Primary Sources, Statistics, and More
- African Americans and Jim Crow, 1883-1922 This link opens in a new window
Search an archive of thousands of fully searchable printed works from the beginning of Jim Crow to post-World War I. These works provide insights into African American culture and life during this period of segregation and disenfranchisement and include such topics as African American identity, relationships with peoples of other nations, and literature. (Newsbank/Readex)
- African Americans and Reconstruction, 1865-1883 This link opens in a new windowSearch an archive of thousands of printed works from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow. It includes documents related to African Americans and citizenship, voting rights, literacy, land rights, and employment. (Newsbank/Readex)
- AIDS Crisis Response: Records of the National Commission on AIDS, 1983-1994 This link opens in a new windowThe National Commission on AIDS was an independent body created in 1989 to advise Congress and the President on the development of a "consistent national policy" concerning the HIV epidemic. This database contains records connected to their work, including briefing books, hearing and meeting transcripts, reports, and press clippings. (Gale)
- Archival Resources of the Virginias (ARVAS) This link opens in a new windowSearch 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)
- 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)
- Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowSearch a collection of nonfiction writings by major American Black leaders, including books, letters, speeches, essays, interviews, and political leaflets. Researchers can study the historical development of Black culture by examining the ideas of one individual over time or compare the thinking of various figures on a given topic. (Alexander Street Press)
- Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle (History Vault) This link opens in a new windowSearch primary sources documents on the Civil Rights Movement, including the NAACP papers, organizational papers from other civil rights organizations, such as the SCLC and SNCC, and personal papers from activists. Also included are federal government records, including records from the FBI investigations into the movement's leaders and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations. (ProQuest)
- East India Company This link opens in a new windowAccess primary sources related to the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent from 1599-1947. Documents include royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings, reports of expeditions, and more. Please note: UR only has access to modules 1-3. (AM)
- FBI Files (Gale) This link opens in a new windowUnder the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI vigorously investigated and tracked the activities of communist groups, civil rights organizations, and Native Americans in the United States. Explore the archives and find files on Albert Einstein, Alger Hiss, Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, Whittaker Chambers, Freedom Riders, Howard Hughes, HUAC, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abbie Hoffman, Cesar Chavez, Weatherman, Malcolm X, NAACP, SNCC, SCLC, the American Indian Movement and many more. Also included are files on the Watergate scandal. (Gale)
- Political Extremism and Radicalism This link opens in a new windowSearch primary sources on peripheral groups deemed "extreme" or "radical" by contemporaries on both the right and the left from the early 1900s to the present. Find sources on anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-war, communist or socialist, creationist, environmentalist, hate, holocaust denial, new left, survivalist, and white supremacist/nationalist groups. Most materials come from the US and Great Britain, but a few are from Australia and other countries in Europe. (Gale)
- Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new windowSearch for primary sources that focus on the varieties of slavery (urban, domestic, industrial, farm, ranch, and plantation), the legacies of slavery, the social justice perspective, and the continued existence of slavery in the twentieth century. Documents include manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings and maps. (AM)
- Southern Negro Youth Congress and the Communist Party: Papers of James and Esther Cooper Jackson This link opens in a new windowSearch the papers of James E. and Esther Cooper Jackson, who are best known for their role in founding and leading the Southern Negro Youth Congress from 1937-1948. (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)
- Access World News (Historical and Current) This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from thousands of US and global news sources. It includes some audio and video news sources, as well as traditional newspapers. (Newsbank/Readex)
- 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)
- 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 5 historically Black papers (Atlanta Daily World, Chicago Defender, Los Angeles Sentinel, New York Amsterdam News, and Pittsburgh Courier). Full-text dates vary for each newspaper. (ProQuest)
- Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from this fully-illustrated weekly British newspaper. It covers topics such as the arts, discovery and exploration, fashion, industry and trade, military history, politics, science and medicine, social history, sports, transportation, and travel. (Gale)
- International Newsstream This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles from news sources outside of the US and Canada, such as newspapers, newswires, transcripts, and digital-only news sites. (ProQuest)
