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Finding British Parliamentary Papers in the M.S.U. Libraries, Collections Guide No. 6 (Advanced): Printed Indexes to the House of Commons Sessional Papers

This is a guide to doing research with British government documents, particularly Parliamentary documents, emphasizing use of microform and paper materials, those in existence prior to the electronic era. Last updated 06-05-2023

Printed Indexes to the House of Commons Sessional Papers

British Parliamentary Lists, 1660-1800, a Register. JN 501 .R43 1995 Remote Storage

Contains lists of members of Parliament in Lords, Commons, and Parliament of Scotland, giving citations to documents in the Public Record Office, British Library, and elsewhere.

Catalogue of Papers Printed by Order of the House of Commons, 1731-1800. J 301 f.A2 1800a Remote Storage

Indexes public bills (including amendments), reports of House committees, and accounts and papers (including evidence taken). Each type of material is arranged by date. Indexed.

Hansard's Catalogue and Breviate of Parliamentary Papers, 1696-1834. J 301 f.H91 Remote Storage

There is a list of topics covered in the front. The remainder of the volume is arranged according to the topical scheme. Information given includes document title, session year, paper number, volume, and page. A select list of Lords papers not include in the regular indexing appears at the beginning.

British Government Publications, an Index to Chairmen of Committees and Commissions of Inquiry, 1800-1978. Z 2009 .R535 1982 v. 1-3 Main

Volume 1 covers 1800-1899; volume 2 covers 1900-1940; volume 3 covers 1941-1978. This is an invaluable index. Many commission and committee reports are known chiefly by the name of the individual responsible for overseeing the work. Arrangement is by personal name (rather than title); there are cross-references. Entries give committee name or report title, date of signature or printing, session year, command numbers, paper numbers, volume numbers, page numbers. It includes non-parliamentary papers, also.

Select List of British Parliamentary Papers, 1833-1899. J 301 .M3 1969 Main

This is arranged similarly to Hansard's, above. Law and administration, economic, social and constitutional questions are covered. It excludes foreign policy, diplomatic, colonial, military, naval, statistical, and ecclesiastical material.

Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900. DA 530 .C63 1988 v. 1-5 Consulting Reference 1 East

This is a splendid set, which covers all subjects of documents, including foreign affairs and military/naval matters. Technically, it is an index to the Chadwyck-Healey microform set of the Papers, which we do not own, but the session year, paper number, volume number and page number are all given, so it is useful with our microcard set of the Papers. The index is arranged in 19 topical sections (printed on the spines of the volumes). Within each section the documents are indexed by descriptor (complete list of descriptors is found in the back of the last volume). Reports of committees and commissions, bills, accounts, and papers are indexed. ( ) appears around the paper numbers of bills and Commons papers. [ ] appears around the paper numbers of Command papers.

General Index to the Reports of Select Committees Printed by Order of the House of Commons, 1801-1852. Z 2009 f.I73 v. 2 Oversize 3 West
General Index to Accounts and Papers Printed by Order of the House of Commons and to the Papers Presented by Command, 1801-1852. Z 2009 f.I73 v. 3 Oversize 3 West
General Index to the Bills, Reports, Estimates, Accounts and Papers Printed by Order of the House of Commons, 1852-1869. Z 2009 f.I73 v. 4 Oversize 3 West
General Index to the Bills Printed by Order of the House of Commons, 1801-1852. Z 2009 f.I73 v. 5 Oversize 3 West
General Index to the Bills, Reports, Estimates, and Accounts and Papers Printed by Order of the House of Commons and to the Papers Printed by Command, 1870-1878/1879. Z 2009 f.I73 v. 6 Oversize 3 West
General Index to the Bills, Reports, Estimates, and Accounts and Papers Presented by Command, 1880-1889. Z 2009 f.I73 Oversize 3 West
General Index to the Bills, Reports, Estimates, and Accounts and Papers Printed by Order of the House of Commons and to the Papers Presented by Command, 1890-1899. Z 2009 f.I73 v. 8 Oversize 3 West

All of these volumes are in the Irish University Press series of reprintings of British documents, some of which have already been described, on various topics. These book indexes here index the output of documents for the 19th Century. Compare these indexes with the Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900, above, which is easier to use. To use this set instead, be guided first by the time period to be researched and the type of documents to be examined. Choose the correct volume for the needs on both counts. Each volume has a layout of subject headings at the beginning of the book, with the page number to turn to for the desired subject noted. Turn to that page and there find the session years, document titles, paper numbers, volume numbers, and page numbers, all the information needed to locate the documents in the microcard set. Topics may be place names, names of individuals, names of government agencies, types of documents, and subjects as broad as "army" and as narrow as "elgin marbles." The volumes indicating that they cover documents presented to Parliament cover Command Papers. Volumes covering work "Printed by Order of the House" index House papers. Both of these types of papers will be found in the microcard set of the House of Commons Sessional Papers.

Catalogue of Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1899, with a Few of Earlier Date. J 301 f.H61 1900 Remote Storage

Users beware. The subject approach is nice, but there is no information on the paper numbers, volume numbers or page numbers.

A Century of Diplomatic Blue Books, 1814-1914. Z 2009 .T28 Main

With the exception of the Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900, most of the time period covered by this volume, most of the indexes described in this section do not cover foreign affairs materials. Here, though, in this book, the researcher will find citations to foreign affairs items. For each Prime Minister's administration in this century, 1814-1914, there are two chapters. One discusses the Foreign Minister's policies. The other provides citations to blue books (documents presented to Parliament), giving the date presented, the reason for the presentation, and the command or paper numbers. With this information a researcher can find the documents in the microcards.

Breviate of British Diplomatic Blue Books, 1919-1939. Z 2009 .V6 Main

This volume is a chronological list of Command Papers relative to foreign affairs which are accessed via a detailed subject index at the back of the book. Session year, volume number, document number, and page number are provided, so items may be found in the microcards.

Numerical Finding List of British Command Papers Published 1833-1961/1962. Z 2009 .D5 Main

The purpose of this volume is to help researchers ascertain the volume in the Sessional Papers in which any particular Command Paper whose number is known may be found between 1833 and 1961/1962. The only information provided after the command number and session year is the volume number and pages where the document is located in the Sessional Papers. Use this if you have reference to a Command Paper by number but lack information on the session year, volume number, and page.  This has been digitized and is available in HathiTrust, here.

Checklist of British Parliamentary Papers in the Irish University Press 1000 Series, 1800-1899. Z 2009 f.I733 Oversize 3 West

The volume shows the complete arrangement of the Irish University Press reprint series of Parliamentary Papers. There are three parts: 1) chronological list of the papers covered by session date, giving the paper number, short title, and Irish University press volume number, 2) subject approach by their subject scheme, giving the citation, 3) keyword index to part 2, with chairmen and other personal names indicated. This should be used with the General Index... volumes above in this list.

Serial Publications in the British Parliamentary Papers, 1900-1968, a Bibliography. Z 2009 .R63 Main

The purpose of this source is to list, by issuing agency, all serials which have appeared in the Sessional Papers at any time between 1900 and 1968 and to indicate briefly the publishing history of the serial. The publishing history provides earliest and latest dates of issue, relationship(s) to other publications, and details about the publishing of the series. The work does not include references to serials which ceased before 1900.

A Breviate of Parliamentary Papers, 1900-1916. J 301 .H913 Main
A Breviate of Parliamentary Papers, 1917-1939. J 301 .H914 Main
A Breviate of Parliamentary Papers, 1940-1954. J 301 .H915 Main
A Select List of British Parliamentary Papers, 1955-1964. J 301 .M3 1970 Main
Ford List of British Parliamentary Papers, 1965-1974. Z 2009 .A1 F59 Main
Ford List of British Parliamentary Papers, 1974-1983. Z 2009 .A1 F592 1989 Main

Some of these indexes contain the word "breviate" in the title. Breviate means summary or abstract. Hence, these works provide short annotations describing the documents they cover. There is a subject classification of papers at the beginning of each volume. The next section provides the citation to the papers according to the subject scheme employed in the book and a page reference farther on in the work where the abstract of the document will be found along with the session year, document number, volume number, and page. The scope of these little indexes is the reports of royal commissions and reports of the committees of inquiry into constitutional, economic, financial, social policy, and legal questions. They do not include statistical returns or papers and correspondence on foreign or diplomatic questions. Papers on Ireland are in a separate section, often. The introductions in these index books are full of information on the history of government activity on the period covered.

Stationery Office Annual Catalogue, 1997- Z 2009 .G822 Main

Formerly titled the HMSO Annual Catalogue (1986-1996) and the Catalogue of Government Publications (1936-1985) this set indexes Parliamentary publications (including Lords papers, bills, and debates, Commons papers, bills, and debates, bulletins, command papers, public general acts, local acts) and non-parliamentary publications issued by government departments. Publications on the government of Northern Ireland are also included. It is intended to be a sale catalog; prices are given and document titles, but not always the information necessary to find the items in the Library (session year, document number, volume number, pages). A variety of web sites, described in the next section, index the types of materials covered by this printed index currently.

Cumulative Index to the Annual Catalogues of Her Majesty's Stationery Office Publications, 1922-1972. 1976. Z 2009 .G822 B5 v. 1-2 Main

This is a cumulative index to the Stationery Office Annual Catalogue, described just above, for the period 1922-1972. References here lead the researcher to the correct yearly volume of the Annual Catalogue, which M.S.U. Libraries owns back to 1936. This is a particularly useful index because it covers the periods of the Depression in the 1930s and World War II. This period is not well-covered by our other indexes. This index is actually an index to a particular microfilm set of the Papers, which we do not own, so researchers should ignore the film numbers provided here. Instead take down the session year, document number, volume number, and page number and consult the microcard set that we own. The arrangement of the volumes is by subject (topics, personal names, place names). Both parliamentary and non-parliamentary documents are indexed here; remember that only parliamentary documents are in the microcards of the House of Commons Sessional Papers.