Online Resources

Online resources can be accessed via links below from within the library or with limited offsite availability as detailed below.

 

Using online collections

Online resources for historical research are listed below and in the catalogue. You can access them in the building on IHR library computers or via the UoL Libraries wifi. Offsite access is mostly limited to SAS students, fellows and staff due to licence restrictions. Resources available offsite to all IHR members are shown in the list below. Where offsite access is available you can follow the link and login using your name and the barcode number from your membership card.

We also have a page listing Open and Free Access Research Materials as part of the IHR's response to the library closures.

For digital resources in other disciplines, also see Senate House Library Databases and eResources.

Find electronic journals by title on the catalogueEncore can be used to search within resources.

A-Z online resources list

TitleIHR member accessNotes
1641 Irish DepositionsFree 
17th-18th Century Burney Collection NewspapersOnsite only 
19th Century British Library NewspapersOnsite only 
19th Century collections online (British Theatre, Music, and Literature)Onsite only 
100 BalladsFree 
Acta SanctorumOffsiteAccess both on and offsite for IHR members.
America: History and lifeOnsite only 
Archaeological Data Service Library, including British and Irish Archaeological BibliographyFreeFree online resource
Archives Portal EuropeFree

Access to information on archival material across Europe.

Art et Démocratie (1789-1792)FreeFree online resource.
Bibliography of British and Irish History (formerly RHS Bibliography)Onsite only 
Britain and UK Handbooks 1954-2005FreeDownloadable dataset provided by the National Library of Scotland.
British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO)FreeFree online resource
British Cartoon ArchiveFreeFree online resource

British History Online (onsite access to full subscription resource and offsite access to staff, students, fellows).

Non-subscription areas direct from British History Online website

Partialpartially free online resource and subscription-only content available onsite
British Newspapers 1600-1900Onsite only 
British PeriodicalsOnsite only 
British Political SpeechFreeAn online archive of British political speech
CasebooksFree"In the decades around 1600, the astrologers Simon Forman and Richard Napier produced one of the largest surviving sets of medical records in history. The Casebooks Project, a team of scholars at the University of Cambridge, has transformed this paper archive into a digital archive."
Cecil PapersOffsiteAccess both on and offsite for IHR members.
Centre for English Local History Thesis CollectionFreeTheses completed by students at the Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester from 1948 to 2015. Free online resource.
Charles Booth's LondonFreeFree online resource provided by LSE
Churchill archiveOffsiteAccess both on and offsite for IHR members. See further guidance.
Civil War PetitionsFreeFree searchable website of more than 4000 petitions from maimed soldiers and war widows of the civil wars.
Clergy of England databaseFreeFree online resource
Colonial Society of MassachusettsFreePublications online. Free online resource
Complete Work of Charles Darwin OnlineFreeFree online resource
Connected HistoriesFreeFree online resource for use as a search tool; subscription required for links to external content.
Database of Court Officers 1660-1837Free Free online resource
Dictionary of Welsh BiographyFreeFree online resource
Digitale Bibliografie Nederlandse GeschiedenisFreeFree online resource
Dutch Caribbean Digital PlatformFreeFree online resource from University of Curacao.
Early English Books online (EEBO)Onsite onlyProQuest
Early European Books (EEB)Onsite only 
Eighteenth century collections online (ECCO)Onsite onlyGale
Eighteenth-century political participation and electoral cultureFree 
Electronic EnlightenmentOnsite only 
England's Immigrants 1330-1550FreeFree online resource
English Monastic ArchivesFreeFree online resource
English Short Title CatalogueFreeFree online resource. Temporary access to assist researchers impeded by the cyberattack on the British Library.
European NewsstreamOnsite only 
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) daily reports 1974-1996Onsite only 
Founders OnlineFreeFree online resource. Correspondence and other writings of six major shapers of the United States.
FranceArchivesFreePortail National des Archives
Gale Primary SourcesOnsite onlyEnables you to search across subscribed Gale digital archives in a single cross-search interface
Global CommoditiesOnsite only 
Hansard on UK Parliament websiteFreeThe official report of all Parliamentary debates. Find Members, their contributions, debates, petitions and divisions from published Hansard reports dating back over 200 years.
HeinOnlineOnsite only 
Heritage of the Printed Book (CERL)Free 
Historical abstractsOnsite only 
Historical DirectoriesFreeFree online resource from University of Leicester's Special Collections Online
History of Parliament OnlineFreeFree online resource
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (now ProQuest UK Parliamentary Papers)Onsite only 
In Principio - Incipit Index of Latin TextsOnsite only 
Independent VoicesFree"An open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries."
Internet Archive Wayback MachineFree"The Internet Archive.. is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form."
International Medieval BibliographyOnsite only 
JISC Historical Texts JISC retired this product on the 31st July 2024
JISC Journal ArchivesOnsite onlyJISC retired this product on the 31st July 2024
John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed EphemeraOnsite only 
JSTOR - The Scholarly Journal ArchiveOnsite onlyIf you are getting a 'proxy server' error message try alternative access (onsite) via http://www.jstor.org
JustisOnsite only 
Latin American Anarchist and Labour PeriodicalsOnsite only 
Legacies of British Slave-ownershipFree 
Legal History: The Year BooksFreeFree online resource. An Index and Paraphrase of Printed Year Book Reports, 1268 - 1535
Library of Latin Texts - Series A and BOnsite only 
A Literary Tour de FranceFreeFree online resource. Publishing and the Book Trade in France and Francophone Europe, 1769-1789
LogeionFreeSimultaneous lookup of entries in the many reference works that make up the Perseus Classical collection.. also Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources.
Making of the Modern World: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450-1850Onsite only 
Manuscript Pamphleteering in Early Stuart EnglandFreeFree online. "Before the outbreak of Civil War in 1642, England developed a large, influential and often radical pamphlet literature. This project aims to survey the vast hidden archive of early Stuart England's manuscript pamphlets."
MarineLivesFreeFree online. "Collaborative transcription, linkage and enrichment of primary manuscripts from the High Court of Admiralty, 1650-1669 (with some excursions into data from the 1630s and 1640s)"
Mass Observation OnlineOnsite onlyExplore original manuscript and typescript papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organisation, as well as printed publications, photographs and interactive features.
Monumenta Germaniae HistoricaFreeFree online resource. Guide to the series also available.
National Institute for Newman Studies Digital CollectionsFreeOver 250,000 images featuring letters, library records, photographs, maps, manuscripts, music scores, and more.
Newberry French Revolution Collection PamphletsFreeFree online via Internet Archive: "Newberry Library's French Revolution Collection consists of more than 30,000 pamphlets and more than 23,000 issues of 180 periodicals published between 1780 and 1810"
A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825FreeFree online resource
Nineteenth Century British PamphletsOnsite onlyvia JSTOR
Nineteenth Century Collections Online part 3: British Theatre, Music and LiteratureOnsite only 
Our Subversive Voice: the history and politics of the English Protest SongFree 
Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyOnsite onlyWhen using onsite you can ignore the Sign in box and just begin using the resource.
Oxford English DictionaryOnsite only 
Parliamentary Debates (UK)

Onsite only

Free

Parliament rolls of medieval EnglandOnsite onlyBritish History Online
Patrologia LatinaOffsiteAccess both on and offsite for IHR members.
Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913FreeFree online resource
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland and GlobalOnsite only 
Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)FreeFree online resource from KCL and University of Cambridge. Prosopographical database of the recorded inhabitants of England from the late sixth to the late eleventh century, drawn from chronicles, saints’ Lives, charters, libri vitae, inscriptions, Domesday Book and coins
Public petitions to Parliament, 1833-1918OffsiteAccess both on and offsite for IHR members.
Runaway Slaves in Britain: bondage, freedom and race in the eighteenth centuryFreeFree online resource from the University of Glasgow. "Searchable database of well over eight hundred newspaper advertisements placed by masters and owners seeking the capture and return of enslaved and bound people who had escaped."
Scottish Post Office DirectoriesFreeFree online resource from the National Library of Scotland
Slave VoyagesFree 
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice 1490-2007Onsite only 
Stormont PapersFreeFree online resource
Theatregoing: Eyewitness accounts of going to a showFreeFree online resource
The Times Onsite only 
TroveFreeFree online database from the National Library of Australia. Resources relating to Australia: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more
UK Data ServiceFreeExplore the UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population data resources
UK Parliamentary PapersOnsite only 
Victorian Popular CultureOnsite only 
A Vision of Britain through TimeFreeFree online resource from the University of Portsmouth. "brings together historical surveys of Britain to create a record of how the country and its localities have changed".
Vogue ArchiveOnsite only 
Women Also Know HistoryFreeFree online resource dedicated to promoting the work of women historians.
York's Archbishops' Registers RevealedFreeFree access to over 20,000 images of Registers produced by the Archbishops of York, 1225-1650, in addition to a growing searchable index of names, subjects, places and organisations.