Research Guides: English Language and Literature: Primary Resources

Exploring Archival Resources

Interested in finding primary documents (letters, diaries, etc.) relating to an author or a literary period? Use these resources to get started:

Archive Explorer lets you search materials from the Adam Matthew Collections (Defining Gender1450-1910, Empire Online, etc.):

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
- Find letters and diaries of 500 women from 1500-1900. Includes biographies and bibliographies.
- Permitted Uses

Library of Congress Online Exhibitions
Archives Hub (UK)
Provides a gateway to thousands of the UK’s richest archives. Representing over 220 institutions across the country, the Archives Hub is an effective way to discover unique and often little-known sources to support your research.

Search these digital versions for book/play reviews and accounts of historical events.

British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
- Find historic British newspapers, specially commissioned essays and contextual materials written by expert scholars to help non-specialist users with perspective and analysis.
- Coverage: 1714 – 1950
- Permitted Uses
Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003 This link opens in a new window
- The world's first illustrated weekly newspaper.
- Find news of war, disasters, royalty, social affairs, the arts and science.
- Coverage: 1842-2003
- Permitted Uses

Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Part I and Part II This link opens in a new window
ECCO makes available more than 155,000 volumes and over 30 million pages of historical works on every accessible English-language and foreign-language title published in the United Kingdom between 1701 and 1800, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
America's Historical Imprints (Early American Imprints) This link opens in a new window
- Find historical books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera printed in America over three centuries.
- Includes Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; and Series I: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800.
- Permitted Uses