Digital Collections Guide

Searchable collection of the Library Company's Afro-Americana Collection that includes books, pamphlets and broadsides presenting a record of African American history, literature, and culture.

A collection of full texts of the first editions of American novels and short stories written before 1850 by authors of significance during their lifetimes

Provides full-text and full-page-image access to books, pamphlets and broadsides printed in America from 1639-1800. Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans (14 vols., 1903-34, 1955-59); and subsequent bibliographic works by Roger Bristol, James Mooney and Clifford Shipton. This database includes more than 1,000 works located, catalogued and digitized since the completion of the earlier microfilmed set, Early American Imprints, 1639-1800, which was also based on Charles Evans' American Bibliography.

Supplement to Series I, Evans by the American Antiquarian Society. Contains 2,300 newly discovered works printed in America between 1652 and 1800. Contains books, pamphlets, broadsides, and more. Allows browsing by genre, subject, author, printing history, place of publication, and language. Allows searching in citation text, title, subject, genre, author, place of publication, publisher, and document number. Cross-searchable with other Archive of Americana collections.

Supplement to Series I, Evans by the Library Company of Philadelphia. Contains 1,100 newly discovered works printed in America between 1670 and 1800. Contains books, pamphlets, broadsides, and more. Allows browsing by genre, subject, author, printing history, place of publication, and language. Allows searching in citation text, title, subject, genre, author, place of publication, publisher, and document number. Cross-searchable with other Archive of Americana collections.

Provides full-text and full-page-image access to books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America from 1801 through 1819. Contains many state papers and government materials, including published reports; presidential letters and messages; and congressional, state and territorial resolutions. Based on the American Bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker, which is now supplemented by thousands of new items. Allows browsing by genre, subject, author, printing history, place of publication, and language. Allows searching in citation text, title, subject, genre, author, place of publication, publisher, and document number. Cross-searchable with other Archive of Americana collections.

Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography (Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America from Its Discovery to the Present Time), this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection is a cornerstone in the study of the western hemisphere.

Complete texts of major 19th century African American newspapers. Includes first-hand reports of events and issues of the day, as well as biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements. Publications include: The Canadian Observer, The Christian Recorder; The Colored American; Frederick Douglass’ Paper; The Freedmen’s Record; Frederick Douglass Monthly; Freedom’s Journal; The National Era; The Negro Business League Herald; The North Star; Provincial Freeman; Weekly Advocate.

Part of the Readex America's Historical Newspapers collection, African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 was created from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the United States--those of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Kansas State Historical Society and the Library of Congress. Beginning with Freedom's Journal (NY), the first African American newspaper published in the United States, the titles in this resource include The Colored Citizen (OH), Rights of All (NY), Wisconsin Afro-American, New York Age, Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser, Richmond Planet, Cleveland Gazette, The Appeal (MN) and hundreds of others from every region of the U.S.

African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans.

Search or browse early American newspapers including titles from all 50 present states. Includes: Early American Newspapers, Series 1 (1690 - 1876), Early American Newspapers, Series 2 (1758 - 1900), Early American Newspapers, Series 3 (1829 - 1922), Early American Newspapers, Series 4 (1756 - 1922), Early American Newspapers, Series 5 (1777 - 1922), Early American Newspapers, Series 6 (1741 - 1922), Early American Newspapers, Series 7 (1773 - 1922), Early American Newspapers Series 10 (1730-1900), Early American Newspapers Series13 (1803-1916), Early American Newspapers Series 14 (1807-1880), Hispanic American Newspapers (1808 - 1980), African American Newspapers (1827 - 1998), African American Newspapers Series 2 (1835 - 1956), Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection (1799 - 1971), Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1 (1718 - 1876) and American Business: Agricultural Newspapers (1788 - 1894).

The AAS Historical Periodicals Collection: 1691-1820 represents over two centuries of print culture from early colonial imports to titles published on American soil during the Revolution and early republic.

American Business: Agricultural Newspapers captures the central role of farming in the growth of the United States. Economic, social and cultural historians, as well as science, technology and environmental specialists, will find the published record of farming and rural life critical to teaching and researching America in the 19th century.

Explore nearly 200 years of Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada, from historic pressings to contemporary periodicals. With newspapers representing a huge variety in publisher, audience and era, discover how events were reported by and for Indigenous communities.

Consists of digitized reproductions of more than 1,100 eighteenth and nineteenth century American newspapers and periodicals. Derived from the acclaimed American periodicals series microform collection I, II, and III. This database contains periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals. American Periodicals Series Online (APS Online) includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Titles range from Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine and America's first scientific journal, Medical Repository; popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and Ladie's Home Journal; regional and niche publications; and groundbreaking journals like The Dial, Puck, and McClure's.

This database provides access to a unique and bawdy form of journalism that can be found in The Flash Press. This press covered the more disreputable aspects of urban life in the mid-19th century in America, and includes many topical categories like prostitution, gambling, urban gangs, illicit sporting activities, and sensational crimes, from 1826 to 1876.

The Collection of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, which merged with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, offers searchable, full text coverage of over 130 searchable full text newspapers from 25 states and in ten languages. The ethnic groups most represented are the Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Polish, and Slovak communities.

A comprehensive, searchable archive of every page, advertisement, and cover of every issue of Harper's Bazaar from its first appearance in 1867 to the current month. Reproduced in high-resolution color page images and supported by fully searchable text and indexing, this resource provides access to a chronicle of 20th century American and international fashion, culture, and society, supporting researchers by offering a cultural lens into the modern era.

This searchable database contains hundreds of early American newspapers including titles from Hispanic American Newspapers.

Provides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added approximately on a weekly basis. The University of Illinois has access to the following JSTOR collections: Arts & Sciences I-XV, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Business IV, Global Plants, Hebrew Journals, Ireland, Life Sciences Collection, Lives of Literature, Security Studies, Struggles for Freedom - South Africa, Sustainability, and World Heritage Sites - Africa.

This collection features full-text periodicals depicting American musical life from 1838 to the early 1900s through local and international news, reviews, editorials, sheet music, and advertisements. Users can also cross-search the full text of all articles with videos, audio recordings, photographs, scores, and reference texts.

Featuring the complete archive of the magazine from the 1880s to the present, National Geographic Magazine Archive includes every page and every photograph, all fully searchable through an intuitive interface.

The Nation is America's oldest weekly magazine and one if its premier journals of opinion since its inception in 1865. The Nation has long been regarded as one of the country's definitive journalistic voices of writing on politics, culture, books and the arts and continues to stand as the independent voice in American journalism. This database contains indexing & abstracting and full text for the complete archive of The Nation beginning with its first issue in 1865 through to the present--Database information screen.

Searchable database containing digital facsimile images of newspapers; presented as full page layout as well as single articles; advertisements and illustrations included. This collection includes numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S.; and it encompasses the entire 19th century.

Periodicals Archive Online is a major archive that makes the backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of titles. The database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages.

Search all 46 ProQuest Historical Newspaper titles owned by the University of Illinois, representing 19 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, as well as titles from Canada, the UK, and India. Coverage spans the 18th century to the 2010s and includes important publications like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, and Chicago Tribune.

The full text of 13 newspapers from 8 different states published between 1840 and 1865. ProQuest Historical Newspapers is the definitive newspaper digital archive offering full-text and full-image articles for significant newspapers dating back to the 18th century. Every issue of each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in easily downloadable PDF format. The full collection of ProQuest Historical Newspapers contains over 30 million digitized pages.

An archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines. Issues are scanned in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.

This database documents the move to industrialization from a predominantly agrarian culture established by Quaker farmers in the 18th century. The collection contains full-text transcriptions of articles, advertisements and vital statistics, providing insight into technology, business activity and material culture in a down-river milling and manufacturing community at the height of the Industrial Revolution.

Primary sources collection designed to complement Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926, is a fully searchable digital archive of more than 1,300 individual titles consisting of about 2,225 volumes sourced chiefly from the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale University, with additional materials provided by the Law Library of Congress ... Primary Sources comprises approximately 1.8 million pages spanning over 300 years of legal primary sources, such as early U.S. state codes, city charters, constitutional conventions and compilations ... legal dictionaries, published records of the American Colonies--About the Making of Modern Law p.

Based on holdings of the law libraries of Harvard and Yale, and the Library of the Bar of the City of New York, the product offers online access to these important collections.

This database contains nearly 11 million pages of records and briefs brought before the U.S. Supreme Court in the period 1832-1978. The collection is derived from two essential reference sources. For the period 1832 (when printed Court records began) through 1915, the documents are based primarily on the holdings of the Jenkins Memorial Law Library, America's first law library, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For 1915-1978 the source is the Library of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, a nationally recognized research facility and the single largest member supported law library in the United States.

Provides users with access to a comprehensive collection of historic and current congressional information. Includes full text of congressional publications, finding aids, a bill tracking service, public laws and other research materials. The database is an effective source for general research in many academic disciplines, in addition to research related to specific legislative proposals and laws. Researchers can access information about Congress, including member biographical and committee assignment information, voting records, and financial data.

Database of texts from the bound, sequentially numbered volumes of all the reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Texts constitute a rich source of primary source material on all aspects of American history.

An additional, specialized search module for the Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set, Serial Set Maps allows users to focus searches on the maps themselves - the geographic areas they depict, the subjects they represent, their titles, and the names associated with the maps either as cartographers, explorers, or in some other capacity. Serial Set Maps will eventually cover the full scope of the Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Please look under Search Hints to see the range of congresses and sessions currently covered.

