The newest Gale Primary Sources collections support inquiry into topics which are intrinsic to the human experience. Researchers of nearly every discipline will find valuable historical data to support their study. Read more below.
American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society provides a history of the American people and a testament to the growth of the nation from the colonial period through to the twentieth century. Offering multiple perspectives on the thought, culture, and society of North America through the eyes of those who lived it, the collection shows how history affected citizens from all walks of life. The 260 new and gap-fill periodicals in Part VIII cover subject areas such as agriculture, arts and literature, business and commerce, children and young people, entertainment and society, ethnic communities, health and medicine, history, immigration, refugee movements, and religion.
Key Facts
Date range: 1810–1926
Document types: Periodicals
Source: American Antiquarian Society
These British Colonial Office files, whose scanning benefits from Gale's handwritten text recognition technology, document the United Kingdom's administrative history of the region of Singapore and western Malaysia from the early nineteenth century to the 1960s, providing insights into international relations, changing demographics, and the daily life of colonial and native inhabitants. Researchers will find coverage of policing, education, forestry, the rubber industry and Rubber Research Institute, Chinese and Indian immigration, health, the opium trade, native affairs, political intelligence, and more. These documents also showcase how colonial history continues to influence these now-independent countries through chosen strategic alliances, manners of conduct, and institutional structures today.
Key Facts
Date range: 1759–1966
Document types: Handwritten and typed manuscripts with some printed documents, maps, and plans
Source: The National Archives, UK
The American Civil War is increasingly considered a major nineteenth-century event not just in American history but also in global politics, with ramifications for the future of slavery and ideas of popular, democratic government. The standalone collection The American Civil War: The International Context demonstrates the involvement of European nations in the American Civil War, including their internal discussions, reactions to approaches from Unionists and Confederates, the challenges and advantages the American conflict brought, and its impact on politics and society.
Key Facts
Date range: 1860–1875
Document types: Correspondence, newspapers, commercial and trade papers, manuscripts and personal papers, legal briefs
Sources: The National Archives, UK; British Library; Library of Congress; Archives Centre, National Museums Liverpool, UK; Somerset Archives, UK; and more
A compilation of 39 series of mostly British Foreign Office (FO) files, this collection includes general correspondence and registers composed by the British legation in Beijing as well as British consulates based in more than 20 Chinese coastal and inland treaty ports. China and the Modern World: Regional China and the West, 1759-1972 provides a significant compendium of historical documents and forms an ideal complement to Imperial China and the West, Part I and II. Researchers will find valuable insight into Chinese-Western relations primarily from 1830 to 1950, ranging from diplomacy to trade, economy, law, and politics.
Key Facts
Date range: 1830s–1950s
Document types: Correspondence, deeds, registers, reports, and photographs
Source: The National Archives, UK
With titles spanning two pivotal centuries, the newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757–1817) and digitized in Part I represent the largest single collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English news media available anywhere. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection, Part II completes the digitization of the original Burney collection and expands coverage to additional titles and issues contemporaneous with Burney.
Key Facts
Date range: 17th and 18th centuries
Document types: Newspapers and news pamphlets
Source: British Library
Covering approximately 170 years of history, this latest module in the British Library Newspapers series consists of 36 newspapers and periodicals digitized from the British Library’s abundant Asia, Pacific, and Africa collections, including 15 titles from Malaysia, 6 from Singapore, 10 from Myanmar, and 5 from Thailand. These newspapers and periodicals offer a multifaceted lens through which to examine the region’s history, providing valuable insights into the colonial and postcolonial experience, local political movements, social changes, and everyday life during a crucial period of Southeast Asia’s development.
Key Facts
Date range: 1806–1977
Document types: Newspapers and periodicals
Source: British Library
This unique collection covers disaster response and community preparedness in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas conducted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) network. Records outline relief services to refugees and displaced persons after major conflicts, aid in the wake of natural disasters, public health campaigns and medical services following disease outbreaks and epidemics, and more.
Key Facts
Date range: 1919–1997
Document types: Mission reports, project details, operational files, internal circulars and bulletins, and journals
Source: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva
Perspectives on the Chicano Movement is the inaugural collection of the brand-new archive series Latino Social and Political Culture and History. This archive highlights the Chicano/a experience in the United States, focusing on activists such as César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, and other leaders of the Chicano Movement, aka El Movimiento. It provides unique insights into important organizations and movements, such as the United Farm Workers, efforts toward land reclamation, and student movements against discrimination in education.
Key Facts
Date range: 1861–2019
Document types: Organizational papers and records, correspondence, manuscripts and personal papers, letters and newsletters, pamphlets, ephemera
Sources: Denver Public Library; Hagley Library, Wilmington, DE; Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University
Referred to as “the world’s newspaper of record,” The Times covers all major international historical events—from the French Revolution to the most recent regional conflicts—to form a complete chronicle of world history since 1785. This critical addition to The Times Digital Archive, available to customers of the complete archive through 2019, brings researchers into the tumultuous first half of the 2020s. Researchers can explore coverage of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict and the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom’s formal withdrawal from the European Union, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of inflation and cost of living increase that precipitated a dramatic change in government, the response to the 2020 and run-up to the 2024 American elections, and innumerable other topics in sports, economics, entertainment, and politics.
Key Facts
Date range: 2020–2024
Document type: Newspapers
Presented in Collaboration with: The Times
The Daily Mail continues to be at the heart of rightwing British journalism, reporting on key political, social, and economic developments in Britain as well as the wider world. Adding to over one hundred years of reporting already in the Daily Mail Historical Archive, this new supplement, available to customers of the complete archive through 2016, highlights the back-and-forth of negotiations over “Brexit” and the eventual withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union in early 2020; Donald Trump’s first presidency and the 2020 American election; the COVID-19 pandemic and the Conservative government’s response; changes in Conservative leadership; and regular reporting on sports, economics, business, entertainment, and culture.
Key Facts
Date range: 2017–2021
Document types: Newspapers
Presented in collaboration with: Daily Mail
This new module in State Papers Online Colonial: Asia includes confidential original correspondence relating to Malaysia and Singapore, a register of outbound letters of the Federated Malay States, and a collection of post-1940 maps and plans of British Malaya. Also included are several Hong Kong-related collections, such as selected files from the Colonial Office and the Cabinet Office, correspondence and papers from the Prime Minister’s Office, and registered files from the Ministry of Defense and the British Council.
Key Facts
Date range: 1844–1997
Document types: Manuscripts, maps, and plans
Sources: The National Archives, UK, and the British Council
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