History

Also on this page: History tools | Local history | British & European history | Military history | Ancient history | Archaeology

 

Key links

 

History tools

  • HyperHistory Online - Detailed collection of historical timelines, giving at-a-glance visualisations of world history.​

  • Time and date - Find the calendar for any year, including days of the week. Also includes the world clock and a 'customise' facility to include various calendar features.​

  • MAPCO: Map And Plan Collection Online - Contains a plethora of historic maps of London and other areas, some dating back hundreds of years.​

  • Today in History - Find out what happened on today's date in previous years.​

  • AHDS History - Academic collection of digital history resources, part of the Arts & Humanities Data Service.​

  • Internet Historian - A 'teach-yourself' tutorial on Internet information skills for those studying history. Part of a wide range of subject-specific tutorials from the Virtual Training Suite.

 

Local history

  • City of Westminster Archives Centre - Your source of local history (focusing on Westminster & central London) information and help.​

  • Westminster Memories - Comprising Westend at War, Soho Memories and Church Street Memories (with more areas to come), this a project to bring together people's memories and pictures of a local area.​

  • Illustrated London News [24/7] - A searchable archive of this London magazine going back as far as 1842 and covering the whole of the 20th century. This includes text and pictures providing an insight into the history of London and beyond.​

  • West End at War - A constantly growing community site, bringing together memories, photographs, data, maps, film footage and other information about central London during World War Two.​

  • Bomb Sight - You can use "Bomb Sight" to check where the bombs landed on London during the blitz from 7th October 1940 to 6th June 1941.​

  • Historical Directories - Full text digitised local history directories from 1750-1920 covers England & Wales​

  • Collage - Databank of 20,000 images illustrating the history of London, from the Guildhall Library.​

  • British Association for Local History - News and information about local history, including abstracted articles from The Local Historian and links to useful resources for local history research.​

  • Survey of London - Detailed historical and architectural guide to London. The online edition currently covers Soho, St James, Covent Garden and Mayfair but is constantly being updated. You may also want to look at the Survey of London index (full volumes of which are held at Westminster Archives, Marylebone Information Service and Westminster Reference Library).​

  • Proceedings of the Old Bailey - Access the court records from 1674 to 1834, providing a fascinating insight to the lives of ordinary people of this time.

 

British & European history

  • The National Archives - The national archive of the United Kingdom, with an online catalogue, links to other archives nationwide, and a growing collection of facsimile documents. Site also includes the "Domesday Book" from 1085.​

  • Viewfinder - Online image bank illustrating British history, from English Heritage. Searchable by keyword, or browsable by theme.​

  • British History Online - Digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. The available publications include detailed histories of both Paddington and Westminster (see Local history above).​

  • British History - A guide to British history written for prospective American visitors. Features narrative histories of countries and regions, biographies of important historical figures, and guides to places of interest.

  • Online Archives: primary sources - Why not search through online archives of newspapers and other publications to find those primary sources that'll get you an A+ on your essays? Great examples include the Hansard Archive going back 200 years, and those exclusively available to Westminster library members such as the Times, the Guardian and Observer and the Economist archives.

 

Military history

  • Debt of Honour Register - Personal and service information, and details of memorials, for the 1.7 million members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First and Second World Wars.​

  • Naval History - Admiralty War Diaries and Action Reports and other primary sources for the years 1939-1942, and War Diaries from Home, Mediterranean and British Pacific Fleets for the period 1942-1946.​

  • UK National Inventory of War Memorials - Searchable database of all known war memorials in the UK from the Imperial War Museum: another great source of military history. This museum is also great for family history research related to the military.​

  • Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives - Complete catalogue of the archive compiled by historian Basil Liddell Hart, now housed at Kings College London.

 

Ancient history

 

Archaeology

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