Home > Research > Subject Guides > American History

Welcome

Welcome to the American History subject guide at Carleton University Library.

Reference Materials: 

Use these to get an overview of your topic or to find definitions of key terms and concepts.

Library Guide: 
application/msword iconhistoryamerican2011.doc

Books

Recommended Books: 

Use the KEYWORD search to find books on your topic. Once you've clicked on a book you like, scroll down the record to see the list of Library of Congress SUBJECT HEADINGS assigned to this book.

Click on the SUBJECT HEADING(s) that best describes your topic to find other books in our Library.

To search for BOOKS, journals and other materials held in libraries around the world use the WorldCat catalogue. These materials can be ordered through Interlibrary Loans using your RACER account.

Journal Articles

Key Databases for Journal Articles: 
America History and Life
Historical Abstracts
Additional Databases: 
British Humanities Index (BHI)
Bibliography of Native North Americans
HAPI Online
Humanities Full Text
JSTOR
Periodicals Archive Online
Readers' Guide Retrospective

TIP: America History and Life and Historical Abstracts can se searched together:

    Open either one of these databases
    At the TOP of the search page click on "Choose Databases"
    Tick off America History and Life and Historical Abstracts
    Click OK
    Begin your search

Click on the Databases tab to view the list of other sources for finding journal articles in American history.

Archives & Primary Sources

Primary Sources: 

A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the period being studied. These sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an inside view of a particular event.  Also included are works created later by an eyewitness or a participant in an event, e.g. memoirs/autobiographies.

Types of primary sources:

  • Original documents (including excerpts and translations): diaries, speeches, manuscrips, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records, ancient literature, magazine and newspaper articles.
  • Creative works: poetry, drama, novels, printed music, sound recordings, art.
  • Relics or artefacts: pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings.
  • Statistics and raw data
  • Reproductions, facsimiles or replicas of original documents, creative works or artefacts are also acceptable as primary sources.

Examples of primary sources:

Finding primary sources in the library collection

   1. Original documents can be found by consulting the Archives and Research Collections (ARC) website.
   2. Reproductions can be found by checking the library catalogue.

Use specific words to locate primary sourcees in the Library catalogue, such as: correspondence, sources, diaries, letters, personal naratives. KEYWORD search examples:

  • [PERSON’S NAME] and s:correspondence
  • [PERSON’S NAME] and s:diaries
  • [PERSON’S NAME] and s:letters
  • [KEYWORD] and s:sources

Historical Digital Collections

General

The site has a wealth of American heritage materials.

Art and Culture

Government and Politics

Military and War

Some free records available here.

News Media

Women

A collection of electronic texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.

This collection comprises the most detailed primary source from the 19th century to the present for Britain, its colonies and the wider world.  These are working documents of the governments for all areas of social, political, economic and foreign policy.

From the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), includes a wide variety of formats. The collection includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine dated from the 15th to 21st century.

Includes Archive of Early American Images, Maps, and Political Cartoons

An online archive of digitized, full-image journal articles offering access to international scholarly literature in the humanities and social sciences disciplines. An excellent source for Primary Source journal articles. Articles date back to 1802.

Historical Digital Newspapers

New York Times Archives (1851-2005)
Wall Street Journal (1889-1991)
Washington Post (1877-1992)
Times Digital Archive (1785-1992)

Historical American Government Documents

See Related Subject Guides: "American Historical Documents" and "American Federal Documents"

Historical Reproductions

Documents range from Columbus' letter to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1494 to President Bill Clinton's inaugural address in 1993. The list is strongest in 18th and 20th century documents, but the whole of U.S. history is covered.

HEARTH is a core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines. Titles were published between 1850 and 1950.  Excellent primary sources such as Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar among many others.

A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

Thousands of rare, historic recordings and special features available through this free site. It includes early jazz, dance music and opera.

Provides access to primary resource material relating to US 20th century foreign policy.

This collection includes accurate transcriptions of many important and representative primary texts from nineteenth century American history, with special emphasis on those sources that shed light on sectional conflict and transformations in regional identity.

Database of texts from the volumes of all the reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. A rich source of primary source material on all aspects of American history.

CENTER FOR RESEARCH LIBRARIES

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL)
A great institution to check for historical documents, newspapers, journals, archives and other sources. "The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is a consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research libraries. The consortium acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery." Carleton University Library is a mermber of CRL.
 

ARCHIVES

  • History Wired (National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)

A virtual tour of selected objects from the vast collections of the National Museum of American History.

An online database that allows users to search for manuscript material located throughout the United States. A useful starting point for archival research.

Provides links to state archives and historical societies in the United States.

Data & Statistics

Data: 
Statistics: 

Includes "Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970".

Government Information

Foreign: 

Begin your search for locating U.S. government publications by using the Library catalogue.

  • You can do a subject search using GOV DOC Subject
  • You can do a keyword search and limit by the location GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
  • You can do a keyword search using words from the name of the agency and from the title

e.g. a:central and a:intelligence and a:agency and t:factbook

  • You can search for a particular government agency in Author
  • You can search for a particular Title

If you experience difficulty in locating the material that you need, ask for help at the Information Desk in the Maps, Data and Government Information Centre.

Maps & GIS

Maps: 

Atlases

On the Web

This site includes U.S. territorial maps from 1775 to 1920 and links to a number of useful exhibits and collections.

The historical map collection has over 30,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented.

A collection of digital maps from the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress.

Media

Images: 

A digital library of art images. Includes approximately 500,000 images covering art, architecture and archeology.

The Farber Gravestone Collection is an unusual resource containing over 13,500 images documenting the sculpture on more than 9,000 gravestones, most of which were made prior to 1800, in the Northeastern part of the United States.

Includes Archive of Early American Images, Maps, and Political Cartoons

Provides access to over 100,000 photographs, maps, manuscripts, records, texts, and sound recordings owned by USC and collaborating institutions with particular emphasis on materials related to Los Angeles and the Southern California region.

Videos: 

Collection of streaming educational videos that cover a wide spectrum of disciplines. Contains both clips and full-length videos.

For video material at the Carleton Univeristy library, do a KEYWORD search in the library catalogue and limit "Material Type" to FILM/VIDEO. If you cannot find what you need search the following database:

If you wish to borrow a video listed in Watmedia please fill out our Interfilm Video Request form - do not submit requests directly to Watmedia.

Websites

General Gateways

Associations

Special Topics in American History

African American History

American Revolution

The Civil War

Civil War letters and diary entries include transcriptions and digital images of the manuscripts.  A valuable source of primary documents. Note that the newspaper collection is available to students at the University of Virginia only.

Collection of 23,000 vintage civil war photographs from the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United Stats from the Massachusetts Commandery.

The Cold War

Colonial Period

An online magazine devoted to colonial America. Site can be searched by keyword.

Government and Politics

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

a biographical dictionary of all present and former members of the United States Congress as well as its predecessor, the Continental Congress. Also included are Delegates from territories and the District of Columbia and Resident Commissioners from the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives / Art and History

Guilded Age

Women's History

The ViVa database provides citations to over 8,000 articles on the subject of women's and gender history published between 1975 and 2004 in historical and women's studies journals.

 

 

 

Writing & Citing

Writing Essays and Preparing Theses
Citing Your Sources

Writing

Citing

Chicago Style

Use the print or online version of the Chicago Manual of Style