I’m happy to let you know that the Library currently has extended trial access to AM Explorer, your gateway to millions of pages of primary source content. AM’s collections provide access to digitised historical materials – manuscripts, government records, rare books, maps and more – across a wide range of disciplines, from History to English Literature, Gender Studies, Sociology, Economics, Area Studies, Political Sciences and more.

You can access AM Explorer via the E-resources trials page.

Trial access ends 8 July 2024.

While the Library already has permanent access to 21 collections from AM (listed at end) this trial access to AM Explorer gives us access to a further 66 collections covering world history from the 15th century up to modern times.

AM Explorer allows you to search through all 87 collections at one time. You can use their search to explore through a single keyword search; take a deep dive into your areas of interest; and discover new archival materials to serve your research, learning and teaching.

This is a fantastic opportunity to discover and get temporary access to primary source content that would normally be unavailable to us.

AM Explorer Highlights

Here are just a small number of the collections that this trial is giving us temporary access to:

Age of Exploration
Explore five centuries of journeys across the globe, scientific discoveries, the expansion of European colonialism, new trade routes, and conflict over territories. This multi-archive collection focuses on European, maritime exploration from the earliest voyages of Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, through the age of discovery, the search for the ‘New World’, the establishment of European settlements on every continent, to the eventual discovery of the Northwest and Northeast Passages, and the race for the Poles.

Amnesty International Archive: A Global Movement for Human Rights
Explore the rise of the global human rights movement during the second half of the twentieth century through the International Secretariat records of Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Amnesty International. The material within this collection is vital for studying the history of key political events, global social change, human rights violations and campaigns with themes including abolition of torture, state violence, political prisoners, minority rights, and more.

Colonial Caribbean: CO Files from The National Archives, UK
The definitive collection of primary source documentation to explore life under British colonial rule. This extensive digital resource covers three centuries of Caribbean history. Drawn from the vast archives of the British Colonial Office, this is an essential resource for all students and researchers of the Caribbean and British colonial rule.

East India Company
Discover the astonishing history of the East India Company, which at its peak controlled over a quarter of the world’s trade and millions of the global populace. 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.

Gender: Identity and Social Change
Discover three centuries of primary source material documenting extensive developments in gender roles and relations. From traditional constructions of femininity and masculinity, to the struggle for women’s rights and the emergence of the men’s movement, Gender: Identity and Social Change offers three centuries of primary source material for the exploration of gender history.

Global Commodities
Explore the histories of fifteen key commodities that changed the world through a wide range of manuscript sources, rare books, maps, advertising, paintings, photographs and ephemera. This resource focuses on the following fifteen significant commodities whose stories are often intertwined and in different ways transformed the world: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, oil, opium, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits.

Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
From the austerity of the 1950s to the excess of the 1970s, discover the period through a wealth of printed and manuscript sources, visual material, ephemera and video clips. Music, politics, fashion, youth culture – the period from 1950 to 1975 witnessed dramatic changes in society. There was the onset of Rock and Roll; the introduction of computers and credit cards; the boom of radio and television; and campaigns for black power, civil rights and women’s liberation. All around the world there were challenges to authority.

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice
An essential resource for the study of slavery, the African American experience and world history spanning over five centuries.Designed for teaching and research, this resource brings together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world, covering an extensive time period from 1490. Topics covered include the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.

There’s much more available, so whatever your topic or research area why not explore?

You can access AM Explorer via the E-resources trials page.
Trial access ends 8th July 2024.
Feedback welcome.

Please note, trial access to a resource is an opportunity for our staff and students to try a resource out and give feedback on its quality and usefulness. However, if we trial a resource this is not an indication that we plan to or will be able to purchase or subscribe to the resource in the near future. If you are using AM Explorer in your research make sure you have noted all details of items you may have found before 8th July as access will not be available after this (unless the item is from one of the 21 collections the Library has permanent access to – see below).

AM collections already owned by the Library

You can access the following collections directly via the Databases A-Z, Digital Primary Source and Archive Collections guide and DiscoverEd. During the trial period they can also be searched and accessed via AM Explorer.

• China: Culture and Society
• Church Missionary Society Periodicals
• Eighteenth Century Journals
• Empire Online
• First Folios
• Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1980
• Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1947-1980
• Literary Print Culture: The Stationers’ Company Archive
• Mass Observation Online
• Mass Observation Project
• Medieval and Early Modern Studies
• Medieval Family Life
• Migration to New Worlds, Part 1
• Missionary Studies
• Nineteenth Century Literary Studies: The John Murray Publishing Archive
• The Nixon Years, 1969-1974
• Perdita Manuscripts, 1500-1700
• Service Newspapers of World War II
• Sex & Sexuality, Module 1
• Shakespeare’s Globe Archive
• Victorian Popular Culture