CSSLibraryGuides: The World of the Eighteenth Century (for English Majors): My Bad

Pre-Internet Days

Public Scribe in Paris, France, (Engraving after George E. Opiz, 1775-1841. German, 18th).

Image from Art Museum Image Gallery.

Yes, they are not in the Reference Collection, but they were just too fun to pass up!

British Literary Manuscripts
Facsimile images of literary manuscripts dating from medieval times to 1900.
The Reading Experience Database, 1450-1945
What people read in England, based on over 30,000 journal, letter, and book entries.
London Lives, 1600-1800: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis
London Lives makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives and is supplemented by fifteen datasets created by other projects. It provides access to historical records containing over 3.35 million name instances. Facilities are provided to allow users to link together records relating to the same individual, and to compile biographies of the best documented individuals.
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
The Newgate Calendar (for 1795)
One of the three most popular books in England for many a year - all the lurid details of MURDER in merry olde England.

Reference Universe searches the table of contents & indexes of recent print and electronic encyclopedias in the CSS Reference Collection.