Library Digital Collections
- Digital Collections Library Guide
- LibGuide of digital collections purchased by the library, many items of which may serve as primary sources; organized by geographic region, theme, or era
- Digital Special Collections (UIUC Library)
- Items owned and made digitally available by the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Library
Thematic Digital Collections (Selection)
For the most exhaustive search of primary source databases available through the library use the A-Z Databases LibGuide. Use limiters at the top of the page to narrow your results.
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowGenderWatch is a full text database of unique and diverse publications that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas. With its archival material, dating back to 1970 in some cases, GenderWatch is a repository of important historical perspectives on the evolution of the women's movement, men's studies, the transgendered community, and the changes in gender roles over the years. Publications include scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, and NGO, government and special reports.
- Independent Voices This link opens in a new windowA four-year project to digitize over one million pages from the magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers of the alternative press archives of participating libraries spanning the 1960's to the 1980's. Starting with collections by feminists and the GI press, the collection will grow to include small literary magazines, underground newspapers, LGBT periodicals, the minority press (Latino, Black and Native American) and the extreme right-wing press
- LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowThis database contains the archives of 26 of the most influential periodical publications covering LGBT interests from 1954-2015. It includes publications from both the US and UK. This resource also caters to interests in many related fields, such as 20th-century history, sociology, health studies, political science, and psychology.
- Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowAn 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.
- Defining Gender, 1450-1910 This link opens in a new windowDefining Gender has brought together over 120,000 pages of original documents relating to Gender Studies. The images are sourced from British and European libraries and archives, including a strong core of document images from the Bodleian Library, Oxford and the British Library.
- Everyday Life & Women in America This link opens in a new windowThis 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.
- ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new windowThis database consists of digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. Major collection areas in History Vault focus on the Black Freedom Movement of the 20th Century, Southern Life and Slavery, Women's Rights, International Relations, American Politics and Society with a strong focus on the 20th Century, and labor unions, workers and radical politics in the 20th Century.
- African American Communities This link opens in a new windowFocusing 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.
Newspapers
- Historical Newspapers Guide
- Contains most complete information on digitized, historical newspapers; see especially page on Alternative Press.
- University of Illinois Newspaper Database This link opens in a new windowFind digitized historical newspapers or historical newspapers on microfilm. You can search this database by city or country of publication and by date of publication. You can identify which newspapers we have for a particular city, or for a particular city and a specific year. You can also search by subject (e.g. "Hispanic American"), language (e.g. "Spanish"), and place (e.g. "United States", or "Illinois", or "Chicago).
- American Indian Newspapers This link opens in a new windowExplore 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.
- African American Newspapers Series 1 and 2 1827-1998 This link opens in a new windowPart 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 Newspapers: The 19th Century This link opens in a new windowComplete 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.
- Latin American Newspapers, Series 1 &2, 1805-1922 This link opens in a new windowThis database provides coverage of the people, issues and events that shaped various Latin American countries during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Locating Archives
Subject Specialists
- Subject Specialists are experts in finding materials in their subject areas. Contact them for help finding specific materials for your research project. To schedule an appointment using the Library's Calendar Application, please visit the subject specialists web page.
| Area | Subject Librarian | |
|---|---|---|
| African American Studies | Courtney Becks | bexlib@illinois.edu |
| American Indian Studies | Cindy Ingold | cingold@illinois.edu |
| Gender & Women's Studies | Cindy Ingold | cingold@illinois.edu |
| Japanese Studies | Steven Witt | swwitt@illinois.edu |
| African Studies | Atoma Batoma | batoma@illinois.edu |
| European Union Studies | Paula Mae Carns | pcarns@illinois.edu |
| Chinese Studies | Shuyong Jiang | |
| Central Asian Studies | Joseph James Lenkart | lenkart@illinois.edu |
| Korean Studies | Yoo-Seong Song | yoosong@illinois.edu |
| Central European Studies | Marek Sroka | msroka@illinois.edu |
| Latin American and Caribbean Studies | Antonio Sotomayor | asotomay@illinois.edu |
| South Asian Studies | Mara Thacker | mthacker@illinois.edu |