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“It is hard not to be excited about the possibilities opened up by digital humanities generally and by the Digital Scholar Lab in particular.”
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“It is hard not to be excited about the possibilities opened up by digital humanities generally and by the Digital Scholar Lab in particular.”
-ARBA Staff Reviewer
Gale Primary Sources brings the thoughts, words, and actions of past centuries into the present for a comprehensive research experience. With authoritative content and powerful search technologies, this platform has been thoughtfully designed to help students and researchers examine literary, political, and social culture of the last 500 years and develop a more meaningful understanding of how history continues to impact the world today. All of the collections on the Gale Primary Sources platform are meticulously indexed to improve discovery, analysis, and workflow for every user who is looking to push past the traditional boundaries of research. Learn more about our curation practices >>
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L’Enfer (hell), from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, is one of the most storied and sought-after private case collections. The collection was created in the 1830s to protect and isolate works that were considered contrary to the morals of the time. As with later private cases, the entire collection was kept in a locked section of the library. L’Enfer actually refers to the shelf mark given to the collection.
Key Facts
Date range: 1531‒2012
Document types: printed books, pamphlets, broadsides
Source library: Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF)
Languages: French, English, Italian, German
Subjects supported: gender studies, women’s studies, international studies, social history, anthropology, art, literature, and erotica
Digitized from the FO 17 series of British Foreign Office files at the UK National Archives, Part I of Imperial China and the West provides general correspondence relating to China from 1815 to 1881. With over 540,000 manuscript pages, the collection consists of a vast and significant resource in English for researching every aspect of Anglo-Chinese relations during the 19th century. Included in the collection are files relating to the diplomatic, political, mercantile, legal, and military relations among China, Britain, France, Russia, the United States, and other Western powers, as well as the relationships between these and China’s nearer neighbors, like Japan, Korea, Thailand, Burma, Malaya, India, and even Australia.
Key Facts
Date range: 1815–1881
Document types: handwritten manuscripts, clippings, and maps
Source library: UK National Archives
Subjects supported: British empire and colonialism in Asia, history of 19th century China, British-Chinese relations, Chinese intellectual history, translation studies, history of architecture and art, Chinese emigration and diaspora, and legal studies
Twentieth Century British Intelligence brings together files from the UK National Archives covering intelligence and security matters from 1905 to 2002. Material has been sourced from the UK Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office, the Colonial Office, MI5 (British Domestic Security Service), and the SOE (Special Operations Executive), and reflects an intelligence network that reached from the UK and Europe to Africa, the Middle East, Canada, Asia, and Australia during a century of global conflicts, high-stakes diplomacy, and political upheaval. These documents cover the development of British intelligence and its impact on policy from its earliest days, through Room 40 in the First World War and the activities of the Security Services throughout the British Empire during World War II to the geopolitics of the Cold War and decolonization.
Key Facts
Date range: 1905‒2002
Document types: handwritten and typed manuscripts, printed pamphlets, ephemera, telegraphs, government documents
Source library: UK National Archives
Subjects supported: 20th-century international relations, politics and history, imperial and colonial history, British history, intelligence and security studies, war studies, military history, World War II, the Cold War, global history, and transnational studies
The third module in Gale’s Women’s Studies Archive series, this collection contains more than a million pages of female-authored works sourced from the American Antiquarian Society, covering over a century of female writing. Featuring female voices in fiction, poetry, personal letters, recipe books, memoirs, pamphlets, personal papers, children’s literature, diaries, religious tracts, and more, Rare Titles from the American Antiquarian Society provides a canon of women’s literature that enables researchers to explore the different facets of the female experience. Titles have been carefully selected for their uniqueness with careful analysis to ensure no overlap with other Gale, American Antiquarian Society, or current open access digital archive resources. The collection will allow users to answer questions about women’s cultural contributions, provide insight into the female experience, and open up opportunities to discover overlooked works from the past.
