HIST 490: Senior Seminar - Primary Sources for History Research

Reference Resources

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 Europa World of Learning [Infodesk AS2 W6 2007] Directory of research institutions, museums, and educational institutions by country, including the United States.

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."

Chronological history of U.S. foreign relations

Multivolume chronology of U.S. foreign relation.

Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism

Revolutionary Movements in World History [REF D295 .R49 2006]
Three volumes of detailed entries several pages in length, including chronologies and bibliographies for further reading.

Finding Published Primary Sources

TheCONSORTcatalog 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.

CONSORT also provides access to OhioLINK, which indicates the holdings of 85 libraries throughout Ohio. You may borrow books and documents directly from either CONSORT or OhioLINK. Requested materials typically arrive at Kenyon 2 to 3 working days after the request is made, but delivery may take longer depending upon the time of year -- especially near midterms and finals -- so plan ahead.

WorldCat is a catalog of library holdings throughout the country and world. 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 where an item is coming from.

Finding Published Primary Sources in CONSORT, OhioLINK, and WorldCat
In any of the 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; ask for help at the Information Desk.

Finding Scholarly Articles

Library catologs like CONSORT and OhioLINK don't contain information about individual articles within journals and don't always contain information about articles in anthologies or other book-format collections. Instead, a variety of other resources for finding articles may be used. Available online are several article databases, some containing the full text of articles others only article citations. In the latter case, once you've identified an article that you'd like to read and the journal or book in which it was published, you must check CONSORT or OhioLINK to determine which library holds the publication that you need. If a journal is not located at Kenyon and isn't available online, use the Interlibrary Loan Request Form to request that a photocopy of the article be sent to you.

It is important to note that some of the article databases and indexes cover scholarly publications while others cover popular publications. Usually the description of the database or index will tell you what kind of material is covered. (For the electronic databases and indexes, check the descriptions in this subject guide or in the list of all databases. For print indexes, check the preface. When in doubt, ask a librarian.)

History

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.

America History and Life (1964 - )
Indexes and abstracts scholarly literature on the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistoric times to the present.

General, Including History and Social Sciences

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is the world's largest scholarly, multi-discipline, full text database designed specifically for academic institutions. This resource indexes over 4300 periodicals and contains full text for over 3400 scholarly publications. Academic Search Premier includes full-page images as well as color embedded images. This scholarly collection provides full text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.

Humanities International Complete
Humanities International Index is a comprehensive database covering 1700 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.

Newspapers: Current and 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. You can sort by place of publication to find newspapers published in Ohio.

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.

African-American Newspapers and Magazines on Microfilm
List of African-American newspapers and magazines at Kenyon on microfilm.

More Newspaper Resources

 

Government Information

The agencies of the United States federal government issue materials on a wide variety of topics. These publications can be of use in historical research. For more information on government information and for help finding government documents in the Kenyon Library collection, refer to the Government Documents page.

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 also available in print in the Reference Collection.

National Archives Archival Research Catalog
This link will take you to ARC Basic Search page to find unpublished federal government records. In the Filter Your Search section, select (click in) the "Descriptions of Archival Materials linked to digital copies" box to limit your search to only those items available digitally.

Selected Collections of Primary Sources

Primary Sources in 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.

Primary Sources in American Women's History (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 and includes monographs and periodicals in the following areas:

  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • HISTORY AND SOCIAL CONDITION
  • EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
  • 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.


Selected Local Primary Sources

Knox County Historical Society

Houses local permanent collections and a research library.

Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County
 Including genealogy and local history reference services, linked above.

Knox County RootsWeb Page
Aimed at genealogists, includes links to information about many local institutions and organizations, including maps, cemeteries, and tracing individuals.

Ohio Historical Society
Including a research library on Ohio history.

Ohio Memory Scrapbook
Digitized documents and images from Ohio, browsable by county. Clicking on the document/image provides more information, as well as hyperlinked subjects. Some items were contributed by the Knox County Historical Society.

Selected Primary Sources on the Internet

Questions to ask yourself as you evaluate Internet resources

Selected Sites

Library of Congress American Memory Project
Over 5 million digitized text, sound and video recordings, images, maps, and sheet music from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Includes digitized full text of primary sources pertaining to Modern history. The focus is mainly on Europe and the Americas with some African and Asian materials.

Repositories of Primary Sources
This website, maintained by the Special Collections Department at the University of Idaho Library, serves as a list of national and international archival websites. This could be a good starting place for research in specific geographic regions.

 

Need Help? Contact:

Nina Clements

Librarian & Technology Consultant

740. 427. 5668