LibGuides: HIST 1976C: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Environmental Histories of Non-Human Actors: Primary Source Databases at Brown

Databases at Brown

Explore a curated list of primary source databases accessible with your Brown credentials. Visit A-Z Databases for a complete list.

African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to high-quality visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites
The African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Collection links high-quality visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites. The Collection includes photographs, 3D models, GIS data, site plans, aerial and satellite photography, images of rock art, excavation reports, manuscripts, traveller's accounts, historical and antiquarian maps, books, articles, and other scholarly research.
China, America and the Pacific: Trade & Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
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Access primary source material documenting cultural and trading relationships between America, China, and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries.
China, America and the Pacific explores the cultural and trading relationships that emerged between America, China and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries. Manuscripts, rare printed sources, visual images, objects and maps from international libraries and archives document this fascinating history.
Colonial Caribbean This link opens in a new window
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Colonial Caribbean makes available materials from 27 Colonial Office file classes from The National Archives, UK, covering the history of the various territories under British colonial governance from 1624 to 1870.
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
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Primary source collection of digitized British government documents, 1834-1966
1834-1966; the documents in Confidential Print: Africa (issued by the British government) begin with coastal trading in the early nineteenth century and the Conference of Berlin of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa. They then follow the abuses of the Congo Free State, fights against tropical disease, Italys defeat by the Abyssinians, World War II, apartheid in South Africa and colonial moves towards independence.
Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 This link opens in a new window
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Primary source collection of digitized British government documents concerning Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean, 1833-1969
1833-1969; this collection consists of the Confidential Print (issued by the British government) for Central and South America and the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Topics covered include slavery and the slave trade, immigration, relations with indigenous peoples, wars and territorial disputes, the fall of the Brazilian monarchy, British business and financial interests, industrial development, the building of the Panama Canal, and the rise to power of populist rulers such as Pern in Argentina and Vargas in Brazil.
Confidential Print: Middle East 1839-1969 This link opens in a new window
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Primary source collection of digitized British government documents covering the countries of the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan, 1839-1969
1839-1969; this collection consists of the Confidential Print (issued by the British government) for the countries of the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan. Beginning with the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the 1830s, the documents trace the events of the following 150 years, including the Middle East Conference of 1921, the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia, the partition of Palestine, the 1956 Suez Crisis and post-Suez Western foreign policy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961 This link opens in a new window
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Primary source collection of digitized British government documents concerning the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America, 1824-1961
1824-1961; this collection consists of the Confidential Print (issued by the British government) for the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America, and covers such topics as slavery, Prohibition, the First and Second World Wars, racial segregation, territorial disputes, the League of Nations, McCarthyism and the nuclear bomb
East India Company This link opens in a new window
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A primary source collection of material from the India Office Records, 1599 -1947
1595-1947; East India Company offers access to a collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types, this resource charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to primary source materials of the study of Empire and its theories, practices and consequences.
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries.
Ethnographic Video Online This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive resource for visual anthropology, provides access to more than 2,000 hours of film, including raw field footage, crafted ethnographies, and documentaries.
Intended to be a visual encyclopedia of human behavior and culture, online in streaming video. Contains classic and contemporary documentaries; previously unpublished footage from working anthropologists and ethnographers in the field; and select feature films. International in scope and thematic areas include: language and culture, kinesthetics, body language, food and foraging, cooking, economic systems, social stratification and status, caste systems and slavery, male and female roles, kinship and families, political organization, conflict and conflict resolution, religion and magic, music and the arts, culture and personality, and sex, gender, and family roles.
Frontier Life This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to primary source documents relating to the various European and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa, and Australasia, 1650-1920.
The primary source documents collected here in Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters help us to understand existence and consequences on the various frontiers that arose from the movements of Europeans to Africa, Australasia and North America. The earliest documents in this collection are from the seventeenth century but the majority of the material originates from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The material covering North America covers the varied frontier regions from fur trappers in Canada to cowboys in Texas and government in Baja California. It is divided into the frontier regions of the American East, the American Midwest, the American Southwest, California & Mexico, and Canada. It covers the exploration of these regions followed by trade with native peoples, colonial rivalries, expansion of government and new nations and the final settlement and 'closing' of the frontier.

Africa is mainly represented by its frontiers of the south with the British colonial expansion into modern day South Africa. There are also excellent clusters of material relating to the exploration of West Africa and the colonial administration of Lagos.

The beginnings of European Australia and New Zealand are covered by British government documents, starting with Arthur Phillip and the penal colony at Sydney. The frontiers of other parts of Australia are also covered by documents from the UK National Archives and some material from Australian archives.

Finally, there is some material relating to Central America, specifically British Honduras (Belize), in the form of the George Arthur Papers. George Arthurs career here relates to the other regions featured here as he spent time on the Canadian and Australian frontiers.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration, and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
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Brings together manuscript, printed, and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history, 1500-present.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange provides a vast range of visual, manuscript and printed materials sourced from over twenty key libraries and more than a dozen companies and trade organisations around the world. These original sources will help scholars to explore the history of fifteen major commodities and to examine the ways that these have changed the world.

JSTOR Global Plants

Global Plants is the world’s largest database of digitized plant specimens and a locus for international scientific research and collaboration.