Tag: American history
Primary Sources: American Indian Histories & Cultures
American Indian Histories and Cultures is a collection of digitized material from the Edward E. Ayer Collection at the Newberry Library, focusing on material relating to American Indian history in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Document types, digitized in full colour, include:
- An extensive collection of manuscripts ranging from the early 16th to the mid-20th centuries
- A striking collection of artwork including rare American Indian ledger art
- Speeches and petitions written by American Indians
- Diaries, essays, travel journals and ledger books from early European expeditions
- Correspondence, notes and minutes relating to important treaties
- Early linguistic studies and ethnographic accounts of American Indian life
- Thousands of photographs
- Historic maps and atlases
- Rare printed books
- American Indian newspapers from the 1960s-1990s
American Indian Histories and Cultures is fully cross-searchable with the American West collection, another collection on Western Americana sourced from the Newberry Library’s prestigious Everett D. Graff Collection.
Primary Sources: Slavery and the Law
Slavery and the Law is an archival database of petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. These petitions were collected by Loren Schweninger over a four year period from hundreds of courthouses and historical societies in 10 states and the District of Columbia. They document the realities of slavery at the most immediate local level and with amazing candor. Slavery and the Law also includes the important State Slavery Statutes collection, a comprehensive record of the laws governing American slavery from 1789-1865.
Included in this resource:
Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro by Helen Tunnicliff Catterall
Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States by John Codman Hurd
Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks, Series I: Petitions to Southern Legislatures, 1777-1867
Primary Sources: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection
“The photographs in the Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was headed for most of its existence by Roy E. Stryker, who guided the effort in a succession of government agencies: the Resettlement Administration (1935-1937), the Farm Security Administration (1937-1942), and the Office of War Information (1942-1944). The collection also includes photographs acquired from other governmental and non-governmental sources, including the News Bureau at the Offices of Emergency Management (OEM), various branches of the military, and industrial corporations.”
These photographs were originally intended to document the need for agricultural assistance and to record how the FSA addressed that need. However, the scope of the collection far exceeded these parameters and the collection encompasses pictures that depict everyday life of Americans, the effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the migration West or to industrial cities of displaced people, and America’s mobilization for World War II. Represented in the collection are works of well-known photographers of the period, including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Jack Delano, and Esther Bubley.
The images from Black & White negatives have been digitized and can be viewed at the Library of Congress site. A different page provides access to the approximately 1600 color photographs.
Not all of the images were printed, but even so the number of printed images became difficult to manage. The archivist Paul Vanderbilt was hired to arrange them and, recognizing that researchers would approach the collection with different needs, he devised two organizational schemes. He first organized sets of prints into “stories,” generally consisting of images with the same subject matter or from a specific geographic region. These were called LOTs (examples of which can be found in Documenting America: Photographers on Assignment.) The LOTs were microfilmed by the Library of Congress.
The LOTs were then dismantled and the collection was reorganized geographically, and then according to subject classification numbers. The images online can be browsed through a subject index.
This organization scheme is also reflected in the microfiche collection of the printed photographs, called America 1935-1946: the photographs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Security Administration, and the U.S. Office of War Information. The Library’s copy of this collection is housed in the Newspapers & Microforms Library, located in 40 Doe Library.
Since the unprinted photographs did not have this organizational scheme applied to them, they are not as easily accessible through the online catalog search. After conducting a search, go to the description for any FSA/OWI image and select the “Browse neighboring items by call number” link. The Library of Congress continues its efforts to add metadata to these records so they will increasingly be easier to locate.
Primary Sources: The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia
The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia started as a collaboration between the University of Michigan’s Center for the History of Medicine and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The purpose was to study the non-pharmaceutical interventions in American cities during the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic to determine what lessons could be learned from that experience.
After the initial results of the investigation were published, the researchers continued to build on their work. Using primary source materials gathered from libraries and archives across the country, they developed narrative essays on fifty cities, “exploring the story of influenza’s arrival in each community and the havoc it caused, [and] documenting the civic response, the political and economic ramifications, and, in every community, the heroism and courageousness of doctors, nurses, and countless volunteers who gave their all to fighting the epidemic.” In addition, they solicited articles from historians of public health and experts on virology on aspects of the epidemic. The anthology of essays, articles, and primary sources are co-located in this extensive online resource.
Primary Sources: First Hand: Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection
First Hand: Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection “displays for the first time more than one hundred thirty-five drawings by Joseph Becker and thirteen of his colleagues, who, during the nineteenth century, served as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. These Special Artists drew and sent back for publication images of the Civil War, construction of the railroads and transatlantic cable, Chinese in the West, Indian wars, Great Chicago Fire, and other American milestones.” [source]
The catalog of the exhibition can be found in the Main (Gardner) Stacks.
