methods of education, and other forms of remediation are documented.
Reports and proceedings of organizations and institutions that sought to help or heal those with disabilities are available for review. Policies and programs concerning persons with disabilities are also available (i.e. labor laws, legal rights, rehabilitation programs, etc.).
Researchers can examine disability as a form of institutional discrimination and social exclusion as well as an empowered movement. Documentation shows how people deemed to be disabled were classified and treated, while some materials show how people have overcome physical or mental challenges in their lives and challenged perceptions of what it means to be disabled.
Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century [accompanies Archives of Sexuality and Gender LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 Part I and Part II]
This resource looks at gender and sexuality in the centuries leading up to, and inclusive of, the period covered in Archives of Sexuality and Gender Parts I and II, providing context to the materials in those collections. It examines topics such as patterns of fertility and sexual practice; prostitution; religion and sexuality; the medical and legal construction of sexualities; and the rise of sexology. It not only offers a reflection of the cultural and social attitudes of the past, but also a window into how sexuality and gender roles were viewed and changed over time.
From The Exhibition of Female Flagellants. [With plates.]. London: Theresa Berkley, [c. 1840]. Image Source: The Private Case of the British Library
Three unique collections make up the archive:
The Private Case from the British Library, comprised of printed books segregated from the main library from the 1850s to 1990 on grounds of obscenity. It is an interesting study in social mores as the definition of obscenity has seen many changes since the mid-nineteenth-century.
Special Subject Units from Sex Research: Early Literature from Statistics to Erotica, a collection from the Alfred C. Kinsey Institute for Sex Research dating from 1700 to 1860. This is a portion of Dr. Kinsey’s original library which he used to study human sexual behavior from a variety of academic and literary viewpoints.
A collection of rare and unique books from the New York Academy of Medicine, consisting of more than 1,400 monographs covering a variety of topics in sex, sexuality and gender studies. From sex education to erotica, manners to medicine, the Academy collection offers a rich combination of materials from the humanities to the hard sciences.
The archive presents content in fourteen different languages, with a predominance in French, English, and German and including Old French, Old English, and Old High German.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, part III: The Institution of Slavery[accompanies part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World]
The Institution of Slavery module explores, in vivid detail, the inner workings of slavery from 1492 to 1888. Through legal documents, plantation records, first-person accounts, newspapers, government records, and other primary sources, this collection reveals how enslaved people struggled against the institution. These rare works explore slavery as a legal and labor system, the relationship between slavery and religion, freed slaves, the Shong Massacre, the Demerara insurrection, and many other aspects and events.
Indiana Narratives, Volume V. n.d. TS, Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project. Library of Congress. Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive (accessed August 9, 2024).
The material contained in this module include:
Edward Dixon Papers
Edmund Ruffin diaries, 1856-1865
J.F.H. Claiborne Papers, 1818-1885
John J. Crittenden Papers, 1783-1913
Blair family papers, 1755-1968
British Library Collections II
Caribbean Documents collection, 1699-1959
Court Cases and other documents from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission: Records
Records related to Slavery from the Colonial Office, Commonwealth and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices, Empire Marketing Board, and related bodies
Records related to Slavery from the Exchequer, and its related bodies
Records related to Slavery from the Court of King’s Bench, Privy Council, and Treasury: Selected Records
Records of the Senate Select Committee that Investigated John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
Apellate Case File No. 3230, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 US 393 (19 Howard 393), Decided March 6, 1857 and Related Records
Rice C. Ballard Papers
Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project
Eastern European LGBTQ Ephemera Collection
This collection of ephemera (brochures, clothing items, booklets, flyers, etc.) offers important insights into LGBTQ activism in Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the past decade. It includes 140 items (more than 2,000 pages) of valuable research materials collected by East View in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland and Serbia.
Asia and Middle East
China and the Modern World: Imperial China and the West, Part II, 1865–1905 [accompanies Part I, 1815-1881]
Provides access to British Foreign Office General Correspondence relating to China. The material relates to the internal politics of China and Britain, their relationship, and the relationships among other Western powers— keen to benefit from the growing trading ports of the Far East—and China’s neighbours in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
The FO 17 series provides a vast and significant resource for researching every aspect of China-West relations during the nineteenth century, ranging from diplomacy and war, to trade, piracy, riots and rebellions within China, international law, treaty ports and informal empire, transnational emigration, and translation and cross-cultural communication.
Foreign Office Files for Japan: Module III: Japan and Great Power Status, 1919-1930[accompanies Module II: Occupation of Japan 1946-1952]
Contains British Foreign Office files relating to Japan between 1919 and 1930. In 1919, as a vital member of the Allied Powers, Japan found itself occupying a new position of international power within a reorganized world order. The files in this section trace the development of this power and Japan’s relationship with the West during a decade of turbulent economic, political and social change in the wake of the First World War. Beginning with the Paris Peace Conference and the ‘Shantung Question’, the files offer insight into the events of the 1920s, from the termination of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the devastation of the Kantō Earthquake, and the end of the Taishō democracy, to the beginning of the Shōwa period, financial crisis and Japan’s increasingly imperialist policies in Manchuria.
