Research Guides: HIST 712: US Civil War Era Research Seminar HIST 712 (Spring 2025): Unpublished Diaries

Worldcat & PRIMO

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
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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.

Use the subject search ("personal narratives" OR diaries) combined with the subject or individual you're studying. Limit to books and ebook.
Limit the "publication" date to the period you're studying, or use the Archives tab.
- I suggesting doing one or the other, not both together.
If you're using WorldCat, look under the archives tab.
- if you find an interesting diary, go to the website of the university that holds the item; there is a chance it has been digitized.

Example: ("personal narratives" OR diaries) as subject, civil war as keyword in our catalog
Using the archive's tab in our own catalog, I find quite a few a number of unpublished Diaries in our collection

You're likely going to have the best luck with WorldCat.

It's unlikely we can ILL unpublished memoirs, which will live in Special Collections, but check the website of the archive that holds the item. There is a chance the volume has been digitized in the last few years -- many archives and special collections used COVID-19 to scan material.

Databases

See our full collection of Diaries databases.
This includes both published and unpublished materials

Some highlights

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 Includes 4,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts such as the letters of Amos Wood and his wife and the diary of Maryland Planter William Claytor.
Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America (formerly: American Indian Histories and Cultures) This link opens in a new window
A wide-ranging digital resource presenting a unique insight into interactions between the Indigenous peoples of North America and Europeans from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library's extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection. Includes manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books, photographs and newspapers. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diariesincludes the immediate experiences of approximately 500 women, as revealed in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. The collection now includes primary materials spanning more than 300 years. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database. Coverage: 1500-1950
Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment contains 1,482 authors and over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters.
Gilded Age This link opens in a new window
The Gilded Age provides insight into the key issues that shaped America in the late nineteenth century, including race and ethnicity, immigration, labor, women's rights, American Indians, political corruption, and monetary policy. Contains speeches, letters, diaries, interviews, video clips, artwork, song lyrics, and other ephemera. Coverage: 1865-1902
History Vault [ProQuest] This link opens in a new window
Researchers can access digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. Includes multiple sub-collections in broad subject areas like Civil Rights; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; American Indians and the American West; American Politics and Society; International Relations and Military Conflicts; Women's Studies; and Workers and Labor Unions. Focus of American History primary sources is largely after 1775.
Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries from the American Antiquarian Society, 1750-1950 brings together 100,000 pages of the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts, semantically indexed and online for the first time.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives relating to American and Canadian immigrants.
North American Indian Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
This fifth release of North American Indian Thought and Culture contains over 119,000 pages of text and images. Included are biographies, auto-biographies, personal narratives, speeches, diaries, letters, and oral histories.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
North American Women's Letters and Diaries includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters. Includes Canadian authors. Coverage: Colonial to 1950
Papers of Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry This link opens in a new window
A collection of letters, diaries, and other documents from a mother and daughter in South Carolina covering 1739 to 1830. An interesting look into the daily life of the management of an early American household and plantation. A Rotunda Collections database.
Women and Social Movements International This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements, International is a landmark collection of primary materials. Through the writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made, this collection lets you see how womens social movements shaped much of the events and attitudes that have defined modern life. Cover: 1840-present