This guide lists important collections of primary sources on the history of Britain before 1800 held by the Princeton University Library. It covers microform, print and digital collections. Microforms listed in this guide are housed in Firestone Library Microforms Service on A floor. Printed guides to these collections are usually also housed in Microforms Service and have call numbers beginning "FilmB." A few collections held by Princeton Theological Seminary or by the Center for Research Libraries are also listed in this guide. Please consult a librarian for help if you would like to use these collections.
For additional collections at CRL, see the guide to Great Britain on CRL's web site. Please consult a librarian for help if you would like to use these collections.
These guides are reorganized and updated versions of web guides which originally appears as a part of Guide to Major Microform Holdings in History, a series of web guides prepared by John Henneman, History Bibliographer, and last revised circa 1996. The web guides, in turn, were based on three complementary guides that were prepared previously: Microform Holdings of Historical Interest (August, 1968), by Earle Coleman; Microform Holdings of Historical Interest (Supplement) (August 1970), by Earle Coleman; and Major Historical Resources on Microform excluding Newspapers (April, 1985) by John Henneman. Selected sections of the web guides were revised and updated by James Snow in Fall 2003. In guides revised after 2003, some text in the descriptions of individual items has been taken from publishers' web sites and printed guides; other descriptions were written by Elizabeth Bennett or Princeton University Library staff.
The guides were intended to provide an orientation to primary source collections at Princeton University, and were compiled with the needs of undergraduate history majors foremost in mind. The guides, therefore, emphasize materials in English. Periodicals and newspapers are, in general, not listed; see Finding U.S. newspapers at Princeton and Finding world newspapers at Princeton for guides to our holdings of newspapers.
These guides list materials held by Princeton University, plus some collections at Princeton Theological Seminary and at the Center for Research Libraries. They do not include primary source collections elsewhere.
The Center for Research Libraries is a consortium of North American universities, colleges and independent research libraries. The consortium acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching. These resources are then made available to member institutions cooperatively, through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery. Princeton is a member of CRL, and students and faculty can borrow microforms from CRL's collections. (If you are not affiliated with Princeton, please consult a librarian at your own institution about whether it is a member of CRL.)
To place an interlibrary loan request, logon to the Interlibrary Loan web page at https://library.princeton.edu/services/interlibrary-services, and then complete the appropriate request form. On the form, please use the full title of the item and note that the item is available from CRL. If you have any questions, please contact the Interlibrary Loan staff at 258-3272 or e-mail ILSBORR@princeton.edu.
