Collections

19th Century British Pamphlets

An enormous collection of over 26,000 pamphlets from the collections of seven UK universities, providing rich insight into the world of the 19th century. Of particular interest to humanist heritage researchers are pamphlets covering areas such as:

• Secularism, secular societies, and secular education, with pamphlets like ‘Principles, objects, and rules of the London Secular Society‘, ‘Declaration of views & principles of the Working-Men’s Association for Promoting National Secular Education‘, or George Jacob Holyoake’s ‘Principles of secularism briefly explained‘.
• Freethought and freethinkers, with examples including ‘Blasts from Bradlaugh’s own trumpet: ballads, extracts, cartoons‘, ‘A plea for the Sunday platform and a protest against the attempt to suppress it‘, and the ‘Liberty of Bequest Intelligencer‘.
• Blasphemy and freedom of the press, covering pamphlets such as ‘In prison for blasphemy‘ by W.J. Ramsey, ‘The laws relating to blasphemy and heresy: an address to Freethinkers‘, and ‘The blasphemy laws: should they be abolished?‘

Note: requires access through a library or educational institution, or the creation of a free personal account.

Visit the collection: 19th Century British Pamphlets

Anarchist Library

An online archive focusing on anarchism and anarchist texts, incorporating a vast number of works about humanism, atheism, and freethought – and by humanists, atheists, and freethinkers. Browse by author, topic, or decade, or use the search function. Highlights include:

• Essays such as ‘The Philosophy of Atheism‘ and ‘The Failure of Christianity‘ by atheist anarchist Emma Goldman, ‘The Necessity of Atheism‘ by P. B. Shelley, and by or about thinkers and activists such as Peter Kropotkin, William Morris, Lucy Parsons, Murray Bookchin or Nicolas Walter.
• Full texts of books such as What Is Anarchism? An Introduction, with sections on religion and atheism.

Visit the collection: Anarchist Library

Conway Hall pamphlets

A collection of over 1000 19th century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. These include the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway‘s personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts; the National Secular Society‘s pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts also feature additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes. Highlights include:

• The Conway Tracts, NSS pamphlet collection, and Morris Tracts.
• Various editions of Fruits of Philosophy, the birth control literature at the heart of a 19th century obscenity trial.
• Publications of the Rationalist Press Association and for the Rationalist Peace Society.
• Items tagged with keywords such as ‘rationalism‘, ‘evolution‘, and ‘secularism‘.

Visit the collection: Conway Hall pamphlets

Cowen Tracts

Personal collection of Joseph Cowen (1829-1900), a social reformer and Member of Parliament for Newcastle (1873-86). The collection (part of 19th Century British Pamphlets) includes items on social, educational, and economic issues, including various pamphlets of interest to researchers of humanist history. These include:

• Works by significant humanist thinkers and reformers like Frances Wright, Robert Owen, George Jacob Holyoake, Matilda Roalfe, and Richard Congreve.
• Works on issues such as the separation of church and state, the right to affirm rather than swear an oath, and a national system of education.
• Pamphlets of relevance to aspects of humanist history such as atheism, secularism, positivism, freethought, blasphemy, freedom of the press, science, and rationalism.

Note: requires access through a library or educational institution, or the creation of a free personal account.

Visit the collection: Cowen Tracts

Hansard

The official report of all Parliamentary debates. You can find Members, their contributions, debates, petitions and divisions from published Hansard reports dating back over 200 years, using keyword searches or names. Items of interest might include:

• ‘Humanism‘ debated in the House of Commons on Thursday 23 February 1967.
• ‘Humanism And The School Syllabus‘ debated in the House of Lords on Friday 17 December 1993.
• ‘Atheists and Humanists: Contribution to Society‘ debated in the House of Lords on Thursday 25 July 2013.
• The contributions of individual humanists, such as Lord Dubs,
• Debates on matters such as disestablishment of the Church, euthanasia and assisted dying, blasphemy, religious education, abortion, and same-sex marriage.

Visit the collection: Hansard

HathiTrust

HathiTrust holds the largest digitised collection of knowledge allowable by copyright law, intended to empower scholarly research, create transparency, and inspire curiosity. This includes millions of books and publications, including thousands of works related to humanism, the Ethical movement, secularism, freethought, and related histories.

• Runs of freethought periodicals from both the UK and North America, with titles such as The Reasoner, The Humanitarian Review, The Truth Seeker, and The Ethical Record. For more see Online Sources.
• Collections such as Half-hours with Freethinkers, Infidel Death-beds, Heroines of Freethought, Freethinkers of the Nineteenth Century.
• Reference works such as 400 Years of Freethought, A history of Freethought in the Nineteenth Century, and A Short History of Freethought, Ancient and Modern. For more books see Further reading.

