LibGuides: Law, Culture, and Society in Europe and its Empires: Primary Sources

Primary Sources Collections

This list is just a small sample of the primary source collections available through the library. See our Databases list for all collections we subscribe to.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) (1473 - 1700) This link opens in a new window
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.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (1701 - 1800) This link opens in a new window
A full text, searchable, digital collection of over 180,000 titles. Includes books, pamphlets, essays and more.
Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online (1543 - 1945) This link opens in a new window
The leading source for primary documents concerning women's history. Includes books, pamphlets, and periodicals having to do with the development of feminist thought and the women's rights movement.
Making of the Modern World (1450 - 1945) This link opens in a new window
Full text digital images of 61,000 works of literature on the economy and business from the Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. Topics include commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade, and transport.
Social and Cultural History: Letters and Diaries Online (1675 - Present) This link opens in a new window
Collection of primary source documents drawn from letters, diaries, and oral histories. This database pulls together content from: North American Women's Letters and Diaries, British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries, North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories, The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries, and Black Thought and Culture.
Eighteenth Century Journals I (1693 - 1799) This link opens in a new window
Journals covering all aspects of 18th century social, political and literary life.

Web Resources

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
Gallica
Database of some 70,000 French texts and 80,000 images created by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, chosen from its own and other French collections. Contains literature, history, science, philosophy, law, economic and political science materials.
Europeana
Europeana is a portal to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitised throughout Europe.

Hathi Trust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
A collaborative project of several major research libraries in the U.S. to create a comprehensive library of digital library materials. Login and choose Reed College from the partner institution drop down menu to access more full text content.

Internet History Sourcebook Project
A collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented for educational use by Fordham University. Contains a comprehensive selection of primary source documents, maps, secondary sources, bibliographies, images, and music. The site is divided up into sections featuring documents from Ancient History, Medieval Studies, and Modern History as well as subject specific sourcebooks on African, East Asian, Global, Indian, Islamic, Jewish, Lesbian and Gay, Science, and Women's History.

Additional Resources on the Internet

The Statutes Project

Features English / British parliamentary law online, for free, in multiple and easily reusable formats.

Justice of the Peace Manuals
- Guides and handbooks for the English and Welsh Justice of the Peace.
UK statutes, 13th century to present

Age of Lawyers: The Roots of American Law in Shakespeare's Britain
- Works from the Folger Shakespeare Library Exhibition
English Broadside Ballad Archive
Digital Library of the Caribbean: dLOC
- A cooperative digital library from and about the circum-Caribbean containing a collection of newspapers in different languages from the Caribbean, Mexico, South American, Central American and the U.S.
Historia y Justicia - In Spanish
Criminocorpus - In French
H-France Digital Humanities Database
- A searchable database of French and Francophone Studies digital projects
Medieval Legal Primary Source Materials in Print
Legal History Miscellany

Law, Culture, and Society in Europe and its Empires

Primary Sources Collections

Web Resources

​​​​​​Additional Resources on the Internet

The Statutes Project

Additional Resources on the Internet