LibGuides: HIST1992 Honors Workshop for Prospective Thesis Writers: STARTING YOUR RESEARCH: FINDING HISTORICAL SOURCES

INTRODUCTION

The Brown University Library has in its holdings a wealth of material for historical research. Uncovering this material can be something of a challenge. Some formats (books, databases) are more readily discovered and user-friendly than others (microform). This guide is intended to suggest strategies and pathways that can be used to identify research collections that are most appropriate to historical topics.

See, also,

East Asian Studies

History of Eastern Europe and the Balkans

History of Science in Society

History of Sub-Saharan Africa

Native American and Indigenous Studies

Researching American Conservatism

Researching Slavery and the Slave Trade

Oral History Projects

Finding and Using Images

KEY BIBLIOGRAPHIES FOR SECONDARY RESEARCH

America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
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Includes article abstracts and citations of reviews and dissertations on the history and culture of the United States and Canada, 1954-present

1954-present; article abstracts and citations of reviews and dissertations on the history and culture of the United States and Canada.
American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies This link opens in a new window
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Covers U.S. and Canadian scholarship on East-Central Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet Union, 1990-present

1990-present; ABSEES covers North American (U.S. and Canadian) scholarship on East-Central Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet Union. It contains bibliographic records, some with full text links, for journal articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, online resources, and selected government publications.
Bibliography of British and Irish History This link opens in a new window
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Bibliographic information on historical writing covering the British Isles, British Empire, and Commonwealth, 55 BC-present

55 BC-present; the Bibliography of British and Irish History provides bibliographic data on historical writing dealing with the British Isles, and with the British Empire and Commonwealth. It is the successor to the Royal Historical Society Bibliography of British and Irish History, available online from 2002 to 2009.
Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI) This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to articles, book reviews, documents, original literary works, and other research materials about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States, 1967-present.

1970-present; HAPI is an online source for information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States. Included are complete bibliographic citations to articles, book reviews, documents, original literary works, and other materials appearing in over 400 key scholarly social science and humanities journals published worldwide.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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An index to articles, books and dissertations on world history about the 15th century to the-present.

1954-present; article abstracts and citations of books and dissertations on the history of the world from 1450 to the-present. Excludes the U. S. and Canada.

MAPS AT BROWN

Hay Maps (John Hay Library)
An unusual compilation of more than a thousand diverse and interesting maps representing a wide variety of periods, topics and world geography. Use BruKnow to search the Library Catalog for "hay maps" to pull up a browsable list of titles; add the name of a country or region to focus your search on a particular geographical area. Some maps have been scanned and may be viewed in the Brown Digital Repository.
Map Room (Sciences Library, 8th Floor)
Primarily post WWII and USGS maps
Maps at the John Carter Brown Library
Maps of the Americas through 1825, along with world atlases that include American content

STATE HISTORICAL JOURNALS

Most state and local historical societies have now transferred the electronic backfile of their signature journals to JSTOR (linked below). Others rely on home-grown database systems for backfile management. If you cannot find the journal you are seeking in JSTOR, check the official website of the relevant historical society for information on where electronic copy, if any exists, might be found.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Provides image and full text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history,

Provides image and full text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, demography, mathematics and other fields of the humanities and social sciences. Consult the online tables of contents for holdings, as coverage varies for each title.

If you are experiencing printing problems from JSTOR while using a Macintosh computer, please download the most recent version of Adobe Reader. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
If you need assistance, please contact the CIS Help Desk or eresources@brown.edu.

FINDING AND USING MICROFORM RESOURCES
AT THE ROCKEFELLER LIBRARY

Many research collections at the Brown University Library are available for use only on microform -- a pre-digital technology for preserving, distributing and storing research materials on film, fiche or opaque card stock. Microform collections require the use of a specialized machine reader which magnifies the image so as to render it readable.

Microform collections and machine readers are available to researchers on Level B of the Rockefeller Library. A state of the art machine reader on Level B allows researchers to capture an image either as a printed paper copy, or as a digital image which can be stored on a USB memory stick. Paper copies can be charged to your Brown card; for digital copies, you will need to bring your own memory stick.

Microform collections can be difficult to search successfully in the Library Catalog due to the format of the catalog record. To identify microform collections in the holdings of the Brown University Library that are pertinent to your topic, we suggest that you try using BruKnow to search for "[topic] microfilm."

DIGITAL PRIMARY DOCUMENTS

Some examples of primary documents that have been digitized as database collections:

State Papers Online, 1509-1714 This link opens in a new window
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State Papers Online, Parts 1 through 4, incorporates the official crown records Domestic and Foreign (including Scotland and Ireland), along with Registers of the Privy Council, for the reign of the Tudor and Stuart monarchs from Henry VIII through Anne (1509-1715).

State Papers Online, 1509 -1714, published in four seamless parts, State Papers Online offers researchers an online resource for understanding two hundred years of British and European history, from the reign of Henry VIII to the end of the reign of Queen Anne. SPO offers original historical materials across the widest range of government concern, from high-level international politics and diplomacy to the charges against a steward for poisoning a dozen or more people. The correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants and provincial administrators-present a full picture of Tudor and Stuart Britain.The largest digital manuscript archive of its kind, State Papers Online gathers together 16th- and 17th- century British State Papers and links these rare historical manuscripts to their fully text-searchable Calendars.
Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window
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Incorporates material from the America and West Indies series of the official State Papers, Colonial, as abstracted in the Calendar of State Papers, dating from 1574 through 1739. NOTE: Includes C.O. 1 in its entirety, but only abstracts for other material in the America and West Indies series

Sixteenth through eighteenth centuries; Colonial State Papers provides access to thousands of papers concerning English activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies. Also included is a digitized version of The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739, which contains bibliographic records and extracts for thousands of additional documents.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Dictionary of National Biography
2004 edition; an illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2001.

American National Biography Online This link opens in a new window
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Use to find biographies of people who have shaped the history and culture of the Unites States.

The American National Biography offers portraits of more than 18,700 men and women from all eras and walks of life, whose lives have shaped the nation. More than a decade in preparation, the American National Biography is the first biographical resource of this scope to be published in more than 60 years.

HISTORICAL DATA

Online Historical Population Reports (University of Essex)
Provides online access to the complete British population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1937.
Statistics South Africa
In 2011, South Africa conducted its third national census since the return to majority rule. For background see South African History Online