History Research Guide
Locating Journal Articles
Searching for Journal Titles in History
Search here for a specific journal title or to see a list of history journals (print and electronic) held by the library. You may also browse journals by subject (choose History).
Core History Databases and Indexes
America: History & Life
Online index covering the history of the United States and Canada. Includes citations
to articles, reviews, books, and dissertations, with links to full text where available.
Coverage: 1964 to present.
Historical Abstracts
Online index to books, journals, and dissertations in all historical studies excluding North America. Includes citations to articles, reviews, books, and dissertations,
with links to full text where available. Coverage: 1955 to present.
Humanities Index Index Tables R 050 qR28s H
Annual print index to literature in the humanities including history, archaeology,
classical studies, folklore, area studies, philosophy, and religion. Coverage: 1974
to present.
General and Multidisciplinary Databases
JSTOR | ProQuest: History | OmniFile Full Text Select | Academic Search Elite | ECO
Search for the full text of articles in a broad array of scholarly journals and periodicals,
including history journals.
Specialized Databases and Indexes
19th Century Masterfile
Online index to historical U.S. and U.K. sources prior to 1925. Covers journals,
newspapers, books, and government documents.
European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750
Online index to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. It
was created from "European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed In Europe
Relating to The Americas, 1493-1750,” the well-known bibliography respected by scholars
worldwide.
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
Online index to essay collections, journals, and dissertations documenting Medieval
women. Covers publications from 1990 to the present.
The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900 Index Tables R 052 qW44
Print index to literary and general-interest journals of the nineteenth century with
transcribed tables of contents and author attributions to anonymous submissions.
Locating books
Historical studies are located in several areas. To browse the stacks for history
by region or country, visit the 900s on the third floor. The history of various disciplines may be shelved with that discipline,
for example the history of science will be in the 509s on the first floor.
Library Catalog
Find books, journal titles, and media in the Wells College Library.
WorldCat
Search for books, journal titles, dissertations, and media in other libraries, and
request material via Interlibrary Loan.
Selected Web Resources and Digital Collections
A sampling of web resources including documents, maps, graphic materials, and audio collections.
Gateway Sites
History on the Web Gateway
Comprehensive listing with annotated links to U.S. and world history sites arranged
by region and topic. Compiled by the University of Washington Libraries.
Voice of the Shuttle: Website for Humanities Research
Links to resources in the humanities, including history.
U.S. History
WWW.History / History Matters
Annotated list with links to web resources in American history including digital exhibits,
reviews, and primary resources. Arranged by subject.
American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution, 1774-1776
Complete text of all nine volumes of Peter Force's American Archives, a compendium of publications relating to the Revolutionary War. Fully searchable
by author, topic, and other terms.
The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
Full text of documents from the Anglo-American legal corpus.
American Memory: Digital Collections from the Library of Congress (LOC)
Documents, photographs, audio recordings, and moving images from the LOC Collection
covering a broad range of the American experience.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Full text of selected U.S. newspapers 1880-1910, with information about newspapers
published in North America from 1690 to date.
Documenting the American South
Primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture.
The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals: The Making of America
Full text of selected popular 19th century journals.
Russia, Central and Eastern Europe
Making the History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
Collection of interviews, documents, and graphics from the Center for History and
New Media at George Mason University.
Open Society Archives
Digital collections and resources on Central Europe, the Cold War, human rights, and
war crimes.
The Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Online
Over 700 interview transcripts and additional data relating to Soviet life, 1917 through
the mid-1940s.
Ancient History
Ancient History: Egypt, Greece, Rome, Near East Gateway
Annotated list of links to web resources in ancient history compiled by the University
of Washington Libraries.
Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean World
Digital collection of texts, maps, and images from the University of Chicago.
Perseus Digital Library
Greek and Latin texts and digital collections documenting Greco-Roman culture.
Western Europe
European History Gateway
Links to digital collections and online resources in European history compiled by
the University of Washington Libraries.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
Gateway site with transcriptions, facsimilies, translations, and links to other digital
collections. Arranged by country and date.
Great Britain and the United Kingdom
British Library Online Gallery
Digital texts, maps, musical scores, images, and exhibits from The British Library.
British History Online
A digital library of core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and
modern history of the British Isles.
Asia
Asian History Gateway
Gateway to digital collections and online resources in South, Central, East, and Southeast
Asian history compiled by the University of Washington Libraries.
Digital South Asia Library
Historical texts, images, maps, and a searchable Bibliography of Asian Studies. The site's strength is the Indian subcontinent; it features historical statistics
on British India viewable in text or spreadsheet formats. From the University of Chicago.
Africa
Sub-Saharan African History Gateway
Links to digital collections and online resources in African history arranged by sub-topics,
regions, and individual countries and cultures. Compiled by the University of Washington
Libraries.
African Online Digital Library
A growing collection of African digital projects.
Africa South of the Sahara: Selected Internet Resources
Links compiled by the African Collection, Stanford University Libraries.
Latin America
Latin American History Gateway
Links to digital collections and online resources in Latin American history compiled
by the University of Washington Libraries.
Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection
Over 5,000 nineteenth and early twentieth-century pamphlets from Chile, Cuba, Bolivia,
and Mexico collected by Harvard University's Widener Library.
Doing Digital History
Center for History and New Media (CHNM), George Mason University
Digital collections, teaching guides, and research tools. The CHNM hosts collections,
develops open source software for documenting and publishing digital media, and publishes
commentary on digital history practice and theory.
Selected Reference Works
Encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, gazeteers, and other works provide summary information, and are often a good place to start your research. Print encyclopedias are located in the stacks near the main desk.
United States
Atlas of American History R 912.73 qA88 1984
Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas (1996-2000) R 970.1 C17
Encyclopedia of African American History,1896 to the Present R 973.9 qE56f 2009
Encyclopedia of American Social History R 309.173 qE56
The Encyclopedia of New York State R 974.7 fE56e 2005
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989) R 975 qE56
Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: a Political, Social, and Military
History (2006) R 973.3 qE56f
Area and Topical Studies
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan (1983) R 952 qK56
Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara (1997) R 967 qE56
Encyclopedia of Asian History (1988) R 950 qE56
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (1990) R 940.5315 fE56g
Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture (1996) R 980 qE56t
Great Events From History: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Events, 1848-2006 R 301.424 qG78f
Women in World History: a Biographical Encyclopedia (1999-2000) R 301.41 qW87com
Historical Statistics
Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970
Print version: R 317.3 U585sa2
Vital statistics (PDF or spreadsheet) and information on manufacturing, transportation,
earnings, consumption, labor, and many other topics.
European Historical Statistics, 1750-1970 R 310 qM68 1975
International Historical Statistics: Africa and Asia R 310 qM68aa 1982
Credo Reference
Online reference resources including The Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance, Encyclopedia of African History, Encyclopedia of North American Indians, The Encyclopedia of World History, The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History, and Black Firsts.
Primary Sources
Many web-based digital collections (see above) provide access to primary source documents. Most historical documents -- manuscripts and archives in particular -- are not available in digital form. Many of these can be identified through the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) or through WorldCat.
For New York State collections, visit the Historical Documents Inventory (HDI) on the New York State Library's web page. HDI includes descriptions of over 60 manuscript collections held in the Wells College Archives.
Citing Your Sources
Check with your instructor to determine if they have a preferred citation style. Generally, historians use The Chicago Manual of Style to format their citations.