English & American Literature : Medieval-18th Century

(University of York). For each romance, it provides date and place of composition (where known), verse form, authorship and sources, extant manuscripts and early modern prints, a full list of modern editions and a plot summary (both the modern edition and manuscript-where known-from which the summary is drawn, is indicated). Browse by title, or search by keyword, theme, or manuscript.

Portal to electronic resources made available through Georgetown University. Resources are carefully selected from the Internet and include primary texts, secondary texts and articles, course materials, bibliographies, images, maps, and other items.

Anthology and guide to English literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, 17th Century, Restoration and 18th Century. Includes sections on medieval drama and Renaissance drama.

Virtual classroom providing guided, interactive instruction on the linguistic, stylistic, and editorial features of some of late medieval England's greatest texts. Devised by members of the English Department, Harvard University.

This ongoing bibliography of English-language printing history lists over 480,000 items published between 1473 and 1800 (mainly, but not exclusively, in English), published mainly in the British Isles and North America, from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries. Includes books, pamphlets, broadsides, advertisements, handbills, and other ephemeral materials.
This source comprises all titles in the two above titles (Pollard & Redgrave and Wing) as well as the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, which lists items printed in English-speaking countries, 1701-1800.

A part of the website RoN: Romanticism on the Net, compiled and edited by Nicholas Mason (Brigham Young University). Provides links to both open-access and subscription resources for the study of all aspects -- in 16 categories -- of British romanticism.

Portal and research environment devoted to digital projects concerning the 18th century. Many primary texts and images are accessible by subject, author, and other categories. Use the Advanced Search to refine by format, discipline, genre, etc.

Provides a wide range of glossed Middle English texts and translations of analogues relevant to Chaucer's works, as well as selections from relevant works by earlier and later writers, critical articles from a variety of perspectives, graphics, and general information on life in the Middle Ages.

The archive began as a digital humanities project sponsored by the Library of Congress and supported by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is now overseen by an advisory board from the US and UK. The archive provides digital reproductions of the various works of William Blake, alongside annotation, commentary and scholarly materials related to Blake.

medievalbooks Blog and Tumblr

Rich collection of primary materials. Access online collections: view maps & photographs; read letters, diaries & newspapers; hear personal accounts of events; listen to sound recordings & watch historic films.

Provides free access to 800,000+ images (some in public domain) digitized from the The NYPL's collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs, streaming video, and more. Search by keyword or Browse Collections.

View many digitized U.S. historical documents and photographs. The Archives' online exhibitions cover various topics and highlight the Archives' rich collections. Useful for putting American literature into a historical context.

Research and reference guide to various literary periods and authors in American Literature. Lists biographies, bibliographies, and study guides for a large number of American writers.

From English-Corpora.org (Brigham Young University), the "open source" version of EEBO at this site contains 755 million words in 25,368 texts from the 1470s to the 1690s. See the frequency of words, phrases, and grammatical constructions in each decade from the 1470s-1690s. Comparison between decades: See what words, phrases, or collocates (nearby words) are more frequent in one historical period than another.

[Open University] Contains over 30,000 searchable records documenting the history of reading in Britain from 1450 to 1945. Evidence of reading presented is drawn from published and unpublished sources as diverse as diaries, commonplace books, memoirs, sociological surveys, and criminal court and prison records.

Unique collection items and expert commentary related to History, Literature, and Citizenship.

View many documents through the Archives' online exhibitions. The displays cover various periods using photographs, documents and film. Browse by Topic and by Historical Period.

Search across descriptions of archives, including links to digital content, held at over 300 institutions across the UK.

This is a project operated by the Cambridge University Library designed to make items from the unique and distinctive collections of Cambridge University Library available online.

A resource for learning about the collections in the UK's many museums.

Brings together a range of digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain with a single federated search that allows searching of names, places and dates. Some resources are free, others are not.

Digital scholarly project, using geographic information systems (GIS) technology, which provides data from sources such as historical maps, census records, descriptive gazetteers, and election results. Also includes a digital collection of historical British travel writing by writers from the 1600s-1800s. Each author gives a different perspective on the towns and villages they visited.

Large collection of historical British travel writing from 12th-19th centuries.

[Univ of Cambridge-Violence Research Centre] An interactive map based on data from surviving Coroners' Rolls from the first four decades of the 14th Century. The records documented all sudden and unnatural deaths - whether accidents, suicides or homicides. Click the map pins to read details about the deaths.

A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

The Crime and Punishment database comprises data about crimes, criminals and punishments included in the gaol files of the Court of Great Sessions in Wales from 1730 until its abolition in 1830. The Court could try all types of crimes, from petty thefts to high treason.

Describes the history of the Domesday Book, gives descriptions of life at the time of its compilation, and provides information and links on related topics. Browse list of landholders in the Domesday Book.

Search a wide body of digital resources relating to early modern and eighteenth-century London, and map the results on to a fully GIS compliant version of John Rocque's 1746 map.

[Stanford] Explore literary references to London locations in texts by 47 authors, written over 6 centuries.

Database of thousands of prints and book illustrations from early modern Britain in fully-searchable form.

[Stanford] Kindred Britain is a network of nearly 30,000 individuals — many of them iconic figures in British culture — connected through family relationships of blood, marriage, or affiliation.

Accessible archived guide to British history and culture. No longer updated. Created for the general reader.

Links to primary sources in the UK from antiquity to the present.

Created by UNESCO and the Library of Congress, provides free online access to world cultural treasures. Includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings from a variety of countries, covering the time period 8000 BCE-2000 CE.

This humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin has extensive collections which encompass literature, photography, film, art, and the performing arts.There are 80+ digitized collections on a variety of topics in literature, photography, and the performing arts.

Digital collections and databases to support research in the visual arts. Start your research in the Getty Search Gateway portal where you can search for free images for downloading without restriction.

An educational resource designed for teachers and students featuring primary sources from the Newberry Library's (Chicago) holdings, contextual essays, and discussion questions. See also Digital Newberry.