History

Our collections are a superb resource for the study of history; they span over 2000 years of human activity and cover a wide range of subjects. This page provides:

tips for locating relevant material in our collections
lists of collections and web resources with a specific focus or strength relating to the histories of the Americas, Asia, England, France, Scotland and the Victorian era (c1800-c1910).

Researchers are also advised to see other subject pages relevant to their area of interest, for example, law, medicine, politics, social history, war.

Tips for locating relevant material

To search across all our collections, by name or keyword, please use the rare books search (for printed material) and the manuscripts search (for unpublished material including notebooks, papers, photographs and drawings)
Try different keywords, synonyms and alternative spellings. For example, historical material relating to medicine may use archaic terms such as 'physic' or 'phisick' in their titles
Subject index on the reference shelves in the Special Collections reading room. (NB: no longer updated but worth checking in addition to online catalogue search)
Use the search our site option to locate resources including web exhibitions which may feature material relevant to your research
Another useful starting point is to consult reference works, bibliographies and databases and then search our collections for suggested authors and titles. In the University of Glasgow Library, many printed historical bibliographies are found under the classification History Bibliog

Americas

Hunterian: includes many books relating to European exploration and settlement of the Americas, from the 16th century onwards
Euing: includes books on Americana
Spencer: books and documents relating to the attempt to found a Scots trading colony at Darien in the isthmus of Panama in the 17th century
Brogan: 20th century books on American political history

Asia

Waddell: includes many publications on Asian history (published late 18th to early 20th century)

England

Ogilvie: some 1,500 pamphlets printed during the period of the civil war in the 17th century

France

Brogan: 20th century books on French political history
Caricatures: political caricatures (mainly lithographs) covering the Franco-Prussian War, the Paris Commune of 1871 and the later years of the 1870s
Farmer: includes material on the Paris Commune
Gautherin: small collection of books on Vichy France

Scotland

Bf sequence of rare books: many books of Scottish historical interest, including Jacobite and Union of Scotland pamphlets
George Chalmers Papers: 179 original letters from correspondents in Scotland to the antiquary, George Chalmers (1742-1825), written during the 1790s
Ephemera: mainly relating to 19th-century Glasgow
Euing: includes works on Scottish history
Christina Hunter Lawson Papers: correspondence that provides a snapshot of Edinburgh life from 1910-1963
MacCallum Scott Papers: including material on the history of Clydesdale and on student life in Glasgow in the early 1890s
Murray: outstanding regional history collection with a wealth of 17th and 18th century Glasgow imprints; 19th century material relating to the economic and social development of the West of Scotland (for example, works on banking, railways, canals and ports) and publications relating to the administration of the city of Glasgow and its University
George Neilson Papers: papers of a lawyer and historian (1858-1923) which include two 16th century documents, one relating to Mary, Queen of Scots and another to Mary of Guise
Spencer: books and documents relating to the attempt to found a Scots trading colony at Darien in the isthmus of Panama in the 17th century
Stirling Maxwell: includes some 300 18th century pamphlets, mainly of Scottish interest
John Stirling Papers: correspondence dating from 1684 to 1726, mainly to John Stirling (Principal of the University of Glasgow), dealing with university matters and Scottish affairs
Stone Library: 19th century publications including books on Scottish history
Wylie: almost 1,000 volumes relating to the history and topography of Glasgow and surrounding area from the 18th century to the early 1900s.

See the following web exhibitions, book of the month articles and course material pages:

Scottish thought and letters in the Eighteenth Century (web exhibition)
Maps for a small country (web exhibition)
Collection of original watercolour drawings of the ordinary people of 19th century Glasgow (Book of the Month: September 2009)
The Darien Scheme, late 17th to early 18th centuries, (Collection Highlight)
Speeches of James VI and I (Book of the Month: September 2003)
University of Glasgow Old and New (Book of the Month: July 2008)
Glasgow broadside ballads: cheap print and popular song culture in nineteenth-century Scotland (course material page)
Scottish tourism and leisure in the 19th century (course material page)
Scottish criminal records in Special Collections (course material page)

Victorian Studies

Victorian Resources: highlights a selection from thousands of items we have relating to the Victorian era, concentrating on the themes of art and design, literature, social history, politics and government, science and natural history
19th century novels: a large collection of literary works which can provide insights into "contemporary" Victorian life
Photography: our collections include images of people and places from the 1840s onwards. A number of 19th century albums have been digitised and the images are available online.

See the following book of the month articles: