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A Guide to American History

This page brings together various information resources on the subject of American History.

Encyclopedias and Reference Works

Encyclopedia of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2005) - these three print volumes include list of contributors, thematic essays, illustrations, documents, chronology, bibliography, general index, bibliographical index, etc. 

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: A student companion (2006) - eBook; an alphabetical encyclopedia including articles on overall trends (immigration, education, music, sports), social movements (anarchism, child labor movement, consumer movement, conservation movement), terms (armistice, chain store, chautauqua), organizations (American Expeditionary Force, Knights of Labor, Republican party), issues (gender relations, race relations), events (Haymarket Square massacre, Palmer raids, Pullman strike), legal cases (Lochner v. New York), laws (Chinese Exclusion Act, Meat Inspection Act, Selective Service Act), ethnic groups (Mexicans, Chinese), economic issues (trusts, scientific management), and biographies. The articles are cross-referenced and have sources for specific further reading. 

Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History (2010) - (7 print volumes) - Volume 4, From the Gilded Age through Age of Reform, 1878 to 1920)

Journals

Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era - published quarterly by the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, this journal provides original essays, including online projects, and reviews scholarly books on all aspects of U.S. history for the time period from 1865 through 1920. WashU has access to all issues from the first (Jan. 2002) to the most recent indexed in...

America: History & Life (1964-) contains only journals related history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. 

JSTOR - multidisciplinary, a lot of full text articles, but subject headings are too broad

U.S. Newspaper Databases

Historical American Newspapers (ProQuest) includes The Atlanta Constitution, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post

African American Newspapers (ProQuest) includes Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Defender (1909-1975), Cleveland Call & Post (1934-1991), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), Norfolk Journal & Guide (1916-2003), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), and Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002).

Chronicling America - begun in 2005, this website provides access to historic newspapers and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LoC). Its coverage period ranges from 1789 to 1963 and includes over 1000 newspaper titles available from 46 states & Puerto Rico.

Popular Periodicals of the Era

Atlantic Monthly - 1862 to 01/31/1905 in Literature Online (LION)

The Crisis (NAACP, NYC) 11/01/1910 to 12/31/1922 in Modernist Journals Project

Harper's Weekly - 01/03/1857 to 1912 available through multiple sources 

The Masses - 01/01/1911 to 09/30/1915 in Modernist Journals Project; 1913-1917 in Special Collections 

The Nation - 07/06/1865 to 12/27/1877 available electronically through AAS Historical Periodicals Collection; all issues in print at West Campus library

School & Society - 1915 to 1972 available in print

The Survey - (WUSTL has Apr. 1909-Dec. 1937) "the primary publication vehicle by which settlement-house residents, professional social workers, amateur reformers, and academic social scientists communicated with one another and exchanged ideas and programs during the Progressive Era." - John D. Buenker

 

Bound Primary Source Collections & Primary Source Subheadings

Primary Source Subheadings
sources     biographies     maps     periodicals     newspapers     diaries     speeches     pictorial works

personal narratives     directories     interviews     sermons     anecdotes     caricatures and cartoons    fiction 

General (under United States -- History -- 1865-1921 -- sources):

America's Gilded Age: An eyewitness history (1992)

The Gilded Age and After; Selected readings in American history (1972)

The American Studies Anthology

Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt through Coolidge, 1901-1929: Debating the issues in pro and con primary documents

Reading the Twentieth Century: Documents in American history

Robber Barons and Radicals 

The American Nation: Primary sources 

The Diplomacy of World Power: The United States, 1889-1920

American Economic Development since 1860

Lifetimes: The Great War to the Stock Market Crash: American history through biography and primary documents

African Americans

Proceedings of the Black National and State Conventions, 1865-1900

The Booker T. Washington papers, 1860-1915

The papers of A. Philip Randolph - there are a few items in this collection for the years 1909-1919

Reconstruction, the Negro, and the New South - primary source documents from 1866-1896 

Papers of the NAACP. Part 5, Campaign against residential segregation, 1914-1955 

Anarchism

Anarchist Voices: An oral history of anarchism in America 

The Debates of Liberty: An overview of individualist anarchism, 1881-1908

Emma Goldman: A documentary history of the American years (2003-2012) - print and eBook

Mother Earth - Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1906) - vol. 12, no. 6 (Aug. 1917); Mother Earth Bulletin - Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1917) - v. 1, no. 7 (Apr. 1918)

Anti-Asian Sentiment & Movements

China through American Eyes: Early depictions of the Chinese people and culture in the U.S. print media - caricature and cartoons

Racism, Dissent, and Asian Americans from 1850 to the Present: A documentary history

Yellow Peril!: An archive of anti-Asian fear

Anti-Catholicism -- United States -- Sources.

