Resources on Women and American Religious History at the University of Chicago Library

• African-American Religion: A Documentary History Project
• American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
• American Memory (Library of Congress). A large and growing collection of digitized manuscript, print, photographic, and mapping materials for United States history. See also, American Memory Religion and American Memory African American History
• Documenting the American South. A collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. The 1,165 books and manuscripts come primarily from its Southern holdings of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Culture, and the Environment "Letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts describing explorations of North America. Provides perspectives from traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. Searchable in a variety of ways."
• The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820 consists of 15,000 pages of original historical material documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian West from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. The collection is drawn from the holdings of the University of Chicago Library and the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky. Among the sources included are books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, scientific publications, broadsides, letters, journals, legal documents, ledgers and other financial records, maps, physical artifacts, and pictorial images.
• Guide to Microfom and CD-ROM Sources for History and Political Science in the University of Chicago Library. See part 4 United States -- Archives, Manuscripts, Sources and part 5 Women's studies. Gender studies, Sexuality. The Guide includes a helpful index.
• In the First Person: Index to Letters, Diaries, Oral Histories and Other Personal Narratives "Indexes over 2,500 collections of oral history in English from around the world. With future releases, the index will broaden to identify other first-person content, including letters, diaries, memoirs, and autobiographies, and other personal narratives."
• Making of America (free Cornell site) includes digitized page images and searchable full text of 955 volumes for American serials from Antebellum times to the end of the 19th century:
• Making of America (free University of Michigan site) includes digitized page images and searchable full text of 2,457 journal issues for American serials from Antebellum times to the end of the 19th century
• Newberry Library (private research library in Chicago): Civil War Manuscript Collection. Religion Manuscription Collection
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories "Contains letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, of immigrants to the United States and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Includes 342 authors and approximately 37,500 pages of material, including some audio material."
• North American Women's Letter and Diaries "Contains diaries and letters, dating from colonial times to 1950 drawn from more than 1,000 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, and 7,000 pages of previously unpublished materials."
• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 More than 30,000 pages of text selected from a wide variety of sources, including some complete works. The full text can be searched by words and phrases, including subject terms, dates, characteristics of authors, etc.WorldCat : A worldwide union catalog created and maintained collectively by more than 9,000 member institutions. With millions of online records built from the bibliographic and ownership information of contributing libraries, it is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind.WorldCat : A worldwide union catalog created and maintained collectively by more than 9,000 member institutions. With millions of online records built from the bibliographic and ownership information of contributing libraries, it is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind.

Finding Early American Books:

Finding Early American Newspapers:

• Reader's Guide Retro Readers' Guide Retrospective is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America.

current newspapers and News Services:

• Lexis Nexis : A full-text news and information service that provides access to newspapers, magazines, news wires, news transcripts, business, and legal information. Dates of coverage vary by title.
• Factiva : Provides access to global news and business information, including local newspapers, same-day newswires, company reports, and media programs. Provides by Dow Jones and Reuters. Stock data and indices are available for 5 years.

Finding Journal Articles (secondary sources):

• ViVa: A Bibliography of Women's History "A current bibliography (1995- ) of articles about women's and gender history. Articles published in English, French, German and Dutch are selected from more than 90 European, American and Indian Journals."

Other Secondary Resources:

Libraries in Hyde Park: