Primary Sources for China scholarship - HIST 300 - Introduction to Historical Studies - LibGuides at University of South Carolina Upstate

Online Primary Source Collections - China and East Asia

Several of the digital collections resources linked here are provided by leading research universities in the United States. We gratefully acknowledge the significant scholarship of librarians at MIT, the University of Southern California, and Yale University for aggregating these links on their library websites.

AGSL Digital Photo Archive: Asia and Middle East
Scroll down the page to find the correct tile for this collection. AGSL Digital Photo Archive - Asia and Middle East presents over 28,000 images from the holdings of the American Geographical Society (AGS) Library. The selection focuses on the countries of Asia and the Middle East. The images come from the collections acquired over many decades by the AGS Library including an extensive photographic print collection. The digital collection is under continuing development.
The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal
The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal was published in one or another form in Shanghai from 1867 to 1941, after which it was closed by Japanese authorities. The Journal was the leading outlet for the English language missionary community in China, with a number of Chinese readers as well. In the 1920s and 1930s, under the editorship of Frank Rawlinson, it was known for its liberal theology and support for Chinese nationalism.

Yale University Library provides open digital access in full view for volumes 1-53 (from 1868-1922), and in limited search-only for volumes 54-57 (1923-1926). Remaining volumes are not available online for non-Yale students or faculty at this time.
Day Missions Collection - Periodicals
Yale University: The Divinity Library's Day Missions Collection holds a number of missionary periodicals that have been digitized with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2012) and are now available through the Yale University Library's Digital Collections portal. Inclusive dates of the issues scanned are noted; not all issues of a periodical may be available.
e-Asia Digital Library - University of Oregon The e-Asia project (2000–2011) was funded by the University of Oregon Libraries through the generosity of Nissho Iwai under the leadership of Robert Felsing, East Asian Bibliographer. By building a collection of digitized e-books and a database of full text web resources, e-Asia strove to contribute to the research and scholarship of East Asia.
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) - Historical Documents
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The series, which is produced by the Department of State's Office of the Historian, began in 1861 and now comprises more than 450 individual volumes. The volumes published over the last two decades increasingly contain declassified records from all the foreign affairs agencies.
Harvard-Yenching Library Digital Collections
Harvard-Yenching Library collects Chinese-language research materials in all formats, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences.
Harvard-Yenching Library Digital Maps Collection
Harvard-Yenching Library holds hundreds of maps of China, Japan, Korea, and other regions of East Asia. Many of which were published in the 19th and 20th centuries, but some can be dated to earlier periods. Over the years, scholars and visiting librarians from around the world have used these maps in their research. The maps are diverse in their function and format—some were created for administrative purposes, while others are made for military or commercial uses.
Historical Photographs of China
This project locates, digitalizes, archives, and disseminates online photographs from the substantial holdings of images of modern China held mostly in private hands outside that country. These are often of even greater historic interest than might ordinarily be the case, as the destruction of materials in China through war and revolution in the twentieth century, and especially during the 1966-69 Cultural Revolution, means that there is a relative dearth today of accessible photographic records in China itself.
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If you were heading to hpc.vcea.net or Visualising China then please rest assured that you are in the right place: we moved to a new platform in 2017 with a new address, and more content.
Hong Kong Government Reports Online (1842-1941)
Hong Kong Government Reports Online (HKGRO) is a full-text image database providing online access to pre-World War II issues of four major government publications, namely, Administrative Report, Hong Kong Sessional Papers, Hong Kong Hansard and Hong Kong Government Gazette. It contains a wide range of information, such as official notifications, proceedings of the Legislative Council, statistics, and reports of government departments and special committees, which are essential to students and scholars in conducting research on Hong Kong.
International Mission Photography Archive (IMPA)
University of Southern California: The International Mission Photography Archive offers historical images from Protestant and Catholic missionary collections in Britain, Norway, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the United States. The photographs, which range in time from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century, offer a visual record of missionary activities and experiences in Africa, China, Madagascar, India, Papua-New Guinea, and the Caribbean
Internet East Asian History Sourcebook This page is a subset of texts derived from the three major online Sourcebooks listed below, along with added texts and web site indicators. For more contextual information, for instance about Western imperialism, or the history of a given period, check out these web sites. Since it was created in 1996 many of the primary sources and texts linked to have gone off line. Where possible links to the Internet Archive versions of these documents have been substituted as they should still be of use to teachers and students.
Making of America Digital Archive
The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. This site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. The project represents a major collaborative endeavor in preservation and electronic access to historical texts.
MIT Visualizing Cultures
Visualizing Cultures weds images and scholarly commentary in innovative ways to illuminate social and cultural history. NOTE: This link opens the "About" page; navigation to various units using the link at the top of the page.
The PRC History Group The PRC History Group is a network of scholars with interests in the history of the People’s Republic of China. We define history broadly, to encompass a wide variety of disciplinary approaches, and we understand the history of the PRC to include decades prior to the official change of state power in 1949. The PRC History Group manages H-PRC, an H-Net channel that hosts scholarly discussions in addition to distributing news and announcements of interest to PRC historians. The Group also distributes and archives Chinese-language journals as well as the Group’s own English-language PRC History Review, which contains research articles, roundtable discussions, and reviews on recent scholarship in PRC history.
Princeton Theological Seminary Theological Commons
The Theological Commons is a digital library of over 150,000 resources on theology and religion. Developed in partnership with the Internet Archive it contains books, journals, audio recordings, photographs, manuscripts, and other formats dating from 975 C.E. to the present.
Records of the Shanghai Municipal Police 1894-1949
On the 67 rolls of this microfilm publication, M1750, are reproduced some of the Shanghai Municipal Police investigation files, 1894-1944. These files are part of the records of the Central Intelligence Agency, Record Group (RG) 263.
Virtual Shanghai
Virtual Shanghai represents an attempt at writing the history of the city through the combined use of textual (essays, original documents), visual (photographs, movies, images, drawings, etc.), sound (sound tracks, tunes, etc.) and cartographic documents. In its present stage, it provides mostly essays and textual records, photographs, and maps. Because it is in a process of elaboration, parts of the project are accessible only to the scholars involved in its development through login. Yet the largest part of all resources are available to the public.
Wilson Center Digital Archive
This digital archive contains a number of collections with specific content focused on China and Chinese relations with other countries in East Asia and around the world. Use the "Themes" link to view timelines and related content for several major historical themes.

