Key Digital Collections of British Empire Primary Sources Focused on Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean:

  • One More Voice project, which works to recover and when possible digitize texts written by colonized people and recognize their contributions to 19th and 20th century histories. Many of the sources here are produced by Africans, but some are by Indian and Caribbean authors. https://onemorevoice.org/materials.html

  • International Mission Photography Archive, 1860-1960, database with photos from a wide variety of missionary organizations stationed all over the world, some of them British https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/Archive/International-Mission-Photography-Archive--ca-1860-ca-1960-2A3BF1OL0UB

    Collections Relevant to the Middle East -

  • Travelers in the Middle East archive, via Rice University. From the 19th and 20th centuries. Explore the Texts, Historical Maps and Plans, and Visual Materials pages. https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/123456789/1

  • Land of Zenj Photograph Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale. The collection, assembled by the rare book dealers Jenny Allsworth and Humphrey Winterton, brings together photographs, photograph albums, glass lantern slides, and a lantern projector, which document the Sultanate of Zanzibar and European colonial expansion in East and Central Africa from 1870 to 1914. Also documented are early Arab and Portuguese coastal settlements at Kilwa, Mafia, Pemba, Sofala, and Zanzibar. The collection also represents the work of certain photographers who operated in different parts of the region, including C. Vicente of Dar es Salaam, Coutinho Brothers of Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, P. De Lord Brothers of Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Walther Dobbertin, and A. C. Gomes & Co. of Zanzibar, among others. Click on the blue Digital Materials tab at the top of the page to see digitized items. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/789/digital_materials

  • Qatar Digital Library Online Collections, this link takes you to items associated with the 19th century, you can further narrow your results with the fields on the left. Collection includes documents from Britain’s India and Foreign Offices. https://www.qdl.qa/en/search/site/?f%5B0%5D=document_source%3Aarchive_source&f%5B1%5D=date_range%3A%5B1800%20TO%201899%5D

  • Afghanistan Digital Archive, collection of 500+ historic books about the region, a few are British texts and published in English http://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/afghanistan/index.html

  • School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, which includes digital collections of primary sources about the Middle East https://digital.soas.ac.uk/rme

  • Gertrude Bell Project, includes the letters, diaries, and photos of the famous woman traveler, esp relevant to the Middle East http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/

  • 19th century accounts by Champollion and Rosellini on expeditions to Egypt. Great primary sources for 19th c Egyptology, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/exploring-egypt/

    Collections Relevant to Africa -

  • The Sudan Archive at Durham University. Contains digitized copies of Intelligence Reports, Governor-General Reports, Staff Lists, Government Gazettes, Maps, and Photos documenting Britain’s co-rule over Sudan with Egypt (this was called the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, and lasted from 1898 to 1955) https://libguides.durham.ac.uk/asc-sudan-archive/home

  • South African History Online Archives, a hodgepodge of items, many from the 20th century and anti-apartheid movement, although there are a handful of 19th century collections https://www.sahistory.org.za/how-to-search    

  • SOAS Digital Collections of Primary Sources about Africa https://digital.soas.ac.uk/rafr

  • Olive Schreiner Papers, South African woman socialist activist, writer. Complete letters from 1871 to 1920 https://www.oliveschreiner.org/

  • Livingstone Online, collection of works and other resources related to celebrity “explorer” of Africa and missionary, David Livingstone https://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words

  • Forward to Freedom, the History of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain 1959-1994. Documents, including interviews, with British people who supported the end of apartheid in South Africa. https://www.aamarchives.org/

  • African Activists Archives’ list of records related to organizations outside the US, including many in the UK and in British colonies. This project is preserving and making available online the records of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s. https://africanactivist.msu.edu/browse/organizations/

  • Archives of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/

  • University of Cape Town Digital Collections https://digitalcollections.lib.uct.ac.za/

  • University of South Africa Library Digital Collections http://digilibrary.unisa.ac.za/digital/

  • Africa Online Digital Library, via Michigan State University, various digital collections related to 20th c Africa, http://www.aodl.org/

Collections Relevant to the Caribbean -

  • Digital Library of the Caribbean, collection of various digitized sources including newspapers (see above), magazines, photographs, archival collections and rare books https://dloc.com/