The aim of the project was to improve access to local and trade directories for the period 1750-1919 by making a substantial collection of English and Welsh directories available online as a Digital Library of Historical Directories. This digital resource comprises in total some 600 directories, covering every English county together with Wales, and ranging widely over the period 1750-1919 (the latter cut-off point chosen for copyright reasons). There is a particular focus on the 1850s, 1890s and 1910s, with at least one directory provided for each county in each of these decades. The digitisation of the volumes involved a two-stage process, in which (1) the hard-copy source was scanned to produce a graphic image of each page, and then (2) those images were processed using OCR software to generate a machine-readable text file.An online version of this resource can be found on the Website of the University of Leicester. This data collection includes the following directories:- Kelly's  Directory  of  Cornwall (1906)- The  Post  Office  Directory  of  Falmouth  &  Neighbourhood (1906)- Besley's  Exeter  Directory  and  Business  Guide  (1906-11)- The  Post  Office  Directory  of  Falmouth  &  Neighbourhood (1909)- Lake's Falmouth Directory (1912)- The  Post  Office  Directory  of  Exeter  and  Suburbs (1912)- Besleys' Directory of Exeter and Suburbs (1913)- Besleys' Directory of Exeter and Suburbs (1914)- Kelly's  Directory  of  Devonshire  and  Cornwall,  1914. [Part 1. Devon: County & Localities] (1914)- Kelly's  Directory  of  Devonshire  and  Cornwall,  1914. [Part 2. Devon: Private Resident & Trade Directories] (1914)- Kelly's  Directory  of  Devonshire  and  Cornwall  ...  1914. [Part 3. Cornwall & Advertisements] (1914)- Besleys' Directory of Exeter and Suburbs (1915)- Besley's Directory of Exeter and Suburbs (1916-19)- T.A.D. Tavistock & District Almanac, Directory and Visitors' Guide (1918)- Kelly's Directory of Devonshire (1919)