Major Research Tools

America: History and Life

Index
Time period covered: prehistory to present; publication coverage: 1910 to present.

Indexes journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on the history and culture of the United States and Canada. Subjects include area studies, folklore, government, historiography, political science, popular culture, and urban history.


American History 1493-1945

Full-Text

Major collection of primary sources on American history from the times of the earliest settlers until the end of World War II.


Early American Newspapers I and II

Full-Text
Coverage: 1690-1900 (focus on 1700-1799 and 1820-1860)
Searchable, cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of U.S. historic newspapers. The publisher's web site includes a description of some of the key titles within Series I and Series II.

History Research Tools - U.S. (General)

Gateway

Skillman Library's links to major indexes and full-text collections covering multiple periods of United States history.


Indigenous Peoples of North America

Full-Text
Coverage: 16th C. - 1986

Large collection of primary sources split into two parts. Part I covers the documented history, sociology, and culture of Indigenous peoples across the US and Canada from the age of invasion and colonization through western settlement and forced displacement. Part II presents the record and sometimes-troubled history of the Indian Rights Association, an organization founded by White philanthropists that attempted to advocate for Indigenous rights.


Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History

Reference

In depth articles on major topics and trends relating to the study of American history. Written (and periodically updated) by scholars and peer-reviewed.


Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive

Full-Text
Coverage: 17th C. - late 19th C.

Major collection of primary source material covering the global history of the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery movements. Presented in 4 collections: Debates over Slavery and Abolition; Slave Trade in the Atlantic World; The Institution of Slavery; and Age of Emancipation.


Other Suggested Research Tools

American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals

Full-Text

Provides digital access to a highly comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1691 and 1912. Subject coverage includes: advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry and professions, religious issues, culture and the arts, and more. Produced by a partnership between EBSCO and the American Antiquarian Society (AAS).


American Broadsides & Ephemera, 1749-1900

Full-Text, Visual Resource

Collection of over 30,000 documents, many in full color, fairly evenly split between broadsides (spanning 1749-1900) and ephemera (1820-1900). Contains rare items such as sailing cards, playbills, menus, music programs, advertisements, etc. Built in partnership with the American Antiquarian Society.


American Periodicals Series Online

Full-Text

Digitized images from American magazines and journals that originated between 1741 and 1940. Includes general interest magazines, children's publications, women's magazines, and literary and professional journals.


Colonial America

Full-Text
Coverage: 1606-1822

Original correspondence of the colonial governments in mainland North American and the Caribbean with the British government. From the National Archives in London.


Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800

Full-Text

Electronic collection of nearly every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America from 1639-1800.


Early Americas Digital Archive

Full-Text, Gateway

"Collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820."


Early Encounters in North America

Full-Text

Coverage: 1534 - 1850

Online collection of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters. It has been indexed to allow for unique browsing and searching (e.g. by type of flora or fauna, encounters between groups of peoples, specific events or places, etc.).


Eighteenth Century Collections Online I and II

Full-Text

Digital collection of 180,000 English language books, pamphlets, essays, and broadsides published from 1701 to 1800. Titles cover history, fine arts, medicine, science, literature, law, philosophy, and religion.


History Matters

Full-Text, Gateway

Selective gateway to online U.S. history resources. Also includes first-person, primary documents and teaching resources. Searchable by keyword or topic.


Periodicals Index Online

Index

Electronic index to millions of articles published in over 6,000 periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, covering more than 300 years.


Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice

Full-Text
Coverage: 1490-2007

Vast collection of documents relating to the global slave trade and subsequent abolition efforts and social justice movements. Documents include manuscripts, court records, maps, lists of slaves and ships' logs, books, statistics, and many types of images.


Specialized Collections

American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement

Full-Text

Digitized collection of rare books, manuscripts, and travel narratives with accounts of North American exploration from the time of the Vikings (ca. 1000) through the early 1800s.


American West

Full-Text
Primary sources relating to westward expansion in America from the early eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. From the Everett D. Graff Collection of Western Americana at the Newberry Library. Can be searched jointly with the Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America collection.

Bethlehem Digital History Project

Full-Text

Collection of documents related to the development of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from 1741 to 1844. Includes community records, personal papers, visitors' accounts and maps.


China, America and the Pacific

Full-Text

Primary sources connected to the trading and cultural relationships that emerged between China, America and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries.


Docs Teach: Primary Source Documents

Full-Text

Hundreds of primary source documents, photographs, drawings, maps, and other American history materials drawn from the holdings of the National Archives. Large collections on aviation and space, civil rights, Civil War, founders and founding documents, presidents, and World War II. Images can be used in papers and presentations.


Empire Online

Full-Text

Primary sources charting the rise and fall of empires, from the explorations of Columbus, Captain Cook, and others to decolonization in the second half of the twentieth century. Includes perspectives from colonizers as well as indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America.


European Views of the Americas: 1493-1750

Full-Text
Index of works about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. "Covers the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of Indigenous peoples." Note that the full text of English language titles may be found in Early English Books Online or Eighteenth Century Collections Online; for the full text of French titles, check Gallica.

Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlements and Colonial Encounters

Full-Text

Primary sources relating to various frontiers that arose from the movements of Europeans to Africa, Australasia and North America. The majority of the material originates from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.


Geography of Slavery in Virginia

Full-Text
Full transcripts and images of runaway and captured ads for slaves, servants, and deserters placed in Virginia newspapers from 1736 to 1790. The site also includes laws, court records, plantation accounts, letters, diaries, and personal papers of planters.

Global Commodities

Data, Full-Text

Primary sources such as manuscripts/diaries, rare books, maps, paintings, advertisements, company records, etc., covering the global history of 15 major commodities: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, energy, opium, porcelain, silver & gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, wine & spirits. Also includes data on energy production, consumption, and reserves by country from 1965 to the present.


Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America

Full-Text
Primary sources relating to indigenous history in the United States, Canada and Mexico from earliest contact with Europeans through the late twentieth century. From the Ayer Collection at the Newberry Library. Can be searched jointly with the American West collection.

Jewish Life in America

Full-Text
Coverage: c.1654-1954

Archive of documents highlighting the Jewish American culture, identity, and experiences, sourced from the American Jewish Historical Society.


Plymouth Colony Archive Project

Full-Text

Collection of primary texts and analyses on the Plymouth Colony from 1620 to 1691. Primary sources include court records, Colony laws, probate inventories, wills, maps, and other 17th century texts. The site also includes interpretive essays on architecture, material culture, and legal issues by scholars and students.


Salem Witch Trials

Full-Text

Collection of primary sources related to the Salem witch trials of 1692. Includes trial transcripts, contemporary accounts, and hundreds of related documents. The site also features lists of individuals associated with the trials and maps that provide a visual representation of the trials' social context.


Slave Voyages

Data, Visual Resource

Detailed data on slaving voyages from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database and the Intra-American Slave Trade Database. Also includes the African Names Database, which provides details of Africans taken from captured slave ships or from African trading sites, and a database of images relating to the slave trade.


Virtual Jamestown

Full-Text

Collection of public records, maps, images, first hand accounts, and letters related to the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.