African American Studies: Digital Collections
A guide to resources in African American Studies, includes UIowa and web resources.
Digital Collections
- African American Communities This link opens in a new windowFocusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
- African American Newspapers Series 1 and 2 This link opens in a new windowIncludes Series 1 (1827-1998) AND Series 2 (1835-1956). Part of the Readex America's Historical Newspapers collection, African American Newspapers is a record of African American history, culture, and daily life. Covers life in the Antebellum South through the Civil Rights movement and more
- African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new windowFeatures 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.
- African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest This link opens in a new windowThis collection covers many topical categories such as the growing body of work by African- American writers; the portrayal of African-Americans in art and literature; religion; race; early histories of slavery; the Civil War; Reconstruction; and others. From the late 19th century to the early 20th, the end of Reconstruction through the first World War.
- African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle This link opens in a new windowThis collection covers many topical categories such as Reconstruction by state; works by African- American writers on race, slavery, and civil rights; the portrayal of African Americans in the Arts; early histories of the Civil War and slavery; and others. From the mid 1860’s to the early 1880’s, the end of the Civil War to Jim Crow.
- Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922 This link opens in a new windowThis collection spans nearly 400 years, from the early 16th to the early 20th century. These essential books, pamphlets and broadsides, including many lesser-known imprints, hold an unparalleled record of African American history, literature and culture.
- 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.
- American Race Relations: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996 This link opens in a new windowCovers foreign reactions to America’s struggles with racial justice, from the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights movement and beyond. Provides a wealth of primary source documents on African American, Hispanic American, Asian American and Native American history
- Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements This link opens in a new windowBehind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements focuses on unearthing and digitizing the histories of civil rights activism by the everyday citizens of Black, Latine, Indigenous, and Asian American/Pacific Islander communities. The program will include up to four collections, targeted for completion by the end of 2025.
- 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 Freedom Struggle (ProQuest History Vault)The first Black Freedom module of the ProQuest History Vault consists of 37 collections from the records of federal government agencies, covering The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century from the perspective of the men, women, and sometimes even children, who waged one of the most inspiring social movements in American history.
- 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.
- HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowOver 63,130 stories are assembled here from life oral history interviews with 1,225 historically significant African Americans as of May 2, 2016
- 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.
- NAACP Papers collections (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new windowThe collection is nearly two million pages of internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action
summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. It charts the NAACP’s work and
delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues. - Race Relations in America This link opens in a new windowDocumenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Department’s staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.
- Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974 This link opens in a new windowThe Sixties brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. With 150,000 pages of material at completion, this searchable collection is the definitive electronic resource for students and scholars researching this important period in American history, culture, and politics. The database currently has over 34,000 pages.
- Slavery & Anti-Slavery, A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new windowIn addition to the standard primary sources one would expect—newspaper collections and books published in the antebellum era, for example—SAS includes a broad selection of documents from several different archives.
Includes Parts I-IV.
- 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.
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online (formerly Declassified Documents Reference System) This link opens in a new windowU.S. Declassified Documents Online provides immediate access to a broad range of previously classified federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The collection brings together the most sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies in a single, easily searchable database.
- We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961 This link opens in a new window“We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death”: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961 is a source for African American history, radical studies, civil rights, political science and more, including surveillance reports, chronologies, and witness statements. These materials provide unique (and in some cases recently declassified) insight into the Freedom Rides, the Kennedy administration and the segregated South.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
Music - Streaming Audio
For more music resources check out the homepage of the Rita Benton Music Library.
- American Song This link opens in a new window
American Song is a history database that will contain 50,000 tracks that allows people to hear and feel the music from America's past. The database will include songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests and more.
- Naxos Music LibraryNaxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online.
- Naxos Music Library JazzIncludes the Fantasy Jazz collection, which is different content than the jazz included in Naxos Music Library.
- Smithsonian Global SoundSmithsonian Global Sound is a network of international cultural institutions working to preserve and distribute music from archives worldwide, and to foster appreciation for traditional roots music.
Subject Guide
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.
Theatre in Video
- Theatre in Video This link opens in a new windowContains performances of the world's leading plays and film documentaries on the subject of theater in streaming video. Some plays presented in multiple productions exemplifying various interpretations of the text, and technical and cultural differences among the presentations. Stage work of directors and actors are cross-searchable and available for side-by-side comparison. Interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances, provide illustration of the development of texts and the productions.
Dance in Video
- Dance in Video This link opens in a new windowCaptures dance performances from the stage and brings them directly to your computer screen through online streaming video - including 250 dance productions and documentaries by the most influential performers and companies of the 20th century.
Stream selected movies and documentaries
- Swank Digital Campus This link opens in a new windowStreaming video titles, mostly feature films or television, the University of Iowa has licensed from the Swank Digital Campus collection of videos.