The library subscribes to a number of resources which you can use to access primary texts (e.g. novels, plays and other literary works) and other original source material. You can use the links on this page to access these.
Drama Texts Collection from ProQuest is a foundational collection of over 13,000 plays spanning nearly a millennium of dramatic writing, covering the core works of the Western canon alongside important yet forgotten contemporaries.
Archives of primary source - documents, correspondence, diaries, etc. - can help with background research or even provide inspiration for your creative writing. A few of the major digitised primary source archives to which the library provides access are listed below. For a more comprehensive list, as well as links to open access archives, see the History subject guide.
From personal collections and rare printed material to military files, ephemera, and artwork, The First World War Portal highlights the experiences of soldiers, civilians, and governments on both sides of the conflict and in multiple theatres of war.
Essential primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. This expansive collection offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, and the men’s movement.
This resource offers revolutionary access to one of the most important archives for the study of social history in the modern era (1937-1956). Explore original manuscript and typescript papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organisation, as well as printed publications, photographs.
Launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, its founders' aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives. Still growing, it is an important source for qualitative social data in the UK.
Discover the working methods of Romantic poets and the evolution of celebrated verse, with unique access to the notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers, including Dorothy Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey and Robert Southey.
Many libraries have special collections and archives which include a wide range of primary source material, from personal letters and diaries to recorded interviews and ephemera. Have a look at our Special Collections pages to see what archives are available here at the University of Essex, or use Archives Hub to discover collections held at institutions across the UK.
