Research Guides: HIST 712: US Civil War Era Research Seminar HIST 712 (Spring 2025): Memoirs and Autobiographies

What's the difference (according to Catalogers)

According to the Library of Congress guide to cataloging, a massive 5-volume set of all approved subjects:

An autobiography is written by an individual with the intention of public circulation.
A memoir focuses on a specific period or episode in an individual's life, and was also written with the intention of public circulation.

Catalog and WorldCat

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Materials held by thousands of libraries in the US and abroad. Books, websites, computer programs, films, slides, journals, magazines, papers, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, newspapers, sound recordings, videotapes, etc. Coverage: Before 1000BC-present.

Main Library Catalog
Direct link to the advanced search page of the main library catalog.

For Memoirs, use the subject heading "Personal Memoirs" in conjunction with an individual, topic, or event.

Do NOT limit the publication date, as you may exclude reprints.

Example: "Personal Memoirs" AND reconstruction
subject search for "Personal Memoirs" combined with keyword search for reconstruction. I would also try this search in WorldCat for more results.
Example: "Personal Memoirs" AND grant
Subject search for "Personal Memoirs" AND keyword search for grant brings up "Personal memoirs of U.S. Grant : a history of the Union cause Waugh, Joan."

You can also use the Subject term Autobiograph* in worldcat and the catalog, but it doesn't work well. Many catalogers, for reason beyond my understanding, often use Autobiography and biography interchangeably, and in fact there is a subject heading called BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The best way to find a specific autobiography is to search autobiography as a title term, combined with the individuals make as a keyword.

Example: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND Twain
Autobiography as a title keyword, Twain as a keyword brings up the multi-volume set of Mark Twain's autobiography

Databases

The best way to find memoirs and autobiographies is using the methods above, however we do have some databases that may include memoirs.

List of databases including Letters, Diaries & Oral Histories
There are some memoirs in these collections, but the best way to find them is through the main catalog. I only include these links to be thorough & exhaustive

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
This release contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs. Includes 4,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts such as the letters of Amos Wood and his wife and the diary of Maryland Planter William Claytor.
Anthropology Online This link opens in a new window
Anthropology Online brings together a wide range of written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. Essential for study in the areas of politics, economics, history, psychology, environmental studies, religion, area studies, linguistics, and geography, the database will contain more than over 100,000 pages of full-text material at completion, including tens of thousands of pages of previously unpublished material from major archives.