OWHL Guides: History 300: A Guide to Research: Fall Term

Reference Sources

Reference Databases

Infobase African American History Online This link opens in a new window
This source features thousands of reference articles, covering the entire spectrum of African-American history over the past 500 years. Some primary sources may also be found here.
Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
This comprehensive collection of scholarship focuses on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. It includes reference articles, biographies, and primary sources.
Infobase American History This link opens in a new window
This source features thousands of reference articles on American political, military, social, and cultural history over the past 500 years. Some primary sources may also be found here.
Infobase American Indian History This link opens in a new window
This source provides reference articles on over 15,000 years of Native American culture and history, and includes biographies, legends, treaties, and more. Some primary sources are included.
Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window
Reference articles from one of the oldest and most trusted reference sources in the world.
ABC_CLIO Daily Life Through History (Academic Edition) This link opens in a new window
This comprehensive collection of primary and reference sources provides direct insight into the social history of societies ranging from the Australian Aborigines all the way to 21st-century China.

Reference E-Books

Encyclopedia of American Cultural & Intellectual history by Mary Kupiec Cayton
Call Number: REF E-Book
Encyclopedia of American Business History by Charles R. Geisst
Call Number: REF E-Book
Publication Date: 2006
The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History by Michael Kazin (Editor); Rebecca Edwards (Editor); Adam Rothman (Editor)
Call Number: REF e-Book
Encyclopedia of American studies.
Call Number: REF E-Book
Publication Date: 2018

Secondary Sources

Sample E-Books

Daily life in pre-columbian Native America by Clarissa Confer
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 2008
As if an enemy's country : the British occupation of Boston and the origins of revolution by Richard Archer
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 2010
The lamp of experience : Whig history and the intellectual origins of the American Revolution by Trevor Colbourn
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 1998
Colonial Mediascapes by Matthew Cohen Jeffrey Glover
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 2014
Bending Their Way Onward by Christopher D. Haveman (Editor)
Publication Date: 2018
E-Book

Selected Databases

Infobase American Indian History This link opens in a new window
This source provides reference articles on over 15,000 years of Native American culture and history, and includes biographies, legends, treaties, and more. Some primary sources are included.
Infobase American History This link opens in a new window
This source features thousands of reference articles on American political, military, social, and cultural history over the past 500 years. Some primary sources may also be found here.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
This multidisciplinary database provides access to full text scholarly journals, mainly in the humanities and social sciences.
EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite This link opens in a new window
This multidisciplinary database provides the full text of more than 2,100 journals, including more than 1,700 peer-reviewed titles.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to a comprehensive selection of prestigious humanities and social sciences journals, including Mexican Studies, US Latino & Oral History.

Primary Sources

Primary Source Databases

Infobase American History This link opens in a new window This source features thousands of reference articles on American political, military, social, and cultural history over the past 500 years. Some primary sources may also be found here.
Infobase American Indian History This link opens in a new window This source provides reference articles on over 15,000 years of Native American culture and history, and includes biographies, legends, treaties, and more. Some primary sources are included.
ProQuest American Periodicals This link opens in a new window This database contains over 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing 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.
America’s Historical Newspapers Series: 1690-1922 This link opens in a new window This database contains American newspaper articles from the late 17th century through 1922.
Britannica Original Sources This link opens in a new window This database provides access to more than 2,000 primary sources plus 700 multimedia elements from all aspects of American history from 1493-2009. It includes speeches, memoirs, poems, historical accounts, and more.
ARTSTOR This link opens in a new window A digital library of over two million images from some of the world's leading museums, archives, scholars, and artists. (note: This Artstor link will be retired on 7/31/2024.)
Ethnic American Newspapers 1799-1971 This link opens in a new window Explores the American immigrant experience. Offers extensive coverage of the most influential ethnic groups in U.S. history
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Search and read full text articles from 28 historical newspapers listed below [click "more..." to view list"]:
• The Atlanta Constitution (1868-1984)
• Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003)
• The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988)
• The Baltimore Sun (1837-1987)
• The Boston Globe (1872-1984)
• Chicago Defender (1909-1975)
• Chicago Tribune (1849-1992)
• The Christian Science Monitor (1908-2003)
• Cleveland Call and Post (1934-1991)
• Detroit Free Press (1831-1922)
• The Guardian and The Observer (1791-2003)
• Hartford Courant (1764-1990)
• Indianapolis Star (1903-1922)
• The Irish Times and The Weekly Irish Times (1859-2015)
• Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005)
• Los Angeles Times (1881-1989)
• New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)
• New York Times (1851-2014)
• New York Tribune (1841-1922)
• Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2003)
• Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001)
• Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
• San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922)
• The Scotsman (1817-1950)
• The St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-1922)
• The Times of India (1838-2007)
• The Wall Street Journal (1889-1999)
• The Washington Post (1877-1999)
Infobase Issues & Controversies in History This link opens in a new window This database use primary sources to analyze great conflicts in U.S. and World along with in-depth secondary source articles on historical events. It also provides each issue with its background information and its pro/con arguments.
Gale Primary Sources: Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (Gale) This link opens in a new window This database provides full text access to hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers.
Gale Primary Sources: Archives Unbound - Introduction to U.S. History: The American Revolution This link opens in a new window This digital archive of primary sources documents the revolution and war that created the United States of America, from the earliest protests in 1765 through the peace treaty of 1783.

Finding the Full-Text

Many times, the best way to find primary sources is by looking at the bibliography of your reference and secondary sources. Since secondary sources should be analyzing primary sources, citations for the sources being analyzed should be footnoted and/or cited in their bibliography. To find the full text using the citation use the link below after watching this short video.

Full Text Finder This link opens in a new window
This resource allows you to search for specific journal titles in the OWHL's collection and see which databases have the full text articles.

Primary Source Websites

DPLA: Primary Source Sets - US History
Primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture
Museum of the Cherokee
The King Research Collection: Trail of Tears
Univ. of GA - Rare Map Collection - Colonial America
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Internet History Sourcebook: American Independence (Fordham)
Coming of the American Revolution (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Avalon Project - 18th Century Documents (Yale)