1. Catalogs of Digital Resources
2. Miscellaneous Web Resources
Unrestricted access
- HathiTrust Digital Library (consortium of libraries pooling digitized resources)
- Illinois Harvest
- Internet Archive (books, periodicals, and films)
- Harvard's Open Collections
- Women Working, 1800-1930
Immigration to the U.S., 1789-1930 - Ad*Access (more than 7,000 ads published 1911-1955)
- Sheet Music Consortium (sheet music on the web from UCLA, Indiana University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University)
- Sheet Music Collection at UIUC (searchable database for holdings in our Music Library)
- Sheet Music in American Memory
- American Radicalism Collection (books, pamphlets, periodicals, posters, and ephemera from Michigan State University)
- Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls (Stanford University collection covering late 19th and early 20th cc.)
- History of Social Welfare Collection (Cornell University)
- Illinois Newspaper Project
- Chicago History Museum
- Encyclopedia of Chicago
- Black Metropolis Research Consortium
- The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is an unincorporated Chicago-based association of libraries, universities, and other archival institutions with major holdings of materials that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago. The University of Chicago serves as Host Institution of the BMRC.
- Homicide in Chicago, 1870-1930
- University of Chicago, Uncovering Chicago Archives project
UIUC subscription database
- Women and Social Movements, 1600-2000
- Reader's Guide Retrospective
- Heritage Quest (census enumeration forms)
- American Periodicals (includes some periodicals up to 1940)
- Historical Chicago Defender (1905-1975; actually 1910-1975)
- Historical Chicago Tribune (1849-1985)
- Digital Sanborn Maps (Illinois)
- Vanderbilt Television News Archive (news broadcasts 1968- )
- The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives (1960-1974)
- ARTStor (1 million images, keyword searchable, includes large photo archives)
- American History in Video (On trial through May 31, 2011. Includes newsreels, documentaries, archival footage.)
3. Microfilm Collections
- Labor Union Periodicals, Part 1: The Metal Trades, 1897-1955Call Number: FILM 331.805 Me1
- Papers of the NAACP byCall Number: FILM 305.896073 N21ISBN: 0890933979Now available online in ProQuest History Vault.
Most of the Library’s microfilm is located in the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library stacks. Many of the microfilm sets have printed guides that will help you locate the material you need. These guides usually have the same call number as the film itself. They are located on the shelves to your left just inside the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library stacks.
Examples of microfilm collections relating to American working class history include:
- American Federation of Labor Records byCall Number: FILM 331.88 AM35AISBN: 0890938954Publication Date: 1898-1953We have: Part 1. Strikes and Agreements File, 1898-1953 (55 reels ; documents related to ongoing negotiations, including correspondence, field reports, and contracts), and: Part 2. President’s Office Files. Series A, William Green Papers, 1934-1952 (38 reels).
- The President’s Mediation Commission, 1917-1919 byCall Number: FILM 331.89140973 UN3PISBN: 0890937125Publication Date: 1985Reproduces all of the NARA's records from the President's Mediation Commission (part of RG 174: General Records of the Department of Labor, 1907 - 2001), but does not represent all extant records from the Commission. There is, for example, a large number of records in the Library of Congress's collection not duplicated at the NARA. 3 reels of microfilm. Guide includes a subject index.
- Records of the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor, 1918-1965 byCall Number: FILM 331.40973 Un3rISBN: 0890938709Publication Date: 1991Part 1: Reports of the Director, Annual Summaries, Major Conferences, Speeches, and Articles; Part 2: Women in Worold War II, Series A. Unpublished Studies and War Community Surveys.
- American Civil Liberties Union Archives: The Roger Baldwin Years, 1917-1950
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Call Number: FILM 323.0973 Am35aISBN: 0842041508Microfilm (293 reels) of the ACLU archives at Princeton University (the largest repository of ACLU records in the nation). Key topics in this series include conscientious objectors labor,, freedom of speech, academic freedom, and censorship. - American Civil Liberties Union Archives, 1950-1990: Series 4: Legal Case Files
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Call Number: FILM 323.0973 Am35aser.4See original finding aid at Princeton University Library, which includes a searchable subject index to cases. Microfilm guide then keys cases to reel numbers. - American Civil Liberties Union Archives, 1950-1990: Series 3: Subject Files
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Call Number: FILM 323.0973 Am35a ser.3Microfilm (356 reels) of archives at Princeton University. - Black Workers in the Era of the Great Migration, 1916-1925 byCall Number: FILM 331.6396073 B561ISBN: 0890937400Publication Date: 198525 reels. Documents selected from several NARA record groups, including RG 2 (National War Labor Board); RG 3 (U.S. Housing Corporation); RG 13 (National Mediation Board); RG 14 (U.S. Railroad Administration); RG 32 (U.S. Shipping Board); RG 68 (U.S. Coal Commission); RG 83 (Bureau of Agricultural Economis); RG 86 (U.S. Women's Bureau); RG 165 (Department of War); and RG 280 (R.S. Conciliation Service).
