This is a brief guide to help you find records of 19th century political history. The National Archives holds many records for this period, including the correspondence and minutes of the major departments, such as the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and the Treasury. We also hold the papers of some prominent politicians. Collections of papers are also held by other archives.
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What records can I see online?
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House of Commons parliamentary papers (1715-present)
Search Parliamentary papers (institutional subscription required) for digitised copies of official papers published by the House of Commons and House of Lords.
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London Gazette (1665-present)
Search the London Gazette by date or keyword for official news from home and abroad.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Papers of prominent people
Search Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies, under places, prominent people and subjects to find records held at The National Archives relating to particular people, such as politicians.
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Home Office records (1782-2005)
You can search our catalogue by a range of years within HO with keywords such as:
- poverty
- crime
- public health
If you do not find what you are looking for, browse the department code HO for Home Office records instead. Not all the records in HO are searchable by keywords.
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Treasury records (1557-1922)
Browse our catalogue in record series T1, for records of the Treasury including correspondence, reports and minutes.
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Foreign Office records (before 1906)
Browse our catalogue in record series FO 1-FO 90 and FO 95-FO 111 for records earlier than 1906. These are mostly arranged by country.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Records held in archives in the United Kingdom and abroad
Search for key political figures in the National Register of Archives (NRA) database to find records held in other archives.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Explore a range of nineteenth-century sources in British History Online.
Consult the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (institutional subscription required) for biographies of prominent people.
Search The Times Archive and Guardian and Observer Digital Archive to view articles (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) about 19th century politics.Search on Historic Hansard for official report of debates in Parliament.
Search on Parliamentary Papers for House of Common sessional papers from 1715 to present day.
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Pamphlets and newspapers
Search the catalogues on the British Library website to find nineteenth-century political pamphlets and newspapers.
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18th century political history
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Parliament