Library Subject Guides: History: Web Resources

  • General resources
  • Media resources
  • Open-access publications / digitised texts
    • AWOL (Ancient World Online)
      Directory to open-access historical texts on the Ancient World: includes late antiquity, Byzantium, early Church history, Syriac and Coptic studies, history of medicine.
    • E-Corpus
      Collection of digitized documents and rare books from a French archival consortium. Browse the collection for French interests in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Includes “Virtual library on ancient and modern Egypt”
    • Internet History Sourcebooks (Fordham University, New York)
      Directory to open-access historical texts on a range of subjects and regions: including African, East Asian, Indian, Jewish, Islamic, Lesbian / Gay, History of Science and Women’s History.
    • Medical history of British India (National Library of Scotland, India Papers collection)
      44 digitised documents looking at public health measures, the effects of epidemic / endemic disease and efforts at disease prevention in India between 1868 and 1920.
    • SOAS Research Online
      Open access e-print repository of academic publications (articles, book chapters, theses etc.) by SOAS staff and students. Content dates mainly from the 1990s, though the earliest items are from 1959.
    • World War I Centenary Archive
      A selection of 100 core British government documents charting the progress of the First World War in Europe and beyond. Includes material on the war in the Near East / Mesopotamia and the Gallipoli Campaign, relations with the Ottoman Empire and the role of imperial troops in the conflict.
      Documents can be freely downloaded as PDFs

  • Organizations
    • British Museum
      Showcases the world’s cultural and artistic heritage from pre-history to artefacts of the 21st century. View detailed bibliographic records and photographs of thousands of items from the collection.
    • International Association for Media and History
      Set up by broadcasters, filmmakers, archivists and scholars to encourage scholarly research into the relationship between history and all forms of the media
    • Royal Historical Society (London)
      The RHS was founded in 1868. The website gives access to their reports and bibliographies and information on publications and grants
    • Wellcome Library
      The collection comprises books, archives, manuscripts and photographs documenting the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day
    • Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide
      Founded in 1933, the Library holds extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era including press-cuttings, photographs and eye-witness testimonies. It also collects on anti-Semitism and on other genocides such those in Rwanda and Armenia
    • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
      The Museum’s website looks at the Holocaust in all its ramifications. Of interest to researchers into genocide studies, Jewish history, social history and 20th century European history.
    • Victoria and Albert Museum
      Art and design museum with strong collections on the artwork of South Asia, Japan and the Islamic Middle East and their historical and cultural context.
  • Theses
    • DART-Europe
      Portal to over 300,000 open-access theses from over 430 universities in 24 European countries
    • Digital Islam Theses :
      JISC-funded project giving access to over 900 UK PhD theses on Islamic studies via ETHOS. Search for "JISC Digital Islam" to browse the collection. Registration with ETHOS is required (free)
    • History Online : Theses
      Part of the Institute of Historical Research’s History Online. Browse or search the database for details of U.K. PhD and Research Masters theses completed since 1970, and for research in progress.
    • SOAS Research Online: Theses
      Selection of SOAS PhD theses (mostly from 2011 onward). Very recent theses may not be available electronically
    • Theses Canada
      Portal to free full-text access to Canadian theses completed between 1998 and 2002. In English and French.