Secondary Sources
Primary Sources
JSTOR
This is a full-text database, and very good for retrospective
research in history. It has journal articles from a selected list of major journals
in several subjects, including history. You must choose which sets of journals
to search, and they are covered in a moving wall from 2 to 5 years ago back
to the beginning volume of the journals. It has extraordinary value for its
retrospective coverage of the selected journals. An ongoing project, with continual
adding of journals.
Project Muse
Unlike JSTOR, this includes only recent issues of journals
full text, but not the backfile. With coverage of over 200 journals in arts
and humanities, social science, and mathematics from Johns Hopkins and selected
other publishers, it includes many history journals full text which can be searched
online. Use in tandem with JSTOR for full text retrieval of history articles
from scholarly journals on your paper topic.
Periodicals Contents Index (PCI Full-text) (1770-1995)
Over 3000 scholarly journals from their inception to
the present are indexed in 23 broad subject areas in several Western languages.
Some of the citations have links to full text of the articles. Many history
journals are covered, including several dozen devoted solely to American history.
Expanded Academic ASAP (1980- )
Academic and popular journals indexed for recentyears in
all subject areas with some full text, depending on the publication.
America History and Life (1964- )
United States and Canadian history in 2000 history periodicals,
covering prehistory to the present. The best place to find recent academic history
article citations. Try advanced searching to narrow your topic results (e.g.,
you can narrow your topic down to a certain decade or century). Also includes
book reviews, dissertations, and chapters in collections.
Historical Abstracts
Covers articles from over 2000 journals, plus books and
dissertations in world history (excluding the United States and Canada) from
1450, including political, diplomatic, military, economic, social, cultural,
religious and intellectual history.
Archival Resources
Provides detailed finding aids for archival collections,
with over 730,000 collection records and nearly 48,000 collection guides. Supports
full-text searching and display, and some finding aids links to digital images
of archival material. Indexes finding aids that have been encoded using XML
and Encoded Archival Description (EAD), in addition to providing access to RLG's
AMC (Archival and Mixed Collections) file.
ArchivesUSA
Access to holdings and contact information of more than
5,500 repositories and online links to over 2,200 repository home pages. Indexes
to over 149,000 special collections and over 5,000 links to online finding aids.
Includes three major archival information resources (NUCMC, National Union Catalog
of Manuscript Collections and NIDS, the National Inventory of Documentary Resources
in the United States).
American Periodicals Series Online
Upon completion projected in 2004 (which may be affected
by re-digitizing projects), the online version of the original microfilmed American
Periodicals Series will index more than 1,100 early American journals with full
text digitized access to the contents. Over 800 titles are currently represented
in the database. Content loaded after August 2002 shows three view options instead
of two, and adds seven new article type searches.
Early
Encounters in North America
Early Encounters in North America, subtitled "Peoples,
Cultures and the Environment," will include, when completed, more than
100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters.
It includes descriptions of North America, either in its natural features or
interactions among various cultural groups in the years between 1534 and 1860.
Special indexing leads to the who, what, when and where of the encounters.
Early
English Books Online (EEBO)
EEBO brings online nearly every English-language book
published from the invention of printing in 1475 until 1700. Notable works,
musical exercises, prayer books, pamphlets, proclamations; almanacs, calendars,
and other primary resources are available in full facsimile. NOTE: it is important
when searching to select carefully from the LIMIT TO search box.
Eighteenth
Century Collections Online
When complete, this database will deliver every significant
English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain between
1701 and 1800, along with thousands of important works from the Americas. It
will comprise nearly 150,000 titles and editions and will allow full-text searching
of more than 33 million pages of material. Titles included in ECCO are based
on the English Short Title Catalogue bibliography and are sourced from the holdings
of the British Library, as well as other national, university, research, and
public and private libraries. The database includes a variety of materials -
from books and directories, Bibles, sheet music and sermons to advertisements
- and works by many well-known and lesser-known authors, all providing a diverse
collection of material for the researcher of the eighteenth century. Variant
editions of each individual work are frequently offered to enable scholars to
make textual comparisons of the works. The database is divided into seven subject
areas: History and Geography; Fine Arts and Social Sciences; Medicine, Science
and Technology; Literature and Language; Religion and Philosophy; Law; General
Reference.
Evans
Digital Edition
Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans (1639-1800) has
been hailed as one of the most important collections ever produced on microform.
Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans and enhanced by
Roger Bristol's Supplement to Evans' American Bibliography, the collection has
for years served as a foundation for research involving early American history,
literature, philosophy, religion, and more. The entire Evans collection is now
being digitized. Evans Digital Edition will include every item previously produced
on microform plus more than 1,200 additional works located, catalogued and digitized
since completion of the earlier effort. When finished, Evans Digital will consist
of more than 36,000 works and 2,400,000 images.
North
American Women's Letters and Diaries
A collection of women's diaries and correspondence covering
colonial times to 1950. This database is being released in stages until completion.
Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985
Two hundred years of "the world's newspaper of record,"
the Times of London, is offered in searchable full text, including news
articles, editorials, obituaries, and advertising. Either individual articles
or entire pages can be viewed as full-image facsimiles.
American Memory:
Library of Congress Digital Collections
With links to more than nine million digital items from
more than 100 historical collections, this site, maintained by the Library of
Congress, provides access to photographs, manuscripts, rare books, maps, recorded
sound, and moving pictures from the library's holdings.
Avalon Project at Yale University
An important feature of this web site containing important
historical documents is its search engine, which allows you to look easily for
specific documents or documents by subject. It has documents grouped by century,
major collection, subject, author and title. Includes documents in U.S. foreign
relations with Latin American countries.
The Plymouth Colony Archive
Project
This rich University of Virginia website provides a variety of visual and textual
primary source items, historical essays, and biographical profiles illustrating
the social history of Plymouth Colony from 1620 to 1691.
Virtual Jamestown
Jamestown, the first permanent British settlement in North America, was founded
on May 14, 1607. A remarkable assortment of primary source material documenting
the colony, several interpretive essays, and other resources are offered on
this site, maintained by Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.