The Boston Globe Archive on trial

I’m happy to let you know the Library has trial access to The Boston Globe Historical Archive (1872-1985) from ProQuest. This resource delivers unique coverage of both New England and American history, covering a period of great change in Boston itself and the United States.

You can access this online archive via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 23rd April 2017.

The Great Boston fire of 1872. The infamous 1893 Lizzie Borden axe murder trial. The failed 1919 police strike. Mid-twentieth century decline and renewal. These stories and more, as well as accounts of everyday life in historical New England, can be found in the digitised pages of The Boston Globe (1872-1985). Continue reading

Spotlight on film and moving images

This is part of an occasional series highlighting some of the online resources available at the Library that will be of interest to students and staff in History, Classics and Archaeology.

While previous posts in this series have looked at groups of online primary source collections, in this post I wanted to highlight resources that give you access to film and moving images, including films, documentaries, TV programmes, public information films, archival film footage, cinema newsreels, advertising, home movies, etc.

Film provides a fascinating insight into the past through documentary, archival and amateur film footage and a deliberately constructed historical world through feature films. However, using film as ‘historical evidence’ is far from straightforward; specific skills are required to understand the complexities of the visual medium, its relationship to the society from which it emerges, the industry which created it and those who consumed it. Despite these obstacles, film is a crucial means for understanding the recent past.1

Academic Video Online

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Listen very carefully!

I’m happy to let you know that thanks to an agreement with JISC the Library has been given extended trial access to the primary source database BBC Listener Research Department, 1937-c.1950 from British Online Archives.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page (listed as British Online Archive – BBC Listener Research Department, 1937-c.1950).
For off-campus access you will need to use the VPN.

Trial access ends 31st December 2017.

Founded in 1936 the BBC’s pioneering Listener Research Department (LRD) examined wireless listening in Britain nationwide and at a regional level. This database reproduces the entire available collection of weekly Audience Summaries, together with the weekly then daily Listening Barometers. Also included are the Audience Reaction Reports on specific programmes and Special Reports on particular themes or issues for the period, as well as some key policy documents produced by the LRD during these years, tracing the early development of what has come to be known as market research within the BBC. Continue reading

Trial access: Socialism on Film

And finally…Adam Matthew have given the Library trial access to their just released resource Socialism on Film. This impressive collection of documentaries, newsreels and features reveals the world as seen by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, East European, British and Latin American film makers. Documenting the communist world from the Russian Revolution until the 1980s and covering all aspects of socialist life.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 5th April 2017.

Continue reading

Trial access: Race Relations in America

The Library has been given access to another exciting new primary source database from Adam Matthew, Race Relations in America. So for a limited time only you can use this resource to explore three pivotal decades in the struggle for civil rights in America through the eyes and work of sociologists, activists, psychologists, teachers, ministers, students and housewives.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 5th April 2017.
**Trial access has now been extended until 23rd May 2017**

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Trial access: East India Company

I’m very pleased to let you know that the Library has been given trial access to the brand new primary source database East India Company from Adam Matthew. This unique digital resource allows students and researchers to access a vast and remarkable collection of primary source documents from the India Office Records held by the British Library, the single most important archive for the study of the East India Company.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 5th April 2017.

From 16th-century origins as a trading venture to the East Indies, through to its rise as the world’s most powerful company and de facto ruler of India, to its demise amid allegations of greed and corruption, the East India Company was an extraordinary force in global history for three centuries. Continue reading

Trial access: China: Trade, Politics and Culture

The Library has been given trial access to the primary source database China: Trade, Politics & Culture from Adam Matthew. So for a limited time only you have access to this fantastic digital collection of English-language primary sources relating to China and the West from 1793 to 1980.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 5th April 2017.

Continue reading

Woman Suffrage Procession: using our newspaper archives for your research

In this week’s blog I’m using some of the Library’s online resources to find primary source material about a specific event, the Woman Suffrage Procession of 1913.

On 3rd March 1913 a woman suffrage procession was held in Washington DC. Not by chance was this date chosen, 3rd March was the day before a new US President, Woodrow Wilson, was inaugurated. It’s estimated that around 5000 women took part in the suffrage pageant organised by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the first of its kind in Washington DC.

Benjamin Moran Dale (1889–1951), for the National American Women’s Suffrage Association; restored by Adam Cuerden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

But what started as a peaceful parade ended with the women being harassed and jeered by onlookers with the police doing little to intervene.

I have to admit I had never heard the story of this parade until I read a short article on it in the March 2017 issue of the BBC History Magazine1. And reading about it, it wasn’t hard to draw parallels with the recent Women’s March that took place in Washington DC and around the world days after the inauguration of a new US President this year.

I wanted to try and find out more about this Suffrage Parade (also referred to as Suffrage Pageant) using some of the resources available at the Library. And I wanted to focus on primary sources about the event, particularly newspaper articles.

So where better to start than by searching and browsing some of the newspaper archives for US titles that we have access to at the Library, specifically the Historical Washington Post (1877-1999), New York Tribune archive (1841-1922) and the Historical New York Times (1851-2012). Continue reading