Explore the Partition of India through our library resources

In August 1947 British India won its independence from the British and split into two new states, India and Pakistan (East Pakistan subsequently became Bangladesh), that would govern themselves. The Partition of India, as it was known, created a huge refugee crisis with millions of displaced people and the level of violence and loss of life prior to and after the Partition has caused reverberations over the years, with hostile relations between India and Pakistan continuing to this day.

With the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India being marked this month I’ve pulled together just a small selection of Library resources that will help you explore the Partition of India further.

What did the papers say?

The Library subscribes to a large number of online newspaper archives that will allow you to see what events were being reported on at the time and how they were being reported. Read full text articles, compare how different newspapers were covering the same issues and stories, track coverage from the start of the Indian independence movement in the 19th century until post-partition.

The Times of India (1838-2007)
The Library has access to the online archive of The Times of India, which covers the period 1838-2007. The Times of India is the world’s largest circulation English daily newspaper and, as would be expected, is particular valuable for its coverage of key historical events in India, such as the Partition.

But how does this compare with how newspapers in the UK were reporting on it e.g. The Times, The Guardian and The Observer, The Scotsman, The Telegraph, etc., or how international newspapers were reporting on events e.g. The New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde, Japan Times, etc?

Want to look at more recent coverage of the Partition of India? The Library also subscribes to databases, such as Factiva and Nexis UK, that allow you to search and access the full text of a large number of UK and international newspapers from around the 1980s up to date. You can access these, the databases mentioned above and many other newspaper archives and magazine archives from Newspaper Databases. Continue reading “Explore the Partition of India through our library resources”

Aug 16, 2017

New to the Library: 4 new collections of declassified U.S. government documents

I’m pleased to let you know that after a successful trial in semester two, 2016/17, the Library has now purchased access to four more collections from ProQuest’s Digital National Security Archive (DNSA).

The four new collections are:

Chile and the United States: U.S. Policy toward Democracy, Dictatorship, and Human Rights, 1970–1990
Electronic Surveillance and the National Security Agency: From Shamrock to Snowden
The Iran-Contra Affair: The Making of a Scandal, 1983–1988
Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. Policy and the Prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980–1994

You can access these collections and the other 7 collections we already own from DNSA from the Databases A-Z list or subject databases lists. See Spotlight on Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) for information about the 7 previously purchased collections. Continue reading “New to the Library: 4 new collections of declassified U.S. government documents”

Aug 15, 2017

Why football banned women

In this week’s blog I’m using some of the Library’s online resources to find primary source material relating to the popularity of women’s football during and just after the First World War and the decision by the FA to ban it.

The other night on catch-up I watched the Channel 4 documentary When Football Banned Women, programmed to coincide with the Women’s EURO 2017 (which Channel 4 just happens to be showing, it’s like they thought about their programming or something!) This interesting documentary looked at the rise in popularity of women’s football during the First World War and the subsequent decline after the decision by The Football Association (FA) to ban the women’s game in 1921.

If you’ve not seen it you can watch it on Box of Broadcasts (BoB).

Screenshot from ‘When Football Banned Women’ (Channel 4).

As I am always looking for an excuse to use some of the University Library’s fantastic online primary source collections, I decided this was a perfect story to try and find out more about from our online archives.

While I primarily used some of the online newspaper archives the Library has access to for that period, I did do some searching in some other primary source collections that covered the period in question. You can find a list of the specific databases I used at the end of the post.

Women’s football in the First World War

With 1000s of men being called up to fight in the First World War, women were expected to take on roles as never before in the workplace and with this came other opportunities. Women’s football teams began to form, often put together or sponsored by the industries and companies now employing the vast female workforce. These teams began to play matches with the primary aim of raising money for charity and while spectators may have originally attended to help raise money and to watch what they thought of as a novelty, they continued to attend as the matches were good and the teams had skill. Continue reading “Why football banned women”

Jul 28, 2017

New to the Library: Presidential Recordings Digital Edition

The Library now has access to the fascinating Presidential Recordings Digital Edition. This rich resource includes transcripts and corresponding audio of secretly recorded conversations in the Oval Office from Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon.

You can access Presidential Recordings Digital Edition via the Databases A-Z list and relevant Databases by Subject lists e.g. Primary Sources, Politics, etc. and you can access it via DiscoverEd.

Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt through to Richard M. Nixon all secretly recorded many of their conversations in the Oval Office. The resulting 5,000 hours of telephone and meeting tape recorded during their time in the White House capture some of the most significant moments in modern American political history. From Birmingham to Berlin, from Medicare to My Lai, from Selma to SALT, and from Watts to Watergate, the presidential recordings offer a unique window into the shaping of U.S. domestic and foreign policy. Continue reading “New to the Library: Presidential Recordings Digital Edition”

Jul 18, 2017

New to the Library: British Library Newspapers, Part V

I’m really pleased to let you know that the Library has purchased access to the final part of Gale Cengage’s British Library Newspapers collection (Part V). This means the Library now has access to the full British Library Newspapers, Parts I-V.

