American History and American Studies Research Guide

Chief Thundercloud, the famous American Indian, believed to be the model for the nickel as well as the last five dollar gold piece

Beginning Research

| Self Help Tutorials

| Finding Primary Sources | Off-Campus Access

Databases

| Journals | Online Books | Microfilm

Beginning Research
How do I find ... ?
This guide will lead you to the different types of resources and tools used in historical research.

Books
Online Books
Scholarly Analysis (Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Dissertations)
Magazine Articles
Newspaper Articles
Government Documents (pre-1900)
Microfilm
Manuscripts and Archives
Book Reviews
Biographical Information and Facts
Images
Related Databases

Guide to Primary Sources

Databases for Americanists

Related Yale Library Research Workshops

The Yale University Library holds periodic workshops for researchers, tailored either to general or specific needs. See Workshops & Tutorials.

How To Locate Books

A book can be either a primary or secondary source, depending upon factors like publication date, viewpoint of the author and the topic of your research.

Catalogs - tell you what is in a library in all formats (books, periodicals, manuscripts, videos, databases) and where it is kept. The collections of the Yale University Library are represented in multiple catalogs. Together Orbis, Morris (the Law Library catalog) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) catalog constitute the Yale University Library catalog.

WorldCat (OCLC) contains catalog records from academic, public, special and national libraries around the world.

Use the multi-database search QuickSearch section for Books to search across Orbis, Morris, New Haven Public Library, Center for Research Libraries and WorldCat with one search.

Full-Text Online Books

ACLS History E-Book Project is an electronic publishing initiative for books in the field of history.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) is based on the Bell & Howell microfilm collections Early English Books 1475-1640 and Early English Books 1641-1700.

Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans, 1639 - 1800 is based on the American Bibliography by Charles Evans. It contains over 37,000 non-serial works from 1639 - 1800.

Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online contains nearly 150,000 English language titles and editions published between 1700 and 1800.

Use quotation marks ( ex. "american history" ) to find online books.
Enter search terms below including quotation marks:

Note: Use quotation marks around phrases to search for other topics such as "civil war 1861-1865"

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How to Find Microfilm in Orbis

From Orbis

Use More Limits, and select Medium: microform
Use a Title or Keyword search.

For example:

"civil rights" feminism as a Keyword search

How To Locate Scholarly Analysis - Peer Reviewed Journals

Scholarly analysis can usually be found either as a monograph or an article. Here are the places to look in addition to Yale catalogs:

America: History and Life contains annotated references to articles about US and Canadian history from periodicals published worldwide. AHA includes book and media reviews and citations to abstracts of dissertations.

Academic Search provides access to journal articles in most academic areas of study. It includes full-text coverage for journals and abstracts/indexing of journals.

Historical Abstracts contains annotated references to books, articles, and dissertations on the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada , which are covered in America: History and Life).

Arts and Humanities Citation Index indexes articles from arts and humanities journals, plus relevant articles from social science and science journals.

AHA Guide to Historical Literature Ed. Mary Beth Norton , Pamela Gerardi . 3rd ed . New York : Oxford UP, 1995. 2 v.
The product of over 400 historians. This edition of the Guide presents an integrated, selective listing of books and articles that most successfully introduce others to the study of key issues in history. Works have been chosen for inclusion on the basis of (1) their function as reliable syntheses or reference works that provide entry to a field; (2) works that set the standard of excellence in various fields of history; and (3) major alternative interpretations represented in current scholarly debates. Contains nearly 27,000 annotated citations arranged in 48 chapters. Each chapter includes a brief introductory essay summarizing the history and development of that area of historical inquiry. With author and subject indexes and a list of journals.
SML, Reference Z6201 A55 1995. Also at the SML Reference Desk and in Bass, Reference.

History Cooperative contains full text of current issues of the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, Law and History Review, William and Mary Quarterly, The History Teacher, and Western Historical Quarterly.

JSTOR (Journal Storage Project) contains the full text of several journals in the Arts & Sciences. America History & Life indexes and links to JSTOR articles.

Dissertations and Theses - Full Text contains entries with information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses. Many titles published since 1997 (and selected earlier dissertations including Yale's) are available in full -text PDF digital format and have 24 page previews available.

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How To Locate Magazine Articles

From Databases & Article Searching use the Quick Search link for History. This will search across a number of historical databases at one time.

Indexes analyze the contents of periodicals. There are several indexes, both in print and electronic formats. Below are the indexes by century that historians find most helpful.

20th Century 19th Century 18th Century

20th Century

Readers' Guide Full Text indexes some of the most popular general interest periodicals published in the United States and Canada since 1890 and contains full text of those periodicals from 1983 - present.

Academic Search indexes academic journals and some magazines and provides full text for many publications.

Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals indexes magazines not presently indexed in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, including city and regional magazines.
SML, Reference, Index Case AI3 A23 (LC)

Alternative Press Index (1969 - present) indexes alternative, radical, and left publications. Many of these periodicals are not indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature or the Social Sciences Index. The online version begins with 1991.

History Resource Center provides integrated access to historical (primary) documents, articles from reference titles, and full-text journal covering themes, events, individuals and periods in U.S. history from pre-Colonial times to the present. The material also includes citations from history journals from the Institute for Scientific Information's Arts and Humanities Citation Index, as well as the entire "American Journey Online" series.

Periodicals Index Online (formerly Periodicals Contents Index) indexes periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to recent. The scope is international, including journals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages.

Commentary Digital Archive contains every issue of Commentary from 1945 to the present.

Nation Digital Archive contains every issue of The Nation from July 1865 to the present.

19th Century

American Periodical Series is a full-text-/full-image database containing magazines published between 1741 and 1900.

Harper's Magazine Online provides access to the full-text Harper's Magazine. It covers 1850 to the present.

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction is a searchable full-text database of all the pages of Harper's Weekly (1857-1877).

Nation Digital Archive contains every issue of The Nation from July 1865 to the present.

Nineteenth Century Index contains several established indexes.

The Nineteenth Century Masterfile contains several electronic indexes to pre-1920 periodical literature, including Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906). *The print version of Poole’s is located in SML, Reference, Index Case A13 P656 1963

Periodicals Index Online indexes periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to recent. The scope is international, including journals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages.

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature indexes some of the most popular general interest periodicals published in the United States and Canada since 1890 and contains full text of those periodicals from 1983 - present.

Richmond Daily Dispatch with issues of the paper available online, ranging in date from November 1860 through December 1865.
Links provide access to a brief Civil War period history and chronology.

18th Century

American Periodical Series is a full-text-/full-image database contains 1000 magazines published between 1741 and 1900.

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How To Look For Online Newspapers

From Orbis

Use More Limits, and select Medium: Electronic Resource and from Item Type: Serials and Journals and Electronic Resource (will pull e-resources from a different part of the catalog record)
Use a Title or Keyword search.

For example:

"north america" AND newspapers as a Keyword search

Few newspapers have published indexes. Check Orbis to determine what is available. Here are a few online newspaper indexes and fulltext databases.

America's Historical Newspapers
America's Historical Newspapers features cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers, providing more than one million pages as fully text-searchable facsimile images. This collection is based largely on Clarence Brigham's History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820.

Historical Newspapers Online
Contains the New York Times Index
*Print version of NYTI is located in SML, Reference, Index Case AI21 +N43 (1851-1945) and SML Microtext Center, AI21 +N43 (1946-present).

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: (Full Text titles): Atlanta Constitution (1868 - 1925)
Boston Globe (1872 - 1922); Chicago Defender (1905 - 1975) (Included in Black Studies Center); Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1985); Christian Science Monitor (1908 - 1992); Hartford Courant (1764 - 1922); Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1985); The New York Times (1851 - 2002)
New York Amsterdam News; The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1988); The Washington Post (1877 - 1989)

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe is a full-text news and information service that provides access to newspapers, magazines, transcripts, business and legal information.

Accessible Archives provides a searchable collection of American newspapers from the 18th &19th Centuries. Titles include the Pennsylvania Gazette and African-American Newspapers: the 19th Century.

Factiva contains same-day and archival coverage of many US and international newspapers, newswires and transcripts.

Connecticut Newspaper Project active from Oct. 1991 to July 2002, attempted two goals: to locate, catalog and inventory all American newspapers held in libraries, historical societies and other repositories in the state, and second, to preserve and increase access to American newspapers by microfilming as many of their state newspapers as possible.

Richmond Daily Dispatch with issues of the paper available online, ranging in date from November 1860 through December 1865.
Links provide access to a brief Civil War period history and chronology.

How To Look For Newspapers in Other Formats

First determine the title and date of publication of the newspaper. These guides will help:

Brigham, Clarence Saunders. History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820. Worchester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 1947. Many of the newspapers listed and discussed in this work are available on microfilm in the Early American Newspapers Collection shelved in the Microform Reading Room.
SML, Reference Z6951 +B75.

American Newspapers, 1821-1936: A Union List of Files Available in theUnited States and Canada. Ed. Winifred Gregory. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1967.
SML, Reference Desk Z6945 A48 1967. Also in SML, Andrews Study

Newspapers on Microform: United States, 1948-1983. Washington, DC: Library or Congress, 1984.
SML, Reference Desk Z6951 +U469. Also in SML, Microform Reading Room.

To determine if Yale University Libraries own a particular newspaper, first check Orbis, the online catalog. Then check this database:

Newspaper Holdings of the Yale University Library is a record of Yale Library holdings of newspapers in microform. This list contains only some of the newspapers to be found in the original, reprints, or facsimile in the SML stacks, Mudd Library, or the Beinecke. It does include some of the Underground Newspaper Collection (Film S618).

