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Brian Vetruba
Contact:
Office: 1a Wilson Library
309 19th Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55455
Email: bvetruba@umn.edu
309 19th Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55455
Email: bvetruba@umn.edu
612-625-8161
Related Guides & Resources
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All Primary Source DatabasesList of all primary source databases available to University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff.
What are primary sources?
They are sources which provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They present original thinking, report a discovery, or share new information.
They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through subsequent interpretation or evaluation.
Examples: autobiographies, letters, diaries, musical scores, works of art, speeches, recordings, photographs, articles in newspapers that describe events.
Main databases
Below are the databases with primary source material covering Britain/UK and Ireland which focus on multiple topics or multiple time periods.
For databases covering specific topics, see the following:
For historical news, see News.
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19th Century British PamphletsMore than 26,000 digitized pamphlets from collections in seven universities in the UK, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of 19th century Britain. Also includes some periodicals from 17th and 18th centuries.
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AM Primary Sources for Teaching and ResearchAM (formerly Adam Matthew) publishes unique primary source collections from archives around the world. Collections span the social sciences and humanities and cover a multitude of topics ranging from Medieval family life and Victorian medicine to 1960s pop culture and global politics.
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Archives DirectCollections sourced from The National Archives, Kew, the official archive of the United Kingdom. Containing diplomatic correspondence, letters, reports, surveys, material from newspapers, statistical analyses, published pamphlets, ephemera, military papers, profiles of prominent individuals, maps and many other types of document, it consists of the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the British state’s point of view.
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British History OnlineCollection of primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800. Includes documents; historical maps; indexes and calendars of archives; digital versions of secondary historical works; and datasets. Results can be filtered by source type, place, subject, and period. Note: premium content (about 20% of the collection) NOT available to UMN.
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British Online ArchivesContains a wide range of materials related to British history from the early 1600s onward, including the colonization of America, India, Africa, the West Indies, New Zealand, Australia and Melanesia. The collection contains sources that relate to both politics and history, including colonial missionary records, slavery in the Americas, World War One, and shipping records. Primary sources include journals, correspondence, official records and personal papers.
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C19, the nineteenth century indexThe most comprehensive and dynamic source for discovering nineteenth-century books, journals, official documents, newspapers, and archives. Includes the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals.
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Early European Books : printed sources to 1700Early European Books traces the history of printing in Europe from its origins through the close of the seventeenth century. The resource represents a diverse array of printed sources and opens the door to some of the Europe's most significant collections of early printed books.
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Early Modern EnglandCovers everyday , political, religious, working, trading, and administrative life in England from 1500-1700 through legal records, family papers, borough records, tax records, annotated printed books, commonplace books, wills, and other primary source materials.
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EEBO: Early English Books Online (Page Images)Over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).
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Eighteenth Century Collections OnlineSearch books from the Enlightenment period in Great Britain between 1701 and 1800 with over 180,000 English-language titles and editions printed in the United Kingdom and the Americas. It includes books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more.
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EuroDocs: Online Sources for European HistoryPortal to open access primary historical documents for European countries that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. Texts, video, sound files, maps, photographs and other imagery, databases, and other documentation are also available. Coverage is from Prehistoric Europe to present day. In particular, see the following: Ireland, Scotland, and UK
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HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowHathiTrust provides access to millions of books and other materials. Full text searching of most books is available and books in the public domain (generally older books) can be freely viewed and/or downloaded. Books still in copyright have more limited access. Users with print-reading disabilities can apply for special access to digitized works by emailing wilsref@umn.edu.
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Making of the Modern WorldUse this source to find primary sources and full text books from the 1460-1850 period with focuses on economics interpreted in the widest sense, including political science, history, sociology, and special collections on banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing.
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Medieval and Early Modern Studies Online (MEMSO)Search Medieval and Early Modern Studies Online (MEMSO) to find primary sources from the medieval and early modern periods and books concerning the study of medieval and early modern Britain and Ireland.
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Nineteenth Century Collections OnlineSearch primary source collections of the nineteenth century (1800s) with books, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more. Topics include British politics, theater and music; European literature, Asian exploration, photography, and more.
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British and UK Studies Guiderom the European Studies Section of ACRL, scholarly resources in British and UK Studies, including the nations making up the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). Includes primary source resources and digital collections.
British imperialism, colonies, and missionaries
Topical primary source databases which focus on Britain's Exploration, Imperialism, Colonies, and Missionary Work. Many include materials sourced from the British colonial and foreign offices, private companies, as well as missionary societies.
