Nineteenth Century Collections Online provides access to a rich range of primary sources from the long nineteenth century, such as monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, and statistics, that are brought together in one central, cross-searchable location.
Four collections are now available:
- British Politics and Society includes tens of thousands of primary sources related to the political climate in Great Britain during the “long” nineteenth century. Invaluable for historical scholarship, the archive not only sheds light on the development of urban centres and the restructuring of society during the Industrial Revolution, but it also includes a range of rare works that offer new avenues for research.
- European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection, based on the 20th-century discovery of the library of Victor Amadeus, constitutes one of the most important collections of British Romantic-era writing in existence. Of the 3,250+ works by more than 1,250 different authors from the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a considerable number are exceedingly rare publications, including previously unknown works, by British writers (women writers in particular, whose works comprise more than 1,000 titles) who were active during the Romantic period. Also included are 3,658 works in French (more than 500 by women) and 2,653 works in German, all dating primarily from the period 1790-1840. Many titles are unrecorded in the catalogues of the British Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
- Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange makes available British Foreign Office and United States consular and diplomatic records that constitute a political and social history of Western interaction with a number of Asian countries during the nineteenth century. These records reflect the day-to-day activities of the indigenous populations and their national governments, the expansion of trade, and the exercise of extraterritorial rights and treaty provisions. A selection of missionary correspondence and journals constitute a rich resource for the study of the social, cultural, political, and economic conditions of China, Japan, and Korea. Also included are a selection of contemporary periodicals that provide an unprecedented record of Western and indigenous experiences and reflections on the turbulent transformation of Asian countries from the model of traditional closed society to that of modern nationhood.
- British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture features a wide range of primary sources related to the arts in the Victorian era, from playbills and scripts to operas and complete scores. These rare documents, many of them never before available, were sourced from the British Library and other renowned institutions, and curated by experts in British arts history. Offering not only manuscripts and compositions, but also personal letters, annotated programs, meeting minutes, and financial records, this collection provides a glimpse into the inner workings of the arts world and life in Victorian Britain.
For more information about Nineteenth Century Collections Online, please contact Joanne Smyth, UNBF History Librarian, (453-3516).
For more resources relevant to studies in history, please consult UNB Libraries’ History Guides.
For help with any of UNB Libraries’ resources, please contact the HIL Research Help Desk in person, by telephone (453-3546), by email, or by Ask Us.