New: Bloomsbury Medieval Studies

Following a successful trial in October 2019, I am pleased to announce that Oxford researchers now have access to Bloomsbury Medieval Studies (SSO required for off-campus access).

This purchase is made possible thanks to the generosity of Jonathan Glasspool, Managing Director, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. and the Madeline Barber Bequest.

This is an interdisciplinary digital resource with a global perspective covering the medieval period. It brings together high-quality secondary content with visual primary sources, a new reference work and pedagogical resources into one cross-searchable platform, to support students and researchers across this rich field of study.

Specifically, the resource contains over 150 scholarly works (incl. primary texts, research monographs, companions) which have been published by Bloomsbury and other publishers such as IB Tauris, Arc Humanities Press, Amsterdam University Press.

It also contains a newly published reference work (The Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Age) and over a 1000 images sourced from collections in the British Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Senate House Library (London).

Explore articles written by top international contributors in the newly commissioned and exclusive reference work, the Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages.

New: Presidential Recordings Digital Addition

[re-blogged from Bethan Davies’ VHL Blog post of 13. Dec 2019.]

I am pleased to announce that the Vere Harmsworth Library, in partnership with the Social Science Library, have purchased online access to the Presidential Recordings Digital Edition for the University.

The Presidential Recordings Programme (PRP), was established by The Miller Center in 1998. Its aim was to make the previously secret taped conversations of six consecutive American Presidents (FDR to Richard Nixon) available for researchers. Covering historical events such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Kennedy Assassination, Vietnam and Watergate, the tapes offer “a unique and irreplaceable source for the study of U.S. history and American government.”

Previously, Oxford researchers could only access the curated transcripts hosted on the Miller Centre’s website. Now, through the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford researchers can access the Presidential Recordings Digital Edition (PRDE), the online portal for annotated transcripts of the White House tapes from the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon era. This includes a searchable database that allows full text searches for specific phrases and terms. It also includes options to filter search results based on dates, participants and topics. The PRDE is continually being updated with new transcripts and recordings, as they become available.

Similar Resources:

If you would like any advice on using our databases or resources, please contact the Vere Harmsworth Librarian, Bethan Davies bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

New discovery tool to search Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts

[Re-blogged from the Bodleian Libraries’ announcement]

The Bodleian Libraries have today released Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/, providing access to the Bodleian’s world-renowned collection of archives and manuscripts on a new, user-friendly site.

The resource is in beta and researchers are encouraged to give feedback.

Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts is a new interface which revolutionizes the discoverability of archives. Whereas previously descriptions of archives and manuscripts were available in separate online catalogues, they’ve now been brought together into one site.

https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts currently includes descriptions for approximately 100,000 boxes of archival material collected by the Bodleian Libraries, dating from c. 1500 to the 21st century. Material described is predominantly in manuscript form, but the collections also contain large amounts of photographic material, audiovisual items, and born-digital content. Over the next 12 months Bodleian Libraries staff will continue to add to Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts, incorporating some of the Bodleian’s most important published catalogues – the Summary and New Summary Catalogues.

The predecessor to Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts, the Online Catalogue for Archives and Manuscripts, will remain available until early January 2020 at which point we will switch over to Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts fully, and decommission the Libraries’ old Online Catalogues platform.

For more information and an FAQ about Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts visit the public FAQ document.

While you are here…

The online catalogue for Medieval archives and manuscripts held in the Bodleian Libraries is available at https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

A guide to finding aids for Bodleian Libraries’ oriental archival collections is in the LibGuide for Oriental Manuscripts.

Administrative records of the University of Oxford are part of the Oxford University Archives.

New in Oxford: East India Company – Women in The National Archives – Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1981

I am pleased to announce that Bodleian Libraries has been able to make a number of eresources purchases some of which will be of interest to historians.

The Bodleian Libraries have committed substantial external funding to a one-off set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University. This follows a project to identify desiderata across all subjects and to list suggestions from readers. The list includes items which cannot easily be covered by recurrent budgets.

East India Company

This resource offers access to digitised primary source documents from the India Office Records, held at the British Library, a key archive for the history of South Asia from 1599 to 1947 and the most important collection for the history of the East India Company itself. The resource contains digitised royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types, this resource charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1599 to 1947.

