Digital Collections
- American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I This link opens in a new windowBased on the American Antiquarian Society's landmark collection, this offers fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. The subjects of these broadsides range from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, bill heads, theater and music programs, stock certificates, menus and invitations documenting civic, political and private celebrations.
- American Periodical Series Online 1740-1940 This link opens in a new windowOver 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically significant periodicals.
- Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new windowThis collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.
- Black Drama - 1850 to present This link opens in a new windowCurrently contains approximately 1200 plays by 201 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. Many works are rare, hard-to-find, or out of print. Nearly a quarter of the collection will consist of previously unpublished plays by such writers as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Femi Euba, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston.
- Black Thought and Culture: African Americans from Colonial Times to the Present This link opens in a new windowBlack Thought and Culture is a single source for the published works of numerous historically important black leaders. Along with well-known works, the collection features approx. 5,000 pages of unique, fugitive, and never-before-published materials. When complete, Black Thought and Culture will provide approximately 100,000 pages of monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community from the earliest times to 1975. Black teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other leaders form the mainstay of this corpus. The collection is intended for research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800Online version of the microfiche set Early American Imprints, 1639-1800. Resource for aspects of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, e.g., agriculture, foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, etc.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive digital edition of The 18th Century microfilm set, which has aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, 1701-1800 Consists of over 180,000 titles of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera. Subject categories include history and geography; fine arts and social sciences; medicine, science, and technology; literature and language; religion and philosophy; law; general reference. Also included are significant collections of women writers of the eighteenth century, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare. Where they add scholarly value or contain important differences, multiple editions of each individual work are offered.
- Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945The Gerritsen Collection was begun by Aletta Jacobs Gerritsen in the late 1800s. The online resource delivers two million page images exactly as they appeared in the original printed works. Includes monographs, periodicals and pamphlets in 15 languages.
- In the First Person: Index to Letters, Diaries, Oral Histories, and Other Personal NarrativesSearch within scholarly materials that are freely available on the Web and Alexander Street databases. Returns citation information and links to full text, audio, and video whenever available.
- Making of AmericaUniversity of Michigan. A digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. This site provides access to 9,500 books and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
- Making of America, Cornell UniversityA digital library of primary sources in American social history, this site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007This digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries. Topics covered include the African Coast, the Middle Passage, the varieties of slave experience, religion, revolts, abolition, and legislation.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new windowThe collection currently includes 87 document projects with almost 2700 documents and 150,000 pages of additional full-text documents, and more than 2,060 primary authors. A resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. This collection seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding at the same time that it makes the insights of women's history accessible to teachers and students at universities, colleges, and high schools. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools.
Digital Full-text Publications
- HarpWeek: the Civil War Era through the Gilded Age (1857-1912) This link opens in a new windowFull text of the popular 19th century magazine, Harper's Weekly, on literature, history, current events, culture and society. Includes images from Harper's Weekly, with index.
- Godey's Lady's Book This link opens in a new window19th century magazine intended to "entertain and educate" women of America. Early issues include biographical sketches, articles about mineralogy, handcrafts, fashion, dance, equestrienne procedures, health & hygiene, recipes & remedies, and sheet music. Later issues contain book reviews and works by such 19th century authors as Poe, Hawthorne, Longfellow and Stowe. Illustrations.
Subject Guide
Janalyn Moss
Contact:
The University of Iowa Libraries
100 Main Library
Iowa City, IA 52242
100 Main Library
Iowa City, IA 52242
319/335-5698
American Memory
- American Memory from the Library of CongressPrimary source and archival materials relating to American culture and history. Most of these offerings are from the Library's unparalleled special collections and include photos, movies, sounds, and documents.
World Digital Library
- World Digital LibraryThe World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.