Research Guides: HIST 3339: French Revolution & Napoleon: Find Primary Sources

Digital Primary Sources from the Library

TIP: Remember that the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods spanned approximately 1789-1815. You can use these years in your searches to more accurately identify primary sources. Depending on your topic, you may want to narrow your the dates even further.

British Periodicals I & II This link opens in a new window British periodicals, late 17th to early 20th centuries. History of Britain and its colonies, as well as a British view of events in America and the world.
Burney Collection: 17th- & 18th-Century Newspapers & More This link opens in a new window Early English newspapers, pamphlets, and books, 17th and 18th centuries.
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window Citations for millions of books, official publications, archival collections, and journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. Links out to full text when available (including many items in British Periodicals).
Eighteenth (18th) Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, 1701-1800, and thousands of important works from the Americas. Books, pamphlets, broadsides, and ephemera.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window In addition to journals in many subjects, JSTOR also contains historical pamphlets (17th - 19th centuries), most produced by Britain but pertaining to many countries and people. (Example: Wilson anti-slavery pamphlets, 1761-1900) To search all historical pamphlets, use Advanced Search and check "Pamphlets."
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window Journal articles, 1802-2000, international and in many subject areas. Journals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages.
The Times Digital Archive, 1785 to 2014 This link opens in a new window "World's newspaper of record." Covers all major international historical events. Every page of every issue, from 1785 to 2014.

Primary Source Collections Online

French Revolution Digital Archive
Collaboration of the Stanford University Libraries and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) to provide digital access to key research sources of the French Revolution. The archive is based around two main resources: the Archives parlementaires, and a vast corpus of images known as the Images de la Revolution française. (Stanford Univ., BnF)
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - Texts
"includes 330 text documents (personal memoirs, official reports, newspaper articles, treatises, eyewitness accounts)—most of them translated from French to English and edited for the student and general reader." (George Mason Univ.)
Newberry French Revolution Collection Pamphlets
More than 30,000 pamphlets and more than 23,000 issues of 180 periodicals published between 1780 and 1810. There are complete runs of well-known journals, as well as many rare and unknown publications. The collection represents the opinions of all the factions that opposed and defended the monarchy during the turbulent period between 1789-1799 and also contains innumerable ephemeral publications of the early Republic. While the majority of the pamphlets were printed in Paris by the Imprimerie nationale, there are also significant numbers of provincial publishers and fictitious imprints.
British Newspaper Coverage of the French Revolution
A small archive of newspaper coverage from Britain. (Alan Liu, English Dept., Univ. of California-Santa Barbara)
French Plays of the Revolutionary and Empire Periods
(Univ. of Warwick)
European History Primary Sources
A portal to websites that provide some open access online primary sources in European history. (European Univ. Institute)
World Digital Library
Significant primary source documents from around the world in multiple languages. Strong in Latin America & Europe. Also North America, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Oceania. Free collection produced by many international institutions and the United Nations.

HIST 3339: French Revolution & Napoleon

Digital Primary Sources from the Library

Primary Source Collections Online

Published Primary Sources