LibGuides@Southampton: History: Primary Sources

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are documents (manuscript or printed) from particular historical periods, as opposed to "secondary sources" (e.g. books and articles) written at a later date about particular historical periods.

Evaluating the quality of primary source websites

Using Primary Sources on the Web This link opens in a new window
A guide to finding and evaluating primary sources located on the internet.

Primary Sources in Special Collections

Hartley Library Special Collections

With 6.5 million manuscript items and 50,000 printed books, the Special Collections provide a resource of remarkable richness and depth.

In the Archives you can find the papers of

the first Duke of Wellington MS 61
the third Viscount Palmerston MS 62
Earl Mountbatten of Burma MS 62

Southampton is also home to one of the largest Jewish archives in Western Europe and the archives of the University itself MS 1.

Printed collections include:

Cope Collection on Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
Parkes Library on Jewish/non-Jewish Relations
Perkins Agricultural Library
University Collection - history of the University
Wellington Pamphlets

To find out how to access the material see Special Collections

Primary Sources online

This listing includes a range of primary source databases for History which we subscribe to. Freely available primary source databases are generally too numerous to list, but a few that are particularly useful are included.

19th Century British Pamphlets Online This link opens in a new window
Describes nineteenth century pamphlet collections, has links to catalogues and digitised pamphlets, and provides resources to assist those wanting to use pamphlets within their research or teaching.
This site was created by the 19th Century Pamphlets Online project, which during 2007-09 digitised more than 23,000 pamphlets from seven UK research collections. This work was led by the University of Southampton , funded by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and sponsored by Research Libraries UK (RLUK) . The site also incorporates resources created by an earlier RLUK-led 19th Century Pamphlets cataloguing project which created catalogue records for almost 180,000 pamphlets held within 21 research libraries.
African Diaspora: Cultural, Social and Political History This link opens in a new window
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African Diaspora, 1860-Present allows scholars to discover the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent. With a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France, the collection includes never-before digitized primary source documents.
Avalon Project This link opens in a new window
The Avalon Project contains online electronic copies of documents dating back to the beginning of history, making it possible to study the original text of not only very famous documents such as Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the United States Bill of Rights, but also the text of less well known but significant documents which mark turning points in the history of law and rights.
British History Online This link opens in a new window
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British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Secondary sources includes publications such as The History of Parliament, the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, the Calendar of Close Rolls, Survey of London and the Victoria County History; and major published primary sources such as Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII and the Journals of the House of Lords and House of Commons.
British Periodicals Collections I, II, III and IV This link opens in a new window
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Providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.
Charles Booth's London This link opens in a new window
Charles Booth's London lets you search the catalogue of over 450 original notebooks from the Inquiry into Life and Labour in London (1886-1903), view 41 digitised notebooks and explore the London poverty maps.
Churchill Archive This link opens in a new window
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The Churchill Archive is a digital library of modern international history. It includes more than 800,000 pages of original documents, produced between 1874 and 1965, ranging from Winston S. Churchill’s personal correspondence to his official exchanges with kings, presidents, politicians, and military leaders.
Clergy of the Church of England Database This link opens in a new window
The CCED's objective is to construct a relational database containing the careers of all clergymen of the Church of England between 1540 and 1835. The Database fills a major gap in our knowledge of one of the most important professions in early modern England and Wales.
Connected Histories This link opens in a new window
Connected Histories brings together a range of digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain with a single federated search that allows sophisticated searching of names, places and dates.Connected Histories currently includes 22 major digital resources for the period 1500-1900.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) Proquest This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Early European Books This link opens in a new window
Early European Books provides scholars with new ways of accessing and exploring all works printed in Europe before 1701, drawing together a diverse array of printed sources, regardless of language, as well as works published further afield.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of every significant English & foreign language title printed in Great Britain during the Eighteenth Century plus thousands of important works from the Americas.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
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Empire Online brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries.

