Online Texts - Primary Sources - Literature - Library Research Guides at Wellesley College

What is online
(and what isn't)

What's online and what isn't?

The answer usually comes down to copyright. Items published in the United States prior to 1923 are usually out of copyright. In the United Kingdom, copyright for most works lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.

Items that are out of copyright become part of the public domain, and can legally be scanned and posted online.

Wellesley purchases access to additional collections of texts, most of which are not available for free online.

Selected E-book, E-journal, and E-text collections

AM Explorer This link opens in a new window
Primary source collections from Adam Matthew Digital spanning the 15th to 21st centuries. Collection themes include area studies, cultural studies, empire and globalism, ethnic studies, gender and sexuality, history, literature, politics, theatre, and war and conflict.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Contains digitized images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Searchable and browsable page images of every significant title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800; includes books, pamphlets, broadsides, & ephemera
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text facsimiles of more than 460 British periodicals from the late 17th to the early 20th century, covering literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and social sciences
American Periodicals, 1740-1940 This link opens in a new window
Contains full-text journals and magazines published between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and other historically-significant periodicals.
Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library This link opens in a new window
These prompt books show Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theatres throughout Great Britain, the US and internationally, from the 17th to 20th century.

Digital Text Collections (Free Online)

Internet Archive This link opens in a new window
The Internet Archive is a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form, including texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages.

Google Books
If the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given Google permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF copy.
HathiTrust (Public Domain & Copyright Works)
Documenting the American South
Texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.
Europeana
offers over 20 million digital images from Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections -- all of which are in the public domain.

Subject Librarian

Karen Storz

Email Me

Contact:

781-283-3372
kstorz@wellesley.edu

Research & Instruction Librarian
Office: Clapp Library 218B

Subjects: Africana Studies, American Studies, Cinema & Media Studies, Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages & Cultures, East Asian Studies, English, German & German Cultural Studies, Italian Studies, Latin American Studies, Portuguese, Russian & Russian Area Studies, Spanish

Primary Sources - Literature: Online Texts

What is online (and what isn't)

Selected E-book, E-journal, and E-text collections

Digital Text Collections (Free Online)

Subject Librarian

What is online
(and what isn't)