Research Guides: English: Primary Sources (Digital)

British Literature

Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Facsimiles of books, pamphlets, broadsides, and other materials published in the English language. Search by title, author, or subject, or use advanced search to look for specific types of works (prose, recipes, songs, etc.), including illustration types (portraits, maps, etc.). Coverage dates: 1473-1700.
Early English Books Online: Text Creation Partnership This link opens in a new window
Transcriptions of Early English books.
18th Century Collections Online, Parts I & II (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Digital images of significant English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with select works from the Americas. Includes books, pamphlets, parliamentary papers, parish registers, sheet music, and more. Coverage: 1701-1800
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Access to a wide variety of British journals and periodicals. Topics include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology, and architecture. Coverage: 1600s to early 1900s.
17th and 18th Century Burney Collection This link opens in a new window
Digital images of pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks, and newspapers from England, Ireland, Scotland. Includes limited number of papers from British colonies in the Americas and Asia. Coverage: 1600-1799
19th Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Wide range of topics related to British literature, particularly theater.
19th Century British Library Newspapers, Parts I & II This link opens in a new window
Digitized collection of national, regional, and local newspapers published in Britain. Coverage: 1800-1899
20th Century Drama This link opens in a new window
Modern drama in the English language, including authors in the US, UK, Ireland, Africa, the Caribbean, India and Australasia. Coverage: 1890s to 1999.

American Literature

Early American Imprints Series This link opens in a new window
Digitized books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in colonial America. Multidisciplinary, with a diverse array of topics. Coverage: 1600s-1700s
Early American Imprints (Evans Digital Edition): Text Creation Partnership This link opens in a new window
Transcribed copies of the Early American Imprints Series which includes texts of books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America. Multidisciplinary, with a diverse array of topics. Coverage: 1600s-1700s
American Periodicals Series, Collections I & II This link opens in a new window
Digitized images of articles, advertisements, illustrations, editorial cartoons, obituaries, letters to the editor, and more from American magazines and journals. Includes popular, special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and other historically significant periodicals. Coverage: 1740-1940.
American Drama 1714-1915 This link opens in a new window
Plays that shaped American theater, including extensive collections of women and African-American dramatists. Includes author biographies.

Eight Centuries (formerly 19th Century Masterfile)
Searches across various databases of nineteenth-century primary sources.

American West This link opens in a new window
Material digitized from the Graff Collection at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Includes unique manuscripts, broadsides, and other ephemera, maps, and rare printed works. Topics include the frontier, westward expansion, Native American history and culture, agriculture, travel journals, railway, transportation, and the gold rush. Coverage: 1722 to 1939
African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
Poems by influential African American poets as well as author biographies. Coverage: 1700-1900
20th Century African-American Poetry This link opens in a new window
Includes poems by influential African American poets as well as author biographies. Coverage: 1900-1999
North American Indian Drama This link opens in a new window
The works in this Collection represent the broadening field of Native American drama, theatrical scripts written by playwrights who are members of the indigenous nations of North America. The plays contained in this collection are secular and intertribal.
More than half of the works are previously unpublished, and hard to find, representing groups such as Cherokee, Mtis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and others. Coverage dates: 1926-present.
20th Century Drama This link opens in a new window
Modern drama in the English language, including authors in the US, UK, Ireland, Africa, the Caribbean, India and Australasia. Coverage: 1890s to 1999.
New York Times (1851 - 3 years ago) This link opens in a new window
Historical newspaper articles, including photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, and editorial cartoons. Coverage: 1851 - three years ago.

Other English-language Literature

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
Contains books and scholarly journals digitized from libraries around the world covering many topics and languages. Choose University of New Mexico for full access to restricted content and log in with NetID
Choose University of New Mexico for full access to restricted content and log in with UNM NetID.
African Writers Series This link opens in a new window
Prose, drama, and poetry. Includes classic titles from renowned African authors, post-colonial, and contemporary works as well as biographies of the authors. Coverage: 1900s-1999.