OWHL Guides: History 300: A Guide to Research: Personalities from Early America through the Civil War

Reference Sources

Reference 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.
Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window
Reference articles from one of the oldest and most trusted reference sources in the world.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
This database is like an online Garver Room with articles from nearly 1,000 reference sources covering all disciplines.
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 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.

Secondary Sources

Website Sources

Google can also be very useful for biographical information. However, it is important to Google WISELY. Remember the ABCs of website evaluation: authority, bias, and currency. If you are not sure if a website is legitimate or cite-able, just ask a librarian!

Did your person create or found an organization? Perhaps that organization has a page dedicated to that person and their history.

Museums can also be great places to go, even if your focus is not on art or an artist. Consider the following:

National Museum of African American History and Culture
Smithsonian Research Centers
The Smithsonian is one of the world’s foremost research centers in science, the arts, and the humanities.

Selected Databases for Biographical Research

Use these databases to locate general information about people that encountered a specific event and/or a specific person.

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.
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.
Gale in Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
This database provides biographical reference articles on more than 650,000 international figures from all times periods and areas of study. It will also link you to relevant popular and scholarly press articles.
ProQuest E-Book Central This link opens in a new window
A vast collection of eBooks on all academic topics from scholarly publishers. All books available in eBook Central can also be found through the OWHL's catalog.
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.
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 Websites

Museum of the Cherokee
The King Research Collection: Trail of Tears
American Indian History & Other Sites
Troy Johnson, professor of American Indian Studies at California State University, maintained this site that provides a rich array of links to sites related to Native Americans, including education, historical, and tribal links. It includes unique artwork, photographs, video, and sound recordings of the Native Americans in North America and also includes Indian people of Central America and Mexico.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Digitized cultural heritage materials from libraries, archives and museums across the United States.
Library of Congress - U.S. Civil War Images and Photographs
Explore the faces, places and events of the U.S. Civil War through photographs, prints and drawings.
Library of Congress - Primary Source Sets in U.S. History
Primary Source Sets from the LOC, arranged thematically and by dates ranges.

Finding Primary Sources in Databases

ALWAYS use the date range feature when searching for primary source newspaper articles. An article is only a primary source if it was published at the time in which an event took place.

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.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Search across 19th Century US Newspapers, Liberty Magazine Historical Archives (1924-50), Smithsonian Collections, The Illustrated London News Historical Archive (1842-2003) and The Times Digital Archive (1785-2009).
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search and read full text articles from 28 historical newspapers
• 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)
EBSCOhost The Nation Archive This link opens in a new window
Established July 6, 1865, The Nation offers a 135-year archive of reporting opinion and criticism. It is an immensely important clearinghouse of primary source material covering the history of politics, culture, books and the arts – in America and around the world.
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.
Gale Primary Sources: Archives Unbound - Introduction to U.S. History: The Civil War This link opens in a new window
This digital archive of primary sources documents the war that transformed America, ending slavery and unifying the nation around the principles of freedom.
Gale Primary Sources: Archives Unbound - Introduction to U.S. History: Slavery in America This link opens in a new window
This digital archive of primary sources provides access to a wide variety of documents, from personal narratives, pamphlets, addresses, political speeches, monographs, and sermons to plays, songs, poetic and fictional works published between the 17th and late 19th centuries.