Royal Geographical Society with IBG ArchiveThe Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) was founded in 1830. The Society’s archive contains vast collections of documents, maps, photographs, expedition reports, manuscript materials and books, and span 500 years of geography, travel and exploration. The RGS holds one of the largest private map collections in the world. It includes one million sheets of maps and charts, 3000 atlases, 40 globes (as gores or mounted on stands) and 1000 gazetteers. The earliest printed cartographic item dates back to 1485.
Databases for History provide access to a huge range of primary source archives online. They allow you to search and access material without having to travel to archives and can bring material from across different archives together under a theme. They can also provide character recognition, full-text search, transcripts along with supporting contextual analysis, accompanying essays or tools such as timelines to help you make sense of the material you are working with.
Gale Primary Sources provides access to nearly 6 centuries of unique and rare newspapers, books, manuscripts, maps and photographs across 26 different subject databases. It provides a range of discovery routes through detailed subject indexing, interactive tools and enriched data, with cross searching of these key primary source databases.
AM Explorer will allow you to search across all of the AM unique primary source collections in a single search.
All collections on the Proquest platform can be crossed searched, including the primary source collections.
For best results, use the Source Types filter on the main search page and choose the type of material you're looking for, for example: Archival Materials; Historical Newspapers; Historical Periodicals; Pamphlets & Ephemeral Works for primary source material.
Find out about the online courses we offer for all students to help develop both your wider academic skills and skills in using the Library for your research.
If you encounter difficulties accessing databases, follow these steps:
If you’ve tried both of the above and are still experiencing issues, please contact us for further assistance.
