LibKey Nomad
Primary Source Analysis
Open up questions rather than to come up with answers! What kinds of questions can you explore with the source you have? How does your source fit into the themes you've explored, particularly using a theoretical frameworks as a guide? Use the following questions to help guide your description of your primary source (derived from Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History):
- Who is the author?
- When was the source composed?
- What is the historical context in which the source was written and read?
- Who was the intended audience?
- Why did he or she write (create) the source? (Persuasion, description, factual, etc) What is the author teaching you?
- Was the original text commissioned by anyone, or published by a press with a particular viewpoint?
- How does the author’s gender, race, class, ethnicity, language group, and (if relevant) national identity compare to the people about whom they are writing?
- What unspoken assumptions does the text contain?
- What biases are detectable in the source?
- Are there other contemporary sources to compare against this one, especially from the syllabus?
A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (8th ed.) by Call Number: REFERENCE D13 .R295 2015ISBN: 9781457690884Publication Date: 2015-01-16Availability and more information from Catalyst...
Really practical tips about how to think about primary and secondary sources when researching and writing!
Collections of note
- AM Explorer This link opens in a new window
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Primary sources from the 15th-21st centuries, including the social sciences, humanities, global history, popular culture, history of media, gender and sexuality, trade history, borders and migrations, and war and conflict. - Electronic Enlightenment This link opens in a new windowA wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century. Contains about 80,000 letters and documents, cross-linked and referenced to each other.
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across primary documents in economic history from major British and American libraries. Covers 1450 - 1914. - ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Full-text and full-image articles for major newspapers from the United States (including Historical Black Newspapers); plus ABC (Spain), Le Monde, the Jerusalem Post (formerly the Palestine Post), The Korea Times, London Evening Standard, South China Morning Post, and the Times of India. Each paper is available from its first issue through about 2013 (depending on the paper). Earliest papers start in 1827. - ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of digitized books published in the eighteenth century, 1701 - 1800. - NCCO: Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
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A rich collection of primary sources created or published in the nineteenth century.
- Gale NCCO: Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part IIncludes 19th c. journals, books, reports, and personal documents illustrating the rapid acceleration of scientific, technical, and medical knowledge, tracing the changes from the Newtonian world to that of Einstein, from the horse to the automobile, from medical treatments based on humors and bloodletting to antiseptics and epidemiology. Covers topics like: electricity and electromagnetism, mathematics and engineering, astronomy and astrophysics, color theory and the theory of natural selection, geology and mineralogy, chemistry and medicine.
- Gale NCCO: Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part IIIncludes scientific material from the late 17th century through the first quarter of the 20th century, with a primary focus on the 19th century. The collection is divided into four major parts: academies of science publications, natural history, public health, and entomology.
- EEBO: Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of early English books and tracts, 1475 - 1700. - Early European Books This link opens in a new window
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Works printed in Europe before 1701. - Climate Science and Sustainability: Global Origins of Modern Environmentalism, 1957-1995 This link opens in a new windowJournal articles and reports collected and translated by the CIA covering the rise of modern climate science and environmentalism during the second half of the 20th century.
Medical History Sources
- Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics [Harvard University]Historical scholarship about disease and epidemics. Over 500,000 pages of plates, engravings, maps, charts, and broadsides from the 15th - 20th centuries.
- Guide to specialized primary source material about the history of public health (Sam Houston State University)Mostly sources from and about the United States
- Wellcome Collection digital imagesFind thousands of Creative Commons licensed images from historical Wellcome Collection (London) library materials and museum objects to contemporary digital photographs.
- Accessible Archives: Quarantine and Disease Control in AmericaContains first-hand accounts of American infectious diseases: Newspapers (1736-1922), and Books (1823-1928). **Use Browse/Search functions!
- Medical Heritage LibraryA digital curation collaborative among some of the world’s leading medical libraries, promotes free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine.
- Yale Medical Historical Library - Digitized CollectionsIncunabula, Arabic and Persian manuscripts, postcards, posters, photographs, book plates, lantern slides, portraits, surgical instruments, prints and drawings, newsletters and theses, advertising, and more. Dates range from 1300-2000s.
- Medicine and Madison Avenue (Duke Libraries)About 600 advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1920, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States.