If we do not have a particular newspaper, you may be able able borrow it from another library via interlibrary loan. Check the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) or WorldCat

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How to Locate Government Documents

Use Orbis

click on More Limits, and select Collection: Government Documents Center
Use a Title or Keyword search.

For example:

"Dwight D. Eisenhower" as Keyword search

When looking for government-related documents, databases and indexes are useful. Below are some databases and web sites that are particularly helpful when looking for pre-1900s government documents.

American State Papers, 1789-1838 contains U.S. Congressional materials. It overlaps somewhat with the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set is comprised of the bound, sequentially numbered volumes of all the Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. This digitized version includes Serial Set volumes 1-161 (15th-19th Congresses, 1817-1827).

Lexis-Nexis Congressional Universe is an online legislative and regulatory service. It provides indexing and abstracting for congressional hearings, prints, bills, reports and documents.

Southern Oregon Digital Archives (SOU) is a digital library primarily from the SOU Library’s collections of federal, state, and county publications. The Library is concentrating its efforts on two collections of regional materials pertaining to the Southern Oregon Bioregion and the First Nations/ Tribal Collection.

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History contains full-text documents of many important historical and government texts.

Nineteenth Century Documents Project (Furman) includes accurate transcriptions of many important and representative primary texts from nineteenth century American history, with special emphasis on those sources that shed light on sectional conflict and transformations in regional identity.

Collection Finder for the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress.

Avalon Project (Yale Law School) presents digital historical documents relevant to the fields of law, economics, politics, diplomacy and government on the World Wide Web.
Document Collections of the Avalon Project (includes the UN).

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How To Locate Manuscripts and Archives

From Orbis

Use More Limits, and select Item Type: Archives and Manuscripts (both 1 and 2) (You can hold down the CTRL key and also select more items, such as Manuscript Maps)
Use a Title or Keyword search.

For example:

"american history" as a Keyword search

Manuscript materials can be difficult to locate. Below are some electronic resources that help locate materials:

ArchivesUSA integrates three resources: The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMUC), The Directory of Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the US (DARMUS), and The National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS).

WorldCat contain records from academic, public, special and national libraries around the world.

ArchiveGrid database searches historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world. Thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions.

Yale Finding Aids Project provides access to archival finding aids, inventories, indexes, or guides that are created by archival and manuscript repositories to provide information about specific collections. While the finding aids created by repositories may vary somewhat in style, their common purpose is to provide detailed description of the content and intellectual organization of collections. Access to finding aids through the Internet will assist scholars in determining whether collections contain material relevant to their research.

Guides to Microforms (in Lexis-Nexis Primary Sources in U.S. History) provide a web-based finding aid for certain microform collections. Instead of searching through several printed guides that accompany microforms, you may search all the microform collections in the database by keyword or browse the electronic versions of the printed guides by title or subject. The end result will be a list of descriptions of records you can find either in Yale University Library's microform collections or through interlibrary loan.

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Where To Find Basic Biographical Information and To Check Facts (online)

American National Biography offers portraits of men and women -- from all eras and walks of life including illustrations, hyper linked cross-references and links to select web sites.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index indexes biographical sketches of current and retrospective reference books, covering both contemporary and historical figures throughout the world.

Biography Index cites biographical material appearing in periodicals indexed in Wilson databases and additional selected periodicals, some current annuals of individual and collective biography, and incidental biographical material in otherwise non-biographical books.

Biography Resource Center (BioRC) is a database of biographical information throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas.

World Biographical Index is a good first step for locating very basic information about people from North and South America, Western and Central Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, through the beginning of the 20th century. It is essentially an index to biographical reference works which have been microfilmed. Yale's microfiche sets are housed in the SML, Starr Main Reference Room Annex.

General (online) Encyclopedias

Britannica Online includes the complete, updated Encyclopædia Britannica , selected articles from magazines, including Newsweek, Discover, and The Economist, and reviews of Web sites.

Dictionary of American History (third edition) is the first comprehensive revision of the classic reference source originally published in 1940. Illustrations and maps have been incorporated into the main body of the work.

Keesing's World News Archive provides objective international news reports and resources to communicate with leaders around the world since 1931.

Oxford Reference (History) brings subject dictionaries and reference works published by Oxford University Press into a single cross-searchable resource. It is also possible to search each title in the collection individually.

Related Databases

Databases & Article Searching lists all Yale databases. Try using the Search feature to locate databases for your topic. For example, the search american history manuscripts results in the database Lexis-Nexis Primary Sources in U.S. History

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Yale American Studies Program | Yale History Department | Programs and Research Orientation for Faculty

© 2008 Yale University Library
Contact Gregory Eow, Kaplanoff Librarian for American History and American Studies,
Research Services and Collections, Sterling Memorial Library.
Updated February 26, 2008