British History Online
Digital editions of important sources for the history of several English towns. Arranged by county.
Early English Books Online
(1475-1700)
Partially searchable
digital images of books printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, as
well as works in English printed elsewhere. Based upon the Pollard and
Redgrave Short Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and the Wing Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700).
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Partially searchable
digital images of about 150,000 books, primarily British, printed in
the eighteenth century. Based on the Eighteenth-Century Short-Title
Catalogue.
Making of the Modern World Digital Archive
Digital
edition of the Goldsmiths'-Kress collections of books on that document
economic and business activity in the West, from 1450 to 1850.
Materials include books, pamphlets and ephemera and cover a broad range
of topics in political science, history, sociology, and banking,
finance, transportation and manufacturing
Note: especially for British towns, there are important series of primary documents published by local historical societies. The easiest way to find them is to wander through both the LC and Richardson stacks on C floor. Both classifications are arranged by country and books on particular cities are kept together.
To find primary sources in the Main Catalog, use the Guided Search form to search for keywords or subject headings plus terms like:
Note: for many topics, there are highly specific subject headings like:
To find the papers of an individual, do an Author search, e.g. jackson, andrew
To find the records of an organization or government body, do an Author search, e.g. United States. Dept. of State
To find works published in a particular time and place, try limiting your search by date, language, or location (click on the orange "set limits" button on the search screen).