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HIST 301: The Historians Craft (Sheriff, Spring 2024)

Some Starting Points

 

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

 

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.

 

 

Continued

 

Religion’s impact on the enslaved during the Civil War

  • Any compiled collections of primary sources would be helpful.
    • In Worldcat, subject search for
      • "Civil war" AND (religion OR religious) AND ("african Americans" OR enslaved OR slaves) AND (sources OR "personal narratives" OR corresp* OR interviews OR diaries)
      • "19th" AND (religion OR religious) AND ("african Americans" OR enslaved OR slaves) AND (sources OR "personal narratives" OR corresp* OR interviews OR diaries)
    • In worldcat, subject search for "Civil war"  AND ("african Americans" OR enslaved OR slaves) AND (sources OR "personal narratives" OR corresp* OR interviews OR diaries) with keyword search for (religion OR christian*)
    • abolitionist writings about religion in Hathi, googlebook, or Gale (Example)
    • Depictions of religion in African American Newspapers during this period.
    • Discussions of religion in our specialized databases of materials related to enslaved Americans 
    • Publications by Abolitionist church, searching these organizations as Author in Worldcat, Hathi, and google book, limited to 1860-1865 (Example)

 

How the Civil War influenced Americans’ conceptualization of “America”

  • note that "Civil war" is a terrible search term for primary sources; contemporary terms will be "rebellion" OR "War of the rebellion" OR "second american revolution" OR "war of northern aggression"
  • Limited to 1861-1865, try searching phrases like
    • "american nation"
    • "national character" (ex)
    • "american people"
    • "american character"
    • "american spirit"
  • Once you identify a phrase being used during this period to describe your topic, search for other instance of the expression (limited to your time period of interest) in hathitrust, googlebook, and the main library catalog.
  • Look at speeches of figures whose rhetoric reflects these news idea -- their works can be found in Worldcat if you search them as the author.
  • Look at speeches in congress via Proquest Congressional and HeinOnline.
  • In the secondary literature, pay particular attention to primary sources they highlight. Also pay attention to the contemporary 19th century language used to discuss this topic.
  • In WorldCat, search "united states" as a subject and sectionalism as a keyword. Limit publications to 1865-1890
    • Look at the way sectionalism is described -- you will probably find that the focus on a shared American character is reflected in these works.

 

Economic Development/Class tensions in the antebellum North 

  • Discussions of unrest and economic issues in historic newspapers during your period of interest
  • Speeches and discussions in congress about unrest
    • use Proquest congressional and HeinOnline
  • publications by trade and labor unions 1800-1860
    • identify unions that are active, then search them as the author in Hathi, worldcat, googlebook. 
  • Search the names of unions in historic newspapers to see how they are being described/depicted (Ex)
  • You can use Historic Census publications for qualitative and qualitative assessments from the period

 

African American soldiers in the Civil War

  • Collections of letters, documents, materials produced by African American Soldiers.
    • In WorldCat, search as SUBJECTS
      • "civil war" AND "african american soldiers" AND ("personal narratives" OR source* OR letters OR correspo* OR interviews)
      • "civil war" AND (soldier* OR enlisted OR Combatant*) AND ("African americans" OR "african american") AND ("personal narratives" OR source* OR letters OR correspo* OR interviews)
  • Descriptions and depictions of African American soldiers in newspapers, including databases on  African American Newspapers and civil war newspapers
  • Descriptions and depictions of these troops in government records, using HeinOnline and Proquest Congressional
  • Use Fold3 for genealogy and service records. Use filters to narrow to African American soldiers during the Civil War.
    • Military registers, rosters, etc.
  • For a wide range of sources, try ("negro soldiers" or "Black soldiers" or "Colored soldiers" OR "colored troops" OR "negro troops") in Hathi, Proquest, Googlebook. Will include gov reports, magazines, popular publications.  Limit to 1861-1865
  • Search our specialized Civil War Databases.