Primary Sources: The Birmingham Public Library’s Digital Collections
The Department of Archives and Manuscripts of the Birmingham Public Library serves as the archives for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, and for the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama and numerous organizations and other institutions. Their collection includes government records, business records, maps, photographs, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, and other primary source materials.
The Library’s Digital Archives provides access to an increasing number of those materials. The collections can be browsed by subject, by type, or searched.
Just a few items of interest from the collection:
- A scrapbook of articles published from 1913-1967 about the Ku Klux Klan, most of which are from the 1950s and 60s.
- Jemison Magazine, a publication of the Jemison Real Estate and Insurance Company, which developed the cities of Fairfield (Corey) and Mountain Brook as well as building several structures in Birmingham. . The company also built several neighborhoods, hotels, apartments, and office buildings in Birmingham. The serial covers the years 1910-1914 and 1926-1930 and includes photographs, architectural plans, biographies, and articles.
- Early Birmingham newspapers, including Birmingham Iron Age (1874-1885), Weekly Iron Age (1884-1887), Weekly Age (1888-1899), and Pratt City Herald (1899-1901).
- An online exhibit and accompanying book and newspaper articles describing the 1902 tragedy at Shiloh Baptist Church where Booker T. Washington came to speak to the National Baptist Convention. An overcrowded building and panic over suspected fire led to the deaths of 120 people.
- A cartography collection that contains regional and historical maps and atlases from the 16th through 20th centuries.
Primary Sources: Baltimore Afro-American newspaper
The Baltimore Afro-American, a digitized newspaper recently added to the Library’s collection of Historical Newspapers from ProQuest, was founded in 1892. After the newspaper failed in 1896, one of its employees, John Henry Murphy, Sr., purchased the printing presses. From 1897-1922 the paper was under his control and it is still run by his descendants.
The newspaper first focused on the internal and external affairs of Baltimore’s black community, including education, politics, social uplift, the promotion of black business, and civil rights. As its circulation broadened along the Atlantic coast, it increasingly addressed these issues on the national stage.
The newspaper can be browsed by issue, searched separately, or searched along with other newspapers that make up the ProQuest database. PDFs of the articles can be saved or printed.
Primary Sources: Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study Digital Archive
The Bancroft Library is pleased to announce the publication of the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study Digital Archive.
The result of a two-year digitization project generously funded by the National Park Service as part of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program, the digital archive makes available nearly 100,000 original manuscript items from The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study initiated in 1942 at the University of California, Berkeley. This research project sought to document the mass internment of Japanese Americans by embedding Nisei social science students recruited from the Berkeley campus into selected internment sites.
The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study Digital Archive website provides access to this massive collection of research materials through various means, including textual searches and browsing options, visual mechanisms such as GIS tagging and interactive maps, a timeline, and pointers to related resources. The collection comprises daily journals, field reports, life histories, extensive correspondence between staff, evacuees, and others, and secondary research materials collected and compiled by the research staff.
Margo Padilla
Digital Project Archivist
The Bancroft Library
Primary Sources: Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study Digital Archive
The Bancroft Library is pleased to announce the publication of the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study Digital Archive.
The result of a two-year digitization project generously funded by the National Park Service as part of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program, the digital archive makes available nearly 100,000 original manuscript items from The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study initiated in 1942 at the University of California, Berkeley. This research project sought to document the mass internment of Japanese Americans by embedding Nisei social science students recruited from the Berkeley campus into selected internment sites.
The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study Digital Archive website provides access to this massive collection of research materials through various means, including textual searches and browsing options, visual mechanisms such as GIS tagging and interactive maps, a timeline, and pointers to related resources. The collection comprises daily journals, field reports, life histories, extensive correspondence between staff, evacuees, and others, and secondary research materials collected and compiled by the research staff.
Margo Padilla
Digital Project Archivist
The Bancroft Library
Trial: British Online Archives
Until November 22nd, The Library has trial access to the British Online Archives, which includes 38 collections of primary historical sources. Main areas of coverage include missionary and colonial records through the archives of the East India Company and the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. There is a strong emphasis on slavery and the Triangular Trade as well as a large collection of material concerning Anglo-American relations. There are many collections concerning twentieth century British politics, including the papers of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the British Union of Fascists, as well as a separate archive dedicated to the Communist Party of Great Britain.
You can select either the Advanced Search link in the menu, or Start in the black navigation bar to access the Advanced Search page. Enter your search or category criteria here, and select any of the filter options. You can also perform a Quick Search of the archive by entering up to five keywords in the menu search field.
Search results will come up with any collections which contain the keywords searched for in their metadata. To narrow down your search and home in on your desired result, click the collection you would like to see the results for, you can then search within the collection, the results will show only the series that are relevant to your search, within the series a document that is relevant, and within the document individual images that contain the search criteria. If only one document matches, the search will take you straight to it. At the image level your search ‘hits’ will be highlighted red in the left hand panel of the document viewer.
Please send your comments about this source to dorner@berkeley.edu or comment here.