I’m happy to let you know that Adam Matthew Digital are very kindly giving us trial access to 7 of their fabulous primary source databases. This gives you a unique opportunity to access some extensive digitised primary source collections that between them cover the 16th to the 21st century.

So if you’re interested in the history of the book or history of publishing, theatre history, socialism in the 20th century, Japan in the 20th century, social and cultural history, 17th to 19th century poetry, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, etc., there may be something here for you.

Left: Advertisement for the New Music of Country Dance executed by several celebrated horses at the Olympic Pavilion (1807) from Eighteenth Century Drama. Right: Architectural plan for Oxford University Press, Amen Corner (1913) from Literary Print Culture.

All the databases can be accessed via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.

Trial access to all the Adam Matthew Digital databases ends 20th November 2017.

I’ve already highlighted Socialism on Film and Foreign Office Files for Japan in previous blog posts so this post will round up the further 5 databases available to us for the trial period.

Eighteenth Century Drama: Censorship, Society and the Stage

A unique archive of almost every play submitted for licence between 1737 and 1824, and hundreds of documents that provide social context for the plays, featuring:

• John Larpent Collection of Plays from the Huntington Library
• Supplementary documents including Anna Larpent Diaries
• The London Stage, 1660-1800
• A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800

Literary Manuscripts Leeds

This project offers scholars the opportunity to examine complete facsimile images of manuscripts of 17th and 18th century verse held in the celebrated Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds. Poets represented include Mary Campbell, John Dryden, George Herbert, Mary Leapor, Andrew Marvell, Alexander Pope, Hester Pulter and Jonathan Swift. There are also countless songs, riddles and popular tags which tell us even more about contemporary society.

Literary Print Culture: The Stationers’ Company Archive, 1554-2007

*The Library has now purchased access to this resource. See New to the Library: Literary Print Culture*

The Stationers’ Company Archive is one of the most important resources for understanding the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding. Sourced from the archive of The Worshipful Company of Stationers & Newspaper Makers this resource allows access to a vast and unique collection of primary source documents.

Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape

This collection offers an insight into the working methods of William Wordsworth and the wider social, political and natural environment that shaped much of his work. In addition, this collection makes available the writings of Dorothy Wordsworth through her much celebrated Grasmere Journals, Alfoxden diary and travel journals. Verse manuscripts and correspondence from leading literary lights of the Romantic period such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey are also available as well as a strong collection of Thomas de Quincey manuscripts.

Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library

This collection showcases rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library. These prompt books tell the story of Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally, between the 17th and 20th centuries.

Access all of these databases via e-resources trials.
Access is available until 20th November 2017.
Feedback welcome.

You can access other primary source databases the Library already has access to, including 11 Adam Matthew Digital databases, via the Primary Sources database list.

Access is only available to current students and staff at University of Edinburgh.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for History, Classics and Archaeology