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Age of ExplorationExplore five centuries of journeys across the globe, scientific discoveries, the expansion of European colonialism, conflict over territories and trade routes, and decades-long search and rescue attempts in this multi-archive collection dedicated to the history of exploration.
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Apartheid South Africa 1948-1980Explore British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1980. This resource is divided into three sections: 1948-1966, 1967-1975 and 1976-1980.
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Church Missionary Society ArchiveSearch records of the CMS and associated missionary societies for information about their work around the world and the people and contexts where they worked over the period 1799-1959. Includes official records, personal papers, photographs and more
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Church Missionary Society PeriodicalsIncludes publications from the Church Missionary Society, the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and the South American Missionary Society, such as news, journals and reports, covering missionary work from the 19th to the 21st century.
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Colonial AmericaExplore the correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies from 1606 to 1822. This is the original correspondence of the colonial governments with the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department and the Secretary of State for the Colonies which, together, held responsibility for the British possessions in mainland North America and the Caribbean.
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Colonial CaribbeanSearch files from the British Colonial Office covering the history from 1624 to 1870 of British-ruled territories stretching from Jamaica and the Bahamas to Trinidad and Tobago. Sources include administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, and details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern of absentee landlords.
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Colonial State PapersThis database provides access to over 7,000 hand-written documents and more than 40,000 bibliographic records with this incredible resource on Colonial History. In addition to Britain's colonial relations with the Americas and other European rivals for power, this collection also covers the Caribbean and Atlantic world. It is an invaluable resource for scholars of early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery.
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East India CompanySearch a vast collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Contains royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types, this resource charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1599 to 1947. Includes research tools, essays, chronology, etc.
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Empire OnlineSearch original documents and primary sources for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences including exploration, colonization and more including British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German points of view, as well as that of indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America. The sections cover Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion and Empire; and Race, Class and Colonialism, c 1783-1969.
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India, Raj and EmpireMaterials documenting the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 to the granting of independence for India and Pakistan in 1947. The sources range from the papers of key East India Company representatives and colonial officials to records of daily life in Agra, Bombay, Lahore, and Madras. Materials are from the National Library of Scotland.
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Migration to New WorldsPrimary source material recounting the personal experiences of 350 years of migration. Explore Colonial Office files on emigration, diaries and travel journals, ship logs and plans, printed literature, objects, watercolours, and oral histories supplemented by secondary research aids. Includes access to "Module 1 : The Century of Immigration" & "Module 2 : The Modern Era."
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Virginia Company ArchivesVirginia Company Archives is a collection of digitized primary sources from the archives of the Virginia Company of London, an English joint-stock company chartered to establish colonial settlements in North America. The papers document the Virginia Company’s operations, its settlement of Jamestown and the Bermudas in North America, and its dissolution, which led to Virginia becoming a royal colony. The collection includes manuscripts, transcripts, the four-volume work The Records of the Virginia Company of London, maps, and illustrations.
Ireland
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CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts)Irish studies database with contemporary and historical documents from many areas, including literature, politics, medicine, and the other arts. Texts are in Eniglish, Irish Gaelic, Latin, and Anglo-Norman French,with accompanying introductions, background information, graphics, translations, and scholarly bibliographies.
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Digital Collections, Trinity College Dublin LibraryProvides access to Oscar Wilde Collection, Book of Kells Collection, Clarke Stained Glass Studios Collection, Robinson Collection of Caricatures, etc.
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Digital Collections, University of GalwayIncludes maps, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, oral histories, and more.
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DIPPAM: Documenting Ireland Parliament, People and MigrationAn online archive of documents and sources relating to the history or Ireland, and its migration experience from the 18th to the late 20th century. Includes the "Enhanced British Parlimentary Papers on Ireland" (EPPI), a complete set of parliamentary papers related to Ireland (1801-1922); "Irish Emigration Database" (IED) which includes letters, diaries, newspaper materials, and government papers; and "Voices of Migration & Return Oral Archive" (VMR) which has interviews of migrants and returnees from Ulster (Northern Ireland).
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National Library of Ireland's CollectionsIncludes digital photographs, curated digital collections, and other resources.
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Northern Ireland: A Divided Community, 1921-1972 Cabinet Papers of the Stormont Administration This link opens in a new windowSearch the complete collection of Government documents of the British administration in Northern Ireland from 1921-1972.
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Irish Studies GuideFrom the European Studies Section of ACRL, scholarly resources in Irish Studies. Includes primary source resources and digital collections.