 

Native American displacement in the antebellum era

 

Plimoth Plantation (historical site in MA) 

  • newspapers articles about the plantations founding and development.
    • phrase search for "plimoth plantation" and later "Plimoth Patuxet Museums"
    • example
  • Publications by the organization
    • Search "Plimoth Plantation" as author in Worldcat, Hathi, Googlebook.
  • Use Internet Archive to find old version of the website
  • search "plimoth plantation" and "Plimoth Patuxet" in America:History and Life and JSTOR to see how historians have accessed, evaluated, and critiqued the museum over the decades. There were meant as Secondary Sources, but a critical review of the museum becomes a primary source if you use it to examine the views of that time period.

 

The slave “grapevine” 

  • this one is difficult because the communications were secret and unwritten, and being caught would have been Extremely dangerous.
  • I suggest looking at secondary sources first to see where They find sources (Ex)
  • Search also in our specialized databases of materials related to enslaved Americans and keyword search for grapevine and similar terms. These databases are curated collections of documents and may have specialized collections.
  • Collections of historical documents is a good place to start. 
    • In WorldCat, search as SUBJECTS "united states" AND (source* OR narratives OR corresp* OR interviews OR diaries) AND (enslaved OR "African americans" OR "african american") with (rumor* OR networks OR communication OR grapevine) as keywords.
  • Once the secondary works point you to the types of sources you need, or the keywords to search, you should have a better chance of finding what you're looking for in our specialized databases too.
  • Our Historic newspapers databases may contain articles (possibly fearmongering among southern planters?) about communications networks among the enslaved. Examples and another bad try.  Figuring out the phrases to search will be tricky, so I'd see what other historians have found and then build on their work.

 

 

  • Antebellum New Orleans, with potential focus on slave rebellion of 1811
    • New Orleans newspapers from 1811 and Antebellum period
      • In WORLDCAT search, as a subject, "new orleans" AND newspapers 
        • limit to serials
        • limit time period to 1810-1900
        • skim
        • it doesnt look like there was a newspaper in the city until Times-Picayune
        • look at our oldest National newspapers, and keyword search "new orleans" AND (rebellion OR uprising)  limited to 1810-1820
          • better search is Louisiana and (rebellion OR uprising) and slaves
    • federal discussions of the event in HeinOnline or Proquest Congressional
  • In Worldcat as a subject search, try "Slave rebellions" AND ("Southern States" OR "united states") AND (source* OR narrative* OR diaries)  to find compiled volumes of primary documetns
  • Another phrase I see used is "1811 Slave Revolt" 
  •  Charles Deslondes may also be a useful search term
  • Secondary works are a good starting point too  They will point to names and phrases you can also search in Gale, Primo, Hathi, and googlebook, limited to publication 1811-1840
  • Local records are also an option, but probably not digital.

 

 

 

Continued

 

Antebellum Jewish immigration

 

Female soldiers in the Civil War

 

California maritime trade and/or shipboard culture

  • Shipping and sailing records
    • In Worldcat, subject search for
      •  (california OR "San Francisco") AND (ships OR shipping OR harbor* OR docks OR dockmaster* OR sailor*) AND (registers OR logs OR records OR registr* OR diaries)
      • sailors AND (narratives OR diaries OR correspo*) AND (california OR "San Francisco")
      • pacific AND (ships OR shipping OR harbor* OR docks OR dockmaster* OR sailor*) AND (registers OR  logs OR records OR registry OR diaries)
  • Contemporary Reports of sailors' lives and conduct in Historic newspapers and contemporary publications in Hathi and Google book
  • Contemporary Reports of sailors' lives and conduct in government discussions in HeinOnline and ProQuest Congressional
  • In Worldcat, KEYWORD search for
    • ("shipboard life" OR "life about ship") AND (california OR "san Francisco" OR pacific)
    • LIMIT publications to 1800-1899
      • there are interesting materials in here including 
        • Jona Marston, Jr. journal of a voyage from Boston to San Francisco, 1849-1850.
        • Samuel W. Brown diary and letters : ms and ALS, 1848-1859 (bulk 1849-1850).
        • Ringleader (Clipper ship) Journal, 1855-1856.
        • Sea Witch (Ship) Journal Typescript, 1852-1853.
  • Collections at Peabody Essex Museum and San Francisco Maritime Nat Histl Park
  • Census data from 19th century about shipping, number of sailors, etc.
  • Look for discussions of the town, or farming, in our specialized Civil War Databases.

