J300: 19th-century Europe: 1815-1914
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"The Weeders" by Jules Breton, 1868 (source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org )
Here are some tools and tips to help you research your topic. Need more ideas, or help with your research? Contact the history librarian, Celestina Savonius-Wroth, cewroth@indiana.edu.
On this page: primary sources - secondary sources - other useful links
Finding primary sources
Sources translated into English
The Internet Modern History Sourcebook is a good collection of digitized, translated primary sources.
Find more by searching IUCAT, the IU Libraries online catalog. Here's how: use the Advanced Keyword Search, limit the language to English, use keywords for the country or region, and include these subject words in your search:
19th century
sources
Once you find something on your topic, look at the subject headings for more clues. (For example: Russia Social conditions 1801-1917 Sources). You can also search WorldCat, a "supercatalog" for most US libraries (and some international libraries)
English-language books
Use IUCAT to find 19th-century books originally published in English. Here's how: use the Advanced Keyword Search, limit the publication year to the time period you're researching. Watch for links to HathiTrust Digital Library and Google Books Search, where you'll find searchable digitized versions of many 19th-century books.
Making of the Modern World is a collection of digitized books on a broad range of topics, including many from the 19th century (especially useful if your topic relates to economic and related political issues).
English-language newspapers, magazines and journals
Search the full text of hundreds of digitized 19th-century English-language publications in these collections:
19th Century British Library Newspapers
19th Century Historical United States Newspapers and America's Historical Newspapers
19th Century UK Periodicals and British Periodicals (big collections of digitized British magazines and journals)
American Periodicals Series Online (American magazines and journals up to 1900)
Economist Historical Archive 1843-2003 (digital archive of The Economist)
Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 (great for 19th-century images)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers (includes major US newspapers as well as some newspapers from India)
Times Digital Archive (The Times, London) (most important British newspaper)
Periodicals Index Online (academic publications going back to their earliest issues, includes lots of 19th-century content)
English-language legal and governmental sources
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (British government sources)
LexisNexis Congressional Research Digital Collection (US government sources)
Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources (1620-1926) and Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600-1926 Digital Archive (for legal documents)
Finding current research on your topic (secondary sources)
History Compass (an online scholarly publication that surveys current research on historical topics)
OneSearch@IU (search across 100 research databases at once--use "peer-reviewed" option to limit to scholarly sources)
Historical Abstracts (search more than 1000 academic journals in history)
JSTOR (digitized "library" of important academic publications)
Other useful links
Find even more 19th-century resources with this Guide to Researching the 19th Century
What's the difference between a primary source and a secondary source?
last updated April 8, 2012
