British Literature - 19th Century: Finding Primary Sources

Primary Sources

When studying literature, a "primary source" can be the text itself, or relevant documents (letters from the author, historical documents from the time period, etc.) that help interpret meaning. Search the following databases to locate primary materials from 19th Century England.

British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of core British magazines and journals, mostly from the 19th Century. Topics covered include literature, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.

Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition
A collection of six full-text British 19th century newspapers and journals: Monthly Repository (1806-1837), Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Northern Star (1838-1852), Leader (1850-1860), English Woman's Journal (1858-1864), Tomahawk (1867-1870), and Publisher's Circular (1880-1890).
Times of London
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Digital archive of the London Times from 1788 to 1985.
Empire Online
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Approximately 60,000 images of original documents linked to essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies. Covers Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion and Empire; and Race, Class and Colonialism, c1783-1969.

Indexes to Periodicals

Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900 This link opens in a new window
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Authors/pseudonyms in major 19th century British periodicals, and contributor bibliographies.

Curran Index
A "reference tool and ongoing research project whose mission is to identify the men and women whose stories, poems, and articles appeared anonymously in nineteenth-century British periodicals." A supplement to the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900."

Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window
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Cites articles from English-language periodicals from scholarly journals and important specialized magazines from 1907-1984. [UW restricted] Coverage includes a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of humanities and social sciences.

British Literature - 19th Century: Finding Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Indexes to Periodicals

Oscar Wilde