Colonial State Papers provides access to thousands of papers concerning English activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Colonial State Papers integrates two important research tools as one service: Collection CO 1 from The National Archives (full name: Privy Council and related bodies: America and West Indies, Colonial Papers); and Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739. All of the documents from CO 1 have been reproduced as full-colour, high quality images. Users can limit their searches to records that include scanned documents or can search all documents recorded in the Calendar.

Search or browse U.S. congressional materials originating from 1789 and covering through 1838, including 1st Congress, 1st Session through 25th Congress, 2nd Session.

Full text image-based searchable database of legal periodicals. Database coverage for each periodical is from the beginning issue to the most current allowed under contract.

LLMC (Law Library Microform Consortium) Digital is a full text, searchable U.S. federal legislative, judicial and executive branches collection. It includes state and territorial government documents and various Anglo-American collections and foreign and international jurisdictions.

Database of family and local history documents and U.S. census data. (Note: If you receive a long in page try accessing this database through the Easy Search on the main library homepage instead.)

Issued by the Foreign and Colonial Offices since 1820; includes the following classes from The National Archives, Kew in their entirety: CO 880/1-32: North America, 1839-1914 -- CO 884/1-38: West Indies, 1826-1961 -- FO 414/1-278: North America, 1824-1941 -- FO 461/1-13: America, 1942-1956 -- FO 462/1-10: USA, 1947-1956.

This definitive reference work contains more than 37,000 annual time series of quantitative historical information covering virtually every quantifiable dimension of American history: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations, all from the earliest times to the present.

Social Explorer is an online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to current and historical census data and demographic information. The easy-to-use web interface lets users create maps and reports to better illustrate, analyze and understand demography and social change. In addition to being a comprehensive data resource, Social Explorer also offers features and tools to meet the needs of both demography experts and novices.;This interactive website includes the entire US census history from 1790 to 2010, the American Community Survey (ACS) from 2005 to 2012, the Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS) from 1980 to 2010 (the most complete census available on religion in the US), InfoGroup data on religious congregations in the US for 2009 and 2010, and carbon emissions data for 2002 from the Vulcan Project. Overall, the site contains 39 billion data points, 200,000 variables, and 15,000 interactive maps.

Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.

This resource brings together materials on American history from the time of the earliest settlers until the end of World War II, sourced from publications and unique documents in the Gilder Lehrman collection.|bIt offers a broad overview of the history of this period, as well as some deep research strands. Module 1 covers the early period of settlement, and Module 2 provides material from the Civil War onwards.

A wide-ranging digital resource presenting a unique insight into interactions between Indigenous Americans and Europeans from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library's extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection. It also includes manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books, photographs and newspapers. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.

Original manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material, and rare printed sources from the Graff Collection about the American West, including tales of frontier life, Native Americans, vigilantes, and outlaws, and the growth of urban centres and environmental impact of westward expansion and of life in the borderlands.

Comprehensive historical collections, containing books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera. Collections include: American broadsides and ephemera, series I; Early American imprints, series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Early American imprints, series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; America's historical newspapers; and government publications including American state papers, 1789-1838; and U.S. Congressional serial set, 1817-1980.

This primary source collection presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings and publications of the activists themselves. Covering the period 1830-1865, the approximately 15,000 articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of almost 300 Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany. The digital collection reproduces in full the 17 reels of microfilmed content from the original collection and provides a searchable, easily accessible format for research, teaching, and study.

Searchable and browsable database of non-fiction works by African-American leaders and others who have dealt substantially with issues of race in America. Includes books, essays, articles, speeches, letters, interviews, and other materials, some of which have no previously been published. Includes brief biographical information for all authors. (Note: If you receive a long in page try accessing this database through the Easy Search on the main library homepage instead.)

This database is focused on children's literature and related items from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It includes over 8,000 digitized items, with materials like mass-produced chapbooks, illustrated "book-beautifuls", other rare books, games, artwork, and other ephemera. Focus is primarily on American culture, though some European publishers are included as well.

China, America and the Pacific explores the cultural and trading relationships that emerged between America, China and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries. Sourced from twelve North American libraries that include the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum and the Massachusetts Historical Society, China, America and the Pacific offers unique insights into the history of North American trade. Coverage includes the Old China Trade, the Pacific Northwest fur trade, the whaling industry and the development of Pacific trading centres such as Hawaii. Manuscripts, rare printed sources, visual images, objects and maps from international libraries and archives document this fascinating history

Coverage in relation to the Civil War is both informative and eclectic. Slavery is an important topic, and countless editorials discuss pre- and post-war attitudes from both sides, as well as troop movements during the war. University of Illinois owns the following six modules: A Newspaper Perspective, The Soldiers’ Perspective, The Generals’ Perspective, A Midwestern Perspective, Iowa’s Perspective, and Northeast Regimental Histories.

