LibGuides: History: Home

Faculty Liaison

Pieter van Leeuwen

he/him/his

Email Me

Subjects: Arts and Culture, History, Media and Communication

Do you want to ...

Continue FAQ

Off-campus access to our digital collection

Read about off-campus access

Welcome!

This guide gives you an overview of recommended resources for History: reference works to orientate on a particular topic and to find references to literature, scholarly literature databases and search engines, and all kinds of resources containing digital or digitized primary sources.

Listed are both resources to which the Library has subscribed, as well as resources that are available via the National Library of the Netherlands (you can recognize those by the symbol), or are freely available online.

New & trial databases available

Gale Digital Scholar Lab This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Platform giving users the ability to create custom content sets containing as many as 10,000 documents. Users can search across the several primary source databases of Gale Cengage (see under 'More') and seamlessly select documents to be added to their custom content set. To access this resource off-campus, you need to connect through EduVPN. To start working with GDSL, you need to login with either Google or Microsoft. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
These can then be analyzed and interrogated with various text analysis and visualization tools. Digital humanities analysis methods such as Named Entity Recognition, Topic Modelling, Parts of Speech, and others are included in the tool. For an explanation of the various methods, see this support page. Important information on the process of cleaning unstructured text (aka how to deal with OCR errors), can be found here.

Documents and other materials from the following primary source collections can be analyzed with GDSL:
- Archives Unbound
- Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence
- The Economist Historical Archive (1843-2015)
- Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2016
- The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003
- The Independent Historical Archive, 1986-2016
- International Herald Tribune Historical Archive, 1887-2013
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery Archive: Slave trade in the Atlantic world
- The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016
- The Times Digital Archive (1785-2019)
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online
- Women’s Studies Archive: Voice and Vision
For a short description of the content of each of these collections, click on the relevant link above.

Related database: TDM Studio
TDM Studio This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
TDM Studio provides a platform for text and data mining and data visualization of EUR subscribed Proquest content. TDM studio comprises a data visualization platform - requiring no further knowledge of programming languages - and a TDM workbench , accessible with R and Python.
New users can self-sign-up for TDM Studio accounts by: 1) Navigating to tdmstudio.proquest.com and 2) Creating an account using their university email address.
Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Brings together files from the UK National Archives covering intelligence and security matters from 1905-2002. Material has been sourced from the UK Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office, the Colonial Office, MI5 (British Domestic Security Service) and the SOE (Special Operations Executive), reflecting an intelligence network that spans the globe. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

Related database: U.S. Declassified Documents Online
Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2016 This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
The complete run of the London edition of the internationally known daily paper, from its first issue through 2016. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
Started as a City of London news sheet, the FT grew to become one of the best-known and most-respected newspapers in the world. Along the way, it chronicled the critical financial and economic events that shaped the world, from the late nineteenth and entire twentieth centuries to today.

The Financial Times Historical Archive includes:
- The Lex column: a sharp and authoritative voice on corporate and financial matters;
- All classified and display advertising;
- Access to thousands of daily price/stock indexes and currency tables;
- The complete contents of FT Magazine and How to Spend It.

The Library also provides access to the current content of the Financial Times.

Related database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the Library collection, such as The Times and the Economist. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.
The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Full text and image access to the world's first fully illustrated weekly newspaper. The publication presents a vivid picture of British and world events in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
The Illustrated London News covered a wide range of subjects on its pages, making it an invaluable resource for multi-disciplinary research. Areas include:
- The Arts - reports and pictures of prominent art figures of the 19th and 20th centuries including: opera singers, vaudeville stars, painters and stars of stage and screen;
- Fashion - the ILN's fashion column provides a unique insight into the styles of the day, from corsets through to flapper dresses. The advertising pages provide a sociological view of fashion, with adverts for mourning clothes, undergarments, evening wear, jewelry and cosmetics;
- Industry and Trade - covers the growth of the industrial North, living conditions experienced by the working man, trade imports from the colonies, strikes, child employment, domestic servants and agriculture;
- Military History - ILN war artists were sent to all corners of the earth to cover the wars of the 19th and 20th centuries including: 1848 revolution in France, the Crimean War, American Civil War, the Boer War, World Wars I and II;
- Science, Medicine and Progress - ILN was keen to enlighten its readers about the latest advances providing engravings of the first letterbox in London, reporting of the laying of the Transatlantic telegraph cable and explanations of the workings of an early light bulb;
- Social History - illustrated coverage of servants, female suffrage, strikes, homes, crime, leisure, emigration, and religion;
- Sport - football, rugby, tennis, cricket to the more unusual cock-fighting, curling and pig-sticking.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the Library collection, such as The Times, the Economist and the Telegraph. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.
The Independent Historical Archive, 1986-2016 This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Full-text archive of a major British daily newspaper, launched in 1986. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
Over the last thirty years, The Independent has taken strong campaigning positions on issues such as drug legislation, the War on Terror, and the environment.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the Library collection, such as The Times, The Telegraph and the Economist. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

Related databases: ProQuest Historical Newspapers
International Herald Tribune Historical Archive, 1887-2013 This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Originally set up as the European edition of the New York Herald and having the expatriate American community living in Paris as a reading audience, it was the first “global” newspaper. As such it had an independent editorial spirit and a strong focus on objective reporting of international news. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
After the New York Times company took ownership of the newspaper in 2003, the IHT continued to produce a large amount of unique content until its closure in 2013.

