Primary Sources Research Guide

African American Periodicals, 1825-1995, features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres. These diverse periodicals—which have shaped, and in turn been shaped by, African American culture—will enable new discoveries on lives of African Americans as individuals, as an ethnic group and as Americans.

As the first draft of history, American newspapers have preserved essential records and detailed accounts of the people, issues and events that shaped the nation for hundreds of years. In the 1800s, American newspapers were often published by small-town printers and reflected the interests and values of the communities they served. But as the country grew and changed, so too did its newspapers. In the 19th century, the number of titles published rose dramatically, and newspapers were transformed by an increasing emphasis on society, industry, scientific advances, investigative journalism and human-interest stories. By the early 20th century, nearly every town in the United States had its own newspaper.

This database contains periodicals published 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.

This is the institutional version of Ancestry.com. Access the world's largest online collection of family records and resources, with billions of names from U.S., U.K., and Canadian census and vital records, immigration records and passenger lists, military histories and records, and more.

A collection of digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government from the pre-18th through 21st centuries.

This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1872 - 1985

The Chicago Defender has been a leading voice of the black community well beyond the Windy City, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside Chicago. The newspaper was a proponent of The Great Migration, the move of over 1.5 million African-Americans from the segregated South to the industrial North from 1915 to 1925. It reported on the Red Summer race riots of 1919, and editorialized for anti-lynching legislation and the integration of blacks into the U.S. military. This newspaper also supported the aviation career of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American female pilot, and promoted the writing of Langston Hughes and Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks.
Coverage is from 1910-1975.

This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1849 - 1993

Full-text collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera printed in America from 1639-1800. This collection is based on the bibliography originally compiled and edited by Charles Evans.

This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1764 - 1996

This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time. The Historical New York Times with Index (1851-1993) provides search capability using subject terms and topics for focused and targeted results in combination with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images from the Historical New York Times.
Coverage: 1851 - 2013

The complete digital edition of The Times (London) with full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos.

The Scholar's Edition of Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 includes all content from the "basic" edition along with the addition an important new resource: The Women's Commission Reports collection, an archive of the publications and documents of local, state, and federal Commissions on the Status of Women from 1963 to the present.