Encyclopedia of Local History. Amy H. Wilson, ed. 3rd ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. - addresses nearly every aspect of local history, including everyday issues, theoretical approaches, and trends in the field. Entries include: terms specifically related to the everyday practice of interpreting local history in the United States, such as “African American History,” “City Directories,” and “Latter-Day Saints;” historical and documentary terms applied to local history such as “Abstract,” “Culinary History,” and “Diaries;" detailed entries for major associations and institutions that specifically focus on their usage in local history projects, such as “Library of Congress” and “Society of American Archivists;" entries for every state and Canadian province covering major informational sources critical to understanding local history in that region; entries for every major immigrant group and ethnicity. Brand-new to this edition are critical topics covering both the practice of and major current areas of research in local history such as “Digitization,” “LGBT History,” museum theater,” and “STEM education.” Its state history entries are particularly useful for discovering other institutions of historical preservation. - publisher eBook
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History essays are based on the latest, most persuasive research and incorporate visual and sound materials and links to original sources that could not be included in a traditional printed encyclopedia. It includes entries for major cities like Atlanta, Baltimore, Bethlehem (PA), Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, El Paso, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, San Francisco, San Jose and Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C. as well as subject divisions by ethnicity (African, Asian, Latino, and Native American), temporal and topical themes. NOTE: This trial ends February 24. eBook
See also keyword search = [City name] + encyclopedias - There are encyclopedias for many big U.S. cities, like The Encyclopedia of Chicago or The Encyclopedia of New York City, but, sometimes, their subject is "Chicago Region" and state abbreviations are not always the two-letter USPS abbreviation.
Also, pay attention to subheadings like "bibliography," as in this item: Saint Louis: An annotated bibliography on the city & its area under Saint Louis (Mo.) -- Bibliography.
Librarians organize information using controlled vocabulary. The books in most academic libraries are organized by Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in addition to author and title, and most subjects are subdivided by more specific subheadings. Not even your subject specialist librarians have memorized all of the LCSHs for their fields. If you don't know the LCSH for the topic you are searching, you can begin with a keyword ("Word(s)") search in the Classic Catalog. When you find a title that fits your topic, you can click on its record, find its LCSH ("Subjects"), and then click on that link to find all titles in the WUSTL libraries under that subject heading. Keep in mind, most books have multiple subject headings, and not all books which you might consider relevant to your topic will appear under the same subject heading. After you have exhausted the holdings at WUSTL Libraries, expand your search to include MOBIUS and WorldCat holdings.
Most cities, if they have a subject heading, will be listed as described in the Reference section above: [City name] (State abbreviation). However, those state abbreviations are not always the two-letter USPS abbreviation, and sometimes the greater metropolitan region is included, as in Chicago Region" instead of just "Chicago" or spelled out like "Saint Louis" instead of St. Louis. That's why, in this case at least, it's best to start with keywords instead of Subject Headings.
See the Academic Journals tab under ARTICLES on my American History LibGuide.
Finding local history journals can be a challenge, and their contents are not always indexed or available full text in databases like America: History & Life or JSTOR. For example, in Missouri, the State Historical Society of Missouri has digitized their journal, Missouri Historical Review, from the first issue in 1906 until the present, but it is only available through their website and not the easiest to search. That's better than the Missouri Historical Society's journal, titled The Bulletin, v. 1-36 (Oct. 1944-July 1980); Gateway Heritage, v. 1-25 (summer 1980-2005), and Gateway magazine, v.26-27 (2005-2007), which is only available in print and not indexed. Their subject headings are typically "[State name] -- History -- periodicals" or "[City name] (state abbrev.) -- History -- Periodicals."
Newspapers
Most city/town newspaper databases are categorized like books in that their LSCH starts with "[city name] (state abbrev)" but ends with "newspapers" or "periodicals" (inclusive of magazines and journals). However, some that are specific to a county or even a burrough in the case of NYC ("[borrough name] (New York, N.Y."). Some of these will be in the Early American Newspapers (1690-1922), some in the Nineteenth Century U. S. Newspapers database, African American Newspapers database, and some won't be in any of these collections.
For smaller market newspapers, it's best to check Chronicling America, which 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.
WUSTL Libraries do not have a subscription to Newspapers.com, the extensive online database of historical newspapers from the early 1700s into the early 2000s, but St. Louis Public Library (SLPL) does, and WUSTL students, faculty, and staff are eligible for SLPL membership by virtue of living, working, or going to school in St. Louis. E-cards can be made here, which provide immediate access to SLPL digital resources, including Fold3, which is similar to Ancestry but has more city directories.
Census Records
Census records, generally speaking, are of two types: rolls and statistical analyses. The former can be found in databases like Ancestry and the latter can be found in library catalogs. Publications you have can help you find publications you want.
Ancestry includes United States Census roles from 1790 - 1940; immigration records; military records; court, land and probate records; vital and church records; directories; passenger lists
Historical Societies; State Libraries, Museums, and Archives, and University Special Collections
See the Primary Sources section of my Research Guide for HIST 481B on New York City history as a model.
You can also search the Web for county and town historical and genealogical societies.
