Just a list of some of the books and sites I've found useful while researching historical periods for writing and drawing, concentrated but not exclusively on 18th century. I draw comics, and that weighs a lot on what kind of references I search for.
Created: 2005/10/26 - Updated: 2008/03/11
Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763 - The classic account of a gentleman's adventures in Georgian London.
[NEW] Jeremy Black, Eighteenth-Century Europe - a good, fairly recent and comprehensive title on the general history of the period. No illustrations.
Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century - excellent overview, well written, informative and entertaining. This would probably make a good first title on the period. It helps to have a grasp of basic history first. No illustrations.
Sheila O'Connell, London 1753 is an extraordinary catalogue full of good-quality prints and photographs from British Museum's 250th year anniversary exhibition. Every image is accompanied by an informative text passage. Roy Porter is one of the people behind this book.
Dorinda Outram, Panorama of the Enlightenment - a lavishly illustrated full-color account of the intellectual and social developments of the era, ranging from coffee houses and globalisation to invention of pediatrics and the narrowing role of women in the society.
I also have and sometime use copies for London Life in the Eighteenth Century by Dorothy George and Georgian England by A. E. Richardson, although they are a bit old now. These contain some low quality prints from the period.
Liza Picard, Dr. Johnson's London - entertaining, but not very in-depth book on various subjects of everyday life in Georgian England. Works as a starting point for further research. Picard has also compiled similar books on (at least) Elizabethan, Restoration and Victorian periods. Some illustrations.
Christina Hardyment, Behind the Scenes: Domestic Arrangements in Historic Houses - well illustrated book on how people lived and worked in their homes before gas, electricity and running water. Based on National Trust properties. Concentrates on big households, but gives also ideas how less wealthy families lived. Because it uses existing properties as examples, the book tends to concentrate on Victorian times, but it also tries to cover the earlier history of its subjects.
Daniel Pool, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew - a compendum of information on Regency and early Victorian periods. No illustrations.
Dorothy Hartley, Lost Country Life - A great book on agricultural daily life before modern times. Concentrates on the middle ages, but is actually very helpful in trying to understand the world most people lived and worked in before industrialisation. Some lineart illustrations.
Judith Flanders, The Victorian House - a fascinating book on Victorian domestic life. Some illustrations.
Toivo Vuorela, Suomalainen kansankulttuuri - a heavy, well illustrated Finnish tome on old Finnish culture and life; contains photography and drawings of almost every topic you can think of.
Kustaa Vilkuna, Isien työ - extremely well illustrated Finnish book on ancient ways of working and hunting, as well as the tools involved.
Peter Guillery, The Small House in Eighteenth-Century London - you might consider selling your first-born to get this rather expensive book, if you want to know what Georgian London looked and felt like to live and to work in for the commoner or middle-class person. Full of photographs and prints of (now mostly demolished) 17th and 18th century houses; cut-out perspective diagrams; and highly detailed street and demographic maps. Does not treat interior decoration, public architecture or aristocratic housing.
Doreen Yarwood, English Home - basic history of English domestic interiors during the last thousand years or so. Clear lineart illustrations.
Charles McCorquodale, The History of Interior Decoration - well illustrated book on aristocratic interior architecture and decoration. Concentrates on upper-class and palace domestic interiors, not restricted to England or London.
Dana Arnold, The Georgian Country House: Architecture, Landscape and Society - I was a bit disappointed with the quality of illustrations in this book. But it's an interesting collection of articles on its subject.
Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types - heavily illustrated book on the development of major public building types such as theatres, prisons, hospitals, factories. I have lousy photocopies of part of this book... relatively cheap used copies can be bought from Amazon.
I also use Finnish books on antique. One of them is Oi niitä aikoja (The Good Old Days) by Lauri Jäntti - a fascinating book built on hundreds of pictures of paintings, illustrations and photographs. It touches pretty much every piece of old Finnish furniture and everyday item, ranging from models already use in middle ages to the beginning of 20th century. My 2003 edition of the book contains English translations for all image captions.
Another good Finnish book on antiques is Antiikkikirja by Jorma Heinonen and Osmo Vuoristo.
