Humanities Librarian
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Databases Devoted to Primary Source Materials
The order of items in the list, which are mainly historical, is as follows: Sources with newspapers and other periodicals; sources with mixed genres, formats, and subjects; and sources focusing on a particular subject or event.
- Early American Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSearch for newspaper articles published in the US from the colonial period through Reconstruction. This collection was a gift of Edwin S. Snead III, class of 1951. (Newsbank/Readex)
- Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from 7 national papers (Atlanta Constitution, Barron's, Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post) and 13 historically Black papers (Atlanta Daily World, Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, Cleveland Call and Post, Kansas City Call, Los Angeles Sentinel, Louisville Defender, Michigan Chronicle, New York Amsterdam News, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier and St. Louis American). Full-text dates vary for each newspaper. (ProQuest)
- 19th Century British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSearch a collection of national and regional newspapers of Victorian Britain (1800-1900). Note: UR has access to parts I and II of this database. (Gale)
- 19th Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSearch an archive of newspapers published in the 1800s by a variety of groups, including political parties, African Americans, Native Americans, women's rights groups, labor groups, and the Confederacy. This collection includes newspapers from every one of the 50 modern-day US states. (Gale)
- 19th Century UK Periodicals (Part II: Empire) This link opens in a new windowSearch a collection of periodicals that focus on the role Britain played as an imperial power throughout the 1800s. It contains periodicals from Australia, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand, and South Africa. (Note: We only have access to Part II: Empire). (Gale)
- 17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search a collection of British newspapers and pamphlets gathered by Rev. Charles Burney (1757-1817), which helps chart the development of the newspaper from published transcripts to coffee house newsbooks to the newspaper as we know it today. (Gale)
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from American newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries, including African American newspapers and women's suffrage newspapers. (Coherent Digital)
- African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Search for articles from US newspapers that chronicle 150 years of the African American experience, including the Antebellum South, growth of the Black church, the Jim Crow Era, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights movement, and more. Note: UR has access to Series 1 only. (Newsbank/Readex)
- Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from the archives of the Times of London newspaper, which covers general news, culture, fine arts, politics, history, and more. (Gale)
- HarpWeek, 1857-1912 This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from the Harper's Weekly magazine covering the the pre-Civil War through pre-World War I periods in American history. (Alexander Street Press)
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800) This link opens in a new windowSearch for books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most subject areas and genres of literature are represented in this collection. It also includes supplemental material from the the Library Company of Philadelphia. (Newsbank/Readex)
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819) This link opens in a new windowSearch for books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America during the early 19th century. Most subject areas and genres of literature are represented in this collection. It also includes supplemental material from the the Library Company of Philadelphia. (Newsbank/Readex)
- Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2020 This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from the archives of The Economist. Find editorials, news, and commentary that offer insight into British, European, American, and world affairs. (Gale)
- Historical Annual Reports (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowAccess annual reports from US companies dating from 1844-2008. Find information on financial performance, key officers, competitors, and market trends. (ProQuest)
- 18th Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowSearch books, pamphlets, and broadsides published between 1701-1800 in Britain (and its territories), Ireland, and the United States. The database includes materials in a variety of languages (although it's mostly English), and it contains an array of works - from encyclopedias to novels to law books to religious tracts to auction catalogs. (Gale)
- 19th Century British Pamphlets Collection This link opens in a new windowSearch pamphlets digitized from the collections of several UK universities. These pamphlets cover key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of 19th century Britain. (JSTOR)
- European Views of the Americas: 1493-1750 This link opens in a new window
Search this guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750, covering the history of European exploration. (EBSCO)
- Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Access over 50 archival collections on a variety of topics, including FBI surveillance, law, literature, film, and civil rights. (Gale)
- AM Explorer: Americana This link opens in a new windowSearch a broad collection of primary source documents and papers from American history and popular culture. Includes the databases: American History, 1493-1945; American Indian Histories; American West; Everyday Life and Women in America, c. 1800-1920; Popular Culture, 1950-1975; Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice; and Virginia Company Archives. (AM)
- Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source documents on history, culture, peoples, and societies of Latin American and the Caribbean. Documents include original manuscripts, signed letters, expedition records, reports, maps, diaries, descriptions of voyages, and ephemera. (Gale)
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowSearch a collection of letters and diaries written from colonial times to 1950 by famous and not-so-famous women from all age groups, life stages, ethnicities, and geographical regions. (Alexander Street Press)
- Archival Resources of the Virginias (ARVAS) This link opens in a new window
Search for information on archival materials housed in historical societies, libraries, museums, colleges, and universities across Virginia and West Virginia. The online finding aids help researchers discover primary source materials that document the history, culture, and people of these two states. (ARVAS)
- Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 - Virginia This link opens in a new window
Search large-scale plans of Virginia cities and towns, created to assist fire insurance companies assess the risk associated with insuring a particular property. Map information includes data such as the outline of each building, the size, shape, and construction materials, heights and function of structures, and location of windows and doors. The maps also give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use, and house numbers. (ProQuest)
- Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source documents on the prosecution of witchcraft from the 15th century to the early 20th century. Documents include anti-persecution writings, works by penologists, legal and church documents, exposés of persecutions, philosophical writings, and transcripts of trials and exorcisms. (Gale)
- Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina This link opens in a new window
Search for Latin texts written from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages to the present. (de Gruyter Brill)
- Patrologia Latina This link opens in a new windowAccess philosophical and theological documents written by the Latin Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216. The database is essentially a complete version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina. (ProQuest)
- Rock's Backpages This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles in an archive of rock and pop music journalism - from mainstream publications and niche magazines. (Rock's Backpages)
Literature and Video
- Black Short Fiction and Folklore This link opens in a new windowAccess stories produced by authors from Africa and the African Diaspora from the earliest times to the present. Find fables, parables, ballads, folk tales, short story cycles, and novellas - each piece of content has fewer than 10,000 words. (ProQuest)
- Theatre in Video This link opens in a new windowStream documentaries, performances of various plays, and interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors. (Alexander Street Press)
- Music Online: Opera in Video This link opens in a new windowStream a variety of opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. (Alexander Street Press)
- Medici.tv This link opens in a new windowStream videos of concerts, operas, ballets, documentaries, educational programs, and master classes. In addition to the on-demand library, this database also offers some live streaming of classical music concerts and festivals from around the world. (Medici.tv)
- Music & Performing Arts This link opens in a new windowAccess a wide variety of resources on music and theater, including audio recordings of different musical genres, videos of dance and classical music performances, and scripts from plays from around the world. This database combines results from many other smaller databases. (Alexander Street Press)
Images Online
- Artstor This link opens in a new windowAccess thousands of images from art, architecture, archaeology, decorative arts and design, and visual culture in general. The content comes from museums, individual photographers, scholars, special collections at libraries, and photo archives. (ITHAKA)
- Bridgeman Education This link opens in a new windowSearch an archive of digital images sourced from museums, galleries, contemporary artists, and private collections. (Bridgeman Education)
- Grove Art Online This link opens in a new windowSearch this encyclopedia for background information on most aspects of the visual arts (painting, sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, decorative arts and photography) from prehistory to the present. (Oxford)
- JSTOR (UR Collections) This link opens in a new window
Access archival collections created by the University of Richmond hosted on the JSTOR platform. Includes various image collections and a set of World War I pamphlets. (ITHAKA)