Also of interest: 

Women in The National Archives

This resource provides access to an online finding aid for women’s studies resources in The National Archives (TNA), Kew, covering 1559-1995. It also gives access to early 20th century original documents on the Suffrage Question in Britain, the Empire and Colonial Territories.The finding aid enables researchers to quickly locate details of documents relating to women held in The National Archives (TNA). It is still far more detailed and extensive than anything available elsewhere on the web and has the benefit of ranging across all of the classes held at TNA. The original documents will be valuable for those teaching courses on: The Campaign for Women’s Suffrage in Britain, 1903-1928 and The granting of women’s suffrage in Colonial territories, 1930-1962.

It’s a useful resource for those researching women’s history generally but particularly the history of abortion, clothing, conditions of service, divorce, domestic work, education and training, employment, equal opportunities and pay, health, marriage, maternity and child welfare, nursing and midwifery, prostitution, single parents, teaching and teacher training, trade unions, widows, women’s organisations, women’s suffrage and women’s rights and status.

Highlights of the collections include: The campaign for women’s suffrage in Britain and the British Empire; Biographical information on individual suffragettes; The ‘Cat and Mouse’ campaign; Police surveillance; Prison conditions; Parliamentary debates and committee reports.

Also of interest:

Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1981

This is an online collection of documents sourced from The National Archives, UK. It comprises formally classified British government documents, including correspondence, annual reports, dispatches, maps, minutes of ministerial meetings and printed leaflets. The documents relate to a number of topics including the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Oil Crisis, the Lebanese Civil War and the Camp David Accords, the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War.

Also of interest:

New: Military Architecture 1600-1900

S. Vauban, Traité de l’attaque et de la défense des places (La Haye, 1743). Military Architecture 1600-1900 (Leiden, 2018), accessed 8 July 2019, http://primarysources.brillonline.com/browse/military-architecture-1600-1900.

I’m pleased to report that Oxford researchers now have access to Brill’s Military Architecture 1600-1900.

This online resource contains 99 printed works which represent the revolutionary developments in fortification in Early Modern Europe in theory and in practice.

The collection covers not only military architecture, but to some extent also the military arts (artillery, army camps, siege) and military and some naval history. While it focuses on early modern history, there are translations of works from Ancient Rome and there is at least one book on medieval military architecture (A. Hamilton Thompson, Military Architecture in England during the Middle Ages. London, 1912). A number of early modern printed books were published before 1600.

It’s possible to search the full-text of the entire collection or of individual books, but bear in mind that the collection comprises works in different languages, including Latin, and may use old language and orthography. Likewise, the rendering of the text from early modern print-type has not always been successful, so it pays to browse the books and read texts to get a sense of the content.

Many works will include illustrations of buildings, fortifications, harbours, etc. It does not appear to be possible to search for these separately.

Obsedio Bredana Armis Phillippi IIII (Antwerpen, 1629), p.9. Military Architecture 1600-1900 (Leiden, 2018), accessed 8 July 2019, http://primarysources.brillonline.com/bowse/military-architect

You will be able to copy the OCRed text of any selections or of a page; you can also download the ebook, or selections of it, as a zipped file; and you can share the link to the resource via email and social media.

Citations can be saved to Endnote and RefWorks, but also seem to work with Zotero.

More about the content

“Similar to the arts, military architecture was split up in national schools or styles, so called fortification manners.The works of Busca, Cattaneo, De Marchi, Tensini, Theti, Zanchi, reflect the Italian School, Errard and Perret the French one and Specklin’s Architektur von Vestungen is an adaptation of the Italian school in Germany.

Stevin’s Sterctenbouwing discusses Cattaneo, Theti and Specklin to assess the benefits of their fortification systems for the Low Countries. The later French school is well represented by Pagan and the works of probably the most famous engineer of all times, Vauban. His various “fortification manners” were applied all over Europe and beyond.

While these works in Military Architecture 1600-1900 allow for a comparative analysis in text and image of European fortification schools, others focus on more local conditions such as Stevin’s works in Dutch and French on the role of pivoted sluices in the fortifications of various harbor towns.

