When looking for research paper topics, and examining the available body of primary sources, don’t get too hung up on what any particular source is “about”. Sometimes a source is about much more than it seems. For example, Canary and Cage-Bird Life, a weekly newspaper published in England, would make an excellent source for researchers interested in the history of domestic life, history of leisure, history of collecting, history of natural science, history and ethics of human-nonhuman relationships, rural history, and more. The hobbyist newspaper also featured extensive coverage of “foreign” birds and clubs from across the empire, and would be an interesting lens through which to study exoticism and Orientalism in early 20th century British culture.

The University of Illinois Library has the only complete run of this newspaper in the world.

Here’s an example of a subscribers’ premium that was distributed during the second year: