History Resources

Reference Sources

Reference sources can help you to begin your research and guide you in your approach to a new topic. Encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries can help you to learn more about a topic or a person, and to place them in wider historical and cultural contexts. Reference sources include encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, research handbooks, web pages, and more. Browse reference materials in the Reference Section, on the first floor of Chalmers near HelpLine. You can also search for reference sources using the Advanced Search screen in CONSORT, by limiting the location to KEN Reference.

Encyclopedias

Kenyon has a considerable collection of subject-specific encyclopedias, both in print and online formats. Selected General and History-specific encyclopedias include:

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
    In addition to the online encyclopedia, Kenyon also has the print version, located in the Reference Section, on the first floor of Chalmers.

  • Columbia Encyclopedia
    Contains over 50,000 articles, providing succinct but complete coverage of all areas.

  • Chronology of World History [REF D11 M39 1999]
    A chronology of the world in four volumes. A concise reference.

  • Dictionary of American History [REF E174 .D52 2003]
    Ten-volume set. Articles include bibliographies. Older editions are located in the Main stacks under the same call number.

  • Encyclopedia of American Historical Documents [REF E 173 E54 2004]
    Three-volume set.

  • Europe: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World [REF D 209 E97 2004]
    The first volume in this six-volume set includes a chronology of Europe. Maps and bibliographies are included, as well as some full-color illustrations.

  • The New Cambridge Modern History [REF D208 .N4]
    This fourteen-volume work covers the period from 1493 through 1945. See the original Cambridge Modern History set [Ref. D208 .C17] for extensive bibliographies that were not included in the new edition.

  • New Encyclopedia of the History of Ideas [REF CB 94N 2005]
    Six-volume set.

Research Handbooks

Research handbooks can be useful guides through the maze of research and writing. Note that some are available in the Reference Section and the Main Collection of the library.

  • The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature [REF D20 A55 1995 vols 1-2]
    Contains citations of publications grouped by geographic region and period of history. Volume II focuses on sources in United States History, including primary sources.
  • The History Student Writer's Manual [REF D13 H14147 1998]
    A guide for writing and research.
  • Reference Sources in History: An Introductory Guide [REF D20 F72 2004]
    Contains helpful resources, print and online, within several areas of History. Chapter 13 focuses specifically on "Archives, Manuscripts, Special Collections, and Digital Sites."
  • Sources of Information for Historical Research [D20 .S64 1994]
    Provides brief descriptions of a variety of research sources. Also provides Library of Congress subject headings that are relevant to each work; these can be used to search the online catalog for additional works on a particular subject.

Finding Books

The CONSORT catalog can be used to locate books, government documents, microforms, video and sound recordings, and special collections materials available in the Kenyon, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster libraries.

In addition to CONSORT, Kenyon students also hae access to OhioLINK, the combined catalog of 85 libraries throughout Ohio.

WorldCat is a catalog of library holdings throughout the country and world. It contains records for any type of materials: books, sound recordings, video recordings, manuscripts, etc. Click the ILL button from within WorldCat to request an item be sent to you at Kenyon. Delivery time will vary depending on the location of the material.

 

Finding Published Primary Sources in CONSORT, OhioLINK, and WorldCat

As History students, locating primary sources is an important part of your research. In any of the above three catalogs (CONSORT, OhioLINK, WorldCat), you can use subject heading subdivisions to do advanced searching for published versions of primary sources. See these suggested subject headings. You can always ask for help at the Information Desk.


Finding Articles

Individual journal and newspaper articles are not indexed in library catalogs. In order to find individual articles within specific journals and newspapers, you'll need to turn to an index, either in print or online. Once you determine the title of the journal or newspaper, you can then use CONSORT and OhioLINK to find the location of the journal itself. If we don't have the journal at Kenyon, simply fill out an InterLibrary Loan Request Form. The following History-specific and general indexes are great places to begin searching for articles.

History-specific Indexes

When possible, use the FindIt! button to locate a copy of the article.

  • America: History & Life (1964 - )
    Includes bibliographic citations and abstracts covering the historical literature of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. Sources include journals, books, dissertations, and book reviews.

  • Historical Abstracts (1955 - )
    Indexes and abstracts scholarly literature on the history of the world, except the United States and Canada, from 1450 to the present. The subject coverage includes all branches of world history; related social sciences and humanities disciplines when books, articles, or dissertations in these areas are presented with an historical perspective; and the historical profession.

General and Social Sciences Indexes

  • Academic Search Complete
    A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database designed specifically for academic institutions. This resource contains more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition, Academic Search Complete offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format.

  • Humanities International Complete
    A comprehensive database covering 2,000 journals, as well as books and reference sources in the humanities. All data from American Humanities Index is included with the addition of international coverage. This database provides citation information for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems and fiction. Photographs, paintings and illustrations are also referenced.

  • Social Sciences AbstractsSocial Sciences Citation Index (1980 - )
    Indexes 1,700 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. It contains searchable, full-length, English-language author abstracts for approximately 60% of the articles in the database.

Electronic Journals

While these journals are electronic and provide full-text access to articles, they are not necessarily best place to begin searching for articles. They are most helpful once you've already determined the journal in which the article has been published.

 

Print Indexes to Magazine and Journal Articles

  • Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906) [REF AI3 P7 1963]
  • The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals (1824-1900) [REF AI3 .W45 1966]
  • Nineteenth Century Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1890-1899) [REF AI3 R496]

  • Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1900- ) [REF AI3 R4]
    Also, The Reader's Guide Retrospective indexes 375 popular magazines during the years 1890 through 1982.

  • International Index to Periodicals (1920-1965) [REF AI3 R49]
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Index (1965-1974) [REF AI3 R49]

Finding Newspapers

Current

Academic Universe (LexisNexis)
Provides access to the full text of hundreds of U.S. and foreign newspapers, magazines, wire services, newsletters, and broadcast transcripts.

AP Photo Archive
Contains some 750,000 images featuring state, regional and national photos from North America, as well as the best of the international photo report.

Newspaper Source
Newspaper Source contains selected full text for 260 regional U.S. newspapers and 25 national and international newspapers. The database also contains full text television and radio news transcripts.

DataTimes (1996 - )
Covers approximately primarily regional U. S. newspapers. Other coverage includes financial and regional newspapers published outside the U.S.

Historical

America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1922
Full text of more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and 1922, including titles from all 50 states.

American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900
Consists of digitized reproductions of more than 1,100 eighteenth and nineteenth century newspapers and periodicals in the original microfilm reproduction series, American periodical series, I, II, and III.

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I (1857-1871)
Full text and images of Harper's Weekly, from 1857-1871.

Print Indexes

Kenyon has both The New York Times and the Times of London on microfilm from 1851 and 1877. Print indexes for these papers, along with The Wall Street Journaland the Christian Science Monitor are located in the Reference section.
  • The New York Times Index (1851-present) [REF AI21 .N45]
  • Palmer's Index to the Times Newspaper (1790-1905) [REF AI21 .T458]
  • The Annual Index to the Times (1906-1913) [REF. AI21 .T458]
  • The Official Index to theTimes (1914-1972) [REF AI21 .T46]
  • The Times Index (1972 - ) [REF AI21 .T26]

Finding Current and Historical Book Reviews

For historical book reviews, use the subject indexes for The New York Times and Times of London located in the Reference Section. Also, you can use The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, available online and in print [REF AI 3 .R4.]
For current book reviews, you can search a variety of general and history-specific databases. Simply limit your search by item type to "review."
You can also search in Academic Universe (LexisNexis) by book review.

For more information, consult the News Resources Page.

Finding Government Information

For help finding government information at Kenyon, refer to the Government Information page.

