--- title: "Online sources" date: "2025-01-30T13:10:04+00:00" modified: "2025-05-01T11:16:53+01:00" url: "https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/" post_id: 9622 --- # Online sources Publishing has always been central to the spreading of humanist and radical ideas, and today hundreds of pamphlets, periodicals, books, and handbills can be viewed online. Below is a growing, and non-exhaustive, list of where some of these can be found, along with links to online collections containing materials of relevance to humanist history. Highlights ---------- Whether you’re researching a specific subject or just want to browse, there are thousands of pages waiting to be discovered online – many of them completely free. If you’re not sure where to start, why not explore the pages of *[Isis](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101059455541&seq=7)* (1832): a weekly publication edited by Eliza Sharples, and dedicated to ‘the young women of England for generations to come, or until superstition is extinct’. For a glimpse into 19th century challenges to the blasphemy law (and the powerful defences mounted in court), take a look at the [collected trials](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PtQWqA69aFwC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=trial%20thomas%20paterson&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false) of Thomas Paterson, Thomas Finlay, and [Matilda Roalfe](https://heritage.humanists.uk/matilda-roalfe/). If you’re interested in the origins of Humanists UK, flick through the [minute book](https://archive.org/details/bha-3-8-1/page/n7/mode/2up) of the [West London Ethical Society](https://heritage.humanists.uk/west-london-ethical-society/), who believed that the good life need rely on ‘no external authority, and on no system of supernatural rewards or punishments’. And to explore how the humanist and rationalist movement flourished in the US, you could start with the [first issue](https://archive.org/details/american-rationalist_1956-05_1_1/mode/2up) of *The American Rationalist,* published in 1956 and celebrating a nationwide union of freethinkers. - - [ Discover Eliza Sharples’ dedication to the young women of England (1832) ](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101059455541&seq=7) - [ Read the report of a blasphemy trial (1844) ](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PtQWqA69aFwC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=trial%20thomas%20paterson&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false) - [ Flick through the minute book of one of Humanists UK’s founding societies (1892) ](https://archive.org/details/bha-3-8-1/page/n7/mode/2up) - [ Cross the water with the *The American Rationalist* (1946) ](https://archive.org/details/american-rationalist_1956-05_1_1/mode/2up) Journals, papers, and periodicals ----------------------------------- - [ *The Republican* (1819–1826) ](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008696431) - [ *The Lion* (1828–1829) ](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011570742) - [ *The Isis* (1832) ](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008911549) - [ *The Oracle of Reason* (1841–1843) ](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PFIqAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Oracle%20of%20Reason&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false) - [ *The Investigator!* (1843) ](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102717370) - [ *The Movement* (1843–1845) ](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ybZbAAAAQAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=The%20Movement%20anti%20persecution&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false) - [ *The National Reformer* (1860–1893) ](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100172969) - [ *The Reasoner* (1846–1872) ](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010317387) - [ *The London Investigator* (1854–1859) ](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5lpFAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Oracle%20of%20Reason&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false) - [ *The Truth Seeker* (US, est. 1873) ](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002061407) - [ *The Secular Chronicle* (1872–1879) ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-secular-chronicle/) - [ *The Freethinker* (est. 1881) ](https://archive.freethinker.co.uk/) - [ *Our Corner* (1883–1888) ](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000062173) - [ *The Agnostic Annual* (est. 1884) ](https://reader.exacteditions.com/magazines/397/issues/) - [ *Watts’s Literary Guide* (1885–1894) ](https://reader.exacteditions.com/magazines/397/issues/) - [ *The Open Court* (US, 1887–1936) ](https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ocj/) - [ *International Journal of Ethics* (est. 1890) ](https://archive.org/details/pub_ethics?sort=date) - [ *The Literary Guide* (1894–1956) ](https://reader.exacteditions.com/magazines/397/issues/) - [ *The Humanist* (US, est. 1941) ](https://archive.org/details/pub_humanist?tab=collection&sort=date) - [ *The Humanist* (1956–1972) ](https://reader.exacteditions.com/magazines/397/issues/) - [ *The American Rationalist* (est. 1956) ](https://archive.org/details/pub_american-rationalist?sort=date) - [ *Iconoclast* (1966) ](https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/c5b1jn) - [ *The Honest Ulsterman* (1968–2003) ](https://www.huarchive.co/collections/show/1) - [ *New Humanist* (1972– ) ](https://reader.exacteditions.com/magazines/397/issues/) Online collections -------------------- - [ 19th Century British Pamphlets ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=Collections-,19th%20Century%20British%20Pamphlets,-An%20enormous%20collection) - [ Anarchist Library ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=free%20personal%20account.-,Anarchist%20Library,-An%20online%20archive) - [ Blasphemy trials ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/blasphemy-trials/) - [ Conway Hall pamphlets ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=Conway%20Hall%20pamphlets) - [ Cowen Tracts ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=and%20%E2%80%98secularism%E2%80%98.-,Cowen%20Tracts,-Personal%20collection%20of) - [ Hansard ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=free%20personal%20account.-,Hansard,-The%20official%20report) - [ HathiTrust ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=sex%20marriage.-,HathiTrust,-HathiTrust%20holds%20the) - [ Humanist Heritage ](https://archive.org/details/@humanist_heritage?sort=date) - [ Humanist Funeral Tribute Archive ](https://humanisttributearchive.uk/) - [ International Institute of Social History ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=Further%20reading.-,International%20Institute%20of%20Social%20History,-The%20International%20Institute) - [ Internet Archive ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=the%20collection%20page.-,Internet%20Archive,-Like%20HathiTrust%2C%20an) - [ Kate Sharpley Library ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=and%20membership%20lists.-,Kate%20Sharpley%20Library,-The%20Kate%20Sharpley) - [ LSE Digital Library ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=Intellectual%20Cousins%E2%80%98.-,LSE%20Digital%20Library,-The%20LSE%20Digital) - [ Marxists Internet Archive Library ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=Marxists%20Internet%20Archive%20Library) - [ University of Warwick archives online ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=University%20of%20Warwick%20Archives%20online) - [ Wellcome Collection ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/online-sources/collections/#:~:text=Dorothy%20Thurtle.-,Wellcome%20Collection,-The%20collections%20of)