Digital Collections

SHAFR Task Force on On-Line Research

List of Primary Source Websites             9 June 2020 | With Additions 15 March 2021

The SHAFR Task Force on Freely Available Research Databases has compiled this bibliography of electronic resources to aid research in U.S. foreign relations history.  This project depends on regular updates and suggestions of additional collections to be included in this bibliography.

Task Force of Freely Available Research Databases
Victoria Phillips, Chair, Columbia University ([email protected])
Melanie Griffin, University of Arkansas
Philip Nash, Penn State University, Shenango
Carole Finke, Ohio State University

With thanks to: Shaul Mitelpunkt, Tom Metcalfe, Matthew Connelly, Karine Walther, James Stocker, and the Google Group for document sharing; Kristin Hoganson and the SHAFR Council. Compiled and edited by Victoria Phillips, Philip Nash, Melanie Griffith, and Victoria Phillips, Chair. To offer additional sources, please email Dr. Phillips directly at [email protected].

By Nation or Region (alphabetically)

Africa

Australia

Austria

  • Zeitschriften Datenbank Online database for journals, newspapers, monographic series and other serial publications from all countries, in all languages, in printed, electronic, or digitized form. 3,700 participating libraries Austria and Germany.

Britain

1) Official Government Diplomatic Document Collection

2) Corporate Records

3) Foundations

4) Private Library Archives and Collections

5) University Collections

  • LSE Digital Library has digitized much of its collection: very good on Fabian Society, British political history, poverty surveying (esp. Charles Booth), visual culture and politics (campaign posters), and parts of Women’s Library.

6) Newspapers

7) Cultural Institutions and Resources

8) General

Canada

Caribbean

China

1) Government Diplomatic Document Collection

2) Corporate and Private Financial Records

3) Foundations 

4) Private Library Archives and Collections

  • Frank Glass (Li Fu-jen) online archive, including bibliography, provided by the Marxists Internet Archive (Glass was a prominent Trotskyist who travelled in China as a journalist and who helped to establish the Communist League in China, see also MIA’s ‘Chinese Trotskyism’ section of their Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line)
  • General Pang Tzu Mow (a depository for materials that elucidate the life and work of GMD General and "audacious crook" Pang Tzu Mow)
  • Henk Sneevliet collection (HS represented the Comintern in China in 1921-23 (using the pseudonym Maring), online archive of documents relating to GMD, CCP, Sun Yat Sen etc.)

5) University Collections

6) Newspapers

7) Cultural Institutions and Resources

8) General or Subject

East and Southeast Asia*

*NB: Macau, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Siberia, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. China, Hong Kong, Japan have separate sections.

France

  •  Gallica: the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF)

Germany

1) Government Diplomatic Document Collection

2) Corporate and Private Records 

3) Foundations 

4) Private Library Archives and Collections

5) University Collections 

6) Newspapers

7) Cultural Institutions and Resources

8) General or Subject

Hong Kong

Hungary

Israel

1) Government Diplomatic Document Collection

2) Corporate and Private Records

3) Foundations 

4) Private Library Archives and Collections

5) University Collections 

6) Newspapers

7) Cultural Institutions and Resources

8) General or Subject

Latin American history

1) Government Diplomatic Document Collection

2) Corporate and Private Records

3) Foundations

  • NB Be sure to see the Rockefeller Archive Center (DIMES) listed under United States.

4) Private Library Archives and Collections

5) University Collections

6) Newspapers 

7) Cultural Institutions and Resources

8) General or Subject

Italy and Rome

India and South Asia

Ireland

Japan

1) Government Diplomatic Document Collection

2) Corporate and Private Records

3) Foundations

4) Private Library Archives and Collections

5) University Collections

6) Newspapers

7) Cultural Institutions and Resources

8) General or Subject

Middle East*

*NB: State Department Definition: Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Israel has a separate section.

New Zealand

Russia and the Soviet Union

1) Government Diplomatic Document Collections

  • State Papers Online (scroll to State Papers Online): contains several volumes of archival documents relating to the formation and maintenance of diplomatic relations between England (Britain) and Muscovy (Russia)
  • Russian Archives Database: Project led by the University of Kansas in cooperation with Rosarkhiv to facilitate access to Russian archival materials. Database contains digitized copies of archival collection guides from a range of local and state archives. Continually updated with new materials
  • Russian Archives Online

2) Corporate and Private Records 

3) Foundations 

4) Private Library Archives and Collections

5) University Collections

6) Newspapers

7) Cultural Institutions and Resources

8) General or Subject

The Soviet Union

Switzerland

U.S. History

1) Government Diplomatic Document Collections

2) Corporate and Private Records

3) Foundations

4) Private Library Archives and Collections

5) University Collections

6) Newspapers

7) Cultural Institutions and Resources

8) General and Subject

International Alliances and Organizations

Aggregators by Subject

General

Medical Databases

Culture

By Region

By Era

                        Pre-1945

Post-1945