History Resources

Books and Media

Earlham Libraries Catalog
Catalog of books and other materials available in the Earlham Libraries, with the option to search catalogs in the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI).

WorldCat
The world's largest library catalog, covering books and other materials available in OCLC member libraries around the globe.

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Articles

Academic Search Premier
Comprehensive index to scholarly journals and general periodicals in all subject and interdisciplinary areas, including full text. Coverage prior to 1990 is sparse.

American Periodicals Series (APS) Online
Full text of over 1100 magazines that began publishing in the USA between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary journals, children's and women's magazines, and more. Coverage extends to 1940 at the latest. The material herein can usually be considered "primary documents."

British Periodicals
Full text of hundreds of magazines published in Britain from the 1680s to the 1910s. The material herein can usually be considered "primary documents."

JSTOR
Full text of hundreds of scholarly journals in all disciplines dating back to the 1700s. All journals in JSTOR start with the first volume. Most include content up to a "moving wall" of 3-5 years ago, although some journals have a fixed ending date for their content in JSTOR.

The New York Times
Full-text page images of the newspaper, including advertisements, editorial cartoons, etc. Coverage is from 1851 up to the past three years and includes the New York Times Book Review and the New York Times Magazine.

Periodicals Archive Online
Full text of 425 journals and magazines covering all topics dating back to the 1800s. Coverage ends at 1995.

Project MUSE
Full text of over hundreds of scholarly journals in the humanities dating back to the 1990s

 

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Biographical Resources

American National Biography
Online version of the multi-volume reference set that provides biographies of individuals who shaped American history. The scholarly source for biographies of important people in all walks of American life.

Biography Resource Center
Information on people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. Includes full-text from nearly 250 periodicals.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Online version of the 60-volume reference set that provides 50,000 biographies of individuals who shaped British history.

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Encyclopedias- By Topic

Blackwell Reference Online - History
Online versions of the acclaimed Blackwell Companion and Handbook series. Search by categories or in over 33 individual history volumes.

Daily Life Online
Online version of over four dozen print volumes that explore different cultures and everyday life around the world, past and present, including the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life

Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion
Surveys clothing, body adornment, and examines the origins of clothing, the development of fabrics and technologies, and the social meanings of dress. Entries explain the history of garments, techniques and manufactures, body adornment, and important persons and institutions.

Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
Online version of the Oxford University Press title (2002).

Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
Online version of the Oxford University Press title (2001).

Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450
Online version of the three-volume set from Macmillan (2007).

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
Online version of the Oxford University Press title (1996).

Fashion, Costume, and Culture
Online version of the five-volume set from U*X*L (2004).
Provides a broad overview of costume traditions of diverse cultures from prehistoric times to the present day. Examines more than 430 items of human decoration and adornment, ranging from togas to turbans, necklaces to tennis shoes. Explores how and why items were created, the people who made them, and their uses.

New Dictionary of the History of Ideas
Online version of the six-volume reference set from Charles Scribner's (2004). An introduction to "how we think" about concepts as diverse as physics and communism.

Oxford Reference Online – History
Contains the complete texts of Oxford University Press dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference titles.

Reference Universe
Search across the indexes of many reference works with this unique tool.

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Encyclopedias - American History

American Decades
Online version of the 10-volume reference set from Gale (2001). A point of departure for research about sociocultural contexts of a given decade like the 1920s, 1960s, 1980s, etc.

Dictionary of American History
Online version of the 10-volume, 3rd edition reference set from Charles Scribner's (2003). An introduction to topics in American history.

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History
Online version of the six-volume, 2nd edition reference set from Macmillan (2006). An introduction to topics in African-American culture and history.

Encyclopedia of the American Revolution
Online version of the two-volume set from Charles Scribner's (2006).

Oxford African American Studies Center
Over 7500 articles from a variety of Oxford University press books (e.g. Africana, African American National Biography), over 200 primary source documents, maps, timelines, links, and more.

Working Americans, 1880-1999
Online version of the Gale/Grey House multivolume set.
Provides a portrait of the social and economic lifestyles of a diverse range of American families. Includes:

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Encyclopedias - World History

Encyclopedia of European Social History
Online version of the print reference source (2001).

Encyclopedia of India
Online version of the print reference source (2006).

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
Online version of the two-volume reference set from Macmillan (2004). It provides a scholarly introduction to various topics related to Islam.

Encyclopedia of Modern Asia
Online version of the six-volume reference set from Charles Scribner's (2002). An introduction to topics related to modern Asia.

Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
Online version of the print reference source (2004).

Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa
Online version of the four-volume, 2nd edition from Macmillan (2004).

For more encyclopedias on other disciplines and subjects check the Encyclopedias & Dictionary page.

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Primary Document Collections

Documenting the American South
Primary source material "documenting the cultural history of the American South from the viewpoint of Southerners. It offers diaries, autobiographies, travel accounts, titles on slavery and regional literature."

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe
An extensive primary source database that focuses on key historical happenings in Western Europe from medieval times to the present. Searchable by country.

Histopop - The Online Historical Population Reports Website
Historical study of British population before WW II. Includes census data and maps.

Making of America
Contains some 360,000 pages of original printed text from several thousand volumes of primary sources related to the development of US infrastructure during the antebellum period and reconstruction.

National Archives
Britain offers a wide range of digitized documents from the Domesday Book (ca 1085 AD) to current day. A variety of materials is available through the Exhibitions link.

Plowshares Digital Archive for Peace Studies
Primary documents covering the social justice efforts of Earlham College, Goshen College, and Manchester College, as well as their affiliated historic peace churches (Quakers, Mennonites, and the Church of the Brethren) from the 1700s to the present. Includes diaries, minutes, correspondence, pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals.

Primary Sources Documents on the Holocaust
Includes documents related to the Holocaust such as the Wannsee protocol, eyewitness accounts, speeches, and much more.


Online Primary Document Collections
Categorized guide to collections compiled by librarians at Cal State San Marcos Library

Women's Studies in Digital Archives
Identifies women's studies content available in broad digital collections of primary sources.

 

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