JSTOR recently announced the initial release of The 19th Century British Pamphlets Project, a collaboration with RLUK (Research Libraries UK) and JISC (Joint Information Systems Committeee). Approximately 8,200 pamphlets were added to JSTOR on February 3, including portions of the Knowsley Pamphlet Collection (University of Liverpool), Cowen Tracts (Newcastle University), and the Hume Tracts (University College London).
The 19th Century British Pamphlets collection is now freely accessible to all JSTOR participating institutions through June 30, 2009. JSTOR will be working to evaluate delivery, presentation, and use of the content, in order to develop an understanding of how best to address the needs of researchers and students working with it. There will be regular releases of additional material during this pamphlet trial period. More than 20,000 19th Century British pamphlets will eventually be added to the JSTOR archive as part of this project.
[Image from Are women fit for politics? Are politics fit for women? Parts 1-2. From Cowen Tracts, Newcastle University, 1850.]
Highlights include:
- Pamphlets by and about: Charles Babbage, W.E. Gladstone, Florence Nightingale, Charles Bradlaugh, Joseph Hume, Thomas Paine, John Bright, John Stuart Mill, Robert Peel
- Valuable content inside and appended to pamphlets: Advertisements, diagrams and maps, petitions, annotations, engravings, portraits, cartoons, letters
- 7 Collections represented, including Selections from the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Earl Grey Pamphlets Collection, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection