Americas and Oceania Collections

Our extensive resources include collections on the USA, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Collection guides

USA collections
Our resources will be able to support your research on all aspects of American Studies.
Canadian collections
Our collections span a large part of the nation’s history, from the colonial period to the present day
Latin American collections
We have latin American materials from the earliest period of printing to the modern day
Oceania collections
Collections relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands
Caribbean collections
The British Library holds the largest collection of Caribbean materials in the UK
Canadian colonial copyright photographs
Canadian photographs that were received between the years 1895 and 1923

View all related guides

Help

How to get a British Library Reader Pass

St Pancras Reading Rooms

At St Pancras we have 11 Reading Rooms, each specialising in a different subject area or type of material and with different opening hours. In our Reading Rooms you can:

Consult books, journals and other items from our collections
Access a wide range of electronic resources and electronic journals
Consult subject guides, bibliographies and other research aids

If you need help, please ask our Reference Specialists at the enquiry desks or contact the Reference Service.

We offer a range of free Reader sessions and 1-2-1 consultations to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

You’ll need a Reader Pass

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

Blog posts

Call for Papers: Grenada, 1973-1983 | Beginnings of a Revolution, Invasion and After

Friday, June 2, 2023

Call for papers for a one-day symposium for academics, creatives, activists and community-based researchers to share research, ideas and reflections on the Grenada Revolution. The British Library | Friday 27 October 2023 In 1979, Grenada became the first and so...

Tracked Changes: Looking for Migrant Editors in Publishing Archives

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Ben Fried was a 2022 Eccles Visiting Fellow at the British Library; he recently completed his PhD at Cornell University and is currently a British Academy Newton International Fellow at the Institute of English Studies in the University of London,...

Why Research is Good for the Artist's Soul

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Bobby C. Martin was a 2021 Eccles Centre Visiting Fellow at the British Library. I am not a researcher in any traditional sense of the word. I am a visual artist—my practice consists of primarily painting and printmaking. So even...

Reclaiming Fédon’s Rebellion: Identifying and Acknowledging the ‘Rebels’ in Modern Grenada

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Suelin Low Chew Tung is a Grenada-based artist and was a 2020 Eccles Centre Visiting Fellow at the British Library. During my Eccles Fellowship research at the British Library in summer 2022, I came across a familiar image: a print...

Library experts

Mercedes Aguirre British Library America

Dr Mercedes Aguirre

Lead Curator, Americas

Dr Cara Rodway

Deputy Head, Eccles Centre for American Studies

Dr Philip Abraham

Eccles Centre Programmes Manager

Projects

True Echoes

Reconnecting indigenous communities with historic audio records of the sung and spoken cultures of Australia and Oceania

All projects

Case studies

More Case studies

…Getting to explore the Library’s rich collection of pamphlets is a huge privilege as a doctoral researcher.…

Researching American political pamphlets from between 1919 and 1945.

…This placement introduced me to a career path I had not considered before.…

During her PhD research placement, Laura examined the Library’s holdings of North American migrant literature.

Melissa Bennett - Collaborative Doctoral Partnership

…Everyone is really willing to help each other out…

Melissa is doing collaborative PhD research on photographs of the British West India Regiments between 1865-1914.

…I can't imagine writing another book without the British Library's collections…

Author Naomi Wood was one of the Eccles British Library Writer's Award holders (formerly the Writer in Residence programme). She used our collections to research her novel Mrs Hemingway, on Ernest Hemingway and his wives.

External links

The British Library is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Digital Library of the Caribbean

a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean

Library and Archives Canada

shared documentary heritage of all Canadians and spans the entire history of our country

Shop

Caribbean Roots: Black British and Caribbean Poets read their own work

Caribbean poems feature in this CD, the perfect gift for lovers of Caribbean writing. This 2-CD collection brings together 58 recordings of 10 Black British and Caribbean poets.

£16.00

Declaration of Independence baseball

This colourful and compelling baseball features the heading from the Declaration of Independence along with signatures from the original document.

£10.00