Major Research Tools

Historical Abstracts

Index
Time period covered: 1450 to present; Publication coverage: 1955 to present

Indexes journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on the history of the world, except the United States and Canada. Subjects include diplomatic history, economics, international relations, and political science.


Other Suggested Research Tools

Empire Online

Full-Text

Primary sources charting the rise and fall of empires, from the explorations of Columbus, Captain Cook, and others to decolonization in the second half of the twentieth century. Includes perspectives from colonizers as well as indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America.


Gale Primary Sources

Full-Text

Coverage: 1604-2008

Research environment for finding primary sources mainly from Great Britain and the United States covering the 17th to 20th centuries.


History Research Tools - Europe (General)

Gateway

Skillman library's links to major indexes and full-text collections covering multiple periods of European history.


London Times Digital Archive

Full-Text
Coverage: 1785- 2019

Electronic edition of The Times of London.


Specialized Collections

1914-1918-Online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War

Reference

Online reference work on World War One with contributions from historians and researchers from many countries.


Church Missionary Society Periodicals

Full-Text
Coverage: 1804-2009

Publications from the Church Missionary Society (CMS), the South American Missionary Society and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS). CMS was founded in 1799 with aims including social reform in England and world evangelization. CMS was one of the most influential Protestant mission agencies and its work spread from Africa to the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.


Cold War Intelligence

Full-Text
Coverage: 1945-2008

Collection of over 2,300 "formerly classified U.S. government documents (most of them classified Top Secret or higher)" highlighting "the successes and failures of the U.S. intelligence community in its efforts to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War." Includes declassified memos, reports, studies, speeches, and more from the CIA, NARA, Library of Congress, National Archives of the United Kingdom, and several Presidential Libraries.


Compact Memory: Internet Archive of Jewish Periodicals

Full-Text

Digital archive of German-language Jewish newspapers and periodicals,  ca. 1768 - 1938, in Germany, Austria, and elsewhere in Central Europe.  Covers religious, political, social, cultural, and academic aspects of Jewish life.


East India Company

Full-Text
Coverage: 1599-1947

Collection of India Office Records from the British Library charting the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond.


Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980

Full-Text

Collection of files from the British Foreign Office and Dominions Office focusing on the political and social history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan from a British perspective.


Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1981

Full-Text

Collection of documents from the British Foreign Office covering political relationships and significant events in the Middle East in the 1970s. Includes documentation on the involvement of the U.S. and Russia as well as the UK.


Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimony

Visual Resource

Videos of testimonies from over 4,400 interviews with Holocaust survivors, bystanders, resistors, and liberators. (Note: in order to play videos you must register a free individual account using your Lafayette email address.)


German Propaganda Archive

Full-Text

Collection of Nazi and East German propaganda in translation. Provided by Calvin College.


Global Commodities

Data, Full-Text

Primary sources such as manuscripts/diaries, rare books, maps, paintings, advertisements, company records, etc., covering the global history of 15 major commodities: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, energy, opium, porcelain, silver & gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, wine & spirits. Also includes data on energy production, consumption, and reserves by country from 1965 to the present.


Hemeroteca Digital

Full-Text

Digitized Spanish-language periodicals from the 19th century through the 1930s. Most titles are from Spain, but some are from other Spanish speaking countries. From the National Library of Spain.


Histpop - The Online Historical Population Reports Website

Data

Detailed population data for the British Isles from 1801 to 1937. Includes data on births, marriages, and deaths, plus supplementary essays.


Hoover Political Poster Database

Large collection of political posters from around the world, mainly from the 20th century. Useful for the study of the psychology and techniques of propaganda.


Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-1963

Full-Text
Collection of documents from the government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Covers decolonization, the Cold War, and the formation of the European Economic Community.

Mass Observation Online

Full-Text
Coverage: 1937-1967

Archive of the Mass Observation Project's questionnaires, and raw data responses (in diaries and journals), and reports attempting to catalog the full spectrum of daily life in Britain.


Medical Services and Warfare

Full-Text
Coverage: 1845-c. 1935

Archive documenting the history of nursing and medicinal practices during wartime, with a focus on the American Civil War, the Crimean War, and the First World War (including the outbreak of influenza in 1918).


Migration to New Worlds

Full-Text
Coverage: c. 1800-c. 1980

Major collection of oral histories, personal accounts, correspondence, shipping records, and many other primary sources covering the experience of migration from Europe and Asia to the United States, Canada, Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand.


National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Books

Full-Text

Collection of declassified United States government documents on foreign affairs and national security since World War II. Documents are grouped by topic or region of the world and cover nuclear history, U.S. intelligence and government secrecy, humanitarian interventions, the 9/11 attacks, and more.


Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland

Reference
Coverage: Middle Ages-Present

Comprehensive listing of over 45,000 English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Cornish, and immigrant surnames including variant spellings, origins/etymology, geographical distribution, and associated notes.


Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security

Full-Text

Primary document collections related to the development of NATO and the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War, their mutual threat perceptions, and military plans.


Service Newspapers of World War Two

Full-Text, Visual Resource
Coverage: 1939-1948

Digitized newspapers published for WWII soldiers. Strength in US and UK but expands beyond this to cover Allied and Axis armies from around the world.


Soviet-Era Ukrainian Newspapers

Full-Text
Coverage: 1899-1939

Digitized collection of 5 newspapers (mostly in Ukrainian, 1 in Russian) covering Ukraine in the early 20th century.


Spanish Civil War Collection

Full-Text

Digitized primary sources from UCSD's Mandeville Special Collections Library, including posters, stamps, ephemera, children's drawings, postcards, and photographs from the Spanish Civil War.


Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History

Full-Text
Coverage: 1835 - 1976

Diaries and correspondence, plus some illustrations, describing the motivations for and experiences of travel by 19th & 20th century American women to destinations across the globe.


United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Full-Text

Online exhibitions plus full-text Holocaust Encyclopedia containing articles on Holocaust-related topics. Includes testimonies, documents, historic images, and film clips.


Wilson Center Digital Archive

Full-Text

Declassified historical materials from archives around the world covering the history of the late twentieth century, including topics such as the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Chernobyl nuclear accident.


Women in the National Archives

Full-Text, Index
Documents on the campaign for women's suffrage in Britain, 1903-1928 and the granting of women's suffrage in British colonial territories, 1930-1962. Also includes a detailed finding aid to women's studies resources in The British National Archives.

Women's Issues and Identities

Full-Text

Archive of primary sources documenting movements for women's rights throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, including movements for suffrage and reproductive rights.


World War I Document Archive

Full-Text

Collection of primary documents relating to World War I. From the BYU Library.


Yad Vashem Holocaust Resource Center

Full-Text

Extensive website featuring primary and secondary source material related to the Holocaust, including German government documents and speeches, victims' diaries and letters, photos, digital exhibitions, thematic bibliographies, and a victims' names database.