Research Guides: English and Literature Resources: Historical Books, Periodicals, Documents, & Emphemera

Hathi Trust

Syracuse University Libraries are a HathiTrust Digital Library member organization, which means you can access full-text PDFs for full-view items and make use of the HT Research Center for analysis of the works it contains.

HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

New titles and collections

Literary Manuscripts: Berg
19th century manuscripts, including early editions, annotations, correspondence, sketches and more by Victorian authors. From the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.
Literary Manuscripts: Leeds
17th and 18th century verse from the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds. Includes essays and biographical information.
Time
Searchable page image archive of Time Magazine, from March 1923 through December 2000. Includes photographs and advertisements.
Sports Illustrated
Searchable page image archive of Sports Illustrated magazine from 1954 to 2000. Covers professional and amateur sports as well as popular culture, business, and politics.
Vogue Archive
Page images of U.S. Vogue from 1892 to present.
Life Magazine Archives
Page image archive of Life Magazine, from November 1936 (issue 1) to December 2000.
Rolling Stone Archive
Page images of Rolling Stone from 1967 to present.
Esquire
Searchable page image archive of Esquire Magazine from 1933 to 2014. Topics covered include popular culture, entertainment, and men's fashion.

Digitized Collections of Historical Books, Periodicals, and Ephemera

Early English Books Online: EEBO
Titles listed in Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).
Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership
Marked up texts from Early English Books Online (Short-Title Catalogues I and II) created by academic libraries participating in the Text Creation Partnership
Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700
Manuscripts of writing by women from the 16th and 17th centuries including poetry, prose, drama, account books, medical writing, travel writing and more; produced in association with the Perdita Project, based at the University of Warwick and previously Nottingham Trent, with content from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, The Edinburgh University Library, the Cambridge University Library.
Early Modern England: Society, Culture and Everyday Life, 1500-1700
Archival documents documenting everyday, political, religious, working, trading, and administrative life in England from 1500-1700. Includes court records, books and images of objects commonly owned by people during the era; wills and inventories; tax and trade records; diaries; and annotated print books. Materials digitized from collections held by the British Library, Canterbury Cathedral Archives, London Metropolitan Archives, Lambeth Palace Library, and others.
Literary Print Culture/The Stationers' Company Archive, London
Documents from 1554 to 1984 related to the development of the printing and publishing industries.
East India Company
India Office Records from the British Library, including royal charters, factory records, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings, and reports of expeditions from 1599-1947. Documents relate to operations in India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa.
Shakespeare in Performance
Prompt books from the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Eighteenth Century Journals
British periodicals published from 1685-1835, documenting colonial life, French and American revolutions, literature, fashion, politics, and gossip. Features many titles targeted towards women, plus an image gallery, chronology, and background essays. Includes modules 1-5.
Early American Imprints Series I: Evans 1639-1800
Books, pamphlets, and broadsides from 1639-1800, based on the American Bibliography by Charles Evans and subsequent bibliographic works by Roger Bristol, James Mooney and Clifford Shipton.
Early American Imprints Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
Books, pamphlets, government papers, and more published in the United States between 1801 and 1819. Based on the American Bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker
Eighteenth Century Collections Online: ECCO
English language books, pamphlets, broadsides, and more published between 1701 and 1800, covering numerous subjects.
Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America
Art, correspondence, diaries, business documents, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, photographs, printed books, treaties, and tribe records documenting early contacts between European settlers and American Indians, 1500-1998. Content digitized from the Edward E. Ayer Collection at the Newberry Library. Subjects covered include political, social, and cultural effects of early encounters; the turbulence of the Civil War; on-going repercussions of government legislation; and the civil rights movement.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Primary sources from the nineteenth century including monographs, newspapers, and pamphlets.
Godey's Lady's Book (1830-1885)
Publication published from 1830-1885 covering fashion, health, recipes, and as well as literary works, essays, and reviews.
Victorian Popular Culture
Archival Victorian popular culture collections including content from the Senate House Library, University of London; The Harry Price Library of Magical Literature; Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin; The British Library; the British Film Institute National Archive and more.
London Low Life
Victorian London documents, including maps, sketches, street views, scrapbooks, broadsides, and more from the Lilly Library, Indiana University.
Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003
Page image Illustrated London News from its first publication on 14 May 1842 to its last in 2003.
Times Digital Archive
The Times Digital Archive provides convenient access to an extraordinary library of back issues of this renowned newspaper online. By taking the microfilm collection of The Times (London) and producing a high-resolution digital format with searchable images, The Times Digital Archive represents unprecedented access to one of the most highly regarded resources for the study of 18th century history and onward.
Literary Manuscripts: Berg
19th century manuscripts, including early editions, annotations, correspondence, sketches and more by Victorian authors. From the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.
Literary Manuscripts: Leeds
17th and 18th century verse from the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds. Includes essays and biographical information.
British Periodicals
British journal and magazine page image content from the 1600s to the 20th century.
Periodicals Archive Online
Archive of journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
British Periodicals
British journal and magazine page image content from the 1600s to the 20th century.
American Periodicals Series Online
18th and 19th century American newspapers and periodicals.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
Popular Culture explores the dynamic period of social, political and cultural change between 1950 and 1975. The resource offers thousands of colour images of manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera and memorabilia from this exciting period in our recent history. Explore our interactive chronology to learn a wealth of fascinating facts, take a tour of our visual resources, and watch video footage to experience the spectacular sights and sounds of the period for yourself.
TLS Historical Archive
Times Literary Supplement archive of reviews and commentary about literature from 1902 to 2011.
Service Newspapers of World War Two
Service newspapers from the British Library; Imperial War Museums; US Army Heritage and Education Center, US Army War College; Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand; Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage.
Women Writers Online
Collection of early women’s writing in English, from 1400-1850.