LibGuides: Thinking Historically About Food (HIST 200): Find More Sources

Digitized Primary Source Collections

Because of the broad chronological and geographical scope of this course, depending on your topic you may find relevant primary sources throughout the many, many digitized primary source collections owned, licensed, or recommended by the Library.

Guide to Digital Collections
A guide to digital collections, organized by broad discipline (History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and African American Studies). History is subdivided by region and time period.

Be sure to look at the sub-categories representing different formats and types of primary sources. For most topics post-1700, government documents, and newspapers and other periodicals can be valuable sources.

You may also wish to search or browse this list of subscribed/licensed resources:

Databases A-Z

Thematic collections

These collections may be particularly relevant for food history:

Ad*Access
1911-1955. Advertisements from the United States and Canada covering five categories: Beauty and Hygiene; Radio; Television; Transportation; and World War II propaganda. Advertisements are drawn from the J. Walter Thompson archives at Duke University Library.
more...less...
See also the digital collection: J. Walter Thompson: Advertising America.

Empire Online This link opens in a new window
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.
Everyday Life & Women in America This link opens in a new window
This digital collection provides access to rare primary source material on American social, cultural, and popular history from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University and The New York Public Library. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes, emphasizing conduct of life and domestic management literature, the daily lives of women and men, and contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.
Food and Drink in History This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to primary source material relating to food and drink in everyday life from a global perspective. These materials illustrate the links between food and identity, politics, power, gender, race, and socio-economic status.
Food Studies Online This link opens in a new window
Food Studies Online provides researchers rich archival content, visual ephemera, monographs, and videos that explore how food shapes the world around us. Includes cookbooks and recipes, menus, advertising, posters and pamphlets. Resources pertain to several disciplines, including history, environmental studies, health studies, anthropology, biology, business, and sociology.
Global Commodities This link opens in a new window
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. The commodities featured in this resource have been transported, exchanged and consumed around the world for hundreds of years. They helped transform societies, global trading operations, habits of consumption and social practices.
J. Walter Thompson: Advertising America This link opens in a new window
The J. Walter Thompson Company Archive documents the history, operation, policies and accomplishments of one of the world's largest and oldest advertising firms. The papers here reveal many aspects of twentieth-century cultural, social, business, marketing, consumer and economic history while investigating the human psyche.