The holdings in this area focus in general on British History and more specifically on the British Commonwealth and colonial history. Manuscript holdings from Great Britain and the British colonies/Commonwealth date from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. They represent many aspects of British life, including political, military, diplomatic, economic, social, and naval affairs. Printed materials include political tracts from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, and almanacs, travel accounts, trade directories, military manuals, and maps from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Also includes British materials relating to
religion and
literature.
Representative Collections
Collection Guides / Finding Aids
In general, an advanced
catalog search using various terms relating to British history in the subject field, limiting to location="Special Collections" will return catalog records for most of the library’s holdings in this area. In addition, a number of collections in this area have searchable
finding aids.
Collection Policies
Current collecting emphasis is on British contacts with North and South America, to British associations with Africa and the African diaspora, especially African Americans, and to British women. There are also British aspects to collecting in
literature and
religion.
For general information about finding materials in the library's
collections and how you can use them, requesting permission to
reproduce, or other information as well as reference questions
about the holdings in this area:
If you are getting in touch via e-mail, please be sure to include your return e-mail
address in the body of the message, since it sometimes gets stripped from the header
in transit. Also, if you expect a response, make sure to include a phone or fax
number or postal address where we can reach you, since sometimes it is difficult or
impossible to respond via e-mail. Thank you!
