LibGuides: Literature: British: Primary Research

Primary Resources in Philadelphia

A key to conducting major research is to visit local archival & historical repositories. This gives you the opportunity to view important literary and historical documents first hand. By attending Eastern, you have some amazing repositories easily within your reach. Listed below are links to local museums, historic libraries, and archives that store and preserve historical documents. Often times these places are more than happy to assist you in your research. All it usually takes is a phone call to setup an appointment!

Free Library of Phila. - Special Collections
Special Collections enhance the educational mission of the Free Library by assembling and making accessible historic materials, providing reliable and knowledgeable research services, and offering instructional programs that promote understanding of our shared cultural heritage. Many items in Special Collections are searchable in the public catalog, through Finding Aids, or in our Digital Collections. Please contact the collections for further details.
Haverford College: Special Collections
The collection includes the papers of several families and individuals, approximately 4,000 rare books, as well as numerous historical maps and newspapers.
Rare Book & Manuscript Library at U. of Pennsylvania
Great collection of Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts and printed books. Also includes the Furness Shakespeare Library.
Rosenbach Museum & Library - Research Services & Hours
The Rosenbach preserves a nearly unparalleled rare book and manuscript collection, with particular strength in American and British literature and history.
Special Collections | Bryn Mawr College Library
The library holds papers, letters and manuscripts of 19 & 20th century writers: Katherine Sergeant White, long-time editor of the New Yorker, British poet Ralph Hodgson; papers and drawings of British illustrator Claud Lovat Fraser, Christina Rossetti, Laurence Housman, A.E. Housman, Marianne Moore, John Keats and other British and American writers.
more...less...
The library has strong collections of first and early editions of the works of major writers in English, from the First Folio of Shakespeare and the first printing of Milton's Paradise Lost, to original printings of the major British and American writers of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Also included are early editions of Rousseau, Voltaire, and other French writers, and first editions of 20th century Latin American writers.
PACSCL- Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
"The collections of PACSCL member libraries include a total of more than 4,000,000 rare books, 260,000 linear feet of manuscripts and archival materials, and 9,000,000 photographs, maps, architectural drawings, and works of art on paper."--pacscl.org

Digital Libraries

Digital libraries & archives are great ways to view primary sources or full texts without having to travel anywhere. Listed below are a few digital collections of English literary greats.

Piers Plowman Electronic Archive
William Blake Archive, The
Jane Austen | The Republic of Pemberley Electronic Texts
Allows you to electronically search within six of Austen's novels.
Shakespeare Quartos Archive, The
The Shakespeare Quartos Archive is a digital collection of pre-1642 editions of William Shakespeare's plays. A cross-Atlantic collaboration has also produced an interactive interface for the detailed study of these geographically distant quartos, with full functionality for all thirty-two quarto copies of Hamlet held by participating institutions.
A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy - The Morgan Library & Museum
Digital Scriptorium
"an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research."
British Women Romantic Poets, 1789 - 1832
"This scholarly archive preserves work that mainstream teachers and critics often ignore or undervalue. Notable authors include Joanna Baillie, Felicia Hemans, Mary Robinson, Charlotte Smith, and Jane Taylor."--CHOICE, ALA.

Literature: British: Primary Research

Primary Sources in Philly

Primary Resources in Philadelphia

Digital Libraries

About the Library

Using the Library

Interlibrary Services

Warner Memorial Library