Library Guides: 18th-Century Studies: Overview

Background

This guide focuses on Anglophone eighteenth-century resources. For broader research journals and databases, which also cover the eighteenth-century, patrons should consult the "Literary Research Strategy" guide. Since writers and literary movements cross convenient time boundaries, the guides to adjacent time periods may also prove helpful.

Related library guides:

Literary Research Strategy -- the go-to, first-step guide for performing literary research in any time-period or field of literature.
Nineteenth-Century Studies
Early-Modern Studies PENDING

Reference Resources

The Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of eighteenth-century writers and writing, 1660-1789
The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing1660-1789 features coverage of the lives and works of almost 500 notable writers based in the British Isles from the return of the British monarchy in 1660 until the French Revolution of 1789.

Special Collections

18th-Century Publications in Hesburgh's Rare Books and Special Collections
Catalog search for English-language items published between 1700 and 1800 in RBSC.

Archive Finder This link opens in a new window
Also called "Archive Finder," lets users search "over 220,000 collections of primary source material housed in thousands of repositories across the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland"

ArchiveGrid
ArchiveGrid covers over four million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.

Scholary Publications

Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography: ECCB.
Though this print bibliography may no longer be quite so current -- last volume was 2010 -- it is still an exhaustive source of information about relatively recent eighteenth-century scholarship.
Eighteenth-Century Fiction
Eighteenth-Century Ireland
Eighteenth-Century Life
Eighteenth-Century Studies
Eighteenth Century
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research
Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 (SEL)