Victorian Britain
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Poverty, Philanthropy and Social Conditions in Victorian BritainThis collection navigates the complex social climate of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain between the introduction of the New Poor Law in 1834 and the abolition of the workhouse system in 1930. It documents interactions between government policy and public philanthropy in Victorian and early twentieth-century society. Includes pamphlets, newsletters and periodicals published by settlement houses as well as public notices
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Queen Victoria's JournalsDigitized collection of Queen Victoria's diaries, written between 1832-1901 consisting of every page of the surviving volumes of Queen Victoria's journals, including draft volumes and copies made by Lord Esher and Princess Beatrice, as well as color images and photographs.
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Victorian Popular CultureHistorical and primary documents on popular entertainment in the nineteenth (1800s) and early twentieth centuries (early 1900s) including topics such as "Moving pictures, optical entertainments, and the advent of cinema"; "Optical delights" ; "Music hall, theatre, and popular entertainment" features material on music halls, pleasure gardens, exhibitions, scientific institutions, variety and vaudeville, and spectacles such as firework displays and ballooning; "Circuses, sideshows, and freaks" focuses on the world of traveling entertainment ; "Spiritualism, sensation, and magic" explores the relationship between the popularity of Victorian magic shows and conjuring tricks and the emergence of sances and psychic phenomena.
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Victorian Popular Culture: Early Cinema FootageView online selected video clips from the British Film Institute (BFI) National Archive spans the formative years of film, 1894-1926. View a vareity of silent film clips including historical (the Boer War, the First World War), comedy, and more including Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Rudolph Valentino.
Other topical databases
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1980s Culture and Society
Zines, newspapers and ephemera, oral histories, films and photographs from archival collections housed across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Diverse perspectives, materials produced by grassroots organizations and under-represented groups are presented alongside government records and mainstream media to showcase the key social, cultural, and political concerns of the decade.
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British Newsreels, 1911-1930: Culture and Society on FilmCollection of newsreels produced by the Topical Film Company providing a glimpse into the early twentieth century - from everyday interests, such as sport and fashion, to coverage of key events, such as the First World War, the Suffragette Movement, and the establishment of the Irish Free State.
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Defining GenderProvides access to a vast body of original British source material that will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective.
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Early Modern EnglandCovers everyday , political, religious, working, trading, and administrative life in England from 1500-1700 through legal records, family papers, borough records, tax records, annotated printed books, commonplace books, wills, and other primary source materials.
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Electronic EnlightenmentEdited correspondence among the greatest thinkers and writers of early 17th to mid-19th century in Europe, the Americas, and Asia with their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. Coverage includes letters and documents, document sources such as manuscripts and early printed editions, scholarly annotations, and links to biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, and other online resources.
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John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed EphemeraSearch rare or unique archival printed materials documenting everyday life in Britain in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Categories include Entertainment, the Booktrade, Popular Prints, Crimes, Murders and Executions, and Advertising.
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First World WarFind primary sources on the personal experiences of men and women in World War I including diaries, newspapers, posters, postcards, photographs and more. Also find including interactive maps, chronology, and image galleries.
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Georgian Papers OnlineHistoric manuscripts, both official and private, from the reigns of George I to William IV, including personal letters, diaries, account books and records of the British Royal Household.
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Leisure, Travel & Mass CultureProvides an in-depth look at the evolution of European and American working class tourism from 1850 to 1980. Contains brochures, guidebooks, photo albums, and tourist ephemera supplemented by printed books, travel agency records, handwritten journals, leaflets, promotional films, and government correspondence.
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London Low LifeFind color images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London.
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Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963Documents from the the British Government during the Macmillan Administration, 1957-1963 with coverage of the Cabinet conclusions (CAB 128) and memoranda (CAB 129) of Harold Macmillan's government, plus selected minutes and memoranda of policy committees (CAB 134). It includes material on Anglo-American relations, Europe, the process of decolonisation, key Cold War conflicts, various Defence White Papers over the period and reaction to Macmillan's "Winds of Change" speech.
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Mass Observation Online (British everyday lives, 1937 to mid-1950)Original manuscript and typescript papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organisation, photographs and interactive features created by recruiting a team of observers and a panel of volunteer writers to study the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain from 1937 until the mid-1950s.
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Mass Observation Project, 1981-2009Mass Observation documents the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. This collection consists of the questionnaires in the 1980s and 1990s and the thousands of responses to them. Topics covered include the deeply personal to everyday life, to global affairs. The digitized printed directives, prose responses to directives, newspaper cuttings, photographs, leaflets and other ephemera cover key themes in current affairs, family, home, sex; leisure; politics, society, culture and the media, and work, finance and the economy.
