American History Resources

This is a selection of resources in the History of the United States. Also available are subject guides for African-American Studies, Hispanic and Brazilian Studies, Southern U.S. History, and Women's Studies. Specialized resources listed on those guides have not been duplicated here.

Indexes & Databases

online | print & other

Online Indexes

Academic Search Complete (courtesy of Texshare) | includes Full Text

Provides full text for more than 5,000 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.

America: History and Life

Covers the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. This extensive database indexes over 2,000 journals published worldwide. In addition to covering all key English-language historical journals, this database indexes selected historical journals from major countries, state and local history journals, and a targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities. (1964-)

Essay Finder | includes Full Text

*See password information.*

Essay Finder is a unique database of full-text essays and discursive writing based on books published in the 20th century which have been analyzed in standard library indexes. The essays focus on the humanities and social sciences, and include biographies and literary criticism. Subjects include literature, history, economics, sociology, art and architecture, philosophy, psychology, science and drama. Account/password: On campus/VPN and

History of Science, Technology and Medicine (via FirstSearch) | includes Full Text

The definitive bibliography for the history of science, technology and medicine. HST describes journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in these and allied historical fields. Citations reflect the contents of over 600 journals, plus partial contents of several hundred more. Coverage includes all languages in which these materials are published. The vendor of this database has merged with OCLC; the database migrated onto the WorldCat interface, 9/19/07. (1976-)

JSTOR | includes Full Text | Source List

JSTOR provides online, fulltext access to over 300 core scholarly journals from date of inception to a "moving wall" of 2-5 years from present. The archived collection includes journals in humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The content is searchable by author, title, fulltext with limits by discipline, year, and article type. (Note: pop-up blocking must be disabled.)

LexisNexis Academic | includes Full Text | Source List

Includes government and legal information with access to government and political news, legal news, and state and federal statutes and case law. Also includes law reviews, state and country profiles and other news and reference resources.

LexisNexis Congressional | includes Full Text

Provides full-text access to historical (1789- ) and current U.S. Congressional publications including committee hearings, committee prints, Congressional Research Service reports, the American State Papers, the Serial Set (House and Senate documents and reports, Senate executive reports and treaty documents), Serial Set maps, Congressional news, and information about members of Congress and Congressional committees. (1789-)

Military and Government Collection (courtesy of Texshare) | includes Full Text | Source List

Provides full text from over 320 military and general interest publications. Designed to bring current news to all branches of the military. This database also offers indexing and abstracts for over 360 magazines.

Nineteenth Century Index - C19 | includes Full Text

C19 Index is the bibliographic spine of 19th century research, providing integrated access to the most important finding aids for books, periodicals, official publications, newspapers and archives. Users of C19 Index can query its 9 collections simultaneously, or can conduct more detailed research using collection specific search screens. The database includes the following indexes: ArchivesUSA, American Periodicals Series [journals on microfilm], House of Commons Parliamentary Papers [fulltext available], Nineteenth Century [books on microfilm], Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, Palmer's Index to the Times, Periodicals Index Online, Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals. (1800-1899)

Nineteenth Century Masterfile (Series I and V)

Within Series I are the main multi-title, periodical indices, spanning nearly all Anglo-American periodicals of the late eighteenth through early twentieth century. PP reproduces the indexing from: Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1907), Index to Periodicals (1890-1902) (Ed. William T. Stead), Cumulative Index to a Selected List of Periodicals, Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1890-1899), ... and many more. Series V provides online access to the Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the U.S., 1774-1882, Compilation of the Message and Papers of the Presidents (1789-1897), Hansard's Index to Debates, House of Commons (1803-1830) and Hansard's Index to Debates, House of Lords (1803-1830).

Reader's Guide Retrospective | includes Full Text

A database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of late 19th through 20th century America. (1890-1982)

Web of Knowledge previously known as Web of Science | includes Full Text

The Web of Science is an integrated database of three citation indexes: Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI). SCI and SSCI have searchable author abstracts and each database may be searched by a variety of other accesses including who the author cites. WOS permits searching one or more of the three databases. SCI on WOS coverage is from 1900 to date. SSCI indexes material from 1956 to date. AHCI indexes materials from 1975 to date. Includes ISIHighlyCited: a directory of over 250 eminent researchers in life sciences, medicine, physical sciences and social sciences. (minimum 1975- (see description))

WorldCat (courtesy of Texshare) (via FirstSearch)

WorldCat is a combined catalog for over 18,000 libraries worldwide. The information is updated daily. [See also Worldcat.org which presents the same data with an interface similar to familiar search engines, and which is freely available to any internet user.]