Anti-Imperialist League

The Anti-Imperialist Reader: A documentary history of anti-imperialism in the United States

Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-imperialist writings on the Philippine-American War

Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, 1899

Edmunds, George F. (George Franklin), 1828-1919. The Insular Cases: The Supreme Court and the Dependencies (Boston: New England Anti-imperialist League, 1901)

López, Sixto. The "wild tribes" and other Filipinos (Boston: Anti-Imperialist League, 1911)

Black Nationalism

Classical Black Nationalism: From the American Revolution to Marcus Garvey

Turner, Henry McNeal, 1834-1915. Respect Black; the writings and speeches of Henry McNeal Turner

Native Americans

Indians of North America -- History -- Sources

From Fort Laramie to Wounded Knee: In the West that was 

Wounded Knee Massacre, S.D., 1890 -- Personal narratives

A Whirlwind Passed through our Country: Lakota voices of the ghost dance 

Encyclopedia of American Indian removal

Organized Labor

Labor History Documents - two volumes 

United States' Department of Justice Documents Relating to the IWW, 1910-1916 

Industrial Workers of the World, The One Big Union Monthly Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1, 1919)-v. 3, no. 1 (Jan. 1921)

National Woman's Trade Union League of America, Life and Labor - 1911-1921

The Samuel Gompers Papers 1850-1918

Populism

Populism and the election of 1896 (1994)

Populism, its rise and fall (1992)

The Populist Mind (1967)

Pragmatism (sort by "Year")

Progressivism

Hofstadter, Richard. ed. The Progressive Movement, 1900-1915

Southern Women in the Progressive Era: A reader 

The Reform Spirit in America: A documentation of the pattern of reform in the American republic

The 1912 Election and the Power of Progressivism: A brief history with documents

Progressivism and Postwar Disillusionment, 1898-1928 

Prohibition

Anti-Saloon League of America

Radicalism (broadly conceived)

The Radical Reader: A documentary history of the American radical tradition - includes utopian visions, suffrage and feminism, land and labor, anarchism, socialism, communism, environmentalism, and the "New Negro"

The Haymarket Affair and the trial of the Chicago anarchists, 1886: original manuscripts, letters, articles, and printed material of the anarchists and of the State prosecutor, Julius S. Grinnell

Department of Justice Investigative Files, Part I : The Industrial Workers of the World 

State Department Collection of Intelligence, 1915-1927

Religion

The Dawn of Religious Pluralism: Voices from the World's Parliament of Religions, 1893

Socialism & Socialist Party (U.S.) 

American Socialist party newspaper - Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 18, 1914)-v. 4, no. 8 (Sept. 8, 1917)

SPUSA Pamphlet collection 

Simons, A. M. (Algie Martin), 1870-1950. Pamphlets on Social Conditions, v.1/2 (1906-1912)

Women - Equal Rights, Feminism, and Suffrage

International Council of Women 

The papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony - microfilm

The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

Public Women, Public Words: A documentary history of American feminism - volume 1, beginnings to 1900

Modern American Women: A documentary history - Pt. 1 Modern Women in the Making, 1890-1920

World War I

World War I (1914-1919) 

 

Primary Source Databases

The Gilded Age - Spanning from 1865 to 1902, The Gilded Age provides insight into the key issues that shaped America in the late nineteenth century, including race and ethnicity, immigration, labor, women's rights, American Indians, political corruption, and monetary policy. These materials are frequently rare and hard-to-find, and include songs, letters, photographs, cartoons, government documents, and ephemera. In addition, the collection features numerous critical documentary essays that provide scholarly commentary and annotations to selected primary sources.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 - this collection currently includes 124 projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools. 

Jewish Life in America, 1654-1954 - primary sources addressing key topics such as the immigration process and evolution of early Jewish Settlements, differing strands of Judaism in America, Jewish schools and charitable institutions, and civil rights and minority rights issues.

Indigenous Peoples of North America - includes manuscript collections, rare books and monographs, newspapers, periodicals, census records, legal documents, maps, drawings and sketches, oral histories, and photos 

Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that concentrate heavily on the 19th century immigration to the US. By incorporating books, pamphlets, serials, diaries, biographies, and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants.

Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League (records from 1901-1928) - Booker T. Washington established the League with the support of Andrew Carnegie n 1900 "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro," and headed it until his death. It eventually included 320 chapters across the United States. The League included small African American business owners, doctors, farmers, craftsmen, and other professionals. Its goal was to allow business to put economic development at the forefront of getting African-American equality in America. Affiliated professional organizations included the National Negro Bankers Association, the National Negro Press Association, the National Association of Negro Funeral Directors, the National Negro Bar Association, the National Association of Negro Insurance Men, the National Negro Retail Merchants’ Association, the National Association of Negro Real Estate Dealers, and the National Negro Finance Corporation. 

Electing the President: Proceedings of the Democratic National Conventions, 1832-1988 - This collection includes the proceedings of the 1832-1988 Democratic National Conventions, providing gavel to gavel coverage, including speeches, debates, votes, and party platforms. Also included are lists of names of convention delegates and alternates. Records of the earliest proceedings are based in part on contemporary newspaper accounts. A similar database is also available for the Republican National Conventions, 1856-1988

Revolution in Honduras and American Business: The Quintessential “Banana Republic” (1910-1930) -  In 1899, the first boatload of bananas was shipped from Honduras to the United States. The fruit found a ready market, and the trade grew rapidly. The American-based banana companies constructed railroad lines and roads to serve the expanding banana production. Perhaps even more significant, Honduras began to attract the attention of the U.S. government. This collection contains the largest single group of records relates to Honduran political affairs; pertaining chiefly to the turbulent political situation and almost continuous revolutionary activity in Honduras. It details both the political and financial machinations of the fruit companies, but also the graft and corruption of the national government, the American banking community’s loans, the U.S. government’s response and the various aborted popular/revolutionary uprisings. 

Trade Literature and the Merchandizing of Industry (1820-1926) (a within Smithsonian Collections Online) is comprised of items selected from the National Museum of American History, and contains about one million pages of primary source content. This digital collection allows researchers to: determine the history of companies/industries; discern styles from furniture to machinery; analyze marketing and management techniques, and examine illustrations of the items Americans used at home and in business. Key research areas covered include: railroads and railway equipment; agricultural machinery; transportation equipment; power generation; building and construction; iron and steel; mines and mining equipment, and motorized vehicles.

Sunday School Movement and Its Curriculum (1884-1920) - Early in the 19th century various denominations and non-denominational organizations began to create Sunday schools in an effort to educate the illiterate, particularly children. By mid-century, the Sunday school movement had become extremely popular and Sunday school attendance was a near universal aspect of childhood. Working-class families were grateful for this opportunity to receive an education. Religious education was, of course, always also a core component.

Union Label and the Needle Trades: Records of the United Garment Workers of America (1899-1994) - This collection consists of two full series and one partial series from the Records of the United Garment Workers of America—Series I: Time and Motion Studies; Series III: Office Files, 1899-1994—Meeting Minutes of the General Executive Board subseries; and, Series VIII: Index Card Files for plants and/or locals in. The Time and Motion Studies are made up of time study/ time and motion research files for the garment industry, as well as files relating to industry research and information from the first half of the twentieth century. The minutes from the early period cover issues such as immigration, sick benefits, and nine-hour work days. The overwhelming majority of the Series VIII index card files comprise information on various plants and union locals. These are in alphabetical order by city (with a few exceptions) and contain information about the locals, manufacturers, wages, garments, and efforts to organize locals in those cities.

First World War - drawn from archival collections around the world, this collection provides an intimate glimpse into daily life in the army and auxiliary services, battles, trench warfare, weapons and equipment, and thoughts on the enemy, as seen through the eyes of the men and women who served in the First World War.  Rather than official publications or newspaper accounts, this collection includes diaries, letters, scrapbooks, sketches, and photographs.  Key features include interactive maps, 360° views of personal items and objects, and a virtual trench experience. 

Women, War, and Society, 1914-1918 women's essential contribution to the war in Europe is fully documented in this definitive collection of primary source materials brought together in the Imperial War Museum, London. These unique documents - charity and international relief reports, pamphlets, photographs, press cuttings, magazines, posters, correspondence, minutes, records, diaries, memoranda, statistics, circulars, regulations and invitations - are published here for the first time in fully-searchable form.

Digital Public Library of America offers a single point of access to millions of items including photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Their featured collections include subjects such as aviation, baseball, food, immigration since 1840, photography, and women in science.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries (colonial - 1950) includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters carefully chosen using leading bibliographies plus 7,000 pages of previously unpublished materials