 

Port Royal, Virginia (and/or small farmers) during the Civil War

  • Historic newspapers discussions of Port Royal VA 1861-1865
  • archival records at Library of VA
    • records appear to be kept at county level (Caroline?)
  • records at Port Royal Museum of American History and Caroline Historical Society
  • In Worldcat, Subject search "Virginia" AND "Port Royal"
  • Search "Port Royal, Virginia" limited to 1861-1865 in Googlebook, hathi, worldcat, proquest
  • For farmers, try,
    • In worldcat, subject search (farmers OR farms) AND virginia AND (narratives OR daries)
      • brings up works like Cobb's ordeal : the diaries of a Virginia farmer, 1842-1872 /
  • Census data from 19th century about farms and agriculture.
    • see Social Explorer.
    • See published census reports, ex: 1850 census publications
      • See agriculture volumes for 1860 and 1870. 
        • will include farm data on specific regions of VA

"Flying the Hump" (route over the Himalayas from India to Yunnanyi, Kunming, and other locations in China) 1942

  • search for "Flying the Hump" in our WW2 specialized databases
  • search for references to "Flying the Hump" in Historic newspapers
  • For first hand accounts In worldcat, keyword search ("flew the hump" OR "fly the hump" OR "flying the hump") and subject search (sources OR narratives OR diaries OR interviews)
  • Limiting publication to 1940-1945, search  ("flew the hump" OR "fly the hump" OR "flying the hump") in Googlebook, and Proquest, and Hathi

 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ social and political impacts through examining the progression of the government agency

 

antebellum American theatre

  • Theatre productions from the period
    • In WorldCat subject search for "United states" AND (theatre OR musicals OR minstrel* OR sideshows) and limit publications to time period to 1800-1860
      • pay attention to the books, scores, visual, and serials tabs
  • Reviews of specific theatres or productions in Historic newspapers
  • Personal papers of actors/actresses in the 19th,
    • in Worldcat, SUBJECT search for "United states" AND (actors OR actresses) AND (sources OR narratives OR diaries OR interviews OR corr*) AND 19th
      • Itwill bring up works like A player and a gentleman : the diary of Harry Watkins, nineteenth-century US American actor / Harry Watkins;  Amy Hughes;  Naomi J Stubbs 2018
  • Use our reference collection to identify lists of theatres and theatre productions in the antebellum period.
    • we also have a fine arts librarian we can work with too!

California Gold Rush and its effect on business and economy prosperity

  • Historic newspapers
    •  "california gold rush" in newspaper, limited to 1845-1855
    • Census data from 19th century about econ growth and gold production.
  • discussion of gold rush at federal level in ProQuest Congressional and HeinOnline
  • Popular discussion of gold rush by searching  "california gold rush" in , googlebook, AND  proquest limited 1845-1855
    • revise search to "california gold rush" AND prosperity  
  • In WorldCat keyword california AND "gold rush"  AND LIMIT RESULTS TO 1845-1855 to see how it is depicted
    • in advanced search, limit to fiction to find how it is depicted in novels like Four months among the gold-finders in Alta California
  • For first hand accounts, In WorldCat keyword search "gold rush"  and SUBJECT search california AND (sources OR narratives OR diaries OR interviews OR corr*) and limit to non-fiction, non-juvenile.