Finding Statistical Information

  • Abstract of British Historical Statistics [REF HA1135 .M5 1962]
  • Datapedia of the United States, 1790-2000 : American History in Numbers [REF HA202 .K87 1994]
  • International Historical Statistics: Africa, Asia & Oceania, 1750-2000 [INFODESK HA4675 .M552 2003]
  • International Historical Statistics: The Americas, 1750-2000 [INFODESK HA175 .M55 2003]
  • International Historical Statistics: Europe, 1750-2000 [INFODESK HA1107 .M5 2003]
  • Historical Statistics of Black America [REF E185 .H543 1995]
  • Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present [INFODESK HA202 .H57 2006]
  • Nations Within a Nation: Historical Statistics of American Indians [REF E77 .S924 1987]
  • Statistical Abstract of the United States [REF HA202 .A1] (Current copy is kept at the Information Desk, older editions are in the Reference stacks. 1887, 1893 - present.) The Statistical Abstract is also available online.

Selected Research Collections

Access to African American Studies (Lexis-Nexis)
This database features full text resources on African-American history, including federal legislation, court decisions, biographical articles, selected manuscripts, personal narratives, and journal articles.
Access to Women's Studies (Lexis-Nexis)
This database features full text resources on American women's history, including federal legislation, court decisions, biographical articles, selected manuscripts, personal narratives, and journal articles.
Annals of American History Online
Full text of over 2000 primary documents in American history, including historical accounts, speeches, memoirs, poems, editorials, and cultural criticism. Also has multimedia files including more than 500 pictures, hundreds of video clips, and audio of famous speeches.
American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography
American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography is a full-text database of slave narratives compiled by the Library of Congress from transcripts of 2,000 interviews of former slaves from seventeen states. The interviews were conducted between 1936 and 1938 by field workers hired by the WPA Federal Writer's Project.
Early American Imprints, Series I, Evans 1639-1800
Full text of over 37,000 books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America from 1639-1800 on topics touching on all aspects of life in 17th- and 18th- century America. The titles are drawn from American Bibliography by Charles Evans and enhanced by Roger Bristol's Supplement to Evans' American Bibliography.
Early American Imprints, Series II, Shaw-Shoemaker 1800-1819
Full text of 36,000 American books, pamphlets, and broadsides on all topics published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century. Based on the authoritative bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker and supplemented by thousands of new items. Updated monthly until completion in July 2007.
The Gerritsen Collection of Women's History, 1543-1945 [On microfiche/microfilm]
This microfilm/microfiche collection is international in scope and includes over 4000 monographs and 265 serials. The richest part of the collection centers on the 19th century. The index to the collection, located in the microfilm area, uses these categories to divide the collection:

  • Bibliography
  • History
  • Education
  • Women and Employment
  • Feminism
  • Physiology of Women
  • Psychology of Women
  • Biography and Autobiography
  • Opinions, Satires, Anecdotes, Aphorisms
  • Women and the Arts
  • Politics and Social Reform
  • Religion

The collection is located in the microforms area on Level 2 of Chalmers. Items in the collection will appear in CONSORT searches or may be searched specifically by adding the word gerritsen to your keyword search (e.g. "gerritsen and suffrage"). For help in using the collection, ask at the Information Desk.

Historic Documents, 1972-
Historic Documents is an annual compilation of approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of the year. These documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions. Published by CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Press.

U.S. Serial Set
The U.S. Serial Set is an on-going collection of U.S. government publications, including all the reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and constitutes a rich source of primary source material on all aspects of American history.The set is available in print, in the Reference section.
Women, War and Society, 1914-1918
From the Women at Work Collection, at the Imperial War Museum, London, these primary source materials from the First World War cover the contribution of women to the war. The collection features more than 29,000 documents and 2,400 photographs from more than 1,000 organizations and includes charity and international relief reports, pamphlets, photographs, and press cuttings.

Special Collections and Archives

Greenslade Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections includes rare books and special subject research collections. The Kenyon College Archives contain material related to the history and people of Kenyon College.

Evaluating Internet Resources

Questions to ask yourself as you evaluate Internet resources.

Selected Internet Resources

American Women's History: A Research Guide: From Middle Tennesee State University.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Library of Congress American Memory Project
National Archives
Voice of the Shuttle History Page

 

Writing and Citing

Use RefWorks to manage your bibliography.

Style guides are available at the Information Desk. Consult your professor when choosing a style guide.

Need Help? Contact:

Nina Clements
Librarian & Technology Consultant
740.427..5668