CONFIDENTIAL PRINT : NORTH AMERICA

From The National Archives, Kew
(Complete classes: CO880, CO884, FO461, FO462)

Further information on this digital resource can be found on our website www.amdigital.co.uk.

The Confidential Print series issued by the Foreign and Colonial Office since c1820 is one of the fundamental building blocks for research that should be possessed by any academic library and one of the most important series produced by the British Government.

The series originated out of a need for the Government to preserve all of the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. Some of these were one page letters or telegrams – others were large volumes or texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet, and to Heads of British missions abroad.

Over the next few years we will be offering complete series of Confidential Print relating to different regions including the Middle East, Africa and South America. All documents are full text searchable.

We commence with coverage of key classes concerning:

• Canada
• The Caribbean
• The USA
• These cover the following classes in their entirety:

CO 880/1-32 North America, 1839-1914
CO 884/1-38 West Indies, 1826-1961
FO 414/1-268 North America 1824-1941
FO 461/1-13 America, 1942-1956
FO 462/1-10 USA, 1947-1956

The bulk of this material covers the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century.