John Brewer, The Pleasures of Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century - brilliant, well-written tome on the development of culture and cult of refinement in Georgian England. Some illustrations.
Vic Gatrell, City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London - fascinating, well illustrated book on the type of entertainment that has traditionally interested historians very little. What made Georgian and Regency Londoners laugh and enjoy life? How did they amuse themselves? Despite the name, this also covers the early 19th century.
Glynne Wickham, A History of the Theatre - I have copies from the Finnish translation. This is a good, well illustrated basic volume on the subject.
Rictor Norton, Mother Clap's Molly House - the basic volume on gay subculture in Georgian London. Required reading for anyone interested in this subject!
Ian McCormick, Secret Sexualities - a highly interesting collection of obscure primary sources on marginal sexual groups in 17th and 18th centuries.
I am mainly interested in male clothing, material on which is pitifully hard to find. My archives contain a lot of very old (as in, done when I was a teenager) photocopies from books I no longer recognize; I rarely marked down names for the originals.
These books are well illustrated by default.
Norah Waughn, The Cut of Men's Clothes 1600-1900 - because understanding patterns is essential if you want to draw believable historical clothing.
Nancy Bradfield, Costume in Detail 1730-1930 - A wonderful book with hundreds of clean line drawings from existing garments, both whole and detail. The crisp art makes this an ideal book for artistic reference, although it does not display the garments with accessories that would have accompanied them when in use. Unfortunately this book only deals with female costume.
Avril Hart, Historical Fashion in Detail: The 17th and 18th Centuries - a book so beautiful that it can make you cry. Well, at least if you're a sucker for historical dress, like me. Several hundreds of large, clear photographs on clothing details. Not the first or the second title you should buy on period clothing, but perhaps the third. This book can really make you appreciate the largely lost skill (and countless hours of silent labour) involved in making quality clothes before machines made it so much easier... and more boring.
Marion Sichel, History of Men's Costume - I have photocopies of the 18th century section of this book. I wouldn't buy an expensive second-hand copy if you're only interested in a certain period.
Kyoto Costume Institute's Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century - dominated by female clothing, but outstandingly well illustrated.
Amy Miller, Dressed to Kill: British Naval Uniform, Masculinity and Contemporary Fashions, 1748 - 1857 - extremely beautifully illustrated, contains for example photographs of Nelson's last uniforms.
Francois Boucher, A History of Costume in the West - outdated but very comprehensive and heavily illustrated. Sold in US under the name 20,000 Years of Fashion.
Charles Chenevix-Trench, A History of Horsemanship -- a comprehensive, thorough and outstandingly well illustrated tome on horsemanship through the ages and continents. Essential if you want to draw historical horse equipment and riders.
Sallie Walrond, Looking at Carriages - the best reference that I now know of for drawing any type of 18th century carriages. Newer also, but you can find better, clear line drawings of those in other books. Oldest carriages in this book are from the 17th century. Only the actual horses and their harness are missing.
Jack Hamm, How to Draw Animals - consider this book if you want to learn to draw animals. It is excellent and very affordable.
Ronald Stokes Barlow, 300 Years of Farm Implements and Machinery 1630-1930 - this was a bit of a disappointment for me, because it concentrates so much on the latter 19th century. But it does give some information on the earlier periods.
Oliver Rackham, The Illustrated History of the Countryside - a very beautiful book on the features of English countryside and how they have developed from prehistorical times to modernity.
Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue 1897 - a facsimile of one of the first catalogues from this American company. Pictures for pretty much every item that existed at the time.
Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself - probably one of the best books that I've ever read. Tells how many concepts we now take for granted actually developed, such as our sense of time or distance as neatly divided, measurable blocks. Boorstin makes the history of even the dullest subject imaginable to read like an entertaining adventure.
Jessica Snyder Sachs, Corpse - before hospitals and morgues, death was a subject very familiar to people. This fascinating book tells the story of what happens to our bodies after we die. (Actually it is the story of how modern forensics has struggled to pinpoint the time of death -- but in effect, these two subjects are largely one and the same.)
