United Kingdom
Archives Hub
'The Archives Hub provides a single point of access to descriptions of archives held in UK universities and colleges.'
Area Studies library collections
(Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics, and Area Studies) - A guide to Area Studies-related resources held in special collections in UK university libraries.
British Library (London)
Goldsmiths College library Caribbean studies resources
'Goldsmiths College library has an extensive collection of materials relating to Caribbean studies, the Black presence in the UK and the Black diaspora. A selection of this material can now be seen on the following webpages which are updated monthly as new materials are added to our collection.
The Highland Clearances
A rapidly-growing digital archive on Scotland's Highland Clearances. Concentrating on first-hand accounts it tells the stories of where people came from and the places to which they went. Photographs, articles, statistics, people and passenger searches, maps and much more.
Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library (London)
NAHSTE (Navigational Aids for the History of Science, Technology, & the Environment)
Based at the University of Edinburgh; the NAHSTE Project is designed to open up the collections and archives held at Edinburgh University, Glasgow University, and Heriot-Watt University. The website's descriptions give information on a variety of aspects of the collections including the name and reference code of the collection, the creator, the contents of the collection and the availability of the collection for use by researchers.
National Archives of Scotland (NAS)
'Based in Edinburgh, NAS has one of the most varied collection of archives in the British isles. It is the main archive for sources of the history of Scotland as a separate kingdom, her role in the British isles and the links between Scotland and many other countries over the centuries. The NAS holds records spanning the 12th to the 21st centuries, touching on virtually every aspect of Scottish life. The NAS is the repository for the public and legal records of Scotland but also holds many local and private archives. It also advises Scottish government departments, institutions, businesses and private individuals on the care of their records.'
National Library of Scotland
(Edinburgh) - note especially the Library's 'Scots Abroad' databases, which contain lists/finding aids for Scots in North America, Emigrants' guides to North America and Emigrants' manuscripts relating to North Amer. See also the The National Library of Scotland's resources in American Studies.
Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives, and Libraries
Scottish Archive Network (SCAN)
Website includes database of online catalogues to Scotland's archives.
SCURL (Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries) North American Studies Group
Resources for American and Canadian studies in Scottish university and research libraries.
Scottish Jewish Archives Centre
'The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre - opened in 1987 - is a national heritage, information and research centre which collects documents, photographs and artefacts. It also houses an exhibition showing the history of the Jews in Scotland since the Seventeenth Century.'
Scottish Poetry Library (Edinburgh)
SLAINTE (Scottish Libraries Across the Internet)
SLAINTE is a resource for Library and Information workers throughout Scotland.
Walter Scott Digital Archive
(Edinburgh University) - 'The Walter Scott Digital Archive is an Edinburgh University Library online resource created in the Special Collections Division. It is designed around the extensive Corson Collection of Walter Scott material held in Special Collections. We hope that in time this website will become the main source of information on the life and work of Sir Walter Scott on the web.'
Canada
Canadian Archival Information Network
'Archives Canada is a gateway to archival resources found in over 800 repositories across Canada. Through Archives Canada you can search archival holdings across Canada, access Provincial and Territorial Archival Networks, and view digitized photographs, maps, documents and online exhibits developed around Canada's history.'
Canadian Archival Resources on the Internet
'The purpose of this site is to provide a comprehensive list of links to Canadian archives and associated resources on the Internet. These include links to individual repositories, multi-repository databases, archival listservs, archival associations, educational opportunities, and other related sites.'
National Archives of Canada
National Archives of Canada Maps, Plans and Charts Database
'Since its inception in 1872, the National Archives of Canada has acquired, preserved and commemorated the cartographic heritage of Canada and there are now some two million items in the collection. This search tool provides access to approximately 40,000 item-level descriptions from the "old map car catalogue." About 4,000 items from the catalogue, now in the public domain, have been digitized and may be consulted online.'
National Library of Canada
United States
American Antiquarian Society Library
(Worcester, MA) - 'A national research library of American history, literature, and culture through 1876. The library's collections document the life of America's people from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Collections include books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, broadsides, manuscripts, music, children's literature, graphic arts, genealogy and local histories.'
American Philosophical Society Library
(Philadelphia) - 'The American Philosophical Society Library's roots extend back to the founding of the Society in 1743. The Library has assembled a notable printed, manuscript, and graphic collection, most of which focuses on the first two and a half centuries of North American history and aspects of its European background. The Society's holdings in early American history and culture are broad and, in key areas, deep. Outstanding examples of early materials are the majority of the known papers of Benjamin Franklin, the journals, letters, and drawings of Charles Willson Peale and his family, the above-mentioned journals of Lewis and Clark, and some 800 letters of Charles Darwin (the largest collection outside the United Kingdom) and copies of all the Darwin items in the The Correspondence of Charles Darwin now in progress.'
Fales Library and Special Collections (New York University)
Filson Library
(Louisville, Kentucky) - 'The Filson Library is a collection of some 50,000 non circulating titles of local, regional, and national interest, including a fine Civil War collection; approximately 1,500 maps, primarily of Kentucky and other southern states; some 3,000 reels of microfilm containing Kentucky census and tax records, as well as the Draper and Shane collections; over 840 newspaper titles, including one of the largest 19th-century Kentucky newspaper collections in original form; a sheet-music collection of over 3,700 pieces, much of it written or published in Kentucky; over 3,500 family histories; and almost 4,000 genealogy files on Kentucky families. While Kentucky is the focus of the library collection, many titles and files concern other states. Kentucky was a migration route over which thousands of people passed during America's westward expansion, and states such as Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania are well represented in our holdings.
Folger Shakespeare Library
(Washington, DC) - 'The printed books collection's focus is on British and European literary, cultural, political, religious, and social history from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, with particular strength in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Library's book collections are supplemented by art works, photographs, maps, early music, playbills, theatrical programs and scrapbooks, promptbooks, and films and videos. Included are about 250,000 playbills and hundreds of programs and scrapbooks record performances, mainly on the British and American stage, from the eighteenth through the early twentieth century.'
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (University of Texas, Austin)
'The Ransom Center houses thirty million literary manuscripts, one million rare books, five million photographs, and over 100,000 works of art.'
G. Ross Roy Collection of Burnsiana & Scottish Literature
(Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC)
Gilder Lehrman Collection
(Morgan Library, New York, NY) - 'The Gilder Lehrman Collection, on deposit at the Morgan Library in New York, documents the political and social history of the United States. Consisting of letters and diaries, maps, pamphlets, sketchbooks, printed books, photographs, and other materials, the collection is particularly rich in revolutionary, early national, antebellum and Civil War periods.'
Jefferson Library
(Charlottesville, VA) - Information on the life, times, and legacy of Thomas Jefferson.
John Carter Brown Library
(Providence, RI) - 'An independently administered and funded center for advanced research in history and the humanities, located at Brown University since 1901. Housed within the Library's walls is an internationally renowned, constantly growing collection of primary historical sources pertaining to the Americas, both North and South, before ca. 1825.'
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library
(Williamsburg, VA) - Holds resources on the history and culture of colonial British America, the American Revolution, and the early United States, as well as specific collections regarding Williamsburg as a Revolutionary/post-Revolutionary city.
Lewis Walpole Library
(Farmington, CT) - 'The Lewis Walpole Library, a department of Yale University Library, has significant holdings of eighteenth-century English books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, watercolors, and paintings. It is a leading non-circulating research library for English eighteenth-century studies and the prime source for the study of Horace Walpole.'
Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia) - 'The Library Company of Philadelphia is a non-profit independent research library with collections documenting every aspect of the history and background of American culture from the colonial period to the end of the nineteenth century. A collection of national importance, its holdings number approximately half a million printed volumes in a wide variety of formats; 75,000 graphics; 160,000 manuscripts; and a small, distinguished collection of early American art and artifacts.'
Library of Congress
(Washington, DC) - 'The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 120 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 18 million books, 2.5 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.5 million maps, and 54 million manuscripts.'
Library of Congress' American Memory Collection
'American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.'
Making of America (MoA) website
MoA 'is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.'
Morgan Library
(New York, NY) - 'The Library's literary and historical manuscripts collection includes correspondence, diaries, and drafts of works of major British, European, and American authors, artists, scientists, and historical and political figures. Among the highlights are Charles Dickens's manuscript of A Christmas Carol, Henry David Thoreau's journals, and Thomas Jefferson's letters to his daughter Martha. Other significant holdings are manuscripts and letters of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, John Steinbeck, and Voltaire. The Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the largest and finest collections of American historical documents in private hands, is on deposit at the Library.'
National Humanities Center
(Chapel Hill, NC) - 'The National Humanities Center is the country's only independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. A private, nonprofit institution, the Center exists to encourage excellent scholarship and to affirm the importance of the humanities in American society.'
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)'s Access to Archival Databases (AAD)
'a new research tool that makes a selection of the Archives' most popular electronic records available to the public over the Internet.'
New York Public Library
Caribbean
National Library of Jamaica
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