J300: Natives and Newcomers in Early America

Here are some research tools and resources that you'll find useful. Remember that you can always contact the History librarian, Celestina Savonius-Wroth (cewroth@indiana.edu) or the Native American Studies librarian, Moira Marsh (molsmith@indiana.edu) for help with your research.

Did you reach this page through OnCourse? Link to it directly at http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1002347.

Library Catalogs and Digital Books

IUCAT -   the IU Libraries online catalog. Tips: use the Advanced Keyword search. Try including indians of north america or america discovery and exploration as subject terms. To primary sources, experiment with some of these subject terms: sources or correspondence or diaries or personal narratives. IUCAT also has links to HathiTrust Digital Library and Google Books for full text of many books published before 1923, and full text searching of many more books.

WorldCat - the combined online catalogs of most US libraries. Use the same subject terms as in IUCAT. To request books not available at IU or online, use the “request materials from ILL” link. 

Collections of Primary Sources

America's Historical Newspapers – searchable archive of North American newspapers going back to 1690.

American Periodicals Series Online - searchable collection of early American magazines and other publications.

The Archive of Early American Images - prints, maps, artifacts and other images, with detailed descriptions and supporting information (freely available from the John Carter Brown Library).

Early American Imprints I, Early American Imprints II and American Broadsides and Ephemera – three cross-searchable collections of North American books and other printed matter, 1639-1819. See also Sabin Americana 1500-1926, a similar collection that covers 1500-1926.

Early Encounters in North America - searchable text of letters, diaries, memoirs and other accounts of early contacts between Europeans and Native Americans in North America.

LexisNexis Congressional - provides easy access to full text and facsimiles of congressional publications (reports, bills, resolutions, etc) since 1789.

Making of the Modern World – searchable text and page images of materials on early economics, commerce, trade, transportation, industry, manufacturing, political systems and social history (1600s-1800s)

The Ohio Valley-Great Lakes Ethnohistory Archive: The Miami Collection, 1600-1778 - freely available from IU’s own Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive – primary source documents (including unpublished archival materials) concerning the slave trade

Virginia Company Archives - digital archive documenting the founding and economic development of Virginia (1590-1790).

Scholarly research (secondary sources)

JSTOR - core collection of important scholarly journals

America: History & Life - access to research on American history, including journal articles, books, book reviews, chapters in books

Bibliography of Native North Americans (EBSCO) - books, essays, journal articles, and government documents pertaining to native North American culture, history, and life from the 16th century to the present

Citing your sources

Many online resources include information about how to cite the documents they contain. Look at the end of the record for something like "source citation" or "how to cite this article," or in some databases, look for a "cite" button, which will generate a correct citation. For more guidance, see these quick guides to citation styles, or this how to cite page.

You may want to consider using a citation management program to keep track of your references and notes: EndNote is free for IU students, and Zotero (a Firefox extension) is free for everyone.

last updated 1/25/2011

titles in italics are free resources