Images including crown copyright images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England.
This module contains 1257 documents comprising of the correspondence of the Board of Commissioners along with IOR/Z/F/4 index volumes. These documents offer valuable insight into the Company’s decisions in the political, financial and military aspects of controlling the East India Company’s vast territory. It also places the India Office into the wider global context of the company’s influence.
Correspondence regarding the progress of vaccination in the Bengal Presidency, Apr-Nov 1812. East India Company, IOR/F/4/427. Adam Matthew
Highlights of Module 6 include:
Letters regarding vaccination in Bengal IOR/F/4/427/10455
Letters discussing the sample of Bourbon cotton sent to the Directors IOR/F/4/840/22475
Material about the establishment of Hindu Colleges at Nadia in Bengal IOR/F/4/408/10172
Communications between the Nepal government and the Court of the Chinese Emperor at Peking IOR/F/4/809/21721
Discussion of the plants and seeds sent from the Calutta Botanic Garden to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew IOR/F/4/540/12989
Documents relating ot the introduction of new native commissioned rank of Subador Major IOR/F/4/565/13914
Baghdad Observer Digital Archive (1967-1996)
The official English-language newspaper of the Iraqi government from its establishment after the 1963 coup and through the Ba’athist period following 1968, until it ended publication in 2003 due to the Iraq War. It covered significant events in Middle Eastern history, including the Iranian Revolution (1978-1979), the presidency of Saddam Hussein (1979-2003), the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), and the Gulf War (1990-1991).
Palestine and Israel: Records of the US Department of State, 1945-1959 (Archives Unbound)
This archive traces the period that saw the end of the British mandate in Palestine. Documents address the role of the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations and that of the United States in the creation of the state of Israel. Included here are the Palestine Reference files of Dean Rusk and Robert McClintock, as well as documents from the Mission of the United States in Tel-Aviv. The years 1955-1959 contain instructions and correspondences of the U.S. Department of State.
Most of the State Department’s internal documentation as well as correspondence between the State Department and other federal departments and agencies, in addition to documents from private individuals and organizations, are included in the central files. Documents types comprise official and unofficial correspondence, inquiries, memoranda, situation reports and studies, special reports, and telegrams. The files offer insight into a range of subjects including the politics, laws, military, economy, industry, natural resources, public works, and media of Palestine and Israel. The documents in this collection are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State.
Egypt and the Rise of Nationalism
Includes more than 4,000 primary source documents from the UK National Archives relating to the period of the British military occupation in Egypt. Consisting of British Foreign Office, Cabinet Office and War Office files. This collection captures the development of nationalist sensibilities, movements, and publications in Egypt from the 1870s until the third decade of the twentieth century, culminating with the formal dissolution of the British protectorate in 1924.
Muteferriqa
An online research portal containing an exceptionally rich collection of printed materials published in the Ottoman Empire from the 18th to mid-20th century. It consists of virtually all the books and a large majority of periodicals ever printed in Ottoman Turkish.
Apartheid South Africa 1948-1994. Section 1, 1948-1966
British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion, and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices. These previously restricted letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies and first-hand accounts of events give unprecedented access to the history of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The files explore the relationship of the international community with South Africa and chart increasing civil unrest against a backdrop of waning colonialism in Africa and mounting world condemnation.
Images including crown copyright images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Bloomsbury Churchill Archive: Churchill Acquired Papers [accompanies Churchill Archives]
The Churchill Acquired Papers contain more than 1,700 documents, spanning previously unseen items such as personal letters, speech notes and diary entries. This resource further enhances the insights that the Churchill Archive has to offer.
Notes for Churchill’s first political speech in 1897
Letters sent during Churchill’s time at the Western Front in 1916
The Prime Minister’s appointment diary for 1944
Material regarding the bombing of Dresden in 1945
Notes on Churchill’s famed Iron Curtain Speech of 1946
Eastern European LGBTQ Ephemera Collection
This collection of ephemera (brochures, clothing items, booklets, flyers, etc.) offers important insights into LGBTQ activism in Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the past decade. It includes 140 items (more than 2,000 pages) of valuable research materials collected by East View in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland and Serbia.
Klassiki
This is a video-on-demand platform which is dedicated exclusively to cinema from Eastern Europe – including Ukraine, Russia, and the Baltics – the Caucasus and Central Asia. Klassiki features a library of over 100 titles, spanning silent cinema to the 2020s, a film Pick of the Week feature, and a Journal area of related content including interviews, essays and national cinema overviews. A potentially useful resource to students of film, visual culture and modern languages.
You will need to register the first time you use this resource.
Taylor & Francis (including the Routledge imprint) is by the largest depositor of Non Print Legal Deposit (NPLD also known as eLD) material, with over 124,000 items held in the currently inaccessible British Library repository. Calculations from NPLD usage statistics from 2016-June 2023 show that T&F is also the most heavily used publisher (over 30,000 title accesses). Content, usage and requests fall predominantly in the subject areas of Humanities and Social Sciences.
