| This
list of websites, providing access to sources that I have found useful
in my researches, has no claims to be comprehensive. I have excluded Family
History sites from this list.
Books
and Monographs
The Cambridgeshire
Collection is the major resource of printed material relating to the City
and County of Cambridge. It holds books, pamphlets, directories and monographs,
newspapers, maps, illustrations, ephemera, recordings and other material.
The Cambridgeshire Collection online catalogue is the most comprehensive
record of published information, but the digitisation is patchy: https://ibistro.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/uhtbin/webcat
Other
catalogues include:
- Robert
Bowes - A catalogue of books printed at or relating to the University,
town & county of Cambridge, from 1521 to 1893 : with bibliographical
and biographical notes (1894) – digitised as part of the Internet
Archive (see below) - www.archive.org/details/catcambridge00boweuoft
Books
Available Online
-
Google
Book Search is a project to digitise thousands of out-of-print
books. You can search by any topic and it will take you to that specific
location giving a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire
text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF
copy. I recommend this heartily. Items include many of the standard
works on Fenland drainage such as those by Wells and Elstobb. books.google.com
-
Internet
Archive is another project which has digitised thousands of books,
page by page. Cambridge items include C.H. Cooper’s ‘Annals
of Cambridge’ and ‘Memorials of Cambridge’, J.H.
Mullinger ‘University of Cambridge’ volumes, T.D. Atkinson
‘Cambridge described and illustrated’ and the Bowes Catalogue
of Cambridge books. www.archive.org/index.php
-
The
Victoria County History volumes are the most authoritative source;
some of their volumes are available at British History Online, www.british-history.ac.uk,
which contains other core printed primary and secondary sources for
the medieval and modern history of the British Isles.
-
County
Directories give a survey of each village together with a list of
trades people. A number are available at: www.historicaldirectories.org
Athens
Other websites
are available via registered users of ‘Athens’, an Access Management System
developed by Eduserv with organisations such as Universities. It includes
:
-
EEBO
- Early English Books Online which contains digital facsimile page
images of virtually every work printed in England from 1473-1700.
It includes Dugdale Imbanking and Draining - eebo.chadwyck.com/home
-
JSTOR
which allows you to search and retrieve scanned journal articles issues
- www.jstor.org/search/
Parliamentary
Papers
-
Cambridge
University Library’s online resources gives access to a detailed
index and searchable text of thousands of parliamentary papers published
between 1801 and 2000 including Charity and Agricultural Labour Gang
reports – parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing/index.jsp
Newspapers
-
The Times digital archive 1785-1985 enables you to search and see stories
they have carried over the years. Their website - times_digital_archive.htm
is available via the Electronic Resources section of the Cambridgeshire
Libraries website - www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/online/
-
There were about 40 newspapers published in Cambridgeshire from 1764
to date. For a list of these, and their locations consult Newsplan –
newsplan.liem.org.uk.
There are microfilms of most in the Cambridgeshire Collection and Cambridge
University Library.
-
The Cambridgeshire Collection has card indexes of Cambridgeshire news
stories 1770-1900 together with files of newspaper cuttings from 1958.
These are not available online.
-
I have compiled ‘A Century of Cambridge Daily News’ –
Cambridge stories 1888 to date on topics such as transport, water supply,
university, war, planning etc. together with an index to my ‘Looking
Back’ columns in the Cambridge Evening News. Please email me if
these can be of use.
See my notes on ‘Cambridgeshire Newspapers
and the Local Researcher’ on my website.
Maps
Aerial Photos
Illustrations
The Cambridgeshire Collection has the largest selection of prints and
photographs of Cambridgeshire with over 400,000 images. There are various
indexes, part of one of which is available on the Collection’s website.
Cambridgeshire
Explorer CD-ROMs of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire each contain over 1,000
images of the county. I strongly recommend you buy these from Hugo Brown
at www.cambridge-explorer.org.uk
Other
sites that include old images of Cambridgeshire include:
-
The British Library ‘Collect Britain’ website gives access
to scanned images of prints and engravings -
www.collectbritain.co.uk
-
Cambridgeshire Community Archives Network for various local villages
- www.ccan.co.uk
Buildings
Archives
-
Janus is a website which provides access to catalogues of archives held
throughout Cambridge. The work is in progress, with new catalogues being
added regularly -
janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/
Other Sources
- The Cambridgeshire Association for Local History has a link to many
other local websites - www.calh.org.uk/links.htm
- Martin Edwards has produced a link to sources of Cambridgeshire history
– www.cambridgeshirehistory.com/
Mike
Petty, October 2007, (+ thanks to Chris Holley) |