- Civil Rights During the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963: a Collection from the Holdings of the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts.Call Number: FILM 323.40973 C4992ISBN: 0890939004Now digitized and available in ProQuest History Vault as part of the module Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records.
- The Jane Addams Papers byCall Number: FILM 361.973 J253Correspondence, records, and clippings on 82 reels. Separate subject indexes for correspondence and writings. Jane Addams in American National Biography.
- Detroit Urban League Papers, 1916-1950, at the University of Michigan byCall Number: FILM 305.8960774 D484MOrganizational records on 35 reels. The Urban League was formed in 1910 to help black families who were relocating from the rural south to industrialized cities in the north, largely as a part of the Great Migration. National Urban League in Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present.
- Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans (1917-1925): The First World War, the Red Scare, and the Garvey Movement byCall Number: FILM 323.1196073 F317ISBN: 0890937419
- Mary McLeod Bethune Papers : the Bethune Foundation collection byCall Number: FILM 378.75921092 B465mISBN: 1556556365
- Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune-Cookman College Collection, 1922-1955 byCall Number: FILM 378.75921 B465mISBN: 1556555547
- Minutes of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor byCall Number: FILM 331.88 A1EISBN: 1556553773Publication Date: 1893-195555 reels.
- Negro Labor Committee Record Group, 1925-1969 byCall Number: FILM 331.6396073 N312nThe complete, non-current archives of the Negro Labor Committee, and those of its predecessors, the Trade Union Committee for Organizing Negro Workers (1925) and the Harlem Labor Committee (1934). Also included are the personal records of Frank R. Crosswaith, founder and longtime chairman of the Negro Labor Committee. The Negro Labor Committee was founded in 1935 to aid black workers in securing better-paid jobs and to break down barriers within the existing labor movement. The Negro Labor Committee also lent its support to establishing the Negro Labor Service, which disseminated information relating to Black labor throughout the country.
- Records of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, 1895-1992 byCall Number: FILM 369.396073 R245ISBN: 1556554672Now available online in ProQuest History Vault, Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1.
- Records of the National Negro Business League byCall Number: FILM 338.642206 N2132RISBN: 1556555075
- Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970 byCall Number: FILM 323.1196073 R245ISBN: 1556555555Now available online in ProQuest History Vault, Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1.
- The Bayard Rustin Papers byCall Number: FILM 323.1196073 R928BISBN: 1556550642Now available online through ProQuest History Vault, in the sub collection Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1.
Bayard Rustin in African American National Biography. - The Black Power Movement. Part 1, Amiri Baraka from Black Arts to Black Radicalism byCall Number: FILM 323.1196073 B561ISBN: 1556558341Continued by Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
- The Black Power Movement. Part 2, The Papers of Robert F. Williams byCall Number: FILM 323.1196073 B56111ISBN: 1556558678
- The Black Power Movement. Part 3, Papers of the Revolutionary Action Movement, 1962-1996Call Number: FILM 323.1196073 B5613ISBN: 1556559275
- The Black Power Movement. Part 4, The League of Revolutionary Black Workers, 1965-1976 byCall Number: FILM 323.1196073 B5614ISBN: 1556559356
- The Claude A. Barnett Papers : Part 3: Subject files on Black Americans, 1918-1967 ; Series I: Race relations, 1923-1965 byCall Number: FILM 071.7311 C573iISBN: 0890937672
- The Horace Mann Bond Papers byCall Number: FILM 370.92 B64See the entry Horace Mann Bond in African American National Biography.
- The Papers of A. Philip Randolph byCall Number: FILM 323.1196073 R159paISBN: 1556550243Now available online in ProQuest History Vault, Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1. A. Philip Randolph in African American National Biography.
- The Strike Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, 1894-1920 byCall Number: FILM 331.892973 UN32SISBN: 155655219X
- U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, 1912-1915: Unpublished Records of the Division of Research and Investigation: Reports, Staff Studies, and Background Research Materials byCall Number: FILM 331.0973 UN35UPublication Date: 1985Reproduces in its entirety the records originally found at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, now part of RG 174 at the NARA. This collection does not represent all extant records of the Commission, however, as a large number of records that are available at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin were not duplicated in the BLS collection. See NARA Catalog Record 27023125 for more information. Guide includes a detailed subject index.
- U.S. Military Intelligence Reports : Surveillance of Radicals in the United States, 1917-1941 byCall Number: FILM 322.420973 US1ISBN: 089093682X
