LibGuides: English Literature Research Guide: Historical Research

Primary Texts

Gale: Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Provides an interactive research environment that allows researchers to cross-search 11 different databases including historical newspapers, ECCO, NCCO, and Sabin Americana, and to discover and analyze content in new ways.
History Vault This link opens in a new window
Researchers can access primary source material including letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more. The materials are taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections.
Early English Books Online 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.
English Short Title Catalog - ESTC This link opens in a new window
Free database that identifies titles published prior to 1801 in Great Britain, North America and other British colonies, as well as books published anywhere in English.

Hathi Trust Digital Library
Over 850,000 volumes in public domain! Most of the volumes are full-text, however, there are some that are only searchable and lack full-text.
ArchiveGrid
While the other resources in this list will take you to digitized material, ArchiveGrid gives researchers access to finding aids for collections. "ArchiveGrid is a collection of over three million archival material descriptions, including MARC records from WorldCat and finding aids harvested from the web. It's supported by OCLC Research as the basis for our experimentation and testing in text mining, data analysis, and discovery system applications and interfaces. Archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives are represented in ArchiveGrid."

British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
This resource offers facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. The library's account includes all four collections released by ProQuest as of 2019.
American Periodicals Series This link opens in a new window
The American Periodicals Series brings the early days of U.S. history alive through more than 7,000,000 digitized page images from over 1,000 periodicals spanning 200 years. The wide variety of content ranges from Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, first published in 1741, to literary and professional journals, specialized titles, and such well-known magazines as Vanity Fair, Ladies' Home Journal, Scientific American, and The Dial.
Harpweek : 1857-1912 This link opens in a new window
HarpWeek enables you to directly experience the richness and historical significance of Harper’s Weekly, America's leading 19th century illustrated newspaper.
Early American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Articles published in over 700 newspapers between 1690 and 1876.
Readers Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
This database offers an online archive of the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, which for many decades has been a major index to articles published in news magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report as well as popular magazines like Good Housekeeping and Reader's Digest.

The Year's Work in English Studies by English Association
Narrative bibliographical reviews of scholarly work on English language and literatures written in English. Available online or in Reference PE58 .E6
Poole's index to periodical literature. Abridged ed., covering the contents of thirty-seven important periodicals, 1815-99
Call Number: Reference AI3 .P71 1901
The Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals by Walter E Houghton
Call Number: Z2005 .H6
To find reviews of a specific book scan the entries beginning with the publication year of the book.
Annual bibliography of English language and literature
Call Number: Reference PE10 .A56
Library owns v.12-v.13, v.31-v.48, v.50-current. The Bibliography aims to list annually all scholarly articles, books and reviews concerning English language and literature and related topics published anywhere in the world, and in any language.

The National union catalog, pre-1956 imprints by Library of Congress
Call Number: Back wall of reference area Z881.A1 U518
List of printed works published before 1956 held by American and Canadian Libraries
The English catalogue of books
Call Number: Z2001 .E533
A bibliography of books published in the United Kingdom (and sometimes Ireland) in the 19th and early and mid 20th centuries. Also includes some American imprints.
General catalogue of printed books to 1955 by British Museum
Call Number: Back wall of reference area Z921 .B87 1967
A complete list of printed books to 1965 contained in the British Museum collection.