Print & Other Indexes

C.R.I.S.: the combined retrospective index set to journals in history, 1838-1974

Call Number:  Z6205 .C18  REFERENCE

v. 1. World history: Africa through China.--v. 2. World history: Columbia through Europe, Eastern, Central and Southern.--v. 3. World history: Europe, General through Latin America, General.--v. 4. World history: Mexico throughWest Indies and Caribbean Area.--v. 5. United States history: Chrnological categories and Aerospace through Army. --v. 6. United States history: Biography and Genealogy Index.--v. 7. United States history: Black history through Elections.--v. 8. United States history: Foreign Policy through Religion and Social History.--v. 9. United States history: Science, Medicine and Culture through West and Frontier Thesis.--v. 10-11. Author index.

Indexes to American Periodicals (CDROM)

Holdings:  see contents note in catalog record for current co

Call Number:  Z6951 .H65  REFERENCE DESK

Indexes the microfilm series American Periodicals: APS I (1741-1800), APS II (1800-1850), and APS III (1850-1900).

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature

Holdings:  1900-

Call Number:  AI3 .R48  REFERENCE

An author subject index to selected general interest periodicals.

(Other available formats:  Currently 1963-1982 available online via Readers Guide Retrospective)

Sabin Collection Catalog (CDROM)

Holdings:  latest edition

Call Number:  Z1201 .S22  REFERENCE DESK

Provides over 14,000 primary source titles based on Joseph Sabin's bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana. Materials describe every aspect of life in the Western Hemisphere from 1493 to the 1890s. Searchable by author, title, year of publication, subject, and fiche and Sabin numbers.

Social Sciences & Humanities Index

Holdings:  1907-

Call Number:  AI3 .R49  REFERENCE

In 1974, this title split into Humanities Index: AI3 .R492, and Social Sciences Index: AI3 .R493.

Online Text Collections

African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century

When complete, this archive will contain the full text of the major African-American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century. Coverage includes: The Colored American (Weekly Advocate), The North Star, The National Era, Provincial Freeman, Frederick Douglass Paper, and The Christian Recorder. (database description)

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries

Contains approximately 500 authors and 32,000 pages of letters, diaries and memoirs. The letters and diaries are by the famous and the unknown, giving not only both the Northern and Southern perspectives, but those of foreign observers also. The materials originate from all regions of the country and are from people who played a variety of roles. When complete, the collection will include more than 100,000 pages of primary materials.

American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library

These digitized collections from the Library of Congress provide a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.

American Radicalism Collection

The American Radicalism Collection at the Michigan State University Libraries includes materials covering a wide range of viewpoints on political, social, and economic issues in America. The emphasis is on materials produced by radical groups - both left and right. Some examples are materials devoted to Timothy Leary, the Black Panther Party, Neo-Nazi Organizations, the Christian Right, and Steve Gaskin, founder of the commune the Farm. While the American Radicalism Collection is strongest in publications from the American Left in the twentieth century, as well as in resources for the study of American Labor History, there is considerable material from the right, most notably the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920's and 1930's.

America's Historical Newspapers

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) and Early American Newspapers, Series 5 (1777 - 1922).

ArchiveGrid

Finding aids are tools for navigation within archival collections, and contain detailed information about the collections. ArchiveGrid provides centralized access for searching and retrieval of archival finding aids that have been encoded using XML and the standard for Encoded Archival Description (EAD). The finding aids are indexed centrally at RLG but are supported in a distributed environment — some reside on a server at RLG, others are located on other servers around the world. (Previously known as RLG Archival Resources.)

Digital Dissertations and Theses from ProQuest/UMI

A comprehensive source for doctoral dissertations from the United States and Canada. Includes citations for dissertations ranging from 1861 to those accepted last semester. A limited number of master's theses is also included. Titles represent authors from North America and Europe, with over a million titles in full text.

Digital National Security Archive

The database contains more than 35,000 of the most important, declassified U.S. federal documents that led to policy decisions. The Digital National Security Archive contains fifteen complete collections: Afghanistan, Berlin Crisis 1958-1962, Cuban Missile Crisis, El Salvador, Iran-Contra Affair, Intelligence Community, Iran Revolution, Iraqgate, Military Uses of Space, Nicaragua, Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Philippines, Presidential Directives from Truman to Clinton, South Africa, and Soviet Estimate.

Early American Imprints: Series I, Evans (via publisher): 1639-1801 | Early American Imprints: Series I, Evans (via University of Michigan)

Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans. The definitive resource for every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, and just about any other topic imaginable. Upon completion, Evans Digital will consist of more than 36,000 works and 2,400,000 images.

Early American Imprints: Series II, Shaw-Shoemaker: 1801-1819

Covering every aspect of American life during the early decades of the United States, this rich primary source collection provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century.

