LibGuides: History: Imperial Britain: Primary Resources

Newspapers

Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1, 1718-1876
More than 140 newspapers from 22 islands. Most published in the English language.
Illustrated London News Historical Archive - 1842-2003
This digital archive offers the entire run of this publication in a fully searchable digital format and features high-quality color images that bring to life more than 150 years of social, political and cultural history. Areas covered include politics, social history, fashion, theatre, media, literature, advertising and graphic design, as well as genealogy. Gift of Burton Onstine, '54.
British Library Newspapers (1800 - 1900)
Contains full runs of newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent nineteenth century Britain.
Picture Post Historical Archive 1938 - 1957
This digital archive features the complete fully searchable archive of The Picture Post published in Britain from 1938-1957. Gift of Burton Onstine, '54.
The Times Digital Archive (1785 - 2019)
A full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times (London), one of the most highly regarded resources for eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century news coverage.
Sunday Times Digital Archive, 1821-2006
Provides access to the Sunday Times from its launch in 1822 until 2006. It contains more than 600,000 pages including advertisements, obituaries, classified ads and photographs as well as the articles. Early issues contain colourful information on murders, mysteries, theatre, sport and politics. Please note: The Sunday Times is a separate paper from The Times. Reed also provides access to The Times Digital Archive.

Kenya Gazette
The Kenya Gazette is an official publication of the government of the Republic of Kenya. It contains notices of new legislation, notices required to be published by law or policy as well as other announcements that are published for general public information

Nexis Uni
Nexis Uni features news, business, and legal sources from LexisNexis. A good source for current articles in major newspapers and for looking up information about companies, industries, and countries.
Hathi Trust Digital Library
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.

Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
The Daily Gleaner
Originally called the Daily Gleaner, this newspaper published in Kingston, Jamaica now goes by The Gleaner. Newspaper Archives (1834-2022)

Primary Sources

British Periodicals I and II (1680s - 1930s)
A collection of searchable, digital pages from British journals. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (1701 - 1800)
A full text, searchable, digital collection of over 180,000 titles. Includes books, pamphlets, essays and more.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Millions of full-text, fully searchable pages of primary source material covering a wide range of topics. Includes books, pamphlets, essays, photographs, newspapers, letters, maps, sheet music and more.
Victorian Popular Culture (1779 - 1930)
Covers popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930, including magic shows, vaudeville, and circuses.
Women Writers Online (1400 - 1850)
A digital collection of texts by pre-Victorian women writers. It includes full transcriptions of texts published between 1526 and 1850, focusing on materials that are rare or inaccessible. The section Women Writers in Context offers scholarly essays and explorations to help contextualize WWO texts.
Slavery and Antislavery (1700 - 1888)
Primary documents from several important archives. Includes material from books.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) (1473 - 1700)
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.

Media History Digital Library: UK Periodicals
The Media History Digital Library digitizes collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access.

Politics and Law

HANSARD 1803–2005
This site was produced from digitized editions of Commons and Lords Hansard, the Official Report of debates in Parliament

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
Provides full-text access to the 20th century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. The Parliamentary papers influenced public opinion and social and political philosophy, and provided a forum for ideas for hundreds of thinkers. They are the working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic and foreign policy, showing how issues were explored and legislation was formed.

British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)
British and Irish case law & legislation, European Union case law, Law Commission reports, and other law-related British and Irish material.
Commonwealth Countries Legal Research
An introduction to legal research relating to the Commonwealth association and Commonwealth countries from the School of Advanced Study University of London.

Films

Colonial Film Database
This website holds detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 films are available for viewing online.

If the library IMC has any of the films listed in the Colonial Film Database they can be found by searching the library catalog. Otherwise, you can request titles from Interlibrary loan.