Eighteenth-Century Resources by Jack Lynch. An extensive and regularly updated collection of links to online resources.
Colonial Williamsburg: Explore & Learn - a nice site by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which operates the world's largest living history musem. Concentrated on colonial American history before the revolution, but is informative about 18th century in general, and also visually very beautiful.
MOTCO Image Database Maps - fully browseable, high-resolution online versions of London maps from 1730, 1746, 1799 and 1830, as well as maps of surrounding boroughs and so on. You can also buy maps on CD's, or as printed reproductions.
The Spectator by Addison & Steele, 1711-14. From Project Gutenberg. This is the publication which mentally shaped 18th century gentlemen such as Boswell. I once found a list of 'essential issues' from the reading list for an 18th century culture course: 1, 50, 403 & 454; 5, 18 & 29; 69; 251; and 266.
Rictor Norton's homepage - if you're interested in gay history, just go there.
Internet Library of Early Journals - facsimiles of some period magazines: Annual register, Gentleman's Magazine etc.
British History Online - high-resolution maps, surveys, etc.
The Costumer's Manifesto: 18th Century Costume Resources Online. The first and best stopping point for online costume history and costuming in general. This is their page on 18th century. Contains scans from period books (although not always of good quality), as well as lists of movies, books and external online resources.
Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture - electronic texts and facsimiles, image databases and Web resources for study of decorative arts -- includes 18th century sources such as The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director by Thomas Chippendale.
www.outlawsandhighwaymen.com - sister site by Gillian Spraggs to her book Outlaws and Highwaymen. Primary source texts on the subject, spanning from Antiquity to Regency.
du-vall.net - Claude Du Vall and Restoration & Georgian highwaymen generally. Unacademic but entertaining. Contains a page on thieves' slang.
The Newgate Calendar with some illustrations. There is also another, searchable online version of The Complete Newgate Calendar.
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey London 1674 to 1834.
Online Resources for Research on William Hogarth by Bernd Krysmanski (link to the parent site). See the Image Gallery part of this page: it contains several good links to online galleries. For background information on the works, however, you need to get a book.
Collage - Corporation of London image archives. Over 20,000 reproduction of illustrations, prints and paintings of London, available as prints. Online pictures are not very large, but the site is in any case extremely interesting.
Old or Obsolete Names for Diseases and Disorders - with some information on the disorders. Apparently collected from various internet resources. I've also encountered another glossary of old diseases.
Canting Dictionary [thieving slang], 1736 - Taken from The Universal Etymological English Dictionary, by N. Bailey
1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue - compiled originally by Captain Grose in 1785. Fascinating collection of street language and slang wit.
18th century slang - out of context collection of expressions, not very easily usable, but interesting.
Early 17th Century English Names - link collection to pages that deal with given and last names. A lot of the information is very useful for 18th century, as well.
minepast.blogspot.com - historical curiosities by author Jo Beverley, encountered while researching Georgian and Regency periods.
British amy officer casualties 1808 to 1814 - useful for male names.
Listing here some books I'm interested in getting hold of...
C. Willett Cunnington, Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century - they say that this book is really good. At least it is very hard to find, and the prices start from 60 dollars.
Aileen Ribeiro, Dress in Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1715-1789 - I'm constantly about to get this from Amazon, but always change my mind because of the cost.
Beth Gilgun, Tidings from the 18th Century - everyday life of American settlers; I'm not sure how useful this might be. It seems to be the basic book for colonial 18th century re-enactors.
Chris MacNab, The Great Book of Guns: An Illustrated History of Military, Sporting, and Antique Firearms - because I like to draw men waving guns at each other. I have a book or two on historical firearms but none are very good.
Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain - another classic.
Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization - apparently, one of the best up-to-date books on the general history of the topic.
Peter Kolchin, Up from Serfdom: My Childhood and Youth in Russia, 1802-1824 - just immensely interesting because it's one of the very few surviving accounts by a Russian serf.
Sean Shesgreen, The Criers and Hawkers of London: Engravings and Drawings by Marcellus Laroon - this seems like a must have for someone who wishes to draw 18th century urban scenes.