Oxford LibGuides: History: Guides to History collections

Subject and Research Guides

Africa

African Studies
Use this guide to find out about books, special collections and online resources for African Studies, including ebooks, ejournals, bibliographic databases and archives.
Commonwealth countries
Use this guide to find out about books, online resources and special collections for Commonwealth Studies, including ebooks, ejournals, and bibliographic databases.

The Americas

Commonwealth countries
Use this guide to find out about books, online resources and special collections for Commonwealth Studies, including ebooks, ejournals, and bibliographic databases.
Latin America
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Latin American History, including ebooks, ejournals, bibliographic databases.
United States
Use this guide to find out about key resources for American history, including bibliographies, databases of primary sources and other relevant online collections.

Asia

The Caucasus and Central Asia
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for the study of the Caucasus and Central Asia, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
China
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Chinese Studies, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
Commonwealth countries
Use this guide to find out about books, online resources and special collections for Commonwealth Studies, including ebooks, ejournals, and bibliographic databases.
Japan
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Japanese studies, including ebooks, ejournals and databases.
Korea
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Korean Studies, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
South Asia
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for South Asia, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.

Australia

Commonwealth countries
Use this guide to find out about books, online resources and special collections for Commonwealth Studies, including ebooks, ejournals, and bibliographic databases.

Caribbean - Commonwealth

Caribbean Studies
Use this guide to find out about books/online resources for Caribbean Studies, including ebooks, ejournals, bibliographic databases.
Commonwealth countries
Use this guide to find out about books, online resources and special collections for Commonwealth Studies, including ebooks, ejournals, and bibliographic databases.

Europe

Western Europe
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for British and West European history, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
Russia and East Europe
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Slavonic and East European Studies, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.

Great Britain and Ireland

Great Britain and Ireland
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for British and West European history, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
British & West European History collections on open-shelves in the Old Bodleian and Radcliffe Camera
Use this guide to find out about key course and reference collections for British and West European history which are available on the open-shelves in the Bodleian's Old Library, Radcliffe Camera and Weston Library. Where known, electronic alternatives have been added. The guide is also useful to help understand the classification schemes.
English Local History for Continuing Education
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Local History, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
Oxfordshire History for Continuing Education
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for the history of Oxfordshire, including books, ejournals and bibliographic databases.

Near and Middle East

Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, including printed collections, ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.

Central Eastern and South East Europe - Russia and north Central Asia

Eastern Europe, North Central Asia (History and Social Sciences)
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Slavonic and East European Studies, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
East, Central, South - East Europe Social Sciences and History (Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Balkans and the Baltic States)
Use this guide to find out about books, special collections and online resources for East, Central and South - East European Studies, including ebooks, ejournals, bibliographic databases and archives.

Classics and Ancient history guide
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Classics and Ancient History, including ebooks, ejournals, and bibliographic databases.

Guide to sources for medieval history
An overview of some of the Bodleian’s most important and useful finding aids and collections for medieval history.

Resources for medievalists in Hispanic studies
Use this guide to find out about online resources for Hispanic medieval studies, including finding aids and libraries of digital texts, bibliographic databases, tools for working with texts, and historical dictionaries and corpora.
Early modern history (British & W European) c 1500-1800
Use this guide to find out about printed and online resources (including ebooks, ejournals, databases), reference works (incl. biographical dictionaries) and special collections for this historical period.
The Long Eighteenth Century in the John Johnson Collection
The John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera is a treasure trove for those interested in British history from 1700-1815. This guide explains what can and what cannot be found online and how best to enjoy the resources of the Collection.

Guide to sources for modern history
An overview of some of the Bodleian’s most important and useful finding aids and collections for modern history.

WWI Primary Resource Guide
Highlights key primary resources centred on the British experience of the war, all of which are available to students researching this area, many held within the Bodleian collections. Multiple source types are covered, including: newspapers, diaries and journals, literature, music, posters, cartoons, maps, official papers and government reports.

