Guides: History: Websites

Website checklist

When evaluating websites use the following checklist to assess the reliability of the information:

Is the site Authoritative?

(Who is the author and what authority do they possess?)

Is the site Accurate?

(Are any claims supported by reliable evidence?)

Is the site Impartial?

(Is the information biased?)

Is the site Current?

(Is the information up-to-date?)

Who are the Audience?

(Who is the site aimed at?)

Is the site Reliable?

(Are links from the site working and pointing to other reliable sites?)

Primary Source Websites and Online Archives

Black Central Europe
A collection of primary sources on the lives of Black people in central Europe, from the Middle Ages to the present day
British History Online (BHO)
British History Online is a digital library of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800.
Connected Histories
Connected Histories brings together twenty-five digital collections related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain, including British History Online, Queen Victoria's Journals, and much more.
Epistolae: Medieval Women's Letters
Epistolae is a collection of letters to and from women dating from the 4th to the 13th century AD, in English translation. Biographical sketches of the women and descriptions of the subject matter or the historic context of the letter is included where available.
George III's Collection of Military Maps
George III's collection of military maps comprises some 3,000 maps, views and prints ranging from the disposition of Charles V's armies at Vienna in 1532 to the Battle of Waterloo (1815).
Internet History Sourcebook Project
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts from a wide variety of periods and places.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world with a wide array of collections--books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts--relating to American and world culture and history.
Manar Al-Athar: Images for the Study of the Middle East
This provides high resolution, searchable images for teaching, research, and publication. These images of archaeological sites, buildings and art, cover the areas of the former Roman empire which later came under Islamic rule, such as Syro-Palestine/the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, as well as some bordering regions, such as Georgia and Armenia. The chronological range is from Alexander the Great (i.e., from about 300 BC) through the Islamic period.
Manuscripts Online Written Culture 1000 to 1500
Manuscripts Online enables you to search a diverse body of online primary resources relating to written and early printed culture in Britain during the period 1000 to 1500. The resources include literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books which are located on websites owned by libraries, archives, universities and publishers.
Medieval Digital Resources
A database of databases for studying the Middle Ages, useful if you are looking for resources to support work on medieval art or history.
Oral Evidence on the Suffragette and Suffragist Movements: the Br Harrison interviews
This is a collection of oral history interviews about the British first wave feminist movement. The interviews were conducted by the histor Br Harrison between 1974 and 1981, as part of a project funded by the Social Science Research Council (he later extensively used these interviews in his book 'Prudent Revolutionaries: Portraits of British Feminists between the Wars' Oxford University Press 1987). The recordings were deposited with the Women’s Library in 1981 and the collection consists of 205 interviews with 183 individuals.
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
A fully searchable edition of the largest body of the records of 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court, providing an enormous collection of evidence for the lives of non-elite people.
Roman Inscriptions of Britain
This website hosts Volume One of The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, R.G. Collingwood's and R.P. Wright's magisterial edition of 2,401 monumental inscriptions from Britain found prior to 1955. It also incorporates all Addenda and Corrigenda published in the 1995 reprint of RIB (edited by R.S.O. Tomlin) and the annual survey of inscriptions published in Britannia since.
The Sound of the Trenches: WWI in Music
Music played an important role in World War One. In a time when there was no radio or television, and recordings were still a rare phenomenon, music was mostly experienced live. For the armed forces, it wasn’t just something to march to, it influenced morale. It was also during the war that the use of music as propaganda became more important. This online exhibition explores music before, during, and after the war.
Testifying to the Truth: Eyewitnesses to the Holocaust
The Wiener Holocaust Library is one of the world's leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era. Formed in 1933, the Library's unique collection of over one million items includes published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony.
Their Finest Hour Online Archive
A University of Oxford project funded by the National Lottery Heritage fund. Their Finest Hour is a collection of more than 2,000 stories and 25,000 objects contributed by the public, capturing personal and community experiences of the Second World War.
York's Archbishops Registers database
This website provides free access to over 21,500 images of registers produced by the Archbishops of York between 1225 and 1650.
York's Archbishops' Registers Revealed

Archives on the Web

Archives Hub
A national gateway to descriptions of archives held by UK universities and other institutions in the UK. It also has a useful guide for those inexperienced in using archives.
Lincolnshire Archives Online Catalogue
Lincs to the Past is a site that contains hundreds of thousands of records covering items held in Lincolnshire’s Historic Environment Record, Archives, Libraries, Museums and Tennyson Research Centre.
The National Archives
The National Archives is a government department and an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. It is the government's national archive for England, Wales and the United Kingdom, and holds over 1,000 years of the nation's records for everyone to discover and use.

Book Reviews

Reviews of books and other resources are a great way to find out about new resources and publications in history.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Provides reviews of books in classical and late antique studies (including history, literature, art and archaeology).
Reviews in History
Provides reviews of books and digital resources in all areas of history.

Library Hub Discover and WorldCat

Before visiting another library, it's always a good idea to check their catalogue to make sure the material you want to see is available. You can generally find a library's catalogue with a quick internet search. If you are planning to visit multiple external libraries or aren't quite sure where to go, merged library catalogues like Library Hub Discover and WorldCat can help you plan your research.

Library Hub Discover

Jisc Library Hub Discover exposes rare and unique research material by bringing together the catalogues of major UK and Irish libraries. In a single search you can discover the holdings of the UK’s National Libraries (including the British Library), many university libraries, and specialist research libraries.

WorldCat
WorldCat is an international library catalogue. It is useful for looking for material on particular subjects and finding out in what libraries they are held. This makes it a very useful tool when you are planning a visit to another library.

Search Google Scholar

Google Scholar can be a useful place to look for academic resources for your assignments. To get the most out of it we recommend using it in tandem with library databases, and evaluating any sources that you find before using them.