LibGuides: Archival Research in Europe: Primary Source Collections Online

Primary Sources Duke Databases

Please note that Duke subscribes to a number of journal archives (examples: Periodicals Archives Online, Digizeitschriften) with deep backfiles. See a selection of subscription databases below, or browse Primary Sources A-Z. The World History Guide also provides links to subscription databases in history.

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
Search the British Library's collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817)
19th Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable database containing digital facsimile images of 19th century newspapers; presented as full page layout as well as single articles; advertisements and illustrations included.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source documents on a wide range of historical topics
Annual Register: A Record of World Events This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources from the Annual Register - a year-by-year record of British and world events, published annually since 1758
British And Irish Women's Letters And Diaries (Pre-January 2009 Purchase) This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources (diaries and letters) from women who lived in the British Isles or Ireland
British History Online This link opens in a new window
Search for maps, primary sources and books from and about the medieval and modern British Isles
Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window
Search for papers concerning English activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies in the 16th-18th centuries.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Search digital copies of nearly every work printed between 1473 and 1700 in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Search the full text of English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800
Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
Search for articles printed between 1685 and 1815, covering all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Search for original documents and essays by leading scholars in Empire Studies
U.K. Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window
Search the full text of the House of Commons Sessional Papers from 1700 to the present
India, Raj and Empire This link opens in a new window
Search for manuscripts In the National Library of Scotland related to the history of South Asia between 1615 and the mid-20th century.
Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
Search theories, practices, and consequences of economic and business activity in the West, from the 15th century to the mid-19th century
Northern Ireland : A Divided Community 1921-1972 : Cabinet papers of the Stormont Administration This link opens in a new window
Search primary source documents of the British administration in Northern Ireland 1921-72 (CAB/4)
Parliament Rolls of Medieval England This link opens in a new window
Search for the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272 – 1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485 – 1509)
Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window
Search for articles published in the arts, humanities and social sciences
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
Search primary sources related to the history of slavery
Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Search for articles from the Times of London from 1785 to 2010
Victorian Database Online This link opens in a new window
Search for articles and scholarship related to Victorian and nineteenth-century British studies
Women, War & Society 1914-1918 This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources related to British charity and international relief

Primary Sources WWW Free Access Databases

The following is a selection of digital libraries that is simply meant to show the variety of content offered "free online" and to suggest search terms to use in an Internet search