Personal Narratives

Personal Writings in HOLLIS and WorldCat

In the HOLLIS Catalog and WorldCat several Subject terms refer to personal writings, for example:

  • Autobiographies
  • Autobiography Indian authors
  • Adams, John, 1735-1826 -- Diaries.
  • Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948 -- Correspondence
  • Women politicians -- India -- Diaries.
  • India -- History -- Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858 -- Personal narratives, East Indians.
    • “--Personal narratives” is attached to accounts of wars and diseases

A HOLLIS search on your subject term plus "biography or memoir? or diaries or correspondence or narratives" often yields good records.

Personal Narratives

India during the Raj: eyewitness accounts: diaries and related records held in the British Library, London. <74 > microfilm reels
-- pt. 1. Diaries and related records describing life in India, c1750-1842 (reels 1-25)
-- pt. 2. Diaries and related records, c1819-1859 from the British Library, London (reels 1-29)
-- pt. 3. Diaries and related records, 1861-1891 from the British Library, London (reels 1-20)
Microforms (Lamont) | Film A 1305
Microforms (Lamont) | INDEX Film A 1305 = guide
Online Guide

British Voices from South Asia

Oral History Collection . (Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge). Interviews conducted in the 1970s with people residing in India during the colonial period. Interviews with full transcript.

To find personal writings by British administrators and others, search in HOLLIS: (Narratives OR Diaries OR Correspondence OR Memoir?) AND India, limiting to English.

Women and the British empire: an annotated guide to sources, By Susan F. Bailey. NY: Garland, 1983.
LOCATION: Schlesinger: Ref. 016.941 B15w
LOCATION: Widener: WID-LC HQ1593.Z99 B34 x, 1983

Glimpses of India: an annotated bibliography of published personal writings by Englishmen, 1583-1947, by John F. Riddick. NY: Greenwood Press, 1989, 195 p.
Widener | WID-LC | DS463.Z99 R53 x, 1989

Travelers' writings

Subject terms for use in HOLLIS searching:
British -- Travel -- Foreign countries [“British” is short for British persons]
India -- Description and travel
Travel – Guidebooks
Travel writing
Travelers -- Great Britain
Travelers’ writings, British
Women travelers -- Great Britain

Literature of travel and exploration: an encyclopedia, ed. by Jennifer Speake. NY: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003. 3 v.
Fine Arts | Reading Room | RFA74.50
Widener | RR 4006.10
--Articles with good references. Topical breakdown of articles at beginning of vol. 1.

British travel writers, ed. by Barbara Brothers and Julia M. Gergits. Dictionary of literary biography, 4 v.
Lamont | REFERENCE | PN451 .D5 1978x
Widener | RR3129.5
British travel writers, 1876-1909: v. 174
British travel writers, 1910-1939: v. 195
British travel writers, 1940-1997: v. 204