Nineteenth-Century Parliamentary Papers

• Format: Full text
• Media: Electronic/Online

• Coverage Dates: 1801-1900

Parliamentary Papers are the most detailed primary source for nineteenth-century Britain, its colonies, and the wider world. They are the working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic, and foreign policy. They influenced public opinion and social and political philosophy, and provided a forum for the ideas of hundreds of thinkers, among them Jenner, Arnold, Trollope, Mill, Faraday, Babbage, Telford, and Brunel.

This comprehensive collection includes all of the papers issued by the House of Commons between 1801-1900 in all formats, including:

• Bills—e.g. abolition of slavery, electoral reform
• Reports of Royal Commissions—e.g. the poor, health, and sanitation
• Reports of Select Committees—e.g. mining and railway accidents
• Accounts and Papers—e.g. correspondence relative to the affairs of the British in North America
• Command Papers—(included within the Reports of Commissioners and Accounts and Papers)

All of the papers are full text searchable with hit term highlighting, and accompanied by the bibliographic data and subject indexing from the acclaimed Subject Catalogue to the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900. High-quality scans of the original printed papers will also allow users to see all of the accompanying illustrations, statistics, and maps. 

In addition to full text, users will be able to search and browse numerous fields, including:

• Paper title
• Subject (both alphabetical and hierarchical subjects)
• Chair/author
• Session
• Paper type
• Paper number
• Year

Initial results include brief bibliographic citations. After receiving them, researchers can view more detailed records, find related documents by clicking on hyperlinked subjects and related bills, mark specific documents for printing or downloading in PDF, and sort results by relevance or by date.

Researchers can view complete, digitized images of original pages from all the works in the database and even manipulate them by, for example, zooming in and out or printing pages one at a time, or navigating between illustrations only. 

The digital version of the Nineteenth-Century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers makes this essential primary-source material easily and quickly accessible to undergraduates, researchers, and reference staff for the first time ever.

A demo is available for Nineteenth-Century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers at here.