Eighteenth Century Journals Portal

I received an offer of a trial subscription to the Eighteenth Century Journals Portal last year, but I did not have time to explore it.  It is published by Adam Matthew Digital in the UK.  I had been planning on mentioning it, but I also wanted to keep our focus on EECO and EEBO for the time being because these two databases are the focus of our conference sessions.

Yet I just received a new offer of a trial, so I thought I would mention it (I suspect that the firm would be more than willing to offer trials to others). Have others used this resource?  I will be trying it over the next few days.

Here is a description of what it contains:

Eighteenth Century Journals Portal consists of the following resources:

• Eighteenth Century Journals I
  Newspapers and Periodicals, 1693-1793, from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

• Eighteenth Century Journals II
  Newspapers and Periodicals, 1699-1812, from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin

• Eighteenth Century Journals III
  Newspapers and Periodicals, 1680-1816, from British Library Newspapers, Colindale and Cambridge University Library

The Eighteenth Century Journals Portal offers seamless integration between all collections and enables streamlined browsing and searching via a single user interface.

Eighteenth Century Journals I is drawn from the Hope Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It brings together 76 rare journals printed between 1714 and 1799. The collection combines well-known publications with more minor works, offering users a wide-ranging view of eighteenth century publishing culture.

Authors represented include Joseph Addison, Henry Fielding, Horace Walpole, Richard Steele, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Chatterton. Topics covered include law and policing; British colonial possessions; the South Sea Bubble, religion, female dress and the American and French revolutions; politics, marriage, and morality. A particular strength is eighteenth century drama, with over 19 titles relating to the theatre.

The collection offers students and scholars of the eighteenth century an opportunity to examine a variety of topical issues, and to compare a range of perspectives on the debates of the day. Accessible and easy to use, it will prove an invaluable addition to any library supporting studies of the eighteenth century.

Eighteenth Century Journals II from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin is a critical resource for the study of all aspects of the eighteenth century. It offers a wide variety of newspapers and periodicals which are not available elsewhere. Many are extremely rare and exist only in short runs. All are now offered in extremely clear greyscale images, supported by fully searchable text that has been double-keyed and is captured in the original format.

This resource can be used for the study of:

• British and European Literature
• Theatre and popular entertainment
• Politics and Religion
• The American and French Revolutions
• Popular morality and social life
• Picturesque and Landscape
• The origins and rise of Romanticism
• Exoticism and imperialism

Eighteenth Century Journals III is drawn from British Library Newspapers at Colindale and from Cambridge University Library. At the request of scholars and librarians, it focuses on journals published outside of London.

Scholars will be excited by the inclusion of Canadian, Caribbean and Indian journals and can explore the ways in which major world events such as the revolution in Haiti are reported in different areas.

They will also be delighted to see the large number of Irish journals, together with a good number of titles published in Edinburgh, Canterbury and Cambridge.

As always, the material has been carefully checked against Burney, ECCO, Early British Periodicals and other relevant sources to avoid needless duplication.  All of the material has been double-keyed and is fully searchable, achieving 99.5% accuracy (much higher than using OCR).