North China Herald Newspaper; The China Weekly Review Newspaper - TEMPORARY availability

For a LIMITED TIME, USC Upstate has access to the North China Herald newspaper AND the China Weekly Review newspaper via ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chinese Newspapers Collection (other titles also available). Coverage extends through multiple title changes and includes the years 1850-1950, depending on the title. Two ways to access:

From the A-Z Database list, under "H", select Historical Newspapers from Proquest; scroll down to find "ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chinese Newspapers Collection" and click "Search"; click "Publications" and enter "North China Herald" in the search box (all three titles in the series are returned)
use the Journal Search link on the library home page, and enter "North China Herald" or "The China Weekly Review" into the search box. Content is viewable online for each of the titles.

Primary Sources: Missionary Perspectives on China

NEW for Fall 2023. This link will take you to a blog compiling a large number of online sources related to missionaries working in China. These sources are in English, making them particularly valuable for students in this course. Several notable periodical titles include: The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal (1867-1941), China’s Millions (1875-1964), and Reports of the American Presbyterian Missions. Not that not all titles listed contain links to every issue, but this resource is quite comprehensive in scope.

Primary Sources: Missionary Perspectives on China
This page will collect some links to online sources related to missionaries and their perspectives on China. These sources may be especially useful to students studying modern Chinese history wanting to make use of primary sources in their essays but who are a) limited to the English language, b) may have limited access to databases available at universities with strong East Asia collections, and c) are in lockdown due to a global pandemic.

Digitized Shanghai / China Guidebooks - University of Minnesota Libraries

Special thanks to Dr. Ann Waltner, University of Minnesota, for graciously sharing this list of digitized open access resources available through the University of Minnesota Library.

The Hotel Metropole Guide book to Shanghai and environs, containing all necessary informations for tourists and others Citation information: The Hotel Metropole Guide book to Shanghai and environs, containing all necessary informations for tourists and others. Written and compiled by W.E.B. Published by Hotel Metropole, 1903.
Shanghai: A guide to travelers and residents of the chief objects of interest in and around Foreign Settlement and Native City. [1904] Citation information: C.E. Darwent. Shanghai: A guide to travelers and residents of the chief objects of interest in and around Foreign Settlement and Native City. Kelly and Walsh, 1904
Shanghai: A guide to travelers and residents of the chief objects of interest in and around the foreign settlement and native city. [1920] Citation information: Charles Erwin Darwent Shanghai: A guide to travelers and residents of the chief objects of interest in and around the foreign settlement and native city. Kelly and Walsh, 1920
The Traveller’s Handbook to China (including Hong Kong) Citation information: Carl Crow, The Traveller’s Handbook to China (including Hong Kong) Annex Sub-Basement . Third edition. Shanghai, 1921.

Digitized SECONDARY Sources - China and East Asia

Additional digitized resources for China scholarship; please note these are SECONDARY sources, not primary.

Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity
Life stories of significant figures in Chinese Christianity.

Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affairs Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice and in Other Libraries of Northern Italy by Rawdon Brown
ISBN: 9781435649248
Publication Date: 2005-01-01

HIST 300 - Introduction to Historical Studies: Primary Sources for China scholarship

Online Primary Source Collections - China and East Asia

North China Herald Newspaper; The China Weekly Review Newspaper - TEMPORARY availability

Primary Sources: Missionary Perspectives on China

Digitized Shanghai / China Guidebooks - University of Minnesota Libraries

Digitized SECONDARY Sources - China and East Asia