Moreover, Military Architecture 1600-1900 provides insight in the training of fortification in theory and practice for multiple “user-groups”. While the works of the classical authors Caesar, Valturius and Vegetius were used for the philological study of the military arts at universities, the reality of warfare required for training of practical skills for engineers and landsurveyors in the field. Translations of Euclid, works on the practice of geometry and landsurveying (Mallet, Nienrode, Metius, Sems&Dou) were filling that gap. Although Military Architecture 1600-1900 represents the protagonists of the history of fortification, it also includes lesser known authors such as Bruist, Capo-Bianco, Gaya, Gerbier and Pfeffinger. Moreover, the selection does not limit itself to military architecture, but includes the military arts (artillery, army camps, siege) and history.” (Military Architecture, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018, accessed 8 July 2019 http://primarysources.brillonline.com/browse/military-architecture-1600-1900).

The breakdown of titles per country is as follows:

  • Netherlands: 46 titles
  • France: 25 titles
  • Italy: 14 titles
  • Germany: 13 titles
  • England: 1 title

Military Architecture 1600-1900 is now accessible via SOLO or via Databases A-Z. Enjoy!

New: Oxford Medieval Texts online (Oxford Scholarly Editions Online)

William, Mynors, R. A. B, Thomson, Rodney M., and Winterbottom, Michael. Gesta Regum Anglorum. Vol. 1. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford, 2019.

Medievalists rejoice!

You now have online access to some of OUP’s Oxford Medieval Texts volumes via Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) which is accessible via SOLO.

Oxford Medieval Texts (OMT) is an important series of published scholarly editions of selected key Latin texts relating to the history of medieval Europe. Authors include, for instance, Abelard, Bede, Malmesbury, Saxo Grammaticus, and others.

The critical texts are accompanied by a full scholarly apparatus and include a commentary and English translations on facing pages.

Currently 31 ebooks in the OMT series are now available.

This subscription is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Madeline Barber Bequest.

The earliest OMT example in OSEO is

The latest is

The Bodleian hardcopy of the OMT series is in the Upper Reading Room (URR), Old Bodleian Library, at shelfmark K.7.34.

Check here for a full list of the 100+ titles in this series.

While you are here, check out…

New resources for global history: Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan (1836-1944) and SUR, 1931-1992

The Bodleian Libraries have committed substantial external funding to a one-off set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University. This follows a project to identify desiderata across all subjects and to list suggestions from readers. The list includes items costing up to £125,000 which cannot easily be covered by recurrent budgets. The first tranche of purchases includes a number of important primary sources from Gale Cengage, including Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1836-1944, together with their new Gale Digital Scholar Lab, which will allow digital research methods to be applied across all the primary sources published by them and acquired by the Bodleian Libraries.

Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1836-1944 (Archives Unbound)

This collection covers U.S. perspectives on Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Trans-Jordan, from Ottoman rule to the era of British and French mandates following the First World War. The archive is sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

SUR, 1931-1992 (Archives Unbound)

In Public Domain. From Wikipedia (17 April 2019

SUR is one of the most important and influential literary magazines published in Latin America in the twentieth century. This collection includes images of the complete magazine, including covers, photographs and advertisements, more than 50,000 pages; a comprehensive electronic index of 6,300 entries, correcting mistakes and inconsistencies found in the index published in the magazine; and a set of images of manuscripts from the first issue as well as an unpublished set of letters by Victoria Ocampo.

Founded in 1931 by Argentine intellectual Victoria Ocampo (1890-1979), SUR is well known throughout Latin America and Europe. Over its long and distinguished history, SUR featured the writings of the leading figures in literature, philosophy, history and the plastic arts not only from Latin America, but also from North America and Western Europe. Contributors included LeCorbusier, Lacan, Sarte, and Woolf; and Argentine authors include Borges, Cortázar, Silvinia Ocampo, and Bioy Casares. Through Ocampo’s social commentary and choice of contributors, she advanced an Argentine version of Liberalism at a time when most Latin Americans confronted reactionary regimes, military rule, economic chaos and demagogues.

This important literary title featuring the century’s principal authors and intellectuals is vital for historical research.

While you are here:

New resource for 20th century historians: Political Extremism and Radicalism in the Twentieth Century

The Bodleian Libraries have committed substantial external funding to a one-off set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University. This follows a project to identify desiderata across all subjects and to list suggestions from readers. The list includes items costing up to £125,000 which cannot easily be covered by recurrent budgets. The first tranche of purchases includes a number of important primary sources from Gale Cengage, including Political Extremism and Radicalism in the Twentieth Century, together with their new Gale Digital Scholar Lab, which will allow digital research methods to be applied across all the primary sources published by them and acquired by the Bodleian Libraries.

