Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature

The best known and largest of the named special collections is the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, comprising a broad range of material of particular value for economic and social history. It contains over 70,000 printed books, pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts, broadsides and proclamations from the 15th to the 20th centuries, with particular strengths to 1850. Subjects covered include economic thoughts, financial and monetary policy, early English and French socialism, slavery, railway history, temperance and the condition of the people.

Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature and Kress Library holdings published in the period 1450-1850, and which were previously available in a microfilm collection, have been digitised in full text as The Making of the Modern World: the Goldsmiths-Kress Collection of Economic Literature 1450-1850. This database is accessible within the Library and remotely to registered members of the Library. Not all the holdings of the Goldsmiths' Library are available on Making of the Modern Economy, for example many publications from the period 1450-1850 have been added to the collection since it was microfilmed, and some categories of publication, such as periodicals, are not fully represented. Also, the Goldsmiths' Collection contains thousands of works published after 1850, including many from the 20th century - and these are not represented on the database, but they can be found in the Library's catalogue.

The holdings of the Goldsmiths' Library are complemented by the library of the Family Welfare Association and the John Burns Collection.

For further information about the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, including its history, detailed dubject coverage and links to related resources, click here.

shl.specialcollections@london.ac.uk 020 7862 8470