History

Best Database Choices for History

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History Databases

America: History & Life | learn more!

Covers the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to present. Covers material published since 1964. Indexes journal articles, books, dissertations, and book reviews, but not articles in books.

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries

Searchable full text database of diaries and letters written by participants in the American Civil War.

American Memory Project: Library of Congress

A collection of primary source documents and archives from the Library of Congress pertaining to American history and culture. Includes African-American pamphlets, Civil War photographs, a collection of women's suffrage documents, etc. Users can search the collections by key word or terms. Consists of printed text, collections of photographs, and some scanned manuscripts. Additional collections will be added.

American Periodicals Series  

Full text of over 1000 journals published in the US between 1740 and 1900.

America’s Historical Newspapers: 1690-1922

Searchable full text collection of American newspapers from all regions published between 1690 and 1922.

L'Année philologique sur Internet

The standard index for ancient Greece and Rome.

Bibliography of Asian Studies    1971-present

An online bibliography of western-language monographs, articles, and book chapters published on East, Southeast, and South Asia from 1971 to the present.

British History Online  

Digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament.

Diary Research: A Guide to Selected Library and Web Resources

In-house document which has numerous print and online sources for finding diaries.

Documenting the American South

Contains primary sources that document the cultural history of the American South from the Southern point of view. Includes diaries, autobiographies, travel accounts, titles about slavery, and regional literature. Emphasis is on the 19th century.

Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans   1639-1800

Based on Charles Evans' American Bibliography this database lists books published in 17th- and 18th-century America and links to images of the books themselves.

Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker   1801-1819

Based on the bibliography of Ralph Shaw and Richard Shoemaker, lists books published in early 19th century America and links to images of the books.

Historical Abstracts

Covers the history of all the world except North America back to 1450 CE. Covers material published since 1954. Indexes journal articles, books, and dissertations, but not book reviews or articles in books.

History E-Book Project

Large collection of e-books. Areas include African, American, Asian, Latin American, European, Middle Eastern, World/Comparative, Byzantine/Mediterranean and Australasian/Oceanian history, plus history of the Native Peoples of the Americas and of Science and Technology. Most titles are from American university presses but both specialized and popular publishers are also represented.

History Resource Center

Integrated collection of primary documents, secondary reference sources, and journal articles covering all areas of U.S. history from pre-colonial times to the present day. Includes references from resources such as Scribner's Dictionary of American History and the Dictionary of American Biography. Complete full-text coverage of approximately 65 scholarly periodicals.

HLAS Online

The Web version of the Handbook of Latin American Studies contains annotated citations of books and articles from the humanities and social sciences disciplines.

Index Islamicus

Search for books and articles in periodicals about Islam and the Muslim world. Also includes reviews.

International Medieval Bibliography   1968-present

Lists articles from books and journals on any topic relating to the European Middle Ages (ca. 400-1500). Click the blue Enter Databases button to start and choose the IMB from the menu on the next page. NOTE: There have been problems using IMB with Internet Explorer on some UVA computers. If you have a problem, try Netscape or Firefox instead.

Iter Bibliography

Look for books, journal articles, and essays in books on all topics for the Middle Ages and Renaissance (ca. 400-1700). Click the Iter Bibliography link to begin.

JSTOR journal backfiles

The full text of key journals in history and other disciplines, from the first volume up to the late 1980's or early 1990's. Includes the American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Journal of Modern History, Renaissance Quarterly, Speculum, and William and Mary Quarterly.

Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers

Searchable full text and page images of 48 national and regional British newspapers from the collections of the British Library. For The Times see its Digital Archive.

Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers

Searchable full text and page images of several hundred U.S. newspapers from the 19th century. For additional titles see Historical Newspapers  and America's Historical Newspapers: 1690-1922.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries

Searchable full text database of American and Canadian women's letters and diaries written from the Colonial period until 1950.

Periodicals Archive Online: PAO

Multidisciplinary. Valuable for its coverage further back in time than America History and Life and Historical Abstracts, and for its links to full text. Coverage extends back to the first issue of each journal indexed. Includes book reviews.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Search and see full text of articles from the Chicago Tribune (1890-1984), New York Times (1851-1999), the Wall Street Journal (1889-1995), and the Washington Post (1877-1987).

The Times: Digital Archive    1785-1985

Search the full text of The Times (London) including articles, advertisements, and picture captions. See an image of either just the article or the full page.

United States Historical Census Data Browser

Allows you to manipulate population census data for any census year from 1790 to 1960. After selecting the year, choose from the lists of variables based on the questions asked in the census that year.

Women and Social Movements in the United States    1600-2000

A large collection of primary sources, journal articles, and other instructional materials for the history of women in social movements in the U.S.