Visit the collection: HathiTrust

International Institute of Social History

The International Institute of Social History (IISH) manages a rich collection in the field of socio-economic and labour history, including some collections of special interest to researchers of humanist history. These include:

• The Dora Winifred Russell Papers and the Dora Winifred Russell Photo Collection, covering a vast array of Dora Russell‘s campaigning and educational activities – spanning peace activism, campaigns for reproductive rights, the founding and running of Beacon Hill school,  work for civil liberties and progressive social reform, and correspondence with figures such as Fenner Brockway, Doris Lessing, and H. G. Wells.
• The collections of other individuals and groups, such as the Emma Goldman Papers, the Owenite Societies Archives, Robert Owen Papers, and the Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst Papers.

For online access select the ‘Content List’ tab from the collection page.

Visit the collection: International Institute of Social History

Internet Archive

Like HathiTrust, an enormous collection of digitised materials – including in-copyright books which can be borrowed, and thousands of public domain items. Many humanist, secularist, and freethought materials can be found on the Internet Archive, such as:

• Runs of journals spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, like the International Journal of Ethics, The American Rationalist, and The Literary Guide.
• Works relating to the US Ethical Culture movement, which inspired the UK ethical (later humanist) societies. You can find early publications, as well as overviews, such as Ethical Culture 1876-1966.
• Humanist Heritage’s own growing collection of digitised materials, including minute books, pamphlets, and membership lists.

Visit the collection: Internet Archive

Kate Sharpley Library

The Kate Sharpley Library exists to preserve and promote anarchist history. It can be browsed by event, organisation, person, place, and topic, as well as searched. Of particular interest to researchers of humanist history might be:

• Publications like Iconoclast, ‘For rationalism, secularism, freethought & social progress’, published during 1966.
• Topic collections such as ‘Anti-clericalism‘, ‘Esperanto‘, or ‘Feminism‘.

For more on the links between humanism and anarchism see ‘Humanism and Anarchism: Intellectual Cousins‘.

Visit the collection: Kate Sharpley Library

LSE Digital Library

The LSE Digital Library holds a rich and extensive collection of digitised material, covering a range of people, groups, and subjects with links to humanist history. Highlights include:

• Zona Vallance’s interview about the East London Ethical Society, part of Charles Booth’s survey of London.
• The diaries of Beatrice Webb, socialist economist, freethinker, and co-founder of LSE. Webb knew, and wrote about, many in the early humanist movement.
• The Fabian Society and Young Fabians collection, including minutes, tracts, and pamphlets. Many humanists were active in the Fabian Society.
• The Vote: the journal of the Women’s Freedom League, part of the Women’s Rights Collection.

Visit the collection: LSE Digital Library

Marxists Internet Archive Library

The Marxists Internet Archive contains a huge amount of material, including many writings by humanists and freethinkers. These include:

• Works by William Morris, Annie Besant, Eleanor Marx, Dora Montefiore, Claudia Jones, Sylvia Pankhurst, C. L. R. James, and M. N. Roy.
• Humanist Fabians, such as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and G. D. H. Cole.
• Freethinkers from the anarchist tradition, such as Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Rudolf Rocker, Murray Bookchin, and Guy Aldred.
• Thinkers who have been influential on atheism and humanism, such as Spinoza, Voltaire, Diderot, Comte, P. B. Shelley, and Thomas Paine.
• A section on Marxist humanism, with links to many thinkers and writers who expressed these ideas.

Visit the collection: Marxists Internet Archive

University of Warwick Archives online

The digitised collection of Warwick’s Modern Records Centre, covering a range of subjects. Highlights include:

• Documents relating to social welfare in Britain, including documents on the Beveridge Report, and on the formation of the National Health Service.
• Women – work, welfare and politics, 1870s-1940s, with items of interest such as a pamphlet from the 1936 conference of the Abortion Law Reform Association, and a song sheet from Sylvia Pankhurst’s East London Federation of the Suffragettes.
• Feminism, Politics, and Social Change in Modern Britain, including a section on Secularism, religion and women’s rights, 1860-1914.
• P. B. Shelley’s poem ‘England in 1819’, written in response to the Peterloo Massacre.
• Leaflet of the Workers’ Birth Control Group, with linked figures including humanists Dora Russell and Ernest and Dorothy Thurtle.

Visit the collection: University of Warwick Archives online

Wellcome Collection

The collections of the Wellcome Institute contain a vast range of materials linked to health and the human experience, from books to historical manuscripts and objects. Of particular interest might be:

• The papers of individual humanists, such as Francis Crick, including a typescript of Crick’s ‘Why I am a Humanist‘ and correspondence with the Oxford University Humanist Group.
• Humanist ephemera, such as ‘Sharing the Future‘ (a pamphlet on humanist ceremonies), and ‘Happy to be Gay?‘ (a Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association leaflet).
• The papers of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), and Abortion Law Reform Association, which both encompassed many humanists, including the papers of humanist campaigner Madeleine Simms.
• Interview recordings from the One and Other Project (2009), featuring humanists Marilyn Mason and Andrew West.

Visit the collection: Wellcome Collection