Research Guides: HIST 123: U.S. Women's History Since 1877: Primary Sources

Digitized Archival Collections

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
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An archive of digitized primary documents and teaching tools on Women and Social Movements in the U.S. Covers 1600 - 2000.

Women Working, 1800-1930
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Primary source material of women working in the late 18th-early 19th century, including books, pamphlets, images and some manuscripts.
Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911
Digitized by the Library of Congress: "Between 1897 and 1911 Elizabeth Smith Miller and her daughter, Anne Fitzhugh Miller, filled seven large scrapbooks with ephemera and memorabilia related to their work with women's suffrage."

Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive collection of scholarship that focuses on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Contains scholarly articles, reference works, primary sources, timelines, biographies, images, maps, charts and tables, and film clips, among many other things.

Blog post: Portraits of Nineteenth Century African American Women Activists Newly Available Online [Library of Congress]
March 29, 2017. Aggregated information on newly digitized images.

The Colored American Magazine by Negro Universities Press
Publication Date: 1900-1909
Black and white/searchable version
Full color

ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new window
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Fully searchable, digitized archival collections having to do with American history. Carleton has collections available in these topic areas: American Indians and the American West; American Politics and Society; Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle; International Relations and Military Conflicts; Latinx History; Revolutionary War and Early America; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; and Women's Studies. Browse full contents.

Specialized Primary Source Types

Newspapers: Current and Historical
by Research/IT Desk Last Updated Sep 18, 2023 2949 views this year

ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Full-text and full-image articles for major newspapers from the United States (including Historical Black Newspapers); plus 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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Search across all of Carleton's Readex collections at once. Includes historical newspapers, government documents, books, ephemera, and the like.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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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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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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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).
American Indian Newspapers 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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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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Full text access to the Carletonian, going back to the very beginning! Covers 1887 - May 2015. 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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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 General This link opens in a new window
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Historical newspapers from the 1800's to today, content includes newspapers from China, Mexico, and 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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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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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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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, 1888-1994 This link opens in a new window
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A complete searchable copy of every issue of National Geographic Magazine from 1888 through 1994.
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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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.

Images, Media, and Music: Online Sources
by Kate Brooks Last Updated Feb 21, 2023 143 views this year

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 Broadcasting
Historic 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.

Carleton College Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
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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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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.

DPLA: Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
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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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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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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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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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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 and humanities.
General collection link for discovery; some individual collections have their own links.
Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
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Search across all of Carleton's Readex collections at once. Includes historical newspapers, government documents, books, ephemera, and the like.
Carleton College Archives Database This link opens in a new window
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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.

Canadiana
Digital collection of Canadian cultural heritage material

Europeana This link opens in a new window
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A large collections with artworks, artifacts, books, videos and sounds from across Europe.

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.

Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new window
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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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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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A collection of U.S. newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s promoting the Ku Klux Klan and white nationalism. Also includes key Anti-Klan and Catholic publications.
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.