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- URI Libraries Search
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Locate books, videos, online resources and more available through the URI Libraries.
Scholarly & Research Articles
- America: History and Life with Full Text (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Citations to and the full text of hundreds of full-text history journals about the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes features such as the ability to search by time period.
- What dates are covered? 1955 to the present
- Historical Abstracts (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Indexing and abstracts of journal articles and other materials on the history of countries other than the United States and Canada. Updated monthly.
- What dates are covered? 1450 - Present
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Archival journal collections in many disciplines, scholarly e-books, images, and primary source materials from institutions worldwide.
- What else should I know? Many journals in JSTOR have an embargo (called the "Moving Wall") on their most recent articles, generally ranging from 3-5 years. Other databases will provide more current results.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Full-text current and archival articles from 500+ scholarly journals from major university presses covering literature and criticism, history, performing arts, cultural studies, education, philosophy, political science, gender studies, and more. Updated continually.
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Citations to and full text of over 8,500 journals and magazines, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. Covers a wide range of academic subjects including the arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences, technology, and more.
- What dates are covered? Coverage varies, but generally covers the mid 1990s - present. Updated daily.
Popular Media & Newspaper Articles
- African American Newspapers Series 1 and 2, 1827-1998 (America's Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? More than 350 U.S. newspapers covering a century and a half of the African American experience. Includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states and features many rare 19th-century titles.
What dates are covered? 1827-1998
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 1-5 (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Full-text from more than 6,500 historical periodicals and magazines, provided by the American Antiquarian Society.
- What dates are covered? 1693-1877
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Black Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Primary source material essential to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. URI's collection includes page image and full-text access to the Atlanta Daily World; Baltimore Afro-American; Chicago Defender; Cleveland Call & Post; Kansas City Call; Los Angeles Sentinel; Louisville Defender; Michigan Chronicle; New York Amsterdam News; Norfolk Journal and Guide; Philadelphia Tribune; and the Pittsburgh Courier.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Boston Globe (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Page image and full-text index to The Boston Globe. Additional year of content added annually.
- What dates are covered? 1872 - 1990.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times with Index (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Page image and full-text index to The New York Times. Additional year of content added annually.
- What dates are covered? 1851 - 2018.
- Readers’ Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Access almost 100 years of cultural history with citations to over 3 million articles that appeared in 373 leading U.S. magazines.
- What dates are covered? 1890 - Present.
Additional Primary Source Collections
Below is a small sample of our primary source databases for historical research. The link below will take you to the full list.
- A-Z Databases: History, Archival Sources
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Full list of primary source databases for History at URI.
- American West (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Original manuscripts, ephemeral material (trade cards, wanted posters, photos, claim certificates, news-sheets etc), maps, and rare printed works from the Everett D. Graff Collection of Western Americana at the Newberry Library, Chicago.
- What dates are covered? 1720-1960
- Civil Rights Movement & the Black Freedom Struggle (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Consists of eleven modules. “African American Police League Records” documents how African American policemen in Chicago, beginning in 1968, attempted to fight against discrimination and police brutality by the Chicago Police Department and to improve relations between African Americans and police. The four modules of the “Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century” contain federal governmental records, organizational records, and personal papers related to the fight for civil rights. The six modules of the “NAACP Papers” contain internal memos, legal briefings, and detailed activity summaries from NAACP national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country.
- What dates are covered? 1909-1972
- Colonial America (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Files from the National Archives, UK's CO 5 file class. Consists of the original correspondence and entry books of the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, together holding responsibility for the British possessions in mainland North America and the Caribbean. Made up of letters, charters and commissions, instructions to officials, military documents (including war diaries), newspapers, printed pamphlets, public notices, maps and many other material types, the documents shed light on all aspects of life in colonial America – political, economic, military, cultural and social.
- What dates are covered? 1606-1822
- Colonial Caribbean (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Primary sources covering British governance of 25 islands in the Caribbean, drawn from the Colonial Office Files from the National Archives of the UK. Includes administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, and details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern of absentee landlords.
- What dates are covered? 1624-1870
- Gale Primary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Gale Primary Sources, an academic research environment, integrates primary source collections onto a single research platform that helps researchers search across a wide array of materials and points in time, and uncover new ways to analyze and contextualize information.
- Everyday Life & Women in America, c1800-1920 (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Search rare books, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes. It is especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature, offering vivid insights into the daily lives of women and men, as well as emphasizing contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures. From Duke University Libraries and the New York Public Library.
- What dates are covered? 1800 - 1920
- Native American Tribal Histories, 1813-1880 (Newsbank) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Primary source documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Field Office and Central Office Records at the American National Archives and Records Administration. Includes documents related to dozens of Native tribes from every region of the contiguous United States. Covers encounters between Indigenous people and the U.S. government and accounts of Native American cultures. Covers the history of Indian boarding schools, including attendance and curricula; the enforcement of treaties and federal laws; forced relocations and “Indian removal” policies; goods, supplies, medical care and payments provided to tribes; military conflicts; trading; and much more.
- Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900 (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Research the history of ‘popular’ medicine in America during the nineteenth century, featuring a wide variety of material that was aimed at the general public rather than medical professionals, and which enabled ordinary people to treat themselves and their families at home using an array of inventive methods and fashionable techniques. Materials from the Library Company of Philadelphia’s collection.
- What dates are covered? 19th Century.
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Digitized archival collection of thousands of original manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings, maps, and images related to trans-Atlantic slavery and abolition. Containing source material from some 30 libraries and archives across the Atlantic word, the collection includes significant coverage of Slavery Today, US court records from the local, regional and State Supreme Court level, documents on the Islamic slave trade, as well as sources on urban slavery, interracial education, the Day Law in Kentucky, desegregation, and social justice. Documents are presented alongside contextual essays contributed by leading academics in the field.
- Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Consists of nine modules: Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Law and Order in the 19th Century (1636-1880); Confederate Military Manuscripts and Records of Union Generals and the Union Army; Reconstruction and Military Government after the Civil War, 1865-1877; Slavery and the Law; Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries (1700-1896); and Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantation Records, Parts 1-4.
- What dates are covered? 1636 - 1915.
- What else should I know? See ProQuest History Vault for descriptions of each database component.
Encyclopedias & Reference Resources
Encyclopedia of African American History by Call Number: URI Reference E185 E544 2010ISBN: 9781851097692Publication Date: 2010-02-01This three-volume encyclopedia explains major terms and provides biographies of famous figures in African American history. Entries include bibliographies.American Decades, 1900-1909 by
Call Number: URI Reference E169.12 A419 1994 v.1-11ISBN: 0810357224Publication Date: variousThis series provides information on important events and people throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Chronologies, illustrations and references bring the past decades to life.
A Native American Encyclopedia by Call Number: URI Reference E76.2 P75 1998ISBN: 019513897XPublication Date: 2000
Encyclopedia of American History by Call Number: URI Ref E174 .E53 2010ISBN: 9780816071364General encyclopedia of American history. Volume 5 contains entries related to the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1856-1869. An entry for Secession includes a map indicating the date of each state's secession.Encyclopedia of Latin America by
Call Number: URI Ref F 1406 E5155 2010ISBN: 0816073597Four volumes: covers the history and culture of Central America, South America and the Caribbean from early settlements to the present day. Each volume focuses on a specific time period in the area's development. Primary source documents at the end of each volume.Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture by
Call Number: URI Ref F 1406 E53 2008ISBN: 0684312700Covers geography, politics, revolutionary movements, commerce, religion, art and key personalities in Latin American history.
Encyclopedia of American Environmental History by Call Number: URI Reference GE150 .E53 2011 v.1-v.4ISBN: 9780816067930Publication Date: 2010
Encyclopedia of Prehistory by Call Number: URI Reference GN710 E53 2001 v.1-v.9ISBN: 0306462613Publication Date: 2002-05-31This multi-volume set covers North America (volume 6), Middle America (volume 5), and South America (volume 7).
Encyclopedia of Women in American History by Call Number: URI Reference HQ1410 E53 2002ISBN: 0765680386Publication Date: 2002
Online Resources
- Black Abolitionist Archive (University of Detroit)
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Includes speeches, images, audio files, and documents related to African Americans' roles in abolitionism. - Digital Collections from Duke University
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"Digitized historic photographs, advertisements, texts & more from Duke's unique library collections." - Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
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Provides access to a variety of digital scholarly and historic materials related to the history of the Caribbean. Archive includes newspapers, photographs, and historical documents. - Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
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The DPLA serves as a portal to the openly available, digitized contents of America’s libraries, archives, and museums. It indexes materials in all formats. - Encyclopedia of American Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press)
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"Published by Johns Hopkins University Press for the American Studies Association (ASA), the Encyclopedia of American Studies covers the history, philosophy, arts, and cultures of the United States in relation to the world, from pre-colonial days to the present, from various perspectives and the global American Studies movement.... over 800 online, searchable articles and accompanying bibliographies, related websites, illustrations, and supplemental material..." - H-Net (Humanities and Social Sciences Online)
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H-Net hosts a wide variety of discussion lists related to topics in social and cultural history. - Library of Congress Digital Collections
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Multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures and text from the Library of Congress. - NAACP: A Century in the Fight For Freedom, 1909-2009 (Library of Congress)
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From an exhibition of documents and images related to the history of the NAACP, this site from the Library of Congress provides access to primary source material, a timeline, and more. - Making of America (University of Michigan)
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Searchable collection of books from the University of Michigan as part of the Making of America project. Books in this collection date from the 1850s-1880s.