Research Guides: HIST 358: The Self before the Selfie (HC): Primary Sources

Online Source Collections

ARTFL Project
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Provides a large collection of digitized historical French texts which can be searched individually or collectively.
Note also ARTFL's Reference Collection which includes various French dictionaries from the 18th century.

Burney Collection Newspapers Archive, 17th & 18th Century
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Provides full text to the newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817), representing the largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media. The 700 or so bound volumes of newspapers and news pamphlets were published mostly in London, however there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the American colonies, Europe and India. Cross-search all Cengage subscribed newspaper collections via NewsVault.

There are some online collections available at Haverford for early modern printed texts. They reproduce every page in a book and are searchable by word and phrase.

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
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Contains digital images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. This collection contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Includes books, pamphlets, manuscripts and newspapers.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
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Offers full-text access to English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 including books, pamphlets, almanacs, Bibles and treatises. Subjects covered include history, geography, fine arts, medicine, science, literature, language, religion, philosophy and law. Significant collections of women writers, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare are also included.

Electronic Enlightenment
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Searchable and browseable database offering extensive access to the web of correspondence between the greatest thinkers and writers of the long eighteenth century and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. Coverage includes letters and documents, document sources such as manuscripts and early printed editions, scholarly annotations, and links to biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, and other online resources.
Early American Imprints
Electronic database of materials published in the US up through 1800.

Important source collections available open access on the Web

British Library Rare Book Links
Presents rare book resources available on the British Library website and elsewhere.
Collections of Digital Facsimiles
See this list for links to French, German, and Spanish libraries with 18th century books reproduced online.
The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe, 1769-1794: Mapping the Trade of the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel
Tracks the dissemination of over 400,000 copies of books. Advanced search options include data for legal and illegal sectors, gender, and place of publication.

Gallica This link opens in a new window
Gallica is a digital library of French and francophone culture maintained by the Bibliothque nationale de France. Contains numerous electronic texts, images, maps, animation, and sound files of French and other publications in history, literature, science, philosophy, law, economics, and political science. Covers the Middle Ages to the present.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Full text access to Rousseau's collected writings as they were published in 17 volumes in Geneva in the 1780s.
Newgate Calendar
This popular account of crime and criminals was first published in 1760. Some readers gave the books to their children as moral instruction. It covers a much wider geographic area in Great Britain than the Old Bailey records.
Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 to 1834
This site includes a searchable database with records from over 100,000 criminal trials in London. The search interface allows you to limit by date, type of crime and punishment, and gender of victim and criminal. Note also the historical background provided.
Tout Voltaire
This is a fully searchable database of Voltaire's written works aside from his correspondence (which can be searched in Electronic Enlightenment). The text does not include notes but is considered the most reliable version of Voltaire's writings until the Voltaire Foundation finishes publishing the Complete Works of Voltaire in 2018. Tout Voltaire is made available open access by the Voltaire Foundation and ARTFL Project. Example of a database search:
How often does Voltaire use the terms ‘nation’ and ‘esprit’ in the same sentence?

Sources in Printed Form

Primary texts have been edited, reprinted in facsimiles, or transferred to microfilm can be borrowed through E Z Borrow or interlibrary loan if they are not in Tripod. Many of them will be listed in Tripod or WorldCat under subject terms along with a word or phrase indicating that it is a primary text. Look for terms including: Sources, Correspondence or Early works to 1800.

For example, the search children "early works to 1800" produces many books from the 18th century including:

An Account of a savage girl, caught wild in the woods of champagne: Translated from the French of madam H-T. With a preface, containing several particulars omitted in the original... Published 1768

The royal primer: or The first book for children: Adapted to their tender capacities. Authorized by His Majesty King George III. To be Used throughout His Majesty's Dominions. Published 1788

A treatise on education: With a sketch of the author's method. By George Chapman, A.M. Master of the grammar-school of Dumfries. Published 1773.

Major series of early modern women's writings
Other Voice in Early Modern Europe - A series of print editions by or about women. Individual titles are listed in Tripod. Authors lived from the late Middle Ages through the first half of the 18th century.

Major series of literary and moral texts addressing issues of concern:

Conduct Literature for Women, 1720-1770. 6 volumes Focused on Britain

Conduct Literature for Women, 1770-1830. 6 volumes Focused on Britain

Eighteenth-century Coffee-house Culture. 4 volumes Focused on Britain

Books printed in the 17th or 18th century are kept in libraries' rare book collections.

But many libraries have digitized copies in their collections. WorldCat is a good place to check for digital copies through

the Internet tab on the results screen.

Resources from Special Collections

French Revolution materials
Research guide on French materials held in Special Collections, including French Revolution materials.
Mental Health and Asylum materials
List of materials related to mental health and mental health institutions in a research guide.
Abolition materials in Special Collections
Materials related to enslavement and the abolition movement.

Rare Book Collections

Selected Titles at Bryn Mawr's Rare Book Library

Librarians Eric Pumroy and Marianne Hansen have put together a short list of titles at Bryn Mawr concerning 17th and 18th century Europe:
         Books on London
         Books Relating to 18th Century France 2006

See also the online version of this exhibition at Bryn Mawr from 2011:
         Beyond the Text: Illustrations in Eighteenth-Century French Novels

Please check with Sarah Horowitz about ways to access individual titles.

The Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert

Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences
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Diderot's encyclopedia summarizes knowledge in all branches of study and provides important contextualization for your topics.

This record is for a printed edition in the Philips Wing. It can be used in the Library but not checked out. See also the following versions:

Print copy at BMC

ARTFL text in French

University of Michigan collaborative English translation (in progress)

Encyclopedic Liberty: Political Articles in the Dictionary of Diderot and D'Alembert

Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert: Selected Articles in English translation

Illustrated Plates from the Encyclopédie
Important resource for visual studies

Book Publishing Sources

Women’s Print History Project
This database lists and describes texts to which women contributed not just as authors, but also as printers, publishers, booksellers, editors, compilers, translators, engravers, illustrators, and composers. The database covers British publishing from the long 18th century.