- The History of Western Medicine in China Resources PortalThis is a wide collection of information -- archive guides, primary sources, digitized materials. Most sources to date focus on the period from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the formation of the People's Republic of China.
- Journal: "The Lancet" (London, 1823-present)Popular and well-known general medical journal.
-- Archives in HathiTrust: 1823-1928 (or copyright barrier)
-- 1991-present in library databases - Journal: "Public health reports" (U.S. Marine Hospital Service 1887-2017)The predecessor to the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps & Surgeon General's Public Health Reports, it includes weekly updates from around the country and globe about health issues and disease outbreaks.
- PubMed This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
The US National Institutes of Health provide this free index of biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. If full text is not linked to or provided for a particular citation, search our Journals List to see if we have alternate access to the journal publishing that article. - NCCO: Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
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Search using the second search box down
Drawn from the holdings of the National Library of Medicine the collection includes the content of more than twelve hundred journals. Covers topics such as: the evolution of contagion theory, changing ideas about medical ethics, the growth of medical specialization, and the development of medical societies and medical education. The collection also documents both the rich history of unorthodox medicine and the history of closely related fields, such as dentistry and pharmacy.
- CRL: Public health periodicals (English)Manually browse through digitized historical public health periodicals (journals).
- Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics [Harvard University]Historical scholarship about disease and epidemics. Over 500,000 pages of plates, engravings, maps, charts, and broadsides from the 15th - 20th centuries.
- Biodiversity Heritage LibraryCataloged historical scholarship about natural history and botany.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. Most journals are included from their first issue until 5 years ago.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has a large and extensive history of medicine collection. As part of the library's mission to provide access and preserve its collection of books, ephemera, pamphlets, posters, etc, the library has created several digitized collections.
- National Library of Medicine (NLM) Digital CollectionsImages, videos, books, manuscripts, declassified government documents about the history of medicine, all public domain. Includes curated exhibits.
- Medicine in the Americas (1610-1920): A Digital Library"Drawing on the collections of NLM's History of Medicine Division and including works from the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada, this initial release of Medicine in the Americas encompasses monographs dating from 1610 to 1865. Additional titles, dating up to 1920 and drawing further upon NLM's comprehensive collection of early American printed books and journals, will be available on an ongoing basis in the future."
- Images from the History of MedicineContains nearly 70,000 images from the NLM, including portraits, photographs, posters, and graphic art important to the history of medicine from the 15th through the 21st centuries.
- Profiles in ScienceDigital archive of papers from prominent 20th scientists, physicians, and other leaders in medical and scientific fields who have contributed to the development of medical science.
- Turning the PagesFeatures nine works important to our understanding of the history of medicine, including Hanaoka Seishu’s Surgical Casebook, Hieronymus Brunschwig’s Liber de Arte Distilland, and Andreas Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) **Note that this will no longer fully load; only the images will be able to load.
- CDC Publication ArchivesCDC Stacks is a free, digital archive of scientific research and literature produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Contains current CDC research and literature, and historical publications, such as the first 30 volumes of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
- CDC @ National Archives (Record Group 442)Search within the records of the CDC in the National Archives (RG 442). Index of the collection.
- CDC - LGBT HealthResources and statistics.
- CDC FOIA Reading RoomDeclassified and digitized documents from the CDC.
- CDC @ HathiTrustPublicly available full text publications by and about the CDC.
- CDC PublicationsLinks to collections of current publications put out by the CDC.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Internet Archive]A collection of public health material, podcasts, and information for children published by the CDC.
- Historical Statistics of the United StatesGathers census statistics that were gathered in the United states from colonial times to the present. Search in Part A - Population > Chapter Ab - Vital Statistics > Table Group Ab912-1137 - Mortality to see how many people died from which diseases.
- International historical statistics Africa, Asia and Oceania 1750-2005CC Ref HA4675 .M552 2007
- WHO: World Health Organization This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Includes reports and statistics about world health.
Specialized Primary Source Types
- DPLA: Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and transcripts)
Aggregates millions of digital items from major libraries and collections across the country, including Carleton College. - HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
HathiTrust is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and digitally accessible. A major source of digitized books and other documents. Some of the collection if available for free to all, and additional content is available to Carleton faculty, staff, and students. - Library of Congress Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
Contains texts, sound recordings, still and moving images, maps, and sheet music from the Library of Congress that document American History.
