Learning and research resources

Historical Texts

Cover: Gold, Silver, Lead. A collection of original stories. (published 1867)
Creative Commons attribution information
Cover: Gold, Silver, Lead. A collection of original stories. (published 1867)
©British Library via Historical Texts
All rights reserved

A single platform providing access to over 400,000 texts from four key collections, dating from the late 15th century to the First World War.

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About Historical Texts

The texts are held in four collections all brought together on a single platform and searchable separately or collectively using an extremely powerful, academically focused search engine:

  • Early English Books Online (EEBO)
  • Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
  • British Library 19th Century Collection (BL)
  • UK Medical Heritage Library

Benefits for students and researchers

  • Offers three individually important collections spanning more than 400 years in one place, making research easier, quicker and more comprehensive
  • Enable users to search the full text of many historical works, including rare and obscure works they might otherwise not know about and that provide a rich source of original findings
  • Provides valuable insight into the form and appearance of original works, making research more rewarding, interesting and engaging
  • Removes the time-consuming, costly need to visit libraries where original works are physically held
  • Provides a rich source of original illustrations for use in scholarly works and presentations
  • Optimised for tablet and mobiles to support new ways of accessing content

Benefits for academic staff

  • Brings lectures and other presentations to life through the inclusion of original source material and illustrations
  • Gives access to rare and obscure resources that can add originality and breadth to a topic
  • Provides a rich source of original illustrations for teaching materials
  • Engages visual learners

Benefits for institutions and librarians

  • Offers cost savings compared to separate EEBO and ECCO subscriptions via commercial providers.
  • Offers the administrative and user-training benefits of a single subscription, login and interface covering all three collections
  • VAT free for institutions that join our VAT cost sharing group

Who can use Historical Texts?

Learners and staff at all UK FE colleges and HE institutions that are subscribed to the service.

Eligible institutions can request a free 30-day trial.

Further information on how to subscribe can be found on the Jisc Collections website:

Historical Texts replaces Jisc Historic Books.

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Latest @HistoricalTexts tweets

Did you know you can use fuzzy search option to improve results affected by OCR text data quality?… https://t.co/nq961vZsnn