Research Guides: HIST268: European Nationalisms: Primary Sources

Finding Primary Sources

Academic Video Online (AVON) This link opens in a new window
A database of streaming video including historic newsreels from the 1930s to 1960s. There are also propaganda videos in this database as well.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries from 1500-1950 (BWLD) includes the immediate experiences of 430 authors and 60,000 pages of individual women’s rare, personal perspectives on world history. When complete, the collection will include more than 100,000 pages of primary materials spanning more than 300 years. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
Chatham House Online Archive This link opens in a new window
Chatham House Online Archive contains the publications and archives of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the world-leading independent international affairs policy institute founded in 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference.
Key areas include: diplomacy and international relations, energy, environment and development, international economics, trade and business, international and national politics, international security and law, and global health security.
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
The complete volumes of all British Government Confidential Print for Africa, from the Colonial, Dominion, Foreign and War Offices, including hundreds of color maps. (Coverage: 1834-1966)
Part of the Archives Direct Portal, a suite of collections sourced from The National Archives, Kew, the official archive of the United Kingdom.
Eight Centuries This link opens in a new window
19th Century Masterfile (formerly Poole’s Plus) describes itself as “the digital index of the nineteenth century.” The original component was an online version of W.F. Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, 1802-1906. The database is now enhanced with indices to other periodicals, books, newspapers, and government documents of the 19th century.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Empire Online charts the rise and fall of empires around the world over a span five centuries. Includes a mixture of printed, manuscript and visual primary source documents. Those studying – among other subjects – colonial history, society, trade and travel, politics and culture can explore a diverse range of topics and subjects from ship’s logs to missionaries in Africa. Empire Online provides varying points-of-view, with selections from American, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and German, as well as British perspectives. Also includes texts from the peoples of Africa, India and North America.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
An integrated platform that combines Gales digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface to enhance the ability to discover primary source documents from multiple collections. Over 50 collections are available to University of Delaware users on this platform. (Coverage: 1500 -)
Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
Explores and compares a range of sources on the history of travel, including many from private or neglected collections. Includes the travel writings and works of some of Britain’s greatest artists, writers, and thinkers, revealing how interaction with European culture shaped their creative and intellectual sensibilities. (Coverage: 1550-1850)
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides access to many millions of journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Artstor images incorporated into JSTOR as of 8/1/2024.
Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
The Making of the Modern World digital collection presents books, serials, political pamphlets, broadsides, government publications, proclamations, and ephemera focusing on economics, political science, history, sociology, banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing. The collection is comprised of many rare titles and first editions in languages other than English including French, German, Portuguese, Scandinavian, Italian and Spanish. (This is a part of the Gale Primary Source Collection).
This collection can also be searched on Gale Primary Sources, an integrated platform that combines Gales digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Nineteenth Century Collections Online provides full-text, fully searchable content from a wide range of primary sources. Selected with the guidance of an international team of expert advisors, these primary sources are invaluable for a wide range of academic disciplines and areas of study. Archives published in the program include works in Western as well as non-Western languages and are sourced from rare collections at libraries and other institutions from around the globe. It consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and more.
This collection can also be searched on Gale Primary Sources, an integrated platform that combines Gales digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface.
Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
Perform a seamless search across all of the Readex digital collections available at the UD Library, or choose to combine only specific databases. By consolidating major digital collections and document types, Readex AllSearch enables users to make new and unexpected discoveries, whether on a desktop computer or any mobile device.
Note: After using Readex AllSearch to discover relevant documents across a range of collections, some users may find it effective to transition their research to the specific Readex collection(s) in which such documents are found. These more focused collections are designed for deeper research of particular content types.
Socialism on Film : The Cold War and International Propaganda This link opens in a new window
Collection of films that documents the communist world, from the Russian Revolution to the end of the Cold War. Reveals all aspects of life behind the Iron Curtain, as seen by filmmakers from the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europ, the GDR, Britain, and Cuba. (Coverage: early 20th c. - 1980s)
Providing a counterpoint to Western perceptions of communist states and their actions, the films illuminate how socialist countries saw themselves and the world around them during the major political and social events of the 20th century. The footage was originally sourced from communist states, then versioned into English language for private distribution in Britain and the West.
Modules include:
- Module I: Wars and revolutions
- Module II: Newsreels and magazines
- Module III: Culture and society
Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
Connects archival collections concerning womens history from across the globe and from a wide range of sources. Focusing on the evolution of feminism throughout the 19th and 20th, the archive provides materials on womens political activism, such as suffrage, birth control, pacifism, civil rights, and socialism, and on womens voices, from female-authored literature to womens periodicals. (Coverage: 19th-20th century)
This collection can also be searched on Gale Primary Sources, an integrated platform that combines Gales digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface.
Women in the National Archives This link opens in a new window
A finding aid for women's studies resources in The National Archives, UK is presented alongside original documents on the suffrage question in Britain, the Empire, and colonial territories. [Coverage: 1559-1995 (finding aid); early 20th c. (original documents)]
Highlights
- The campaign for women's suffrage in Britain and the British Empire
- Biographical information on individual suffragettes
- The 'Cat and Mouse' campaign
- Police surveillance
- Prison conditions
- Parliamentary debates and commitee reports

Sir Joseph Gold Political and Ephemera Collection
Contact Special Collections staff member for scans.
MSS 0109, George S. Messersmith papers
Diplomatic and professional papers of George S. Messersmith (1883-1960). Consists of correspondence, memoranda, and official dispatches written during Messersmith's tenure with the U.S. Department of State, as well as during his subsequent business career. The extensive typescript of an unpublished memoir is also present. The papers include extensive discussions of political and economic matters regarding Europe during the 1930s and Latin America in the 1940s and 1950s.
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Series VII. Buenos Aires, Argentina, documents Messersmith's time as Ambassador to Argentina in 1946 and 1947.

Other series in the collection may also be of interest in documenting Cold War-era politics in Latin America.

Gale Primary Sources: Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search 11 collections of U.S. and U.K. historical newspapers and magazines from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Complete digital edition of The Times (London), and its predecessor title Universal Daily Register (1785-1788). Full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page are available. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements, and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.
Note: Despite the similarity of names, The Sunday Times was an entirely separate paper from The Times until 1966, when both papers came under common ownership. To this day, The Sunday Times remains editorially independent from The Times.
This collection can also be searched on Gale Primary Sources, an integrated platform that combines Gales digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface.
British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
National and regional newspapers published in the UK and Ireland between the mid-18th and mid-20th centuries. (Coverage: 1732-1950)
This collection can also be searched on Gale Primary Sources, an integrated platform that combines Gales digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface.

British Library- Images
Direct link to the British Library images website.
British Online Archives
Over 3 million records covering 1000 years of world history, from politics & warfare, to slavery & revolution.
European Reading Room - Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has a vast amount of European collections and includes links to other European research institutions.
European Reading Room - Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has a vast amount of European collections and includes links to other European research institutions.
Primary Sources for European History
This is a large list of free primary source resources grouped together by country or time period.

Tips & Tricks for Searching

Finding primary sources is a multi-step process. There is no "one-stop-shop" database that will give you everything you need for your paper. Follow these tips:

Look at the bibliographies and footnotes from articles and books to see what primary sources those scholars are using for evidence
Think and research multiple institutions, archives, or repositories that could have information and collections about your project
Use historical language
Keep it simple. Use broad keywords to find sources

When searching for primary source collections online, include the following additional phrases with your first key words:

online collections
digital collections
digitized collections
historical collections

Be aware that digital collections only show a small portion of what an institution holds!