British and Irish Studies

Reprints of Primary Sources

The library has an extensive collection of reprinted primary sources for British and Irish history.   Our holdings are especially strong in the various Record Society Publications, including the Camden Series, the Harleian Society and the County Records Societies   These are all indexed now in the RHS Bibliography of British and Irish History. Use the subject term "sources" in the advanced search.

English Historical Documents.   Perkins/Bostock Library | Stacks  | DA26 .E555 1953 
 v. 1 c.500-1042  -- v. 2. 1042-1189 . -- v. 3. 1189-1327. -- v. 4. 1327-1485 . -- v. 5 1485-1558 -- v. 8. 1660-1714. -- v. 9. American colonial documents to 1776 . -- v. 10. 1714-1783 -- v. 11. 1783-1832 -- v. 12. pt. 1. 1833-1874 . pt. 2. 1874-1914 . (v. 6 1588-1603 and v. 7. 1603-1660 were never published).
 

Calendars of State Papers Domestic and Foreign: Check the online catalog under State Papers and the reign or country, e.g.,  State Papers and Henry VIII.  Many of the State Papers are now available full text at British History Online.

British documents on foreign affairs--reports and papers from the Foreign Office confidential print
Multiple volumes covering the years 1845-1950.  JZ632.B747  (see online catalog for details.)

Great Britain. Foreign Office. Documents on British foreign policy, 1919-1939. London, H.M. Stationery Off., 1946-1985
  Perkins --- 327.42 G786W

British and foreign state papers [serial]. London : H.M.S.O., [18 -c1977].
   Perkins --- 327.42 G786S  1(1812/14)-169(1967/68)

Documents on British policy overseas / edited by Rohan Butler and M.E. Pelly, assisted by H.J. Yasamee. London : H.M.S.O., 1984-
 Perkins --- 327.41 D637, 1984

 See also: the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library which has extensive holdings in British History

Online Primary Sources (restricted to Duke users)

• The Times Digital Archive
  Search The Times (London) from 1785-1985 in full-text; provides facsimile reproductions of full pages or specific articles.  HINT: search in full-text rather than keyword to get the best retrieval.
•  Early English Books Online (EEBO)
  Describes English or English-language letterpress materials published before 1801, including books, lists, advertisements, rules, songs, election propaganda, and other ephemeral items. Contains records for items of all types published in Great Britain or its colonies or in English from 1473 to 1800. 
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
• Nearly 150,000 English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 are included.
• British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries
  Contains approximately 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries written from the 1500s to 1900s, plus several thousand pages of previously unpublished materials.
• Parliament Rolls of Medieval England 1275-1504
  Provides fulltext access to the Rolls of Parliament (Rotuli Parliamentorum), with full translations
• House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
  Full text of the Sessional Papers from 1801 to the present.
• Periodicals Index Online
  Indexes periodicals from their first issues to 1995.   Now contains hundreds of full-text periodicals.
• Eighteenth Century Journals II
  Journals from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center collection of 17th and 18th century newspapers and periodicals
• Empire Online
  ull-text database containing primary source documents about the British Empire.

Primary Sources on the Internet

• Primary Sources Database List
  Complete list of online primary sources (Duke users only.)
• British History Online
  The digital library of text and information about people, places and businesses from the medieval and early modern period, built by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust.
•  IBIS Links
  From the Institute of British and Irish Studies, University of Southern California. The web's premier site for electronic resources in British and Irish Studies
• Renascence Editions
  Works printed in English between 1477 and 1799.
• CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
  The online resource for Irish history, literature and politics.
• CAIN Web Service Northern Ireland Conflict. Provides a wide range of information and source material on 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present.
• Internet Library of Early Journals
  A digital library of 18^th and 19^th Century journals.
• Outlaws and Highwaymen
  The history of highwaymen, and their predecessors, the medieval outlaws.