Stories from the collection

Our records offer unique insight into the careful diplomacy that took place in North America during the 18th century.

Explore the parties of James I and VI's court as told by the royal household's financial accounts.

Though surveillance documents, we can learn about vibrant gatherings in the 1920s, the people involved and the passionate, intimate letters that survive.

At the end of the First World War, the British Army enlisted the service of Chinese labourers working in the Arctic.

Explore Jane Austen's will, in her own handwriting, which shows how the novelist planned to share her belongings with family and friends after her death.

Ann Nevil's story is one of many extraordinary people whose lives were changed forever during the American Revolution.

In this letter, Thomas Henshaw of Derbyshire complained of his treatment by local officials who denied him welfare despite his ‘most distressing’ situation.

Discover how plants travelled across the British Empire in the 19th century and the effect this has on our natural environment, and eating habits, today.

This record of disputes taken to court in 1518, written in abbreviated Latin, includes a vivid portrait of the reigning monarch at the time.

On the Atlantic coast of Morocco are two cities that became one of the most substantial Islamic ports of the 17th Century.

Henry Savage Sweetman published the Calendar which translated over 8,000 Irish medieval records. But who was Sweetman and why did he complete this project?

This affidavit is testament to the lengths enslaved African people went to in seeking their freedom.