Art History
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Art and Architecture, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
Disability History Resources
Use this guide to find out about available resources for Disability History including archives, books, journals and more.
History of Science and Medicine
Use this guide to find out about the different collections and online resources for History of Science, Medicine and Technology, including ebooks, ejournals and databases.
Legal History
Use this guide to find out about sources and commentary for Anglo-American or common law legal history, including ebooks, ejournals, and databases.
LGBTQ+ History resources *NEW*
A guide to find out about available resources for LGBTQ+ history including archives, books, journals and more.
Newspapers and other online news sources from the 17th – 21st centuries
A guide how to find and use newspaper resources.
Official Papers
A guide to governmental and non-governmental publications (UN, etc.)
Oral History
Use this guide to find out about the different resources, print and online, for oral history.
Printed images in Bodleian collections
Images in a rage of media are found within the Bodleian's Special Collections. Drawings, prints and photographs, as well as copper plates from which pictures were printed, form parts of several collections which the Bodleian has acquired since the 17th century.
Witchcraft & the law in early modern Europe & USA
Use this guide to find out about sources and commentary for the witchcraft panics and the subsequent trials, including ebooks, ejournals, and databases.
Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Use this guide to find out about books and online resources for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, including ebooks, ejournals and bibliographic databases.
WWI Primary Resource Guide
Highlights key primary resources centred on the British experience of the war, all of which are available to students researching this area, many held within the Bodleian collections. Multiple source types are covered, including: newspapers, diaries and journals, literature, music, posters, cartoons, maps, official papers and government reports.

Special collections in the Bodleian Libraries comprise manuscripts, rare books, printed ephemera, maps, music and digitised collections in twelve different libraries across Oxford. Listed below are selected LibGuides to these collections.

Archives & Manuscripts

Manuscripts: Papyri, Medieval and Renaissance
This guide is for students and researchers using manuscripts from the medieval and renaissance periods, including papyri and charters, held in the Bodleian Libraries and in Oxford college libraries. On this page you will find: details of online resources, printed catalogues, unpublished catalogues and card indexes, as well as details of resources for papyri, charters, and seals, and information about the main collections in the Bodleian and Oxford colleges
Manuscripts: Early Modern
Use this guide to find out about resources available to support the use of pre-1800 archives and manuscripts in all subjects.
Manuscripts: Archives and Modern
Use this guide to find out about resources available to support the use of post-1800 archives and manuscripts in all subjects.
Manuscripts: Asian and Middle Eastern
Use this guide to find out about resources available to support the use of special collections in Middle Eastern, Semitic, and Asian languages.
Visiting archives in Germany: a guide to discovering and using them
Use this guide to find out about the structure and types of German archives, how to locate them and tips on how to use them.
Visiting libraries & archives in the United States for research in US history
Use this guide to find out about key information for planning research visits to the United States, including the major research collections, general guidance on using American research facilities and other useful tips.

Early printed books

Rare Books
Use this guide to find out about resources available to support the use of rare and early books in all subjects.

Maps

Maps: finding & making them
Use this guide to find out about how to search the catalogue, and how to find different types of maps including series mapping, Ordnance Survey maps and online resources.

Printed Ephemera

The John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera for Historians
Guidance specifically aimed at historians using the John Johnson Collection, containing ephemera from the 18th century to 1939.

Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) (LibGuide)
ProQuest guide to using the Digital National Security Archive, the most comprehensive collection available of significant primary documents central to U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. Collections cover the most critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post-World War II through the 21st century, providing unparalleled access to the defining international strategies of our time with more than 150,000 indexed, declassified government documents.
Documents on British Policy Overseas (DBPO) (LibGuide)
ProQuest guide on using Documents on British Policy Overseas, a fully searchable collection of primary source documents from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, shedding light on diplomatic history throughout the twentieth century. It is based on three distinct print series which form a record of British peacetime diplomacy since the end of the nineteenth century.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) (LibGuide)
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains over 146,000 titles, from the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare
Early European Books (LibGuide)
The Early European Books resource is set to encompass all European printed material, and material printed in European languages, from the early modern period. Oxford users currently only have access to EEB collections 1-4.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Region 5, Latin America (LibGuide)
Guidance by the Bodleian Latin American Centre Library on using the FBIS Region 5 database, which consists of translated broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements from nations in Latin America from 1974-1996.
Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) (LibGuide)
A Proquest guide how to search PAO. Please note that Oxford subscribes to PAO 1-5 and 7. Periodicals Archive Online is a major archive that makes the backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the humanities and social sciences available electronically.
Queen Victoria's Journals (LibGuide)
ProQuest guide to using this database, which reproduces every page of the surviving volumes of Queen Victoria's journals (including draft volumes and copies made by Lord Esher and Princess Beatrice), as high-resolution colour images along with separate photographs of the many illustrations and inserts within the pages. The text of all versions of the journals will be available as accurate transcripts.
U.K. Parliamentary Papers (LibGuide)
ProQuest guide to using U.K. Parliamentary Papers, which provides complete online coverage of the sessional papers of the British House of Commons and the 19th Century House of Lords. It includes detailed primary source for the history of Britain, its colonies, and the wider world. It covers working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic and foreign policy.