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Starting Points
- Attitudes toward repeating rifles during the Civil War
- Look his 19th century newspaper and magazines. Use the search term "repeating rifle" in quotes, limit 1861-65.
- use "personal narratives" AND "civil war" as subjects to find collections of writings and letters by soldiers. see how they talk about the rivial
- use heinonline and proquest congressional, search "repeating rifle" for gov reports
- drill manuals, contemporary publications. Search "repeating rifle" in hathi, googlebook, and the catalog limited to 1861-65
- Civil War engineering
- use "personal narratives" AND "civil war" as subjects to find materials written by engineers
- 19th century engineering books are on hathitrust, googlebook, etc
- search "military engineering" OR "military engineers" in the catalog, googlebook,and hathitrusted limited 186-1865
- Women’s roles during the Civil War
- Second burning of the Wren Building
- newspaper reports of the building. use "college of william and mary" OR "william and mary college" AND fire.
- do NOT use "Wren building," we didn't call it that until the 1920s. see CW Wren Report
- look at letters in SCRC
- publications by college about this period
- Caribbean-US relations during the Civil War
- Narrow to specific country will help
- FRUS
- Letters and writing by diplomats and political leaders (Search them as author in catalog and worldcat, ex Sewell)
- Heinonline and ProQuest Congressional for government debates and reports
- Formation of Midwestern regional identity
- in worldcat, try Midwest* AND "personal narratives" to find personal narratives
- in worldcat search midwest* and limit to fiction and 1800-1900 and you find a bunch of novels like 1900 "the gentleman of Indiana"
- Look at regional papers in Chronicling America to see how they describe "midwesterners"
- Relationship between former enslaver and enslaved in post-CW era
- see Freedmen's schools and textbooks series (Example)
- Subject search "personal narratives" AND freedmen in catalog and worldcat
- limit 1861-1875 try the phrase "my former master" in hathitrust, googlebook, gale, and others to see what comes up.
- look at secondary sources for good phrases to use
- look at slavery specific databases
Examples
- Sexuality in Early America
- look at our history of sexuality
- focus on specific aspect of sexuality
- how it is depicted in newspapers
- if illegal, we can find court case records or summaries
- letters using "personal narratives" but we need to focus on the specific aspect
- really broad now, if we focus on one aspect it becomes easier
- Richmond Monuments and Confederate memory
- newspapers from when it was built, taken down
- local records
- interviews
- contemporary publications
- Emergence of scientific racism and poor white/black relations
- depends on time period; early 20th century there is a Lot of eugenics publications, most of which are in hathitrust
- may need to narrow to specific time period or region
- look at publications of american Eugenics Society
- Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears
- look in our indigenous primary sources databases
- newspaper coverage from period, "indian removel" as search term
- gov records ; legal records
- speeches and oral histories
- Children in the Civil War
- "Personal narratives" AND "civil war" AND children in catalog and worldcat
- depictions of children in letters -- see civil war letters collection
- depictions of children in newspapers
- depictions of children in literatuer 1861-65
- Introduction of the greenback
- discussion in gov, using heinonline and proquest congressional
- discussion in newspapers
- contemp. economic studies on currency (limit publication date 1861-65)
- Public opinion of the Declaration of Independence
- look at speeches in each state legislature after it was announced
- look at newspaper coverage
- letters will be hard to find for "ordinary" people
- Women and families during westward expansion
- see our American West database
- see our North American women's letters database
- newspapers from western territories, see Chronicling America
- in worldcat try the subject search women AND "personal narratives" AND west
- Maroon communities in the Great Dismal Swamp
- start with our slavery primary source databases and search Dismal swamp
- newspaper accounts of communities in the swamp
- US national identity during westward expansion
- newspaper coverage of the west
- novels about the west during this period, use the fiction & publication filters in WorldCat
- contemporary art
- in worldcat try "personal narratives" AND west AND 19th as subjects, limit to nonfiction books
- speeches about the west in proquest congression and heinonline
- Occupied territory during the Civil War
- Army department occupation records
- newspaper coverage
- in worldcat, subject search "personal narratives" AND "Civil war" with Keyword Occupation for first hand descriptions ex A woman's civil war : a diary with reminiscences of the war from March 1862 /
- Material culture in early America or Russia
- for russia, it entire depends on the time period. Soviet era there are magazines and promotional materials, not to mention musicals! Please ask about the musicals.
- For early america, see **outstanding** Victorian Popular Culture database. See also early american imprints.
- Look at newspapers to see the averts.
- look at Virginia Gazette to see averts
- Immigrants soldiers during the Civil War
- limit to specific immigrants (Ex irish, german, polish)
- use our Civil War newspapers series for depictions
- look at congressional discussions in proquest congressional and heinonline
- in worldcat use "personal narratives" AND "civil war" AND "united states" AND (irish OR german*) as subjects to find their personal writings
- use LoC newspaper list to find ethnic newspapers to see how, for example, Irish American newspaper covered the war and enlistment.
- U.S. foreign relations during the Civil War
- See FRUS for that period
- see personal papers and letters of key diplomats
- see HeinOnline and Proquest Congressional for gov materials
- see newspaper coverage
- Race relations in the 1950s
- Depends on topic, but generally
- see newspapers
- see speeches by key leaders
- see publications of major groups
- see our NAACP digital collection
- African American history post-emancipation
- need to narrow to specific time and palce
- if appropriate, reconstruction records
- newspapers
- see Freedmen's schools and textbooks series (Example)
- Subject search "personal narratives" AND freedmen in catalog and worldcat
- limit 1861-1875 try the phrase "my former master" in hathitrust, googlebook, gale, and others to see what comes up.
- look at secondary sources for good phrases to use
- look at slavery specific databases
- Landscapes of slavery in Virginia
- plantation records (See State Library collection)
- art
- "personal narratives" AND plantations in worldcat
- I know we're meeting next week!
- Romania during the Ceaușescu
- Really depends on whether you can read Romanian
- newspaper depictions
- Ceaușescu's writings
- publications about Ceaușescu by political organizations
