LibGuides: History: Government documents

Government documents

Declassified Documents Online: Twentieth-Century British Intelligence 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.
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
Platform: Gale
U.S. Declassified Documents Online 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.
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
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Over 400 archival collections containing primary sources from primarily the nineteenth and twentieth century, geographically covering the whole world.
Although most of the sources are American, there are also many (colonial and diplomatic) British collections, and some materials originating from other countries and from international organisations, such as Germany (f.e. Germany’s relations with China during the interwar period), the International Settlement in Shanghai (1854-1945), and the United Nations (post WW II refugees). Dutch history is present in three collections: A collection of American diplomatic records from the Dutch Indies (1910-1930), a collection of British intelligence reports from the German-occupied and neutral European countries (1940-1945), and a collection of Western books on South East Asia containing 53 Dutch travelogues from the seventeenth and eighteenth century.
Overviews of the most recently added collections, including a short description and highlights per collection:
- Added in 2020
- Added in 2021
- Added in 2022 (highlight collection: 350 printed and manuscript recipe books from the period 1669-1990)
- Added in 2023 (highlight collection: The Palestine Statehood Committee Records, 1939-1949)

You can either browse through the whole collection list, filter on Topic (sub)discipline), Document Type, Language, or Source Library, or perform an advanced search.

UK Parliamentary Papers
- This link opens in a new window
Collection of documents stemming from and concerning the British House of Commons and House of Lords from the period 1803-2005.
more...less...
The most important asset of this database is the so-called Hansard, the official report of the debates held in parliament.

You can perform a free-text search, or search for a specific Member of Parliament and filter on their party affiliation, constituency and office he/she held.

Please note you need to be a member of the KB before you can access the database. More information on how to become a member can be found on this page.
Library of Congress Web Archive
Websites archived by the Library of Congress.
more...less...
The archive encompasses a broad range of US websites, but has a focus on US politics and government (federal, state, district and local government; candidates for political office (president, congress, governor); political commentary, and political parties).
An overview of all collections in the archive containing links to the collections can be found on this page.

Please note that the biggest collection is the vaguely titled 'Humanities and Social Sciences Division', which contains a broad range of websites, including government and election websites.

You can perform a free text search and then filter your search result on collection, subject or language.
UK Government Web Archive
- This link opens in a new window
Archived versions of British government websites and Twitter and YouTube accounts.
more...less...
You can either perform a quick keyword/url search or try the advanced search to find websites. Twitter and YouTube accounts can be browsed per category. An extensive manual on how to use the collections effectively can be found on this page.

UKGWA also developed a special bookmarklet that enables you to quickly check if UKGWA has captured a particular resource while browsing the web.
Historische parlementaire documenten (1814 - 1995) (part of overheid.nl) Official documents published by the Dutch parliament from 1814-1995. Contains dossiers, notes, official questions and motions.
more...less...
Free accessible Dutch Government database.
Parlementaire documenten (part of overheid.nl)
Official agenda's, proceedings and other documents of the Dutch parliament from 1995 onwards.
more...less...
Also gives access to laws and regulations, official publications of the Dutch government, press releases of national and local public administration.

Although the website and search interface are only available in Dutch, there is some information on (the organisation of) Dutch government services available in English via this page, including links to the English-language pages on the websites of Dutch government organisations.
Dutch Treaty Database (part of overheid.nl)
Contains information on the treaties to which the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a party.
more...less...
The information includes the date on and the place at which the treaty was concluded, the date of its entry into force, where to find the text of the treaty, the parties (countries, territories and international organizations) and the date of each party’s ratification, any reservations, declarations or objections that may have been made, and relations between the different treaties.
Plenum.be
Proceedings of the plenary sessions of the Belgian parliament.
Overview page of historical archives of EU institutions