Research Guides: HIST 301: Historian's Craft (Benes, Spring 2025): Published collections of letters

Worldcat & Primo

WorldCat 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.

The official subject heading for letters is "correspondence" though sometimes it is listed as correspondences. I suggest using correspondence* as a subject. Combined this with an individual or topic. Do NOT limit the publication date; most collections of letters are compiled publications print well after the fact, so you'll miss important materials.

Example Search: correspondence* AND ("world war" AND 1918)
Limit to books, ebooks, manuscripts, and archival materials

You can also search for a name or topic, and search Letters within the Title field. This isn't as exact as the above, but still possibly useful.

Example. Title search for Letters, and subject search for "world war" AND 1918
You can see there are quite a few false hits, but this i still an option.

Letters

Letters is not the correct subject according to the Library of Congress, but this is used somethings by catalogers. If you're really stuck, try Letters as a subject. Interesting, "love letters" is, in fact, a correct subject heading -- even catalogers must have realized "love correspondences" sounded silly.

Example: subject search for "Love Letters" with keyword "world war" AND 1918
includes materials in Special Collections

Databases

The majority of our databases for letters specialize in unpublished materials

Full list of Letters databases
Mostly unpublished materials, but not exclusively

Highlights

African Americans and Jim Crow, 1883-1922 This link opens in a new window
African Americans and Jim Crow, 1883-1922 contains more than 1,000 fully searchable printed works from the beginning of Jim Crow to post-World War I. These works provide insights into African American culture and life during this period of segregation and disenfranchisement and include such topics as African American identity, relationships with peoples of other nations, and literature.
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
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.
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.