William Henry Harrison campaign of 1840
- Newspapers and magazines from 1840 in our historical databases
- try keywords Harrison AND (election OR campaign)
- Contemporary books about Harrison and the election published ~1835-1845 in Worldcat, hathitrust, and googlebook
- Publications by political groups in favor of, or against, Harrison's campaign like the Boston Harrison Club
- Not sure where to start? Try a basic search in PRIMO limited to publications 1839-1842 for harrison AND (election OR campaign)
- A search for harrison AND (election OR campaign) in worldcat limited to publications 1839-1842 brings up many really interesting options like Political party documents, books about Harrison by his contemporaries, songbooks, political magazines, speeches
- Images of political cartoons and posters, try the Library of Congress image collection first.
- In worldcat, NOT limited to any time period, try a subject search for Harrison AND (election OR campaign) AND (sources OR "personal narratives" OR interviews OR diaries) This will bring up compiled volumes of primary sources like interviews, etc.
Responses to Lincoln’s Assassination
- Newspapers and magazines with keywords Lincoln AND assassination or Lincoln and Shot
- In worldcat, NOT limited to any time period, try a subject search for lincoln AND assassination AND (sources OR "personal narratives" OR interviews OR diaries) This will bring up compiled volumes of primary sources like interviews, etc.
- Contemporary books about Harrison and the election published 1865-6 in Worldcat, hathitrust, and googlebook (Ex)
- Images of political cartoons and posters, try the Library of Congress image collection first.
- writings of key individuals and figures
- Government materials, specifically in HeinOnline and ProQuest Congressional
Reconstruction-era voting and voting restriction
- Newspapers and magazines. A good starting point is our collection of African American newspapers.
- State-level legislation suppressing voters. Access to these documents will differ by state. (Ex Virginia)
- Federal legislation via HeinOnline and ProQuest Congressional
- In Worldcat, limited to publications 1865-1877, try (votings OR suffrage) AND negro* and you'll get a bunch of publications, mostly arguing African American's shouldn't be allowed to vote. narrow by adding a state, ex, AND virginia
- a broader search for (votings OR suffrage) AND ("African americans") AND state limited to 1865-1877 also brings up interesting results.
- Utilized our specialized primary source databases on African American history and the Reconstruction era.
The Lost Cause or the Civil War at W&M
- Obviously, our special collections dept. Of particular interest are:
- Books about WM during the war
- NOTE the college was basically closed during and after the war.
- Faculty records/lectures delivered at the college immediately after the war.
- Military records about the battles of Williamsburg and the impact on the campus.
- Federal and Congressional reports about W&M and their petition to get paid for the buildings destroyed by the Union Army.
- My very favorite gov doc: An 1887 report by the Bureau of Education trying to explain why WM closed.
- page 88 is the best -- the college president says it would be nice is more rich people died and gave WM their money.
- Newspaper coverage of W&M during and after the war
- mentions of W&M in hathi, googlebook, and Primo during the time period 1862-1870ish (depending on your topic/focus)
- See W&M history guide too.
Civil War POW camps
- look at our specialized Civil War databases
- notably civil war letters and daires
- civil war newspapers
- civil war in words and deeds
- etc
- Look in other historic newspapers outside our Civil War database
- Government reports about the camps, using HeinOnline and proquest congressional
- In WORLDCAT, subject search "Civil War" AND "personal narratives" AND ("prison camp" OR "prison camps" OR "prisoner of war" OR "prisoners of war")
- You may want to narrow more to a specific camp
- ex "civil war" AND "personal narratives" AND "united states" AND andersonville
- Descriptions of camps in contemp writings. Limited to 1861-65, search PRIMO, WorldCat, Hathi, Googlebook. (Ex)
Crime in the media
- Historic newspapers
- Trial records (location of records depends on specifics of trial)
- fiction based on the events, or crime literature from the time period (found using worldcat and literature indexes)
- contemporary books about the crimes/cases being reported (found using worldcat and literature indexes)
- local records of the crimes (location of records depends on specifics of trial)
W&M’s student culture at the transition from all-male to co-ed
- Special collections materials:
- Outside of W&M
- Consider fiction from the time period about women at colleges, such as the works of Jean Webster (Ex Daddy-Long-Legs or When Patty Went to College)
- in Worldcat, keyword search Women AND (college OR "higher education" OR "Education, higher") Limited to Fiction and publication 1900-1925
- Newspaper articles about women attending W&M in local VA papers
- Newspaper articles about coed trends in the nation 1918-1925ish
- Discussion of WM become co-ed in the state legislature records (guide to Virginia state records)
- Literature about women's education during this time period
- in WORLDCAT, search women AND (education, higher) as a SUBJECT search and limit publication to 1918-1925. limit to nonjuvenile, nonfiction.
