Allows you to search across more than thirty databases providing access to primary sources from and/or relating to America, Britain, and countries around the globe. The majority of the documents date from a timespan that begins with the fifteenth and extends through the early 21st century. Substantial amounts of the content consist of documents and/or publications that are British or Irish in origin. Includes: Archives of Sexuality and Gender; Archives Unbound; British Library Newspapers; Eighteenth Century Collections Online; The Making of Modern Law; The Making of the Modern World; Nineteenth Century Collections Online; Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals; and many more.
Resources marked with this symbol are restricted to Columbia affiliates.
Archives of Sexuality and Gender (Gale)
"Provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. This growing archival program offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history." Parts I and II of this growing database focus on LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, which is documented "with material drawn from hundreds of institutions and organizations, including both major international activist organizations and local, grassroots groups." Part III is concerned more broadly with Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century.
Archives Unbound (Gale)
A cross searchable series of more than forty "topically-focused digital collections of historical documents." Includes collections of British documents on: Afghanistan in 1919: The Third Anglo-Afghan War; Conditions & Politics in Occupied Western Europe, 1940-1945; Indian Army and Colonial Warfare on the Frontiers of India, 1914-1920; and Middle East Online: Arab-Israeli Relations, 1917-1970.
Prize papers online. 1, American Revolutionary War and Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.
Prize papers online. 2, Seven Years' War and War of the Austrian Succession.
Prize papers online. 3, First, second and third Anglo-Dutch War and War of the Spanish Succession. (Brill)
"The Prize Papers archive, part of the archives of the High Court of Admiralty kept in The National Archives (TNA) Kew, is commonly regarded as one of the most valuable archives in the field of maritime history. In the course of its many naval engagements the British Royal Navy seized numerous enemy ships. Documents pertaining to tens of thousands of these seized ships (“prizes”), Dutch and French, Spanish and Portuguese, but also Danish, Swedish, German, Italian and American have been preserved.... The English authorities enquired about the origin, the route and planned destination, tonnage, freight and crew members, about citizenship, national allegiance, and the personal migration history of the interrogated crew members. The answers were interpreted into English, and written down by professional secretaries.... Brill has digitized the interrogations, and made them available online to researchers all over the world. Prize Papers Online provide images of each interrogation , while the answers to the fourteen most researched questions have been transcribed and stored in a searchable database."
A more wide ranging set of Confidential Print documents is available in the printed series British Documents on Foreign Affairs--Reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print. British Documents on Foreign Affairs reprints Confidential Print documents in series based on country, continent, or region (for example, Africa; Russia; Turkey, Iran, and the Middle East) or on key international organizations or events (for example, The League of Nations, 1918-1941; Paris Peace Conference of 1919). It remains useful for its coverage of regions and organizations not covered in Archives Direct:, as well as for scholars who prefer to work with the printed volumes. While the libraries are closed, most of the CLIO records for British Documents on Foreign Affairs feature links in the left-hand column inside the record that read: Hathi Trust Viewability Log in for temporary access v.1, etc. Use those links to log in for full text PDF access to the volumes.
A. Search for Databases with Content Related to British, Irish, or British Imperial History
You can select the Databases facet in CLIO:
https://clio.columbia.edu/databases
Then search for words appearing in the title or description of databases.
For example, a search for: british
leads to these results:
https://clio.columbia.edu/databases?q=british&search_field=all_fields&commit=Search
A search for: irish
leads to these results:
https://clio.columbia.edu/databases?q=irish&search_field=all_fields&commit=Search
A search for: empire OR colonial
leads to these results:
https://clio.columbia.edu/databases?q=empire+OR+colonial&search_field=all_fields&commit=Search
B. Find Compilations of Primary Sources
Add this tag word to a search of Subject field: sources
The subject headings used in library catalogs make use of a standard tag word
sources
to indicate compilations of primary sources in various formats (including both printed compilations and online database collections).
Here are some examples of complete subject headings using the "sources" tag word.
Once you are aware of this standard tag word, you can simply add it to basic keyword searches of the Subject field in CLIO. For example:
great britain colonies sources in Subject
which will retrieve this result set:
https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog?q=great+britain+colonies+sources&search_field=subject&commit=Search
or
ireland social sources
which will retrieve this result set:
https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog?page=1&per_page=25&q=ireland+social+sources&search_field=subject