For off-campus access, click the "UK Access Management Federation" option, and select "University of Southampton".
England's Immigrants Database 1330-1550 This link opens in a new window
A fully-searchable database containing over 64,000 names of people known to have migrated to England during the period of the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses and the Reformation.
EuroDocs This link opens in a new window
Online Sources for European History
Founders Online This link opens in a new window
Read and search through thousands of records from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison and see firsthand the growth of democracy and the birth of the Republic.
Hansard - House of Commons Debates This link opens in a new window
This page has both contemporary (November 1988 onwards) Commons debates and a link to Historic Hansard (1803 - 2005). Members of the University can also access Hansard via the subscription service 'House of Commons Parliamentary Papers' which allows for cross-searching Hansard with Parliamentary reports, papers and bills.
Hansard - House of Lords Debates This link opens in a new window
This page has both contemporary (November 1995 onwards) Lords debates and a link to Historic Hansard (1803 - 2005).
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (1688-2009/10) This link opens in a new window
Please see the entry under 'UK Parliamentary Papers (1688-2009/10).
Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
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A research and learning database providing comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide from 1900 to 2010 - includes primary and secondary materials across multiple media formats and content types for each selected event.
London Lives - Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis This link opens in a new window
Makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London.
Manchester Medieval Sources Online This link opens in a new window
A collection of medieval sources published by Manchester University Press.
Content includes: The world of El Cid: chronicles of the Spanish reconquest • Ottonian Germany: The chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg • The lives of Thomas Becket • The English manor c.1200-c.1500 • Popular protest in late-medieval Europe: Italy, France and Flanders • Joan of Arc: La pucelle • Saints and cities in medieval Italy • Eleventh-century Germany: The Swabian Chronicles • History and politics in late Carolingian and Ottonian Europe: The Chronicle of Regino of Prüm and Adalbert of Magdeburg • Crime, law and society in the later Middle Ages • Monasticism in late-medieval England, c.1300-1535 • Friars’ tales: Sermon Exempla from the British Isles • The Papal reform of the eleventh century: Lives of Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII
Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new window
The papers of Mass Observation, a pioneering social research organisation. Provide insights into the cultural and social history of Britain from 1937 to 1965.
Mass Observation was a pioneering social research organisation whose papers provide insights into the cultural and social history of Britain from 1937 to 1965. The material in Mass Observation Online, offers detailed accounts of everyday life in the 1930s and 1940s. The topics covered include abortion, old age, crime, eating habits, shopping, fashion, dance, popular music, sex, sport, reading, ethnic minorities, and the decline of Empire. For off-campus access, click the "UK Access Management Federation" option, and select "University of Southampton".
Mass Observation Project: 1981-2009 This link opens in a new window
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Launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, its founders' aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. Still growing, it is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK. Mass Observation Project consists of all the directives sent out by Mass Observation and the responses to them from the hundreds of Mass Observers.
NCSE: Nineteenth Century Serials Edition This link opens in a new window
Online edition of six nineteenth-century periodicals and newspapers
NCSE includes full runs of the first five titles, and a decade only of the Publishers’ Circular. Titles are represented as completely as possible, including multiple editions, advertisements, wrappers, and supplements: Monthly Repository (1806-1837) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833); Northern Star (1838-1852); Leader (1850-1860); English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864); Tomahawk (1867-1870); Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890).
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new window
19th Century UK Periodicals is a major multi-part series which covers the events, lives, values and themes that shaped the 19th century world. It is mainly based on the repositories of the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of South Africa, the National Library of Australia, and many others.
Old Bailey Online - The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674 - 1913 This link opens in a new window
A fully searchable, digitised collection of all surviving editions of the Old Bailey Proceedings from 1674 to 1913. It allows access to over 197,000 trials and includes biographical details of 2500 of the convicts.
Prosecuting the Holocaust: British Investigations into Nazi Crimes, 1944-1949 This link opens in a new window
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Drawn from The National Archives (UK) and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this collection contains a wealth of information regarding the British government's efforts to investigate and prosecute Nazi crimes during the period 1944-1949.
State Papers Online, Part I: The Tudors, 1509-1603, State Papers Domestic This link opens in a new window
Part one of a four part digital archive providing access to original historical manuscripts and linking them to their fully text searchable calendars.
State Papers Online, Part II: The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign, Scotland, Borders, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council This link opens in a new window
Part two of a four part digital archive providing access to original historical manuscripts and linking them to their fully text searchable calendars.
Subculture Archives This link opens in a new window
Subculture archives is educational & cultural research resource of primary sources exploring 100 years of youth culture through the scenes, styles, and sounds that forged them. From Rave, Punk, Rockabilly to Grime.
Subculture archives is formed from the collectons of the Museum of Youth Culture - an emerging museum dedicated to the styles, sounds and social movements innovated by young people over the last 100 years. Championing the impact of youth on modern society, the Museum of Youth Culture is a non-profit Heritage Lottery & Arts Council Funded collection incorporating photographs, ephemera, objects and oral histories celebrating our shared youth culture history. From the bomb-site Bicycle racers in post-war 1940s London, to the Acid House ravers of 1980s Northern England, the Museum of Youth Culture empowers the extraordinary everyday stories of growing up in Britain.
UK Parliamentary Papers (1688-2009/10) This link opens in a new window
Via this service we can access over 300 years of full-text parliamentary materials. This comprises: (a) House of Commons Papers, Commons Bills and Command Papers from 1801 – 2009/10, (b) Hansard (1803-2005) for both the Commons and the Lords and (c) an extensive collection of 18th Century materials from both the Lords and the Commons (1688 - 1834). For more information about the 18th Century content, see 'more'.
Covering the 'long 18th Century', i.e. 1688-1834, this includes the Journals of both Commons and Lords, bills and acts (both private and public), debates, and papers of both Commons and Lords. This offers us access to many resources which are very hard to locate in paper. The 18th century materials were gathered and digitised by our Library Digitisation Unit.

Gale Primary Sources

Gale Primary Sources is an integrated research experience from Gale which brings together the following collections:

17th & 18th Burney Collection
19th Century UK Periodicals
Archives Unbound
British Library Newspapers
Economist Historical Archive 1843-2015
The Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2010
Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003
Independent Digital Archive 1986-2016
Sunday times Digital Archive 1822-2006
Times Digital Archive 1785-2011
Times Literary Supplement Digital Archive 1902-2012

Calendars of State Papers

Many of the Calendars of State Papers are freely available at British History Online www.british-history.ac.uk Other Calendars are available only to members of the University through the Library’s subscription.

State Papers Online

Members of the University can access digitised historical manuscripts, along with accompanying calendars, in the following collections at State Papers Online:

The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers, Domestic

The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers, Foreign, Scotland, Borders, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council

See Primary Sources Online section opposite for links to the subscription services of British History Online and State Papers Online.

Women and Social Movements

Women and Social Movements, International This link opens in a new window
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Women and Social Movements, International is a landmark collection of primary materials. Through the writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made, this collection lets you see how women’s social movements shaped much of the events and attitudes that have defined modern life.
Women and Social Movements, Modern Empires Since 1820 This link opens in a new window
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Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires since 1820 explores prominent themes in world history since 1820: conquest, colonization, settlement, resistance, and post-coloniality, as told through women’s voices - includes documents related to the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and United States Empires, and settler societies in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Women and Social Movements in the U.S. This link opens in a new window
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Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 is a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. The collection currently includes 124 document projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools.