The British Foreign Office was the government department responsible for the conduct of British relations with nearly all foreign states. Confidential Print and Foreign Office files were intended for circulation internally within the Foreign Office and to the monarch, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, other government departments and diplomatic missions abroad. These files are now housed in The National Archives, UK, and have been digitised by Adam Matthew Digital on the Archives Direct cross-searchable platform.

The Archives Direct platform includes British government papers from the 19th and 20th centuries relating to Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, East Asia, Latin America and North America. It’s a crucial resource for the study of politics, international relations, peace and conflict studies, economics and trade, British history and global history. This session will introduce you to The National Archives and their Foreign Office and Confidential Print files, and show you how to search across them to discover sources for your studies and research.

Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.