Material in the collection spans five centuries, charting the story of the rise and fall of empires; from the explorations of Columbus, Captain Cook, and others, right through to de-colonisation in the second half of the twentieth century and debates over American Imperialism.
Documents were selected to support five thematic sections in empire studies:
- Cultural Contacts
- Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire
- Visible Empire
- Religion & Empire
- Race, Class, Colonialism, Imperialism
Resource contains images of unique source material including maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, paintings, drawings and rare books.