LibGuides: Primary Sources: Global

Global / Multi-regional

1980s Culture and Society This link opens in a new window Contains a wide variety of material from the US, UK, Australia and Canada. Includes newspapers and zines from grassroots organisations and under-represented groups, newsletters, films, photographs as well as some government papers. The resource aims to show the key social, cultural, and political concerns of the decade.
Aeronautics and Space Flight: Global Origins of Modern Aviation and Rocketry This link opens in a new window Journal articles and reports covering aeronautics and Space Sciences during the second half of the 20th century, 1957-1995
Amnesty International Archives: A Global Movement for Human Rights This link opens in a new window Contains the records of Amnesty International from the second half of the C20 (mainly 1960-1994 with some sources available up to 2013). It includes minutes, reports, correspondence, first-hand accounts, publicity materials and circulars relating to human rights violations of all kinds in all parts of the world. Images, written accounts and oral histories are all included.
Anthropological Fieldwork Online This link opens in a new window Anthropological Fieldwork Online brings the fieldwork underpinning the great ethnographies of the early 20th century into the digital world. This fully indexed, primary-source database unfolds the historical development of anthropology from a global perspective—with archival collections from North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific — including key field notebooks, images, and recordings of the early- to mid-20th century. The collection brings together the work of early scholars who shaped the theories and methods students learn about, critique, and reshape in their own fieldwork endeavors today.
Border and Migration Studies Online This link opens in a new window This collection explores and provides historical background on more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including: U.S. and Mexico; the European Union; Afghanistan; Israel; Turkey; The Congo; Argentina; China; Thailand; and others. Contains text, video and images and is organised by theme.
Climate Science and Sustainability: Global Origins of Modern Environmentalism This link opens in a new window Journal articles and reports covering the earth sciences, environmentalism, and sustainability during the second half of the 20th century, 1957-1995
Computing and Artificial Intelligence: Global Origins of the Digital Age This link opens in a new window Journal articles and reports covering computing and machine intelligence during the second half of the 20th century, 1957-1995
Economist Intelligence Unit Country Reports Archive This link opens in a new window Contains Country Reports from 1952-1995, covering almost 200 countries. Each report presents detailed statistics alongside expert commentary and forecasting from the EIU's analysts. All data from the statistical tables is fully captured and downloadable in spreadsheet form.
Electronic Enlightenment This link opens in a new window Explore both the relationships and the movement of ideas in the early modern period through its web of correspondence. This vast online searchable collection of inter-connected letters and documents range from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and is international in scope. EE is more than an "electronic bookshelf" of isolated texts: it is a network of interconnected documents that allows you to see the complex web of personal relationships in the early modern period and the creation of the modern world.
Environmental History: Colonial Policy and Global Development, 1896-1993 This link opens in a new window Covers the history of environment and conservation efforts across the globe from the late 1800s onwards. Includes British government files from the Foreign Office, Colonial Office and the Ministry of Overseas Development and Overseas Development Administration. Covers topics such as exploitation of natural resources and colonial land use, to agriculture, urban development, the technological revolution, industrial change and urbanization, conservation, pollution, climate, development programmes and sustainability, natural resources and industries such as forestry and mining.
Environmental Issues Online This link opens in a new window Collection of multimedia materials (text, archival, primary sources, video and audio) on key environmental challenges, including climate change, water/air pollution, biodiversity, conservation, agriculture, deforestation and more. The database is curated around specific environmental issues and events from the 20th and 21st centuries and represents a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Ethnomusicology This link opens in a new window Presenting content from across the globe, this diverse and comprehensive resource features thousands of audio field recordings and interviews, educational recordings, film footage, field notebooks, slides, correspondence and ephemera.
Food and Drink in History This link opens in a new window From feast to famine, explore five centuries of primary source material documenting the story of food and drink with sources from the UK, US and Australia. Covering 16th to early 21st centuries.
Food Studies Online This link opens in a new window Contains archival content, visual ephemera, monographs, and videos that explore how food shapes the world around us. Content is mainly C20, but there is a small amount of older material. The scope is global, though most material is focused around Europe and North America.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window Cross-search all of the Gale primary source collections in one go. Content dates from 16th Century onwards and includes monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, maps, and more. Date coverage: 16th -20th century
Gale Research Complete This link opens in a new window Gale Research Complete provides access to a vast collection of primary and secondary material. The content includes journals, newspapers, ebooks, literary materials, and archives.
Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs This link opens in a new window Collection of books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. Coverage includes the UK and Europe, the US and Canada, and New Zealand. Contents are primarily in English with some German, French and other languages and cover 1543-1945.
Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window Provides comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide from 1900 to 2010. Includes primary and secondary materials and can be searched as a whole or browsed by theme and event.
Interwar Culture This link opens in a new window Interwar Culture showcases popular and lesser-known periodicals published during the interwar period (1919-1940) in Britain, the US, France and Australia. Articles cover culture, entertainment, fashion, home and family life, world current affairs, class, social and welfare issues.
Medical Services and Warfare This link opens in a new window Explore multiple perspectives on the history of injury, treatment and disease on the front line. Chart scientific advances through hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts, and discover how war shaped medical practice across the centuries. Date range: 1850 to 1949
Morality and Science: Global Origins of Modern Bioethics This link opens in a new window Journal articles and reports covering ethics and the life sciences during the second half of the 20th century, 1957-1995.
The Olympic Movement: Sport, Global Politics and Identity This link opens in a new window A collection of documentary record of the origins, expansion and growth of the Olympic Games, and the global history of sport (1890s – 1990s). Sources include correspondence, official reports, newsletters and film footage.
Pacifism, Disarmament and International Relations - Archives of War Resisters' International: Minutes, Reports, and Publications, 1921-1974 This link opens in a new window Contains the archive of War Resisters' International, detailing the development of the World Peace Movement. Includes minutes, pamphlets, bulletins, newsletters, the secretary's report, press releases and the organisation's major journal 'War Resister'.
Paris Peace Conference and Beyond, 1919-1939 This link opens in a new window Drawn from the National Archives and the British Library, these documents cover the treaties of Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Trianon, Sèvres, Lausanne, and Locarno, as well as the foundation of the League of Nations. Together, these treaties severely curtailed German power and influence, redrew national boundaries in Europe and the Middle East, and led to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window Periodicals Archive Online is a major archive that makes the backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of titles. The database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages.
Public Health: Global Origins of Modern Health Policy and Management, 1957-1995 This link opens in a new window Journal articles and reports covering modern Public Health policies during the second half of the 20th century, 1957-1995.
Revolution and Protest Online This link opens in a new window Provides comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of political processes through the lens of revolutions, protests, resistance and social movements. Organised around specific events and themes, the collection predominantly consists of government documents, but also contains ephemera and video content. Coverage is global and mainly C20, though there are also some older events covered.
Royal Anthropological Institute This link opens in a new window This database offers the digitized archives of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland from ~1763 to 2016 and contains a range of searchable manuscripts, correspondence, reports, conference papers, proceedings, maps, surveys, fieldnotes, drawings, data and ephemera produced by the researchers and members of the RAI.
Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) This link opens in a new window RGS archive of geography, travel and exploration from the 15th to the 20th century. Includes extensive map collections, charts, plans, expedition reports, fieldnotes, correspondence, diaries, grey literature, atlases and gazetteers, monographs, photographs, proceedings, lectures and ephemera. Special collections include the Everest expeditions, National Antarctic Expedition, David Livingstone, Younghusband and Ernest Shackleton collections.
Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new window Writings on the subject of witchcraft dating from the 15th to the early 20th century, sourced from the Cornell University Library. Rare and fragile manuscripts containing eyewitness accounts and court records of the trials of witches, including depositions obtained under torture.
World's Fairs This link opens in a new window Explore the phenomenon of world's fairs from the Crystal Palace in 1851 and the proliferation of North American exhibitions, to fairs around the world and twenty-first century expos. Through official records, monographs, publicity, artwork and artifacts.
World Communism: Pamphlets from McMaster University This link opens in a new window Contains un-catalogued pamphlets pertaining to communism, socialism, and class struggle. The pamphlets are global in scope, although mostly in English and cover 1901-1969. The bulk of the collection originates from China and Soviet Russia during the post-WWII period, although Cuba and Britain are strongly represented as well.