NOTE: The Library of Congress has migrated all collections from the American Memory Project into this new platform. - CRL: Center For Research Libraries This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
This collection includes microfilm for foreign newspapers and foreign dissertations. You may borrow microfilm reels and other materials through Interlibrary Loan. - Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across newspapers and digitized collections of primary sources from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, including ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, NCCO: Nineteenth Century Collections Online, The Making of the Modern World, The Times of London, The Illustrated London News, the Times Literary Supplement, The Economist, and many more. Covers 1604 - present (varying by source). - AM Explorer This link opens in a new window
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Primary sources from the 15th-21st centuries, including the social sciences, humanities, global history, popular culture, history of media, gender and sexuality, trade history, borders and migrations, and war and conflict. - Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across all of Carleton's Readex collections at once. Includes historical newspapers, government documents, books, ephemera, history of science and artificial intelligence, and the like. - Carleton College Archives Database This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
Search all known records of archival photographs, documents, and artifacts at Carleton College Archives, many of which are available in digitized form. Visit the User Guide for help.
- CanadianaDigital collection of Canadian cultural heritage material
- Europeana This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
A large collections with artworks, artifacts, books, videos and sounds from across Europe. Has filters for Open Licenses.
- Internet archive
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The Internet Archive is a non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access to current and historical web content.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Full-text and full-image articles for major newspapers from the United States (including Historical Black Newspapers); plus ABC (Spain), Le Monde, the Jerusalem Post (formerly the Palestine Post), The Korea Times, London Evening Standard, South China Morning Post, and the Times of India. Each paper is available from its first issue through about 2013 (depending on the paper). Earliest papers start in 1827. - Newspapers.com This link opens in a new window
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Newspapers dating from the early 1700s into the 2000s. Contains full runs and portions of runs of well-known, regional, and state titles as well as small local newspapers in the United States and other countries. - Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across all of Carleton's Readex collections at once. Includes historical newspapers, government documents, books, ephemera, history of science and artificial intelligence, and the like. - Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across newspapers and digitized collections of primary sources from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, including ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, NCCO: Nineteenth Century Collections Online, The Making of the Modern World, The Times of London, The Illustrated London News, the Times Literary Supplement, The Economist, and many more. Covers 1604 - present (varying by source). - Access World News This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A comprehensive current news database, contains hundreds of local, regional, national, and international news sources (including the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune). - Accessible Archives Complete This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Full-text access to primary source materials and newspapers from 18th, 19th, and early 20th century America. The collection includes: letters, advertisements, editorials, sketches, county records, complete runs of important periodicals, military newsletters, public health documents, and much more. Titles and collections of interest include: The Pennsylvania Gazette, the Virginia Gazette, The South Carolina Gazette, Godey's Lady Book, The North Star, and a large collections of Native American (1700s-1900s) and African American Newspapers (1800s-1900s). View full list of collections - Indigenous Newspapers in North America This link opens in a new window
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From historic pressings to contemporary periodicals, explore nearly 200 years of Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada. With newspapers representing a huge variety in publisher, audience and era, discover how events were reported by and for Indigenous communities. - British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
Search through hundreds of British periodicals from the late 17th century to the early 20th century, all available in full text. Also allows searching for cartoons, photographs, illustrations, and other images. Covers 1680 - 1930. - Carletonian Online This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through full text information)
Full text access to the Carletonian, going back to the very beginning! Covers 1887 - one year ago. For recent issues, visit The Carletonian Online.
- Chronicling America
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This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1860-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
- American Prison Newspapers 1800-2020 This link opens in a new window
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Hundreds of periodicals from across the country into one collection that will represent penal institutions of all kinds, with special attention paid to women's-only institutions. - CRL Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
A collection including foreign newspapers on microfilm, on paper, and digital. Filmed material may be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan. - East View This link opens in a new window
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Search all East View databases for historical newspaper and journal content from: China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, and Russia. - Global Press Archive This link opens in a new window
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Historical newspapers from the 1800's to today, content includes newspapers from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Russia and the former Soviet Union, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa. - Chinese Newspapers: Global Press Archive This link opens in a new window
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Historical newspapers. Contents include: Late Qing and Republican-Era Chinese Newspapers (1912-1949).
