Gender, Class, and Crime: The Victorian Underworld

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You might start with the following sources to get background information or to contextualize primary sources:

Victorian Britain : an encyclopedia / Sally Mitchell, editor. LOCATION: AC Frost Reference / DA550 .V53 1988

The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals: 1824-1900 / Walter E. Houghton, editor. LOCATION: AC Frost Reference / Z2005 .H6 [Especially useful if you plan to use British Periodicals.]

  • Cambridge Histories
    Provides political, economic and social history, philosophy and literature of selected countries and subjects.
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2002.

When searching for books in the 5 Colleges Catalog or WorldCat, use the following Subject Keywords to get started, and narrow down your search with appropriate keywords:

LinkGreat Britain  History  Victoria, 1837-1901
Great Britain  History  19th Century
Great Britain  Social Conditions  19th Century

See, for example, a slightly more complicated search: 

VictorianUnderworldScreenshot.png


To search for books with illustrations, use 'ill' or 'illus' as a keyword, or search for 'pictorial' or 'illustrations' as a Subject keyword.

    • Historical Abstracts with Full Text (1955 to present)
      Scholarly literature about world history since 1450 (excluding the United States and Canada).
    • JSTOR
      Full-text backfiles of over two thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. (Alumni access)
    • British Periodicals
      Searchable full text of hundreds of British periodicals from the late 17th century to the early 20th, with high-resolution facsimile page images.

    Historical Hansard: 1803-2005
    Historiacl Hansard provides access to digitised editions of Commons and Lords Hansard, the Official Report of debates in Parliament. There's the Hansard text itself by volume, Lords sittings, Commons sittings and Westminster Hall sittings as well as Written Answers, Written Statements, Lords reports and Grand Committee reports. This site also includes extracted lists of People who are recorded as having spoken, Constituencies, Offices, Acts, Bills and Divisions.

    Institute of Historical Research, British History Online
    British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, it aims to support academic and personal users around the world in their learning, teaching and research.

    The National Archives, Online Collections
    Over 5% of The National Archives' records have so far been digitised and we are continuing to put records online. Browse this section to view some of our most popular online collections.

    British Library - Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians
    Discover a wealth of original sources spanning the Romantic and Victorian periods, including literary treasures such as original manuscripts, first editions and rare illustrations, alongside historical material such as newspapers, diaries, letters, photographs, and maps.

    Print collections

    As explained on the Primary Source Research Guide, you can use the 5 Colleges Catalog or WorldCat to identify collections of primary source material. Specific subjects include:

    Great Britain  History  Victoria, 1837-1901  Sources
    Great Britain  History  19th Century  Sources

    You might also go to the Advanced Search and start with keywords related to your topic in one search box, and narrow down your search to primary source material by copying and pasting the following into another search box (just make sure the AND option is selected in the drop-down menu between search boxes). "archival resources" or archives or correspondence or diaries or interviews or notebooks or sketchbooks or "personal narratives" or photographs or sources or speeches 

    • ARTstor
      Image database including architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture.
    • Bridgeman Education
      A visual resource offering digital images of art, history, and culture from museums, galleries, private collections, and contemporary artists.
    • Oxford Art Online
      Oxford Art Online is the access point for Grove Art Online, and other Oxford art reference works covering all forms of the visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, graphic and decorative arts, and photography from prehistory to the present.

    British Library Images
    Images from within the Library’s digitised collection of over 65,000 books from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

    British Museum Image Service
    There are currently 2,156,677 records available, which represent more than 3,500,000 objects. 866,236 records have one or more images. Be sure to note the Advanced Search Options.

    Victoria & Albert Museum: Search the Collections
    Search the Collections is a working database providing online access to over 1.1 million catalogue records and over 293,000 images of objects in the Victoria & Albert Museum collection.

    Yale Center for British Art
    Collection of British art from the Elizabethan period to the present day, including paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare books, and manuscripts.

    Smithsonian Institution Collections Online
    works from the collections within the broad categories of Art & Design, History & Culture, and Science & Technology