Databases

The largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media available from the British Library, this primary sources database includes more than 1,000 pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks and newspapers from the period. The collection charts the development of the newspaper as we now know it, beginning with irregularly published transcriptions of Parliamentary debates and proclamations to coffee house newsbooks, finally arriving at newspaper in its current form.

Features the newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets and broadsheets that form the Nichols newspaper collection held at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, United Kingdom. All 296 volumes of bound material, covering the period 1672-1737 have been digitized. This collection charts the history of the development of the press in England and provides invaluable insight into 17th and 18th century England.

This primary sources collection also includes approximately 300 pamphlets and broadsheets, most prevalent in the 1672-1682 period, which illustrate the transition from early newsbook publications to newspaper format. Distributed as stand-alone publications or in combination with a newspaper, these pamphlets cover a broad range of topics such as battles, religious plots, political intrigue, royal speeches and petitions to government.

From zines, newspapers and ephemera, to oral histories, films and photographs, 1980s Culture and Society is an eclectic and multi-faceted resource compiled from archival collections housed across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Capturing 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 such as the rise of conservatism, nuclear threat, and the AIDS crisis.

Searchable full text of full runs of newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent nineteenth-century Britain. This primary sources collection includes national and regional newspapers, as well as newspapers from: established country or university towns; the new industrial powerhouses of the manufacturing Midlands; and Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Special attention was paid to include newspapers that helped lead particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule. Penny papers aimed at the working and clerical classes are also included.

This database includes periodicals published in Great Britain between 1800 and 1900, giving insight into many aspects of the 19th century life--literature and culture, empire, feminism, the history of the book, the creative and performing arts, sport and leisure, science and medicine, the professions.

Series 1: New Readerships: Women's Children's, Humor and Leisure/Sport
Series 1 charts the rapid rise of publishing in a reading culture expanding with the rise in literary and leisure. The political spectrum of women's writing from Hearth and Home to the Women's Penny Paper offers insight into women’s changing status in the 1800s. Satirical and comic titles such as Punch and Figaro in London illustrate the humor of the period. This release also charts the growth of children's entertainment and education, with Boy's Own and Good Words for the Young, periodicals that helped shape the values of those future empire builders. Titles like Baily's Monthly Magazine of Sporting, Theatrical, Literary and Fashionable World track the explosion in sports and hobbies, from gardening to horse racing, cricket, cycling and golf.

Contains issues from nearly 400 nineteenth century American newspapers, drawn from a range of urban and rural regions. This primary sources collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life among other subjects.