Colonial America makes available all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 series from The National Archives, UK, covering the period 1606 to 1822. CO 5 consists of the original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies, making it a uniquely rich resource for all historians of the period.

Includes most of the fire insurance maps of Illinois produced by the Sanborn Map Company from the mid-1880s to around 1950 for all 50 states. The black and white digital images were produced from microform of the Sanborn atlases in the Library of Congress collection. Digital collection is searchable by city and date.

Searchable and browsable database documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. The project brings coherence to a wide range of published and unpublished accounts, including narratives, diaries, journals, and letters.

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.

Contains full-color, full-text searchable digitized primary source materials on the history of Jewish communities in America from their first arrival in New York in 1654 to today. Includes access to the entirety of six major organisational collections and twenty-four collections of personal papers from the American Jewish Historical Society in New York. Themes covered include: Business, industry and enterprise; Civil rights and liberties; Culture, literature and the arts; Early Jewish experience; Everyday life: personal and family narratives; Immigration and settlement; Politics and the law; Reflections on the Jewish experience; Religion, tradition and community; War, conflict and persecution; and Welfare, health and education.

This resource presents a multi-national journey through well-known, little-known and far-flung destinations unlocked for the average traveller between 1850 and the 1980s. Guidebooks and brochures, periodicals, travel agency correspondence, photographs and personal travel journals provide unique insight into the expansion, accessibility and affordability of tourism for the masses and the evolution of some of the most successful travel agencies in the world.

Bringing together unique primary sources drawn from world-class maritime archives and heritage collections Life at Sea takes a sociocultural approach, focusing on the individual experiences and personal narratives of seafarers. Through a broad range of sources, from journals and memoirs to ships’ logs and court records, the lives of ordinary seamen, merchants, whalers and pirates can be explored. This resource offers exciting new insights into three centuries of the Anglo-American maritime world.

The resource tells the story of medical advances during warfare from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927. The wealth of documents cover multiple conflicts as well as interwar developments from a range of perspectives.

Explore multiple perspectives on the history of injury, treatment and disease on the front line. Chart scientific advances through hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts, and discover the evidence of how war shaped medical practice across the centuries.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries (NAWLD) is a full-text database of the personal experiences as reflected in the letters and diaries of 1,325 women who lived in North America before 1960.

Popular Medicine in America documents the history of ‘popular’ remedies and treatments in nineteenth century America, through primary source materials drawn from the extensive collections at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The material covers popular trends such as phrenology, herbal medicine and hydrotherapy, and documents the rise of widespread advertising by commercial manufacturers of medical aids.

History Vault's coverage of issues of race and ethnicity expands in this category with coverage of Latino History. Documented events include general events from the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, the 1980 presidential election, the Gutierrez-Magee invasion of 1812-1813, the battle of Medina in 1813, the Champ D'Asile incident in 1818, Dr. Long's expedition in 1819, the coming of Moses Austin in 1820, the Mexican independent regime in 1821, the Fredonian Rebel lion in Nacogdoches in 1827, and, finally, the independence of Texas in 1836.

Plantation Records document the impact of plantations on both the American South and the nation. Plantation Records are both business records and personal papers.

This digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries, with 16 key areas of focus: slavery in the early Americas; African coast; the Middle Passage; slavery and agriculture; urban and domestic slavery; slave testimony; spiritualism and religion in slave communities; resistance and revolts; the Underground Railroad; the abolition movement and the slavery debate; legislation and politics; freed slaves, freedmen and free black settlements; education; slavery and the Islamic world; varieties of slave experience; slavery today and the legacy of slavery. The collection also includes case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.

Database containing primary source materials from the Smithsonian's museums, libraries, and archives.

This online project presents those Ferrar Papers which are in Magdalene College, Cambridge. They are reproduced by permission of the Master and Fellows of the college, with whom the copyright remains. In addition, transcripts of those documents that throw light on the Virginia Company of London are included, as are the four volumes of The Records of the Virginia Company of London (Washington, D.C., 1906-35), edited by Susan Myra Kingsbury-Introduction.;The Virginia Company Archives is an essential source for the study of the Atlantic World and Early Colonial Period. It documents the founding and economic development of Virginia as seen through the papers of the Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624, the continuing interest of the Ferrar family in the settlement of North America from Jamestown to the Bermudas, trade between Britain and America, the ethnic and gender composition of early Virginia, and tensions amongst the colonists and of early relations with Native Americans.

The Scholar's Edition includes all features of the Basic Edition that have been published since March 2004. It currently includes 102 document projects and archives with more than 4,050 documents, and 145,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by some 2,200 primary authors. It includes book, film and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools. Those subscribing to the Scholar's Edition can access the online version of Notable American Women or the database on Commissions on the Status of Women.