J400/W300: Catastrophes
Here are some ideas and resources for finding primary sources about the catastrophe of your choice.
If you got here from OnCourse, please copy and paste this URL into a new browser window: http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1002094 (many databases don't work correctly inside OnCourse).
How to find a pre-1830 account (in English!) of a catastrophe
Look in Early English Books Online, Evans Digital Edition and Eighteenth Century Collections Online for books published before 1800.
Pamphlets, posters, etc: American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1760-1900 (note the dates: you need to limit your search to 1760-1829)
For newspapers, try 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection (British newspapers to 1800) and Early American Newspapers (this covers up to the 1900s, so you need to limit your search by date).
Magazines and journals can be found in American Periodicals Series Online, Periodicals Index Online and JSTOR (these also go past your time period, so make sure to limit your search by date). To search the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London in JSTOR, go to "Browse by discipline" -->"General Science"-->"Philosophical Transactions" (scroll down until you see the earlier centuries).
Additional Resources for other time periods
Use IUCAT, the IU Libraries online catalog, to find books, goverment documents and other materials published in the aftermath of a catastrophe, as well as video footage.
Tips: use the DVD/Video search option to find newsreels and documentaries. Use the Advanced Keyword Search and limit your search by publication year to find books and other documents published shortly after the event you're researching. Or, use the Advanced Keyword Search and use one or more of the subject terms below, combined with keywords, to find firsthand accounts of the event:
|
anecdotes |
diaries |
public opinion |
|
autobiography |
interviews |
sources |
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correspondence |
notebooks, sketchbooks | |
|
description and travel |
personal narratives |
Use WorldCat, a giant combined catalog of most of the libraries in the US, to find similar materials that IU doesn't have. Request things directly through WorldCat by clicking on the Request materials from ILL link.
For newspapers, try the following collections:
19th Century Historical United States Newspapers - A digital archive of American historical newspapers from the 19th century, including over 1.5 million full-text pages, many complete with images.
Access World News - Full-text access to local and regional newspapers. Includes access to the Chicago Tribune and the Indianapolis Star, as well as America's Historical Newspapers (1690-1922), which includes African American Newspapers (1827-1998) and Hispanic American Newspapers 1808-1980.
African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century - Database contains the complete text of articles from some of the major African-American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers - A database of historical newspapers from the United States. Includes the major papers, eg New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, from their first issues to recent years. For most recent coverage, use LexisNexis Academic and Factiva.
For magazines and journals:
American Periodicals Series Online - Digital archive of 1000 American magazine and journal titles, from 1740 to 1900
Economist Historical Archive 1843-2003 - The digital version of the weekly magazine, covering international news andd events. A leader in global market and geo-political analysis.
Godey's Lady's Book - The most popular women's periodical of its day, with stories, poems, fashion, illustrations and music.
JSTOR - Provides searchable full-text of historical runs of important scholarly journals in the humanities, arts, sciences, ecology, and business
Periodicals Archive Online - backfiles of over 400 humanities and social sciences journals.
Readers Guide Full Text - A database of articles from popular U.S. and Canadian periodicals on current events, news, popular culture and many other topics.
Readers Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 - Provides access to citations from 512 of the leading United States periodicals from 1890-1982.
Other types of materials:
LexisNexis Academic for TV and radio transcripts
AP Images for news photographs
LexisNexis Congressional for documents created by the US Congress