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowSearch for newspaper articles and legal materials such as court cases, legislation, statutes, regulations, law reviews, and more. (Lexis-Nexis)
- 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)
- HistoryMakers Video Archive This link opens in a new windowWatch videos of thousands of oral history interviews that highlight the accomplishments of individual African Americans and African-American-led groups and movements. (HistoryMakers)
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Access a massive collection of streaming videos, including documentaries, interviews, performances, newsreels, field recordings, commercials, and raw footage, among others. Most topics are represented in this database. (Alexander Street Press)
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowSearch this streaming video collection of documentaries, educational films, classic Hollywood movies, and world cinema. Note: Not all Kanopy films are immediately available for streaming. For any that are unavailable, please fill out the request form in Kanopy with as much information as possible to convey your teaching or research needs. The library will only unlock videos used for courses and assignments. (OverDrive)
- Emerging Markets Information Service (EMIS) This link opens in a new windowAccess country, industry and company data and analysis from more than 500 sources for emerging markets in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East. The database includes country profiles; macroeconomic statistics, forecasts, and analysis; exchange rates; analyst reports; and business news. Note: Only 2 users may access this database at one time. (ISI Emerging Markets Group)
- Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new windowSearch for statistics on topics related to American Indians, slavery, poverty, race, ethnicity, migration, health, crime, and more. Each are placed in historical context by a recognized expert in the field. (Cambridge)
- International Historical Statistics This link opens in a new windowSearch these ebooks for a wide variety of statistics covering Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania from 1750 to the present. (Springer Nature)
- Statista This link opens in a new windowSearch for statistics on topics related to business, markets, mass media, technology, and more. The data is compiled from a variety of public and private sources. (Statista)
- Statistical Abstract of the United States (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowSearch for statistics in this yearly publication that illuminate the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. The data covers the years 1878-2012 and has been compiled from a variety of public and private sources. (ProQuest)
Online Resources
- Africana Studies CollectionThe African Studies Collection brings together primary and secondary resources; research and teaching materials created by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff; and unique or valuable items related to this field held by the University of Wisconsin Libraries.
- Africa Online Digital LibraryAODL provides free universal access to cultural heritage materials from and about African countries and communities. It brings together tens of thousands of digitized photographs, videos, archival documents, maps, interviews and oral histories in numerous African languages, many of which are contained in curated thematic galleries and teaching resources.
- Black Abolitionist ArchiveThe Black Abolitionist Digital Archive is a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period. These important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement.
- Civil Rights Digital LibraryPresentation of historical news clips and connections to digital collections centered on the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the '50s and '60s. Maintained by the Data Library of Georgia / University of Georgia.
- Digital Innovation South AfricaSite with resources on the "socio-political history of South Africa", including historical collections and links to other relevant archival sources.
- Diversity & Tolerance in the Islam of West AfricaCollection of images, oral histories, archival materials, maps, and more focused on "how Muslims in West Africa accept religious difference and create productive interactions among Christians, Muslims, and practitioners of other faiths". Funding for site provided by Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Education.
- E..H. Duckworth Photograph CollectionHosted through Northwestern University, this collection consists of photos from Edward Harland Duckworth (1894-1972), a British expatriate officer who was the founding editor of Nigeria magazine. Collection consists chiefly of photographic prints and slides documenting early 20th-century Nigeria.
- Historical Papers Research Archive at University of the WitwatersrandDigital collection featuring records of individuals and collectives, with a wide and diverse scope spanning, from early colonial history, to all aspects of governance, religion and genealogy, health, the arts, culture and traditions, anti-Apartheid resistance, and the post-1994 South Africa, as well as many more topics dealing with South Africa's past and present.
- Research Archives - University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South AfricaSite for the UW digital repository, with links to digitized material from a number of important South African archives.
- South African History Online (SAHO)Established in June 2000 to address the biased way in which South Africa’s history and heritage, as well as the history and heritage of Africa in general, was represented in existing educational and cultural institutions, SAHO is a non-profit and "non-partisan people's history institution," focused on presenting public history in freely available digital format for educational purposes.