Political Extremism & Radicalism in the Twentieth Century

This resource provides access to “a compilation of rare and unique archival collections covering a wide range of fringe political movements. It has been sourced from distinguished libraries and archives across the world but also premiers some previously hidden treasure troves.

With an extensive scope of content focused on political extremism and radical thought, this archive is one of the first digital archives covering such a broad assortment of both far-right and left political groups. It offers a diverse mixture of materials, including periodicals, campaign propaganda, government records, oral histories, and various ephemera, which allow researchers to explore unorthodox social and political movements in new and innovative ways and to understand what impact they have had on today’s society.

The collections cover a period of just over a century (1900s to 2010s) when the world saw the formation of several civil rights movements for the rights of minorities, women’s rights, and gay rights. It also encompasses the rise and fall of a number of peripheral groups deemed ‘extreme’ or ‘radical’ by contemporaries, such as anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-war, communist or socialist, creationist, environmentalist, hate, holocaust denial, new left, survivalist, white supremacist, and white nationalist. Global in scope, although the archive presents materials largely from the US and Britain, it also showcases important factions from Europe and Australia, such as the Norwegian Nazi Party and the Australian National Socialist Party. By spanning multiple geographic regions, the resource shows both the cultural impact of radical groups at a national level as well as the international networking and cross-border exchanges of extreme political movements.

Following are some highlights from the archive:

The Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda from the John Hay Library at Brown University, features extremist literature ranging from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s – the most heated days of the civil rights movement. Publications in this collection represent a cross-section of extremist opinion towards integration and civil rights activism, but it also contains materials on American anti-Semitism, Christian Identity theology, neo-Nazi groups, and white supremacy movements.

The American Radicalism Collection from Michigan State University is a collection of ephemera on radical political groups across a range of extremist and radical movements, including those involved in religion, race, gender, the environment, and equal rights. The materials represent a large variety of viewpoints, from the far-right to the far-left, on political, social, cultural, sexual, and economic issues in the United States from 1970 to the present.

The Searchlight Archive, held at the University of Northampton in the UK, consists of documents from Searchlight Associates, an information service founded in 1962 that aimed to investigate racist and fascist groups in Britain and abroad and publicise their activities by publishing exposes in their Searchlight magazine. The collections consist of various ephemera accumulated as part of their investigations as well as the complete run of Searchlight magazine (1965-present). Most distinctively, the archive also includes the Searchlight Oral Histories Collection, which consists of interviews (available to researchers as both audio files and transcripts) with anti-fascist activists active from 1940s-1990s.

The National Archives at Kew in the UK, is the source archive for digitised secret service and home office documents relating to inter- and post-war British fascist and communist movements. This includes the Security Service: Personal (PF Series) Files series containing selected files from the First and Second World War periods and the inter-war years on suspected spies, renegades, communist sympathisers, right-wing extremists, and other groups in which the British Security Service took an interest, including pacifist and anti-conscription groups. It also contains Home Office papers pertaining to the detention of Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, during the Second World War as well as a number of other suspected Nazi sympathisers who were members of far-right groups, such as the Imperial Fascist League, the Nordic League, and the Right Club.”

New resources for 19th century historians: NCCO: Women: Transnational Networks and NCCO: British Theatre, Music, and Literature

The Bodleian Libraries have committed substantial external funding to a one-off set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University.  This follows a project to identify desiderata across all subjects and to list suggestions from readers.  The list includes items costing up to £125k which cannot easily be covered by recurrent budgets.  The first tranche of purchases includes a number of important primary sources from Gale Cengage, including NCCO: Women: Transnational Networks, together with their new Gale Digital Scholar Lab, which will allow digital research methods to be applied across all the primary sources published by them and acquired by the Bodleian Libraries.

As part of those purchases, the following resources useful for 19th and 20th centuries history are now available in Oxford via SOLO or Databases A-Z.

  • NCCO: Women: Transnational Networks
  • NCCO: British Theatre, Music, and Literature

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women: Transnational Networks

Issues of gender and class ignited nineteenth-century debate in the context of suffrage movements, culture, immigration, health and many other concerns. Using a wide array of primary source documents (serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals) this resource focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late-eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early-twentieth century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions.

