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Caribbean collection

Find out about our Caribbean collection.

Caribbean map

We hold a vast collection of materials about the Caribbean. Focusing on the Dutch, English, French and Spanish-speaking Caribbean and including some Creole languages (Garifuna, Haitian Kweyol and Papiamento are examples), the collection is spread across various collection areas of the Library and includes personal papers and manuscripts, maps, newspapers, printed books, magazines, sound recordings, stamps, oral histories and e-resources. 

 Highlights of the collection include:

  • Correspondence between the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson and Henri Christophe - one of the key leaders of the Haitian Revolution
  • Papers on the British occupation of Havana
  • Hundreds of manuscript maps from the 17th- and 18th-century Caribbean, including some of the earliest representations of the region, as well as topographical drawings, watercolours and prints which are part of the King George III Topographical Collection
  • India Office Records offering unique insights into the histories of indentured labour, the abolition of slavery and the Asian diaspora in the Americas.

Within the printed collections natural histories and travelogues are strongly represented, as are holdings of 20th-century Caribbean literature, philosophy, poetry, and contemporary academic publications in the humanities. Many of these items are printed or published in the region itself. 

The Library holds a wide range of Caribbean newspapers, the majority of which are from the 19th and early 20th century. While many are short runs, they often cover key periods in the various histories of the Caribbean. 

Manuscript collections relating to the Caribbean range from the papers of 17th- and 18th-century planters and slaveholders in Jamaica, Barbados and other islands to the extensive literary archives of writers including Andrea Levy, James Berry and Andrew Salkey. 

An extraordinary range of materials relating to the Caribbean may also be found in the Endangered Archives Programme, through which the British Library digitises and makes available at-risk archival materials from across the world. Other digital sources which researchers may find useful include, Images Online where you can search for images of the Caribbean collection; the British Library’s Flickr account for images and links to full text copies of printed material related to the Caribbean; and the Library’s portal Discovering Literature which offers researchers, students and teachers contextual information on the diasporic British Caribbean experience. 

The Library subscribes to numerous electronic databases focused on the Caribbean. It also houses a large collection of oral history interviews relating to Caribbean heritage communities in the United Kingdom. 

The range and scope of the our Caribbean collections offer researchers an unparalleled opportunity to investigate Indigenous Caribbean cultures, European colonialism and resistance to enslavement, independence movements, 20th- and 21st-century economics, politics, society and culture.

Other institutions of interest include: