Victorian Studies

Collections overview

The Library has extensive holdings in Victorian Studies which, as it is an interdisciplinary subject, are to be found across the range of the Library’s collections.

Collection strengths include:

Literature of the period - modern critical editions, basic editions and first editions for many authors' works
Large collection of nineteenth-century journals

Useful assistance with the literature:

W. Propas (1992) Victorian Studies: a research guide
L. Madden (1970) How to find out about the Victorian period

Catalogues

The online catalogue provides the main record of books and journals for all Library collections. However, a proportion of pre-1980 holdings remains to be incorporated, and can be located on the online card catalogue. Items are recorded principally by author surname, but corporate bodies such as institutions or government departments differ:

eg ENGLAND. Departments of State and Official Bodies. Local Government Board
LONDON. Railway Clearing House

Special Collections

The Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature contains original editions of books, pamphlets and periodicals on economic and social matters published from the 15th to the early 20th centuries. There is a good proportion of works published in the 19th century on matters such as Chartism, railways, industry and social conditions.

Other Special Collections of note include the:

Family Welfare Association Library – material on poverty, the Poor Law and charity
Harry Price Library – spiritualism, magic and the occult
John Burns Collection – labour and trade union matters
Sterling Library – original editions of literary texts
Malcolm Morley Library - play texts from the nineteenth century

Victorian books

To locate individual titles use the online catalogue
Books not found in the University of London Research Library Services may be listed in COPAC [www.copac.ac.uk], Nineteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue – series I and II in the Book Studies collection or British Library General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975 and its online successor the British Library Integrated Catalogue

Government Publications

The Library holds a complete collection of Parliamentary Papers, sometimes referred to as the ‘blue books’, which contain original data on all aspects of Victorian economy, society and government, such as censuses and reports and proceedings of Royal Commissions. These are complemented by a complete run of Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) and a good collection of government publications not presented to Parliament (Non-Parliamentary Publications).

Parliamentary Papers are not generally recorded separately in the Library’s catalogues. Specialised finding tools and indexes are in the British Government Publications section. The Library has the Index to House of Commons Parliamentary Papers on CD-ROM 1801-1995, which can be accessed in the Information Centre, 4th floor.

Victorian newspapers

Readers may access the online Times Digital Archive 1785-1985 in the Information Centre, 4th floor. The Times is also held on microfilm for its entire run. Palmer’s Index to the Times 1790-1905 is available on CD-ROM, and printed indexes for the Victorian Period are also held.

The Pall Mall Gazette for the years 1865-90 is also available on microfilm.

The printed catalogues, in eight volumes, of the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale is available in the Periodicals Room. An online version is also available via the Library’s website.

Victorian periodicals

Periodical publications were a major feature of Victorian publishing, and the Library has an impressive nineteenth-century journal collection. Particularly significant are the long runs of general periodicals characteristic of the age, such as Edinburgh Review, Punch and Westminster Review. The Library also has good holdings of the more specialised journals, eg Art Journal, Economist, Lancet and Nature. Periodical titles not held can be checked on COPAC and the British Library online catalogues. Other listings include the Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900 and the British Union Catalogue of Periodicals (BUCOP), both shelved in the Periodicals Room, 4th floor.

Indexes provide the key to making the best use of these journals by identifying individual articles. Some periodicals produced indexes to their contents – these may be noted on the catalogue records.

Indexes

The Library holds three major indexes covering many journals of the Victorian period which are vital tools in searching out articles on particular subjects or by particular authors:

Wellesley Index - lists contents and authors of important 19th century journals – available in printed form in the Periodicals Room and on CD-ROM in the Information Centre, 4th floor
Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature 1802-1907 – indexes titles and subjects and has a separate author index
Periodicals Archives Online and Periodicals Index Online – an online index to thousands of journals from 1770 onwards, which now includes the full text of many articles