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Medieval Family LifeImages and transcripts of the Letter collections of the Paston, Stonor, Plumpton, Armburgh and Cely families from 15th century England. Letter topics include trade, warfare, arranging advantageous marriages, arguments between parents and children, matters of inheritance, births and deaths, estate management, legal disputes, domestic finances, women and their role in the family and everyday social and domestic life.
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Northern Ireland: A Divided Community, 1921-1972 Cabinet Papers of the Stormont Administration This link opens in a new windowSearch the complete collection of Government documents of the British administration in Northern Ireland from 1921-1972.
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Old Bailey (London's Criminal Court (1674-1913)Search all surviving editions of the Old Bailey Proceedings from 1674 to 1913, and of the Ordinary of Newgate's Accounts between 1676 and 1772. It allows access to over 197,000 trials and biographical details of approximately 2,500 men and women executed at Tyburn.
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Perdita Manuscripts (British Women Writings)Over 230 manuscripts written or compiled by women living in the British Isle during the 16th and 17th centuries. Contents include account books, advice, culinary writing, meditation, travel writing, and verse. Perdita manuscripts can be searched by name, place, genre, and first lines of both poetry and prose.
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Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975Original primary sources on society, music, politics, fashion and youth culture in the US and UK from 1950 to 1975. Topics include student protests, civil rights, consumerism, the Space Race, and the Vietnam War. The collection includes pamphlets, letters, government files, eye witness accounts, underground magazines, music, press kits, mail order catalogs, advertisements, photos, ephemera, and memorabilia.
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Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandAccessible through the Wiley Digital Archives platform, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) Collection contains the organization's entire archives running from 1871 to 1967. The content includes manuscripts, photographs, maps, drawings, correspondence, expedition and fieldwork reports, papers, meeting minutes, administrative papers, surveys, conference papers, and more.
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State Papers Online (English government, 1509-1714)State Papers Online, 1509-1714 is a collection of English government documents originating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--when the King or Queen acted as Prime Minister as well as Monarch. The papers feature the office archives and correspondence of the secretaries of state serving the Monarch as facsimile manuscript documents. This collection contains information on every facet of English government, including social and economic affairs, law and order, religious policy, crown possessions and intelligence gathering as well as Britain's international relations and foreign policy.
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Trade in Early Modern London: Livery Company Records, 1450-1750Includes business and court records from six of London’s principal livery companies, spanning the years 1450 to 1750. Livery companies were trade guilds that played central roles in the commercial, political and cultural activity of the city. The documents cover a variety of themes and reactions to key historical events, such as the Reformation, the English Civil War, and the Great Fire of London. Images and document transcripts are available.
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Travel Writing, Spectacle, and World HistoryBrings together hundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early 19th century to the late 20th century. Researchers will find sources covering a variety of topics including; architecture; art; the British Empire; climate; customs; exploration; family life; housing; industry; language; monuments; mountains; natural history; politics and diplomacy; race; religion; science; shopping; war. A wide variety of forms of travel writing are included, ranging from unique manuscripts, diaries and correspondence to drawings, guidebooks and photographs. The resource includes a slideshow with hundreds of items of visual material, including postcards, sketches and photographs.
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U.K. Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new windowFind House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1660. Includes Records of proceedings, the Debates (Hansard), and the House of Commons journal; Sessional papers providing information to parliament on matters of policy and administration: Bills, House papers, and Command papers. Also includes the House of Lords presented to the Commons, such as reports prepared by Lords Select Committees.
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Women's Voices and Life Writing, 1600-1968Diaries and oral histories for the study of the lives and experiences of less well-known women, told through their own words. Featuring content from both regional and national archives across the UK and Ireland.
Finding primary source materials in the library catalog
Using Libraries Search, enter as a SUBJECT search the name of the event, individual, group, plus a term of what you're looking for, such as "Speeches", "Correspondence", "Diaries", "Personal Narratives", and "Sources". The term "Sources" refers to a collection of primary source materials. Here are some examples:
- "Margaret Thatcher" "Speeches"
- "Great Britain" "World War 1939-1945" "Sources"
- "Famines" "Ireland" "Sources"
- To search for autobiographies or memoirs, search the person as both an AUTHOR and SUBJECT and the term "biography" as a SUBJECT. For example: "Prince Harry" as SUBJECT; "Prince Harry" as AUTHOR.
Last Updated: Nov 4, 2025 12:12 PM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/britishirish