Early English Books Online (page images only) | Early English Books (full text searchable)

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661). The Early English Books Tract Supplements will also be added to EEBO soon. The works in this collection are presented as images, which may be viewed online, or downloaded in PDF format for viewing off-line. To view the images online, you will need the DjVu plugin. Downloaded files are in Adobe Acrobat format.

Everyday Life - Women in America: 1800-1920

This databases 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. The collection is especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature, offering vivid insights into the daily lives of women and men, as well as emphasizing contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.

HarpWeek (Civil War and Reconstruction Units): 1857-1877

Electronic access to Harper's Weekly 1857-1877.

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers: 1801-1900

The origins of HCPP online lie in the Chadwyck-Healey microfiche edition of the nineteenth century House of Commons Sessional Papers. The microfiche edition includes filmed images of 79,527 papers, covering 4.2 million pages. The accompanying 5 volume index, Peter Cockton's Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-190, was the first thematic listing of the complete set of parliamentary papers. HCPP online brings these two resources together. HCPP online will be published in a series of releases from summer 2005 to early 2006. This initial release comprises of the index to all 79,257 papers. This will be followed in September with the first one million pages of full text, covering the years 1840-1859. Subsequent substantial releases will complete the file by early 2006.

NetLibrary - Fondren Library's collection (supplemented courtesy of Texshare)

Contains reference books, scholarly monographs, and consumer books that have been converted into digital format for electronic distribution. Rice University's private collection (emphasizing computing "how to" manuals, employment resources, and general reference titles) are available full text - as are thousands of titles purchased by the state library consortia, Texshare. In addition, fulltext access is available to hundreds of classic academic texts that are in the public (copyright) domain. See Webcat for specific titles (keyword="netlibrary").

North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colonial to 1950

Release 1 (2001) includes the immediate experiences of 107 women, as revealed in more than 9,000 pages of diaries and letters. When complete, the collection will include more than 150,000 pages of primary materials spanning more than 300 years.

Sabin Americana

"Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, 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."

Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War

An award-winning University of Virginia research project which interweaves the histories of two communities on either side of the Mason-Dixon line during the era of the American Civil War. It combines a narrative and an electronic archive of the sources on which the narrative is based.

Women and social movements in the United States 1600-2000

"This Worldwide Web site is intended to serve as a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history ... The website provides learning modules in the form of mini-monographs, each of which is organized around a specific question about a single social movement. Each module contains fifteen to twenty documents that address the question"--"About" page.

Microform Sets

American Civil Liberties Union Archives, 1950-1990

Call Number:  JC599 .U5 A45  microfiche

Library Catalog Access:  series title

Guide:  Printed guide. Online guide at http://www.galegroup.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=745&titleCode=SR562&type=4&id=S3521P1P2

American Civil Liberties Union Archives, The Roger Baldwin Years, 1917-1950

Call Number:  JC 599.U5A44  microfilm

Library Catalog Access:  series title with reference to indexes

Guide:  Reel guides and subject index; also reel 293 is index; Online guide at http://www.gale.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=000&cf=n&titleCode=SR563&type=4&id=S3521P1P3

American Periodicals I 18th Century

Call Number:  AP 2.A2A81  microfilm

Library Catalog Access:  by periodical title, no series

Guide:  Reel guides and comprehensive index, AP 2.A38;

American Periodicals II 1800-1850

Call Number:  AP 2.A38  microfilm

Library Catalog Access:  by periodical title, no series

Guide:  Reel guides and comprehensive index, AP 2.A38

American Periodicals III 1850-1900

Call Number:  AP 2.A381  microfilm

Library Catalog Access:  by periodical title, no series

Guide:  Reel guides and comprehensive index, AP 2.A38

Received as published. Must used print index to access.

American Public Opinion Data 1981-

Call Number:  HM 261.A463  microfiche

Library Catalog Access:  series title

Guide:  American Public Opinion Index, Vols.for 1981-2000

Early American Imprints: 1639-1800 (Evans)

Call Number:  AS 36.A47  microprint

Library Catalog Access:  series & individual titles

Guide:  Evans biblio. Ref. Z 1215.E9,14 vols.; Available online at http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/Evans?p_product=EVAN&p_action=keyword&p_theme=eai&p_nbid=S6AY5DTXMTE0Nzk3OTU0NC4zNzE2MTk6MToxMjoxMjguNDIuNzQuOTE&p_clear_search=yes&d_refprod=EVAN&

Early American Imprints: 1801-1819 (Shaw-Shoemaker)

Call Number:  AS 36.A48  microprint

Library Catalog Access:  series & individual titles

Guide:  Shaw: American Biblio. Z 1215.E91; Available online at http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/Evans?p_product=SHAW&p_action=keyword&p_theme=eai&p_nbid=Q5AN4DIHMTE0Nzk3OTg3MS40MDE1Mjk6MToxMjoxMjguNDIuNzQuOTE&p_clear_search=yes&d_refprod=SHAW&

Early American Newspapers 1704-1820

Call Number:  An 2…  microprint

Library Catalog Access:  Individual newspaper titles only

Guide:  cited in History and Bibliography of American Newspapers A 6951.B86 Ref

American Citizen, Boston Evening-post, Boston Gazette, Boston News-letter, Censor, Connecticut Gazette, Gazette Francoise, Georgia Gazette, Independent Chronicle, Massachusetts Centinel/Columbian Centinel, Massachusetts Spy, New England Courant, New England Weekly Journal, New Jersey Gazette, New York Gazette & Weekly Mercury, New York Mercury, Newport Herald, Pennsylvania Chronicle, Pennsylvania Evening Post, Providence Gazette, Rhode Island Gazette,

Radical Pamphlet Literature: a collection from the Tamiment Library, 1817-1970

Call Number:  HX15 .R24  microfilm

Library Catalog Access:  series title

Guide:  Printed guide

Records of the States of the United States of America

Call Number:  J 87 plus initial letter of state (e.g. J 87.G4 is Georgia) Exception: Arkansas, KFA 3060.A7  microfilm

Library Catalog Access:  series title; also by state name: Ark, Ga, Miss, NY, NC, Pa, SC, Tenn, Tex, Va

Guide:  See A Guide to the Microfilm Collection of Early State Records; call# Z1223.5.A1U47 & Supplement (have)

See list and exception to call # under LIBRIS column

Sabin, Selected Americana from

Call Number:  E 12.L68  microfiche

Library Catalog Access:  series & individual titles

Guide:  Ind. unit guides; also Sabin Collection Catalog on CD (Z1201.S22) at general reference desk. Online information and guides at http://www.galegroup.com/servlet/BrowseSeriesServlet?region=9&imprint=745&titleCode=PSM3&edition=

Received as published. Use guides and CD for access to recent titles.

U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1909

Call Number:  J 83.U65  microfiche

Library Catalog Access:  series title, incomplete

Guide:  CIS Index to Executive…

Guide shelved in Gov-Ref Z 7164.A2C53 1990

U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1910-1932

Call Number:  J 83.U652  microfiche

Library Catalog Access:  series title

Guide:  CIS Index to Executive…

Guide shelved in Gov-Ref Z 7164.A2C532 1996

Underground Newspaper Collection

Call Number:  AN 2.A1B4  microfilm

Library Catalog Access:  series & individual titles

Guide:  No printed guide .Index on microfilm; AN 2.A1B4 Index (needed for reel #s)

Reference Works

American National Biography. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford University Press: 1999.

Available Online

Call Number:  CT213 .A68 1999   REFERENCE

Biographical treatments for significant American figures. An "American" is loosely defined as someone whose significant actions occurred during his or her residence within what is now the United States or whose life or career directly influenced the course of American history. The only invariant rule is that all subjects must have died prior to 1996. (Online version updated quarterly with new articles and illustrations.)

Directory of History Departments and Organizations in the United States and Canada. American Historical Association.

Holdings:  latest year only in Reference

Call Number:  D16.3 .G83   REFERENCE

Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing. Kelly Boyd. Fitzroy Dearborn: 1999.

Call Number:  D14 .E53   REFERENCE

Encyclopedia of the American Civil War : a political, social, and military history. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. ABC-CLIO: 2000.

Call Number:  E468 .H47   REFERENCE

Grants, Fellowships & Prizes of Interest to Historians. American Historical Association.

Holdings:  latest edition only

Call Number:  D16.25 .G69   REFERENCE

Historic World Leaders. Anne Commire. Gale: 1994.

Call Number:  CT104 .H57   REFERENCE

v.1 Africa, Middle East, Asia, Pacific; v.2-3 Europe; v.4-5 North & South America

Newspapers

Microforms are located in the Government Publications Department (Fondren basement). See Southern History guide's newspapers section for more U.S. newspapers. Also see microforms section on this guide for newspaper collections.

Nation

Print Holdings:  most backfile in Storage (see Library Catalog); current issues

Call Number:  AP2 .N2

Microform Holdings:  1984-2002 on microfilm

Online Coverage for Rice:  1865-2002 full-image via Nation Digital Archive

New York Times

Print Holdings:  current issues retained until microfilm received

Call Number:  AN2.N4 N4

Microform Holdings:  1851- on microfilm

Online Coverage for Rice:  1851-1999 full-image via Historical NYTimes; 1980-current full-text via Academic Universe