Primary Sources - History: Europe

Links to resources from ancient Greek and Roman history.

An "evolving digital library of resources for the study of the ancient world and beyond." Contains full text of the writings of many ancient philosophers.

The primary focus of AWOL is to notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world.

Legal and political documents relating to the Roman Catholic Church, imperial decrees, laws, the Magna Carta, and more.

Links to sources in medieval history, including full text, maps, images, films, and with special attention paid to hagiography.

Lists of sources from the Medieval period through the Early Modern period in translation and in the original text. Includes the history of art, drama, literature, and more.

Sources from Medieval Europe from Gothic tribal history to Dutch manucripts to the Visogoths to William the Conqueror.

Translated sources on European Renaissance history from William of Orange's letters to Medici archives. Also check the Eurodocs links for individual countries!

Sources on slavery in the Medieval period across the world, browsable by region and century. Includes digitized resources on the site as well as a bibliography of sources found elsewhere.

Documents with plain-text transcripts on the reformation, mainly from religious and state leaders.

Letters translated from the Latin, 4th-13th century AD. Courtesy of Joan Ferrante, Columbia University.

an ever-expanding site that lists various online resources dealing with the medieval world. There is an excellent link to a Medieval Glossary on the left side of the opening page.

A growing image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research.

A number of digitized medieval maps and places depicted in other ways. Sort by date and place.

The Newberry Library's French Pamphlet Collection primarily consists of material published between 1780 and 1810 from the French Revolution Collection (FRC), the Louis XVI Trial and Execution Collection, and several smaller collections of French Revolution era material.

Links to documents and sites with primary sources on the French Revolution.

"The archive is based around two main resources, the Archives parlementaires and a vast corpus of images first brought together in 1989 and known as the Images de la Revolution française."

Digitized texts, images, references sources, and more, with a focus on what is now the UK.

An English caricaturist's drawings, primarily from the 1790's to 1810.

Over 1,000 drawings from the 18th and 19th Centuries covering politics, culture, and more.

Links to documents and sites with primary sources on the Enlightenment, primarily European.

Links to documents and sites with primary sources on the Scientific Revolution.

Recordbooks of Jewish communities from the 16th-19th centuries in Europe.

East India Company offers access to a unique collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing 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.

Hundreds of digitized English ballads from collections around the world.

Online records of London's central criminal court, 1674-1913. Includes punishment summaries, trial accounts, advertisements, and more.

The GPP is a ten-year interdisciplinary project to digitise, conserve, catalogue, transcribe, interpret and disseminate 425,000 pages or 65,000 items in the Royal Archives and Royal Library relating to the Georgian period, 1714-1837.

A collection of links to digital archives of French colonies in North America.

Nearly 4,000 lithographs, woodcuts, and prints of Honore Daumier, French printmaker. Prints mostly span 1820-1880 and include caricatures and book plates.

Over 1,000 drawings from the 18th and 19th Centuries covering politics, culture, and more.

The 19th Century political and cultural cartoons of an English caricaturist well-known for his drawings of the English royals and Napoleon.

Links to documents and sites with primary sources on the 1848 revolutions and changes.

Browse this page for subpages containing sources on 19th Century Britain, France, Austria and Germany, Italy, and other Western and Eastern European countries.

Defining Gender provides access to a vast body of original British source material that will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective.

East India Company offers access to a unique collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing 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.

"London Low Life is a full-text searchable resource, containing colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London. It is designed for both teaching and study, from undergraduate to research students and beyond."

"Forming a prominent feature of British religious philanthropy from the late eighteenth century onwards, missionary societies served as employer and community to missionaries far from home." Missions went to the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Asia.

The digital presence of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It contains millions of digitized newspapers, magazines, images, and sound recordings relating to France and French history and culture.

Online records of London's central criminal court, 1674-1913. Includes punishment summaries, trial accounts, advertisements, and more.

"Guidebooks and brochures, periodicals, travel agency correspondence, photographs and personal travel journals provide unique insight into the expansion, accessibility and affordability of tourism for the masses and the evolution of some of the most successful travel agencies in the world."

The DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, founded by Professor Barton Byg in 1993, is the only archive and research center outside of Germany devoted to a broad spectrum of filmmaking from and related to the former GDR.

Films are not available to watch online, but you can use this as an index to learn the titles of films for research.

Films from Europe on many topics. Most films not in English.

Newsreel films on politics, sport, popular culture, foreign culture, and more.

Over 30,000 political and cultural posters primarily from the mid-20th century, including 6,000 British posters.

"This is a collection of oral history interviews about the British first wave feminist movement. The interviews were conducted by the historian Brian Harrison between 1974 and 1981."

The digital presence of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It contains millions of digitized newspapers, magazines, images, and sound recordings relating to France and French history and culture.

Declassified foreign government documents on 20th century international relations & diplomacy. See in particular collections on Austria and German Unification, the Berlin Wall, China-Europe Relations, and more.

Archives Direct is a suite of collections sourced from The National Archives, Kew - the UK government's official archive.

"The resource tells the story of medical advances during warfare from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927. The wealth of documents cover multiple conflicts as well as interwar developments from a range of perspectives."

Sources on the Tsarist state, the revolution, Bolshevik rule, and Stalinism.

The First World War portal makes available invaluable primary sources for the study of the Great War, brought together in four thematic modules. From personal collections and rare printed material to military files, artwork and audio-visual files, content highlights the experiences of soldiers, civilians and governments on both sides of a conflict that shook the world.

"Supported by over 500 historical sources from across Europe, this resource examines key themes in the history of World War One. "

Search by theme (propaganda, race, medicine, and more), date, format, language, and more.

Over 100 films from WWI, focusing on the war machine and various countries' contributions. Includes propaganda and memory.

"Explore the untold stories and official histories of World War I in 374,750 items from across Europe."

"This digital resource reveals the story of war as told by the newspapers that brought information, entertainment and camaraderie to the forces at home and overseas. Explore over 200 titles from key nations across the globe that took part in the world-changing conflict."

Thousands of documents divided by type and location detailing National Socialist persecution and the Holocaust.

Many first-person accounts of the Holocaust from different perspectives, including translated materials.

World center for holocaust research, education & commemoration.

"The Blavatnik Archive is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving and disseminating primary source materials that contribute to the study of 20th century Jewish and world history, with a special emphasis on World War I, World War II, and Soviet Russia...includes photographs, diaries, letters, postcards, video testimonies and more."

This website holds detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 films are available for viewing online.

East India Company offers access to a unique collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing 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.