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French History

Find collections and other resources for the study of French History.

Libraries and Library Catalogues

Bibliothèque nationale de France Opale-Plus is the catalogue for printed materials, and includes material found in print, digital and multimedia resources.
Catalogue collectif de la France Sponsored by the BN; searchable directory of libraries and library collections; provides contact information and some brief collection descriptions; includes e-mail and URL.
Libraries on the Web--France One of many lists of French library websites; from Libweb (UC Berkeley).
WorldCat (OCLC) Over 40 million records describing books, periodicals, sound recordings, videos, musical scores, archival materials and much more. Shows what materials are held by most libraries in North America and some in Europe.

Research in French Archives

Searching for archival material in Library Catalog Search

Archival Resources in Library Catalog Search

Archives nationales - finding aids A large collection of older, unpublished finding aids filmed by the Library of Congress on behalf of the American Historical Association.
Grad Serials/Microforms FILM X534
Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France An enormous, multi-volume listing of the manuscript holdings of French libraries (primarily in the provinces). Organized by repository, with occasional supplemental volumes. Most vols. include an index, and later vols. provide an overall guide to the series, organized by location of the manuscript collections.
Grad Z6620.F8 A2 (for earlier vols., also FILM X3192); also see a related earlier series (7 vols.) at Grad Z 6620 .F8 A18
Guide du lecteur While information about the National Archives is more up to date at their website, this printed guide is still a useful introduction.
Grad Library CD 1193 .F81 1993
Les Archives nationales : état des inventaires A comprehensive guide (4 vols.) to published and unpublished finding aids.
Grad Library CD 1191 .A68 1985
Les Archives nationales : état général des fonds An essential starting point and overview of the structure and holdings of the National Archives. The Egérie online version is searchable, but difficult to browse.
Grad Library CD1191 .A67

Microfilm collections

European Women's Periodicals (Unit 2): Periodicals from France From the International Archive of the Women's Movement, and the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam). Records for individual titles are included in Mirlyn.
Grad Serials/Microforms FILM X3320 (24 reels)
French Revolution Research Collection Library Catalog Search contains records for the 12 major subject divisions, but not for individual titles. Many titles are available online from the Bibliothèque nationale (Gallica).
Grad Serials/Microforms MICRO-F 2160
French Royal and Administrative Acts Approx. 16,000 pamphlets covering a wide range of fiscal, criminal, military, administrative and other topics; drawn from the collections of the New York Public Library.
Grad Serials/Microforms FILM 19343 (59 reels + printed guide)
The Dreyfus Affair in the Making of Modern France Rare books and pamphlets from the Dreyfus Collection of Harvard University (Houghton Library). Records for individual titles are included in Mirlyn.
Grad Serials/Microforms FILM 32272 (66 reels + printed guide)
The Gerritsen Collection of Women's History (1543-1945) Records for individual titles are included in Mirlyn. Resource is also available online at the link on the left.
Grad Serials/Microforms Micro-F 4113. (17,556 fiche; title list and 2 vol. printed guide) Some periodicals in the set may be found at FILM X3465.
Tracts de mai 1968 Drawn from the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale.
Grad Serials/Microforms MICRO-F 913 (394 fiche + printed guide)

Archival Resources on the Web

Annuaire des services d'archives (Archives de France) Up to date and includes email addresses and URLs, but is not easily searchable.
Archives nationales Databases at the French national archives include Archim (digital images from the collections).
European Navigator The European Navigator is a multilingual, multisource and multimedia digital library that contains more than 16,000 documents on the historical and institutional development of a united Europe from 1945 to the present day.
Europeana Contains 6 million digital items, including images (paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects), texts (books, newspapers, letters, diaries and archival papers), sounds (music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts), and videos (films, newsreels and TV broadcasts).
History of France: Primary Resources According to its creator, Richard Hacken who serves as the European Studies Bibliographer at Brigham Young University, this resource provides access to primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated regarding key historical happenings within France and within the broadest sense of political, economic, social and cultural history.
Repositories of Primary Sources A directory of more than 5,000 collections worldwide, organized by state, province or country.

Digitized Primary Sources