- find these books in hathi, primo, googlebook, and ILL
- Other magazine and article entries about women's education and coeducation during this time period via Proquest and JSTOR
- See w&m history guide.
Perception of political compromise in antebellum America
- I Suggest looking at specific political events as examples (Ex compromise of 1850 ; missouri compromise ; 1824 congressional election of Adas, etc)
- Historic newspapers, keyword search Compromise and the political issues being addressed
- Congressional speeches in Proquest Congressional and HeinOnline
- In WORLDCAT use "speeches" and/or "personal narratives" as SUBJECT termS to find writings about the issue
- example, in worldcat a subject search for (speeches OR "personal narratives") AND "compromise of 1850"
- Narrowing the publication date to your time period of interest, search for treatise and tracts pro/con compromise in Hathi, worldcat, Googlebook. Example in hathitrust
Impact of the Lost Cause on K-12
- Will need to focus on a specific time period.
- newspaper coverage of the curriculum
- books for children
- in WorldCat, search "lost cause" AND ("civil war" OR confed*) and limit to juvenile
- Textbooks (Dr. Sheriff knows this field very well.)
- finding these will depend on when/where you decide to focus
- Generally you can use Hathi to find school books with broad search terms
- focus on a specific school board
- so a keyword search in Worldcat for ("lost cause" AND "Civil war") AND (School* OR teachers) and skim to see which organizations are writing about this topic. Limit to time period of interest
New York City Draft Riot
- Historic newspapers, keyword search "new york" AND riot limiting to 1863
- First hand accounts of the riot in our Civil War primary source databases
- Use specialized databases for differing perspectives. EXAMPLE
- For perspective of African Americas, you might use Accessible Archives module "African American Newspapers" search "new york" limited to july 1 1863 to aug 1 1863.
- For Irish-American perspectives, you might look at Pilot for 1863
- In WorldCat use the SUBJECT terms "personal narratives" OR Sources to find first hand accounts
- ex "new york" AND ("draft riot" OR "draft riots") AND ("personal narratives" OR sources OR corresp* OR diaries)
- Also in WorldCat search "new york" AND ("draft riot" OR "draft riots") but limit the publication dates toe 1863-4
- search "new york" AND riot in Proquest Congressional and HeinOnline limited to 1863-4 for federal/legislative reactions
-
Know Nothings (in particular, he is looking at the Bedini Riot in Cincinnati 1852, but if there were anything in Special Collections related to the Know Nothings, that would be great.)
- Cincinnati newspapers from this period are a best bet. in WorldCat try a SUBJECT search for
- cincinnati AND ohio AND newspapers limited to publications 1850-2222, limited to "serials"
- limited to your time period, look for publications mentioning Bedini or Bedini AND cincinnati in hathi, googlebook, worldcat
- Similarly, search " Bedini Riot" in googlebook, hathi and proquest and worldcat limited 1850-1860
- publications by Cincinnati nativist or anti-catholic groups. search these groups or notable individuals in the Author field of worldcat
Antebellum representations of indigenous people in the press
- Historic newspapers limited to your time period. You may want to limit to a specific region or time period, or type of newspaper (Ex Irish American newspapers, African American newspapers, small rural newspapers -- use specialized newspaper databases and Chronicling American to narrow the focus.
- Finding search terms will be hard. Indian will give interesting results; offensive terms like "savages" or "Red man" will work in newspaper databases but using these terms will shape your results -- by using negative terms, you're ensured to get only negative & racist representations. Phrases like "noble savages" also work but again, the bias is built into the language of the search.
- I suggest skimming the documents in our specialized databases, including
- In Worldcat, try a subject search for:
- ("indians of north america" OR "native americans" OR "american indians")
- limit publication dates results to a specific decade, such as 1830-1840, and limit to Fiction
- it may be interesting to see depictions in popular fiction of the period.
- Works best if you focus on a specific tribe or group.