Resources in American History

Library Presentation
Here is a link to the PowerPoint presentation given to Annette Chamberlin's United States History class.

Circulating Books
To find books that check out, visit the Brown Library Home Page and click on "Book Catalog."

Reference Books
The following books are located in the reference section on the main floor. This list is only a sample. Browse the E and F sections for more titles. The links below take you to the book catalog where you can view a cover image, summary and book reviews. These are not full-text links.

• E 169.1 .G664 1999 American Chronicle: Year by Year Through the Twentieth Century
• E 174 .A535 1998 The American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History
• E 174 .E53 2003 Encyclopedia of American History
• E 176.1 P889 2000 Presidential Documents: The Speeches, Proclamations, and Policies that Have Shaped the Nation from Washington to Clinton
• E 178 .M667 2006 Almanac of American History
• E 184 .A1 C47 2000 Civil Rights in the United States
• E 183.7 .E53 1997 Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations
• E 188.P86 1999 Colonial America to 1763
• E 468 .B319 2001 The Civil War and Reconstruction
• F 1745 .C32 1989 What Happened When: An Essential Collection of Facts & Dates from 986 to Today
• F 209 .E53 1989 Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
• F 225 .D54 Dictionary of Virginia Biography

Historic Newspaper Resources

• HarpWeek - Full-text coverage of Harper’s Weekly, America's leading 19th century illustrated newspaper, published from 1857-1912.
• New York Times Article Archive 1851-Present. Search the index for all years. Articles are free from 1851-1922 (public domain) and from 1987-Present.
• World News Digest - This full-text database, published by Facts.Com, includes original news articles published from 1940 to the present day.
• Historic Newspapers Online - lists historic newspapers available through the Internet, such as the Virginia Gazette, Richmond Daily Dispatch, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Also links to the Valley of the Shadow Project which includes 7 newspapers published in Augusta & Franklin counties during the Civil War era.
• New York Times: 1851-1985 (film) and 1986-2002 (fiche) - film available at the back of the reference department on the main floor. You can ask for fiche at the reference desk, but most dates are covered in the NYT Article Archive above.

Electronic Databases
General Databases

• EBSCO - This is the place to start for general research. This group of databases includes: Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, CINAHL, PsycARTCLES, ERIC, and more. Articles may be full-text, abstracts, or citations.
• Factiva - Focus on business and news. Includes newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Roanoke Times. Other sources include newswires, magazines, trade journals, web sites, company reports, and media transcripts.

History Databases

• America: History and Life - Covers the United States and Canada. Includes journal articles, book and media reviews, and dissertations. Most articles are not full-text. You may wish to limit your search to articles.
• Historical Abstracts Covers academic historical journals since 1955. Focus is on the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present. These articles are not full-text, but may be obtained through interlibrary loan.

Scholarly Journal Databases
For both of these databases, use the advanced search and limit your search to articles.

• JSTOR - Full-text journal articles in a wide variety of academic subjects. While most library databases begin periodical coverage in the early 1980's, JSTOR provides complete back-runs of journals sometimes going back to the early 1900's. JSTOR does not include current articles. See Project Muse.
• Project Muse - Current full-text journal articles in a wide variety of academic subjects. Includes current issues for many JSTOR titles.

Periodicals
Use the electronic databases to find references to periodical articles. If you find a reference to an article in a database that is not full-text, then use the all titles list to see if we have the periodical. If we do not have the periodical than you may order it through interlibrary loan. Click here to browse a list of specific titles in history. Two of our full-text history titles are listed below.

• American Heritage Magazine - full-text articles back to 1954, covering topics in American history.
• Early American Studies - full text articles back to 2003, covering histories and cultures of North America & the Atlantic world before 1850.

Research Guides

• Library Resources for Historical and Primary Research - these pages are under reorganization. This link duplicates some information found here, but also provides new resources.
• Internet Resources for Historical and Primary Research - includes links to 18th & 19th century newspapers, such as the Virginia Gazette.