You can access British Library Newspapers via the Databases A-Z list or Newspapers databases list.

British Library Newspapers, Part V: 1746-1950, has a concentration of titles from the northern part of the United Kingdom with 36 individual titles included. This doubles coverage in Scotland, triples coverage in the Midlands, and adds a significant number of Northern titles to the British Library Newspapers collections. Continue reading “New to the Library: British Library Newspapers, Part V”

Jul 10, 2017

New to the Library: History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements, 1949-

I’m pleased to let you know that the Library has got a 1-year subscription to The Database for the History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements, 1949-.

The database provides full-text primary source materials relating to the Chinese political movements after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

You can access The Database for the History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements, 1949- via the Databases A-Z list. Continue reading “New to the Library: History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements, 1949-“

Jul 5, 2017

Spotlight on film and moving images

This is part of an occasional series highlighting some of the online resources available at the Library that will be of interest to students and staff in History, Classics and Archaeology.

While previous posts in this series have looked at groups of online primary source collections, in this post I wanted to highlight resources that give you access to film and moving images, including films, documentaries, TV programmes, public information films, archival film footage, cinema newsreels, advertising, home movies, etc.

Film provides a fascinating insight into the past through documentary, archival and amateur film footage and a deliberately constructed historical world through feature films. However, using film as ‘historical evidence’ is far from straightforward; specific skills are required to understand the complexities of the visual medium, its relationship to the society from which it emerges, the industry which created it and those who consumed it. Despite these obstacles, film is a crucial means for understanding the recent past.¹

Academic Video Online

Continue reading “Spotlight on film and moving images”

Mar 23, 2017

Woman Suffrage Procession: using our newspaper archives for your research

In this week’s blog I’m using some of the Library’s online resources to find primary source material about a specific event, the Woman Suffrage Procession of 1913.

On 3rd March 1913 a woman suffrage procession was held in Washington DC. Not by chance was this date chosen, 3rd March was the day before a new US President, Woodrow Wilson, was inaugurated. It’s estimated that around 5000 women took part in the suffrage pageant organised by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the first of its kind in Washington DC.

Benjamin Moran Dale (1889–1951), for the National American Women’s Suffrage Association; restored by Adam Cuerden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

But what started as a peaceful parade ended with the women being harassed and jeered by onlookers with the police doing little to intervene.

I have to admit I had never heard the story of this parade until I read a short article on it in the March 2017 issue of the BBC History Magazine¹. And reading about it, it wasn’t hard to draw parallels with the recent Women’s March that took place in Washington DC and around the world days after the inauguration of a new US President this year.

I wanted to try and find out more about this Suffrage Parade (also referred to as Suffrage Pageant) using some of the resources available at the Library. And I wanted to focus on primary sources about the event, particularly newspaper articles.

So where better to start than by searching and browsing some of the newspaper archives for US titles that we have access to at the Library, specifically the Historical Washington Post (1877-1999), New York Tribune archive (1841-1922) and the Historical New York Times (1851-2012). Continue reading “Woman Suffrage Procession: using our newspaper archives for your research”

Mar 6, 2017

Spotlight on Archives Unbound

This is the second in a (very) occasional series highlighting some of the online resources available at the Library that will be of interest to students and staff in History, Classics and Archaeology.

Archives Unbound from Gale Cengage provides access to topically-focused digital collections of historical documents. This is a vast array of valuable primary source material covering a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages onwards and the material supports the research and study needs of students and scholars. Most of collections are chosen for Archives Unbound based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.

At present the Library has access to 9 collections from Archives Unbound, primarily covering topics and events from the twentieth century with one exception. Descriptions of these collections comes from the Archives Unbound site. Continue reading “Spotlight on Archives Unbound”

Dec 9, 2016

Spotlight on Digital National Security Archive (DNSA)

This is the first in an occasional series highlighting some of the online resources available at the Library that will be of interest to students and staff in History, Classics and Archaeology.

The Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) from ProQuest gives you access to a vast collection of important declassified U.S. government documents. This provides valuable primary source material central to U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945 and helps advance research in history, politics and international relations.

Within DNSA are collections that cover U.S. policy towards critical world events, including their military, intelligence, diplomatic and human rights dimensions. Each collection is overseen by a subject expert and they allow researchers to directly access the original documents that shaped responses to these critical world events.

With the recent purchase of the collections U.S. Policy in the Vietnam War, Part I and II the Library now has access to 7 collections via DNSA.
[As of August 2017 4 new collections have now been added.]

Continue reading “Spotlight on Digital National Security Archive (DNSA)”

Jun 21, 2016

Category: Primary sources