Key Facts
Date range: 1820‒1922
Document type: Monograph
Source library: American Antiquarian Society
Subjects supported: women’s history, gender studies, American literature, cultural studies, history, American history, media and journalism, politics, and sociology
Building on the strength of Part I, Political Extremism and Radicalism, Part II: Far-Right Groups in America provides researchers with coverage that concentrates more closely on white supremacist and nationalist groups in the United States, including, the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the American Nazi Party, and others. Material has been sourced from eminent institutions, such as the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of California, Davis; the University of Iowa; and Idaho State University, and features manuscripts, monographs, periodicals, and audio recordings. Covering a wide range of topics, like nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism, Christian Identity, homophobia, political misinformation, and conspiracy theories, Far-Right Groups in America is an essential resource for scholars investigating the radical right as well as its impact on mainstream politics and conservative, right-wing thinking.
Key Facts
Date range: 1850‒2010
Document types: manuscript, monograph, newspapers, periodicals, audio (with transcript)
Source libraries: University of California, Santa Barbara; Federal Bureau of Investigation; University of California, Davis; University of Iowa; Idaho State University
Subjects supported: modern history, international studies, European studies, politics/political science/political sociology; international relations; government studies; human rights; terrorism studies; immigration studies; racial conflict; African American studies; and social studies
Archives UnboundSince its inception in 2009 the Archives Unbound program has published more than 300 titles. The roots of the program are in microfilm, and the collection makes targeted collections of interest available to scholars engaged in serious research.
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Archives of Sexuality and GenderArchives of Sexuality and Gender, the largest collection available in support of the study of gender and sexuality, enables scholars to make new connections in LGBTQ history and activism, cultural studies, psychology, health, political science, policy studies, and other related areas of research. |
Associated Press Collection OnlineFor more than 170 years, the Associated Press (AP) has delivered the news when and where it occurs. Together, the AP and Gale, a Cengage company, are making previously unseen news copy and footage available digitally to tell the stories of our past in vivid detail. |
Brazilian and Portuguese History and CultureOriginally the personal library of the Brazilian diplomat, historian, and journalist Manoel de Oliveira Lima, the Oliveira Lima Library has long been regarded as one of the finest collections of the Luso-Brazilian materials available to scholars. It's now accessible for students, educators, and researchers alike to delve deeper into Brazilian and Portuguese history and culture from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. |
British Literary Manuscripts OnlineThis unique collection provides an intimate look into the lives and works of more than one thousand authors and delivers insights into the culture and context surrounding centuries of British literary achievement. |
China and the Modern WorldExplore unique, first-hand accounts of the cultural interactions and conflicts that gave rise to today’s modern China with essential primary source collections for researchers of China in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries |
Chatham House Online ArchiveContaining close to 90 years of high-level analysis and research on global events and issues from the leader in policy research on international affairs, this searchable online archive brings expert knowledge in international affairs directly to the desktops of researchers and students. |
Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920With 2.1 million pages of trial transcripts, police and forensic reports, detective novels, newspaper accounts, true crime literature, and related ephemera, this collection presents the broadest and deepest collection of materials supporting the study of nineteenth-century criminal history, law, literature, and justice. |
Declassified Documents: Twentieth Century British Intelligence, An Intelligence EmpireThis collection brings together files from five UK government departments to provide researchers with access to detailed, previously classified information on the intelligence services of Britain and her Empire throughout the twentieth century. |
Early Arabic Printed Books from the British LibraryEarly Arabic Printed Books from the British Library supports comparative approaches to the study of the Middle East and the Muslim world and inspires original research on Islamic religion, history, language, literature, and science. It is an essential resource for every major library needing Arabic primary source material for research, teaching, and learning. |
Eighteenth Century Collections OnlineThe largest and most comprehensive online historical archive of its kind and an essential resource for advanced study of the eighteenth century, this collection contains every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom between the years 1701 and 1800. |
Gale Historical NewspapersWith access to 15 million digitized facsimile pages spanning more than 400 years, Gale Historical Newspapers offers an unparalleled window to the past around the world. |
Gale World Scholar: Latin America and the CaribbeanGale World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean is an innovative resource for regional studies, combining primary and secondary sources to meet the needs and workflows of students and researchers. It gathers together instructive learning content with high-value, rare research material, giving regional studies an exciting perspective. |
Indigenous Peoples of North AmericaThis collection comprehensively covers the history of North American indigenous peoples and supporting organizations, enabling intelligent inquiry into the culture and heritage of more than seventy tribes within the United States and Canada. |
National Geographic Virtual LibraryNational Geographic and Gale, a Cengage company, have partnered to bring vast resources to digital life with National Geographic Virtual Library. Now libraries can offer access to the complete archive of National Geographic magazine — every page of every issue — along with a cross-searchable collection of books, maps, images, and videos. |
Nineteenth Century Collections OnlineNineteenth Century Collections Online is transforming the teaching, learning, and research landscape. Heralding a new wave of discovery into the nineteenth century, NCCO includes collections from across the globe with content in multiple languages, richly representing Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and North America. |
Political Extremism and RadicalismThis series provides insight on unorthodox groups and movements from right and left of the political spectrum through rare material, helping researchers explore governmental and societal systems and the environment that created them, their origins, and their adversaries. |
Public Health Archives: Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970 provides scholars with materials that explore the fight for a national health care plan from the end of the Depression well into the 1960s. Content covers medical economics and sociology, medical care, legislation, and the role of key organizations and individuals. The collection’s documentation of the evolution of public health legislation, policies, and campaigns at local and federal levels supports the examination of our past while considering outcomes for our future. |
Refugees, Relief and Resettlement: Forced Migration and World War IIRefugees, Relief, and Resettlement: Forced Migration and World War II chronicles the plight of refugees and displaced persons across Europe, North Africa, and Asia from 1935 to 1950 through correspondence, reports, studies, organizational and administrative files, and much more. It is the first multi-sourced digital collection to consider the global scope of the refugee crisis leading up to, through, and after World War II. |
Religions of AmericaReligions of America presents scholars and researchers with more than 660,000 pages of content that follow the development of religions and religious movements born in the U.S. from 1820 to 1990. Derived from numerous collections, most notably the American Religions Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Religions of America traces the history and unique characteristics of movements through manuscripts, pamphlets, newsletters, ephemera, and visuals. |
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500–1926Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, this digital archive provides a firsthand account of 450 years of history in the Americas, including discovery and exploration, slavery and European colonization, native peoples, wars of independence, religion and missionary work, social and political reforms, economic development, westward expansion, notable individuals, and much more. |
Smithsonian Collections OnlineThe Smithsonian, America's foremost research and cultural institution, has partnered with Gale, a Cengage company, to launch a series of collections from Smithsonian's vast archives. This partnership has yielded collections covering American history, science, world cultures, and more. |
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational ArchiveThe most ambitious project of its kind, the content of Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive is carefully reviewed by a renowned board of scholars and thematically arranged. It covers a wide spectrum of interests related to the history of slavery: legal issues, the Caribbean, children and women under slavery, modes of resistance, and much more. |
Sources in US History OnlineSources in U.S. History Online is a thematically organized collection providing information surrounding important individuals, influential perspectives, religions, political operations, and warfare from the eras that have shaped the United States. |
State Papers Online, 1509-1714State Papers Online, 1509-1714, published in four seamless parts, offers researchers a groundbreaking online resource for understanding two hundred years of British and European history, from the reign of Henry VIII to the end of the reign of Queen Anne. |
State Papers Online Eighteenth Century, 1714 -1782State Papers Online, Eighteenth Century gives researchers and students unprecedented access to British government records during the Age of Enlightenment. |
The Making of Modern LawThe definitive collection features international and foreign primary sources from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, plus several hundred classics in European international law since the seventeenth century. |
The Making of the Modern WorldThe Making of Modern World is invaluable for an understanding of the competition for empire and the projection of European power from 1500 to the early twentieth century. Explore the historical underpinnings integral to study of economics and European imperialism. |
Women's Studies ArchiveThe Women's Studies Archive is an examination of the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and offers us a look at the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society. |
U.S. Declassified Documents OnlineU.S. Declassified Documents Online offers unique insights into the inner workings of the US government. The collection brings together the most sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies in a single, easily searchable database. This collection provides access to a broad range of previously classified federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. |
Researchers can see the frequency of search terms within sets of content to begin identifying central themes and assessing how individuals, events, and ideas interact and develop over time.
By grouping commonly occurring themes, this tool reveals hidden connections within search terms—helping to shape research by integrating diverse content with relevant information.
Search across the content of complementary primary source products in one intuitive environment, enabling innovative new research connections.