- African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Contains the full text of over 170 African-American periodicals from 26 states printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries. Covers 1825 - 1995. - American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A digitized collection of American magazines and journals, 1740-1920. - EBSCO Magazine Archives This link opens in a new window
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Searchable full-text archives of major twentieth-century American magazines. Includes but not limited to: Ebony (1945-2014), Esquire (1933-2014), LIFE (1936-2000), People (1974-2000), Time (1923-2000), and Vanity Fair(1913-33, 1983-2015). - Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
An archival collection of magazines related to the history of the film, music, and entertainment industries, 1880 - 2015. - LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
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A searchable archive of major periodicals devoted to LGBT+ interests, dating from the 1950s through to recent years.
- Magazine Art: Advertising Art in Magazines [Internet Archive]A small selection of art from late-18th century and early-19th century magazine ads (many in color). They include ads for household goods and appliances, food, cars and trucks, and clothing, among many other things.
- National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-2015 This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A full-color, searchable collection of archived issue of National Geographic Magazine. More info on newer issues in Catalyst. - News, Policy & Politics Magazine Archive (featuring Newsweek) 1918-2015 This link opens in a new window
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An archival collection of 15 major magazines (including the Newsweek archive) spanning areas including current events, international relations, and public policy. Offers multiple perspectives on the 20th century’s key issues and events. - Religious Magazine Archive (1845-2015) This link opens in a new window
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18 historical magazines devoted to religious topics: Advent, America, BR, Catholic World, Islamic Horizons, Islamica, National Catholic Reporter, Plain Truth, The Pope Speaks, Presbyterian Outlook, Protestant Truth, Quest, Sikh Courier International, Sikh Messenger, Sojourners Magazine, Spiritual Life, U.S. Catholic, and UU World. - Vogue Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
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Contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to the present day. - Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
A fully digitized archive of the backfiles of several major North American women's magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Chatelaine, Cosmopolitan, Essence, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Parents, Redbook, Seventeen, WIN News, and Woman's Day. Coverage varies by publication and ranges from 1886 through 2005.
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive streaming video collection including documentaries, newsreels, theater, musical performances, and much more from across the disciplines.
- American Archive of Public BroadcastingHistoric programs of publicly funded radio and television across America. Includes video of Watergate hearings, raw interview footage form Ken Burns documentaries, and many other political speeches and interviews.
- LGBT Studies in Video This link opens in a new window
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Cinematic survey of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as the cultural and political evolution of the LGBT community. Includes award-winning documentaries, interviews, archival footage, and select feature films exploring LGBT history, gay culture and subcultures, civil rights, marriage equality, LGBT families, AIDS, transgender issues, religious perspectives on homosexuality, global comparative experiences, and other topics. - Carleton College Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
Includes recorded interviews with Carleton faculty, alumni, staff and others covering their individual experiences at Carleton. 1971-2021 - Historical Audio and Visual Materials about Carleton College This link opens in a new window
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Searches through citation information
Audio and video recordings of Carleton College, its campus, events, and people. While many of these recordings were made by the College, the collection includes several "home movies" made by Carleton students providing a unique glimpse into student life.
- Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
An index of alternative, radical, and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines from around the world. It focuses on emerging theories and practices of radical social change, socialism, national liberation, labor, Indigenous peoples, gays/lesbians, feminism, ecology, democracy, and anarchism. Covers 1969 - current. - Diversity Collection This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
It focuses on ethnic, minority, and native presses, grassroots newspapers and magazines, and journals, news and newsletters focusing on gender and sexuality. The collection aims to bring out dissenting and minority voices to support research and teaching in women’s studies, lgbtq studies, ethnic studies, and more. Covers 1970 - current. - Documenting White Supremacy and Its Opponents in the 1920s This link opens in a new window
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- Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
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An open access digital collection of 20th century alternative press newspapers, magazines, and journals produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, and extreme right-wing groups. - Student Activism This link opens in a new window
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Voices of students across the great range of protest, political actions, and equal-rights advocacy from the 20th and early 21st century United States. The primary sources are broad-based across time, geography, and political viewpoint — from conservative to anarchist. - Underground and Independent Comics This link opens in a new window
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Original works with many interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines, including The Comics Journal.