Researchers and scholars will find rare content related to:

  • Social reform movements and groups
  • High and popular culture
  • Literature and the arts
  • Immigration
  • Daily life
  • Religion

Source libraries include the Library of Congress, the London School of Economics and Political Science Library, and the Library of the Society of Friends.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture

This resource 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. Covering more than a century, British Theatre, Music, and Literature is without equal as a resource for 19th century scholars. 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.

It provides a detailed look at the state of the British art world with, for example, not only manuscripts and compositions, but also documents such as personal letters, annotated programs, meeting minutes, and financial records, offering scholars an unmatched glimpse into the inner workings of the arts world and life in Victorian Britain.

While you are here:

New: The Telegraph Historical Archive 1855-2000 and British Library Newspapers Part III-IV

I am delighted to announce that Oxford researchers now have access to two online newspaper resources which have long been on our desiderata: The Telegraph Historical Archive 1855-2000 and British Library Newspapers Part III-IV. These are now accessible via SOLO or Databases A-Z > Newspapers.

The Bodleian Libraries have committed substantial external funding to a one-off set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University. This follows a project to identify desiderata across all subjects and to list suggestions from readers. The list includes items costing up to £125,000 which cannot easily be covered by recurrent budgets. The first tranche of purchases includes a number of important primary sources from Gale Cengage, including British Library newspapers parts III and IV and The Telegraph Historical Archive 1855-2000.

The Telegraph Historical Archive 1855-2000

This is a searchable digital archive of what was once the world’s largest selling newspaper. Researchers and students can full text search across 1 million pages of the newspapers’ backfile from its first issue to the end of 2000, including issues of the Sunday Telegraph from 1961.

The newspaper was directed at a wealthy, educated readership and is commonly associated with traditional Toryism, despite its more ‘liberal’ beginnings especially in regard to foreign policy. Under the editorship of poet and Orientalist Edwin Arnold (from 1873 to 1899), the paper published widely on foreign affairs and foreign cultures. This led to The Telegraph’s coverage of Henry Morton Stanley’s expedition to Africa in search of David Livingstone, which it co-sponsored with the New York Herald.

Daily Telegraph notable highlights include:

The Kaiser Wilhelm affair: On 28 October 1908, the Daily Telegraph published an infamous interview with Kaiser Wilhelm, the German chancellor who alienated the British public with such uncensored comments as ‘you English are mad, mad, mad as march hares.’

Telegraph trial - Kaiser Wilhelm snippet 28 Oct 1908

“The German Emperor and England”, Daily Telegraph, Wed. 28 Oct. 1908, Issue 16694, p.11

The cryptic crossword puzzle: the crossword was circulated to recruit Allied codebreakers during the Second World War and was published in The Telegraph on January 13, 1942.

British Library Newspapers, Parts I-IV (1732-1950)

In addition to Parts I and II, researchers now also have access to parts III and IV of the British Library Newspapers which has more English, Welsh and Scottish regional and local newspaper content online into the first half of the 20th century. Interesting titles include:

  • Aberdeen Journal (1901-1939)
  • Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette (1749-1950)
  • Cambridge Independent Press (1839-1920)
  • The Cornishman (1878-1950)
  • Derby Daily Telegraph (1879-1950)
  • The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette (1827-1950)
  • Essex Newsman (1870-1950)
  • Hereford Journal (1781-1867)
  • Leeds Times (1833-1901)
  • The Norfolk Chronicle (1776-1867)
  • The Nottingham Evening Post (1878-1950)
  • The Salisbury and Winchester Journal (1775-1867)
  • The Salisbury and Winchester Journal (1827-1950)
  • The Western Times (1827-1950)

Researchers may be more familiar with the British Newspaper Archive (BNA) which provides access to digitised regional and local British newspapers. While searching in teh BNA is free, and, indeed, useful to locate a citation, it requires an individual subscription to see the content. If that is the case, please check the Library purchased British Library Newspapers. Please note we still don’t have Part V of British Library Newspapers and that BNA has content which is not available in any parts of British Library Newspapers. Confusing, or what? Join the club!

While you are here:
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