An evidence-based acquisitions (EBA) package for the “missing” NPLD content from Taylor and Francis was decided to be the single most effective measure to mitigate the effect of the BL outage, which has had a far greater impact on monographs and edited collections, in comparison to journal holdings, where our subscriptions and R&P deals have largely covered the effects of the outage.
The new EBA for 2016-2025 (running until end 2025, and adding new content on publication) provide coverage for most currently missing titles and for the anticipated delay in restoring ingest of new publications.
Access has been turned on for current content and the individual records have been added to SOLO. Current content is just over 30,000 ebooks, splitting 60:40 between Social Sciences and Humanities. By the end of the subscription (December 2025), Oxford will have had access to over 35,000 titles.
At the end of the agreement, the libraries can select titles for perpetual access to the value of the deal, with a 17% uplift). Selections will be carried by library staff, with the benefit of the usage statistics during the period of the deal, to inform choices on permanent retentions.
Researchers interested in colonial history and Dutch history will be delighted to know that over 5 million scans of the Dutch East India Company are now freely and fully searchable at GLOBALISE.
Consisting of approximately twenty-five million pages, the UNESCO Memory of the World-listed archives of the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) offer a unique view on interactions between European and non-European actors in Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 5 million scans of the ‘Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren’ (1610-1796) of the VOC are now fully searchable. From early October 2023, a prototype of the GLOBALISE transcriptions viewer is online at: https://transcriptions.globalise.huygens.knaw.nl/.
These archives not only provide insights into the VOC’s operations but also offer rare glimpses into early modern societies in Asia, Africa, and Australia. For these regions, where few archival sources exist, the VOC archives hold unique and invaluable information, illuminating their multifaceted interactions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This resource is useful for those interested in early modern global and colonial history.
This database provides short biographical descriptions of German academics that were forced to leave their academic jobs during the Nazi regime. The expulsion of numerous scientists by the Nazi regime’s brutal policy of exclusion, and the international refugee movements it caused, can be regarded as a significant turning point in the history of science. The “cleansing” of the German universities that began in 1933 led to a considerable loss in Germany’s intellectual milieu.
The database covers 1,300 persons who were affected by the dismissals, covering all German universities in detail. The short biographies provide information on academic status and disciplines, religious affiliation, membership in political parties, reasons of expulsion, and also (if applicable) on concentration camp imprisonment, countries of emigration and remigration.
Links are provided to other biographical resources such as Deutsche Biographie.
You can search by person, university, academic displine, birth and death dates. You can also browse by person or academic discipline.
Photo by Isabel Holowaty, 27 Nov 2023, Maison Française, Oxford
Who is the guide for?
It is intended for researchers and students who are studying Disability History and other information professionals supporting researchers. It is also useful for practitioners and members of the public with an interest in (or who have a disability) and wish to gain a historical perspective.
What can you find in the guide?
The LibGuide consists of a collection of research resources crowdsourced during a Hackathon by 24 volunteers in Dec 2022 who scoured the internet for relevant archives, journals and various other useful websites. Over 200 nominated resources were then assessed and organised by Alice to make them as discoverable as possible. The guide conforms with accessibility standards.
The selected resources cover a great variety of topics across different historical periods (ancient to contemporary history).
The disabilities covered are wide ranging and include, for instance, autism, birth defects, chronic pain, hearing loss /deafness, learning disabilities, mental illness, mobility disabilities, visual impairment, and more.
Resources were also selected for aspects of disability relating to education, employment, medical technologies, stigma and war. The materials themselves may be archives, audio-visual, biographies, books, journals, legislation, newspapers, theses and websites.
The guide will continue to evolve. It is currently limited largely to English language resources focused on western history and we hope there will be opportunities to expand its scope in the future.
We very much welcome feedback and, continuing in the crowdsourcing spirit, invite suggestions for additional resources for the LibGuide which can be made via our Recommend a Resource form.
Many congratulations and thanks go to Alice for her terrific work. We believe that this guide will be an excellent resource to help with the discovery of resources for disability history. Thanks of course also go to the volunteer ‘hackers’, without whom this guide would not exist, and the History Faculty for hosting and funding the hackathon in 2022.
Isabel Holowaty, Deputy Head of Humanities Libraries & History Librarian (Research), Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University
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![Snippet of results list when searching for Nat Turner. The 1st items is:
Southard, Nathaniel. Why work for the slave? [U.S.]: [s.n.], [1838?]. Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive (accessed July 30, 2025).](http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/wp-content/uploads/sites/118/2025/07/Gale-Slavery-AntiSlavery-IV-Nat-Rurner-search.png)
Consisting of approximately twenty-five million pages, the UNESCO Memory of the World-listed archives of the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) offer a unique view on interactions between European and non-European actors in Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 5 million scans of the ‘Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren’ (1610-1796) of the VOC are now fully searchable. From early October 2023, a prototype of the GLOBALISE transcriptions viewer is online at: 