Related databases: The New York Times, The Times Digital Archive.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the Library collection, such as The Times and the Economist. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery Archive: Slave trade in the Atlantic world This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Charts the practice of slave trade on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, with particular focus on the involvement of England/the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, but also containing materials pertaining to Portugal/Brazil, Spain and Denmark. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
This database features a wide range of materials, from monographs and individual papers to company records, newspapers, and a variety of government documents, and stemming from archives in the UK and the US. The available materials cover a wide spectrum of subjects related to the history of slavery: legal issues; economics; children and women under slavery; modes of resistance; and much more, from 1490 to 1896. For an overview of the collections and a detailed description of the content of each collection, see this page.

With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

For related databases, see Resources per subdiscipline/History of slavery in the History Guide.
The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016 This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable digital archive of what was once the world's largest-selling newspaper. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
Directed at a wealthy, well-educated readership, the newspaper is commonly associated with traditional Toryism despite its more liberal beginnings, especially in regard to foreign policy.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search all Gale newspapers in the library collection, such as The Independent and The Times. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Database containing formerly classified records dating from the early twentieth century up to 2018, providing a behind-the-scenes view of the highest level of American policy-making on the most sensitive issues of national security and foreign policy. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
Documents selected for this database come mostly from presidential libraries, but also from executive agencies such as the Atomic Energy Commission, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Council, and the White House. Presidential records make up the majority of the documents.

Included materials are:
- Cabinet meeting minutes
- CIA intelligence studies and reports
- Correspondence
- Diary entries
- FBI surveillance and intelligence correspondence and memoranda
- Full texts of letters, instructions, and cables sent and received by U.S. diplomatic personnel
- Joint Chiefs papers
- National Security Council policy statements
- Presidential conferences
- State Department political analyses
- Technical studies
- Trade treaties, studies and analyses
- U.S. briefing materials for meetings with foreign heads of state and government officials
- White House Confidential File materials

With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

Related database: Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence
Women’s Studies Archive: Voice and Vision This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Collection of primary sources created by women and on women’s experiences in and impact on British and American society between 1820 and 2000. Access guaranteed until March 30, 2023
Of particular importance are the materials that focus solely on female authors, magazines and journals produced by women, and materials from minority groups in the United States. For a quick overview of the collections in this database, click here.

Gale Primary Sources enables you to cross-search a range of primary source databases, including several UK newspapers, such as The Independent and The Times. With Gale Digital Scholar Lab you can perform more advanced text analysis methods, such as Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling.

For related databases, see Resources per subdiscipline/Women's/Gender History in the History Guide.

AVAILABLE TILL 30/11/2023: eBooks in History published by Oxford University Press, including:

Muslims and the making of modern Europe (2021)

This Is the BBC. Entertaining the Nation, Speaking for Britain, 1922-2022 (2022)

The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order. America and the World in the Free Market Era (2022)

Only the clothes on her back. Clothing and the hidden history of power in the nineteenth-century United States (2022)

Dissenting daughters. Reformed women in the Dutch Republic, 1572-1725 (2022)

Sisters and sisterhood. The Kenney family, class, and suffrage, 1890-1965 (2021)

Beer: a global journey through the past and present (2022)

Educating Palestine. Teaching and Learning History under the Mandate (2020)

Capitalisms. Towards a Global History (2020)

The Story of Rufino: Slavery, Freedom, and Islam in the Black Atlantic (2020)

A Long, Long Way. Hollywood's Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation (2020)

Transregional Trade and Traders. Situating Gujarat in the Indian Ocean from Early Times to 1900 (2019)

Forging a British World of Trade. Culture, Ethnicity, and Market in the Empire-Commonwealth, 1880-1975 (2019)

Love at Last Sight: Dating, Intimacy, and Risk in Turn-of-the-Century Berlin (2019)

Politics in the Marketplace. Work, Gender, and Citizenship in Revolutionary France (2019)

Slave Traders by Invitation. West Africa's Slave Coast in the Precolonial Era (2019)

A Dream of the Future. Race, Empire, and Modernity at the Atlanta and Nashville World's Fairs (2018)

Feeling Things. Objects and Emotions through History (2018)

The Market Makers. Creating Mass Markets for Consumer Durables in Inter-war Britain (2017)

The Reinvention of Atlantic Slavery. Technology, Labor, Race, and Capitalism in the Greater Caribbean (2017)

Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire. Europe and the Transformation of the Tropical World (2017)

The Spread of Modern Industry to the Periphery Since 1871 (2017)

Memoirs of Roads. Calcutta from Colonial Urbanization to Global Modernization (2016)

Sources and Skills Literature for History students

Information skills

Learn how to search, find and manage scholarly information and data in an efficient way. Visit the library's Information Skills Portfoliol for more online modules!

Search techniques
Successful searching is largely about being precise. Search techniques can help you search with precision and find what you need.
Use a reference manager
Manually collecting the information you need to create correct references can be a lot of work. There are tools available, called reference managers, to make this easier. They enable you to export the bibliographical data you need (title, author name(s), publication year, etc.) from online sources such as Google Scholar, sEURch, and almost all scholarly literature databases.

The University Library supports RefWorks. When you see the RefWorks symbol next to a resource title somewhere in this Guide, you know it is possible to export references from that resource to RefWorks. The Library has created an e-course on how to use RefWorks.

Chicago Manual of Style online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Online version of the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style citation guide.

'The bible of the publishing and research community' for economists, reflects extensive revision of the Manual's content, topics, and perspectives on editing, the editorial process, and publishing. Content includes new coverage of journals and electronic publications; a comprehensive new chapter on American English grammar and usage; reorganized and updated chapters on documentation, including guidance on citing electronic sources; and new diagrams of the editing and production processes for both books and journals. Much used in economic and management publications.

Date range: 2017 (17th edition)