Subject Guides: English: Primary Sources

Primary Sources for English

For a more complete list try our Primary Resources page.

Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window Early English Books Online (EEBO) is the definitive online collection of early printed works in English, and works printed in England, making digital copies of over 146,000 titles from before 1700 discoverable through an interface tailored for early modern scholars.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) I & II This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which has aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800.
Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window Bringing together rare journals printed between c.1685 and 1835, this resource illuminates all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life.
Literature Online This link opens in a new window A virtual library containing more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 366 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources.
London Low Life This link opens in a new window An extraordinary digital collection bringing to life the teeming streets of Victorian London, and inviting students and scholars to explore the gin palaces, brothels and East End slums of the nineteenth century's greatest city. This collection, drawn from the holdings of the Lilly Library, will be of interest to 19th century scholars researching: working-class culture, street literature, popular music, urban topography, 'slumming', prostitution, the Contagious Diseases Act, the Temperance Movement, social reform, Toynbee Hall, police and criminality.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window A multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century; will be comprised of numerous collections to be released over many years, including a variety of material types--monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more--in one cross-searchable location.

Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992
Contains approximately 200,000 pages from the world's most famous magazine of humor, spanning the years 1841-1992. Includes almanacks and other special numbers, as well as prefaces, epilogues, indexes and other specially produced material from the bound volumes. Images originally published in full color appear in full color in the archive.

Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels This link opens in a new window Primary source database focusing on North American and European adult comic books and graphic novels. The collection includes original material from the 1960s to today along with interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines.
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window Victorian Popular Culture is a portal comprised of four modules, inviting users into the darkened halls, small backrooms, big tops and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to the world of magic, spiritualist séances, optical entertainments and the first moving pictures.

Women Writers Online
Women Writers Online contains full-text editions of more than 100 texts by English and American women published between 1500 and 1830. It also includes introductory essays written by contemporary scholars about Renaissance women writers, their texts, and related topics. The site also includes links to other textual databases, and a collection of syllabi.

Lucy Scribner Library

English: Primary Sources

Primary Sources for English