J300: Wenches, Witches, and Welfare Queens: Black Women in American History

19th-century illustration, from the Schomburg Center website

Here are some resources and search strategies to help you with the research for your final paper in this course.   Did you get here through Oncourse? Click on this URL to go directly to the library resources page (some databases don't work inside of Oncourse): http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1003114   If you need help with your research, feel free to contact the history librarian, Celestina Savonius-Wroth, cewroth@indiana.edu, or the African American Studies librarian, DeLoice Holliday, dehollid@indiana.edu.   You can also visit the Neall-Marshall Black Culture Center Library, where you'll find additional resources for this course.

 

On this page: Finding books  - Finding the existing research on your topic - Primary sources: newspapers and magazines - Primary sources: collections

 

Finding books

Use IUCAT, the IU Libraries online catalog, to find books (both as primary sources and as secondary sources). Try the advanced keyword search, and include these subject terms in your search: african american women history. **Tip: to find primary sources, you can use the publication date limits OR use the subject terms african american women sources.

 

Follow links from IUCAT into Google Books Search and HathiTrust Digital Library for digitized versions of many out-of-copyright books. **Tip: this works the other way around too--if you are in Google, and find an interesting-looking book that is NOT available online, use the "find in a library" link to get back into IUCAT.

 

You can also search WorldCat, a giant super-catalog of most US libraries. Use the "request materials through ILL (Interlibrary loan)" option to get books, videos and other materials that are not available at IU.

 

Use OneSearch@IU to find books, book reviews and journal articles, all in one search. (This is similar to Google Scholar but has much more content.) **Tip: look for the "IU-Link" button to locate full text.

 

 

Finding research on your topic

Check these resources for other scholars' research (secondary sources) on your topic:

• America: History & Life - articles in scholarly journals about American history
• International Index to Black Periodicals - articles in African-American/Black Studies journals
• AltPressIndex - articles in journals on "alternative" subjects (race, gender, etc) 
• Gender Studies Database - articles in gender studies journals

See the Library's Resources by Subject page for more suggestions, if your paper topic overlaps with another field of study, such as political science, religious studies, sociology or psychology.

 

 

Primary sources: historical newspapers, journals and magazines

Many historical newspapers, journals and magazines are available online. If you're working on a more recent topic (1980s to present), you'll need to consult current news/research databases such as Academic Search (EBSCO), Factiva and LexisNexis Academic. For older topics, try these:

• ProQuest Historical Newspapers - big collection of digitized newspapers going back to the 19th century. Includes major mainstream newspapers like the New York Times, as well as several of the most important African-American newspapers.
• African American Newspapers (1827-1998) and African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century - two collections of digitized African-American newspapers
• Historical African American Newspapers Available Online - guide to historical African-American newspapers
• America's Historical Newspapers and 19th Century Historical United States Newspapers - collections of older US newspapers
• Periodicals Index Online - access to a huge collection of older journals (mostly scholarly, literary and scientific) going back to the 1600s (similar to JSTOR but for older materials only)
• American Periodicals Series Online - access to articles in American magazines from the 1700s to 1900
• Readers Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 - access to articles in American magazines

 

Primary sources: collections on specific topics

Here are some collections of digitized primary sources such as literature, manuscripts, archives, and photographs:

• Alexander Street Literature, African-American Poetry, Black Drama, and Black Thought and Culture  -  collections of digitized literary works
• Digital Schomburg - digitized materials from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive - digitized original documents relating to the slave trade and the abolition of slavery
• Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 - declassified US documents relating to 20th-century African-American issues
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries - private writings of American women
• African-American Studies microfilm collections - online guides to collections of archival and other historical materials relating to African-American history
• African-American collections in American Memory - digitized collections relating to African-American history from the Library of Congress American Memory project

 

 

last updated February 19, 2012