1. Facts and Background Information
2. Finding Newpaper Articles
3. Finding Books
4. Finding Archival Materials & Primary Sources
5. Finding Journal Articles
6. Selected Web Resources

Facts and Background Materials

• Biography Resource Center — ELECTRONIC
  Hundreds of biographies of historical figures from around the world. Search by name or use the “Biographical Facts Search” to browse by nationality, ethnicity, gender, occupation, etc.
• Encyclopedia Britannica — ELECTRONIC
  The world’s premiere encyclopedia is at your fingertips online! Contains tens of thousands of high quality articles providing useful background information, as well as illustrations, maps, flags, and pictures.
• Historical Statistics of the United States– ELECTRONIC
  The standard source for quantitative facts about American history from the U.S. Census Bureau. Includes statistical data from 1619 to 2003, covering topics such as economics, government, demographics, religion, climate and more. Data is downloadable and customizable.
• Oxford Reference Online — ELECTRONIC
  Provides online access to hundreds of dictionaries, handbooks, and other reference materials. Search the entire database, narrow your search by subject category, or explore individual reference tools. Categories of particular interest to history students are: History, Law, Politics & Social Sciences, and Military History.
•  Statistical Abstract of the United States — WWW
  Produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, this resource is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Link goes to current version; click button for “Earlier Editions” to gain access to editions going back to 1878.

Finding Books

• Searching the catalog for books and other materials concerning history:
• Try an LC subject search: World War 1914-1918 (use for World War I) World War 1939-1945 (use for World War II) United States - History - 20th Century
• Try a keyword search: Guatemala and history Middle East and conflict
• Try an author search: Franklin, Benjamin LaFeber, Walter
• Browse the 2nd floor stacks: Word History - D US History - E US Local/Regional History - F
• Search history e-books: ACLS Humanities E-book Project -- ELECTRONIC Offers a searchable collection of over 1500 full-text books, many of them dealing with historical topics, as well as reviews.

Finding Articles

• America: History and Life - ELECTRONIC

  History of the United States and Canada, comprised of over 490,000 citations in over 2,000 journals dating back to 1964. For World history back to 1450, see Historical Abstracts.

• Brepolis Medieval Bibliographies - ELECTRONIC

  Includes: International Medieval Bibliography, Bibliographie de Civilisation Medievale, and International Directory of Medievalists. Brepolis is a comprehensive index for Medieval Studies. The online database comprises over 300,000 records. All subjects relating to the Middle Ages are included, within the date range 400-1500 AD. Geographical areas covered are Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

• C.R.I.S. (Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History: 1838-1974) — PRINT
  REF Z6205.C18 (11 volumes)
  Volumes 1-4 cover World History; volumes 5-9 cover US History; volumes 10 and 11 are author indexes. Very short entries with keyword, reference title (article title), author, year, volume, journal and page. The journals are numbered to save space. Full journal titles are listed in the back of each volume. Incomparable history index for its range of coverage, going back much further than most electronic resources.
• History of Science, Technology and Medicine - ELECTRONIC

  describes journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, and medicine and allied historical fields. The database integrates four bibliographies: the Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science, the Current Bibliography in the History of Technology (Technology and Culture), the Bibliografia Italiana di Storia della Scienza and the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine.

• Historical Abstracts - ELECTRONIC

  Provides coverage of over 1,700 journal titles published worldwide and serves as a complete reference guide to the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life).

• HLAS Online - ELECTRONIC

  The Handbook of Latin American Studies is a selective annotated bibliography of scholarly works on Latin America.

• JSTOR - ELECTRONIC

  Interdisciplinary collection of journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

• Nation Digital Archive - ELECTRONIC

  all Nation articles from July 1865 through the present

• Project Muse - ELECTRONIC

  Multidisciplinary, full text, collection of scholarly journals with heavy coverage in the humanities and social sciences. MUSE now includes books from major university presses in selected fields which, at Drexel, includes Anthropology, History, Literature, Philosophy, Political Science and Policy, and Religion. The books are in chapter-level PDF files with no DRM.

Finding Newspaper Articles

• Electronic Newspapers — ELECTRONIC
  Drexel University Libraries page providing links to various electronic news sources; most are more recent rather than deeply “historical.”
• Free Library of Philadelphia – Central Branch
  1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
  (between 19th and 20th on the B. Franklin Parkway)
  215-686-5322
  Houses an excellent collection of historical newspapers on microfilm, including a large number of local and regional newspapers.

• LexisNexis Academic Universe - ELECTRONIC

  Large database covering federal and state court opinions, statutes, and regulations. Also has extensive coverage of news publications, news transcripts, and company information.

• New York Times (Current) - ELECTRONIC

  Full text of the New York Times from 1980 to present (no images). Full text of New York Times Magazine and New York Time Book Review from 1997 to present.

• New York Times (Historical) - ELECTRONIC

  Full Text coverage of the New York Times from 1851 - 2003, including original images.

• Philadelphia Inquirer - ELECTRONIC

  Complete full-text content of local and regional news, including community events, schools, politics, government policies, cultural activities, local companies, state industries, and people in the community.

• Washington Post (1877-1995) - ELECTRONIC

  ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (1877-1995). This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time. For more recent Washington Post articles, see LexisNexis Academic coverage (1977 - Present)

Finding Archival and Primary Sources

• American History In Video – ELECTRONIC
  American History in Video includes approximately 1,000 hours of newsreels from the late 1890s to the 1980s and includes some 200 hours of rare, hard-to-find, and diverse perspectives as captured in a wide range of short films. Alongside the contemporaneous materials are some 750 high-quality documentaries from video content producers such as The History Channel and California Newsreel.  Searchable full-text transcripts and embeddable clips for use in presentations make this a unique and valuable tool.
• Drexel University Archives
  Drexel University Archives and Special Collections at Hagerty Library contain archival material concerning the history of Drexel University. The Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine & Homeopathy contains records of the history of Woman’s Medical College and Hahnemann University.
• Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800 - ELECTRONIC

  An important collection of primary source documents that includes the books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the renowned bibliography by Charles Evans.  Full-text searchable and also browsable by document type, printer, and even bookseller.  Useful for early American history, literature, political science, and the history of printing.  A seven minute tutorial can be found on youtube here. Often refered to as the Evans Collection.

• In the First Person — ELECTRONIC
  An index to letters, diaries, oral histories and personal narratives. Searchable by historical events, subjects, places, and more. Contains limited access to full text and audio files. This resource should be considered primarily as a guide to the range of sources extant, interlibrary loan requests or visits to other nearby libraries may be necessary to use the sources themselves.
• NARA: US National Archives and Records Administration — ELECTRONIC
  NARA is a good source for finding government records and archival materials. Note the Online Databases and Tools section on the lower right-hand corner of their homepage. The NARA Mid-Atlantic Region Archives Facility is located at 900 Market Street in Philadelphia.
• NUCMC: National Union Catalog of Manuscripts Collections — ELECTRONIC
  NUCMC is a free-of-charge,online cooperative cataloging program operated by the Library of Congress. Please note: For a more complete search, you must search both the RLG Union Catalog and the OCLC Catalog. Contains only those records entered after 1985. For records cataloged prior to 1986, please see the print version of the NUCMC (below).
• NUCMC: National Union Catalog of Manuscripts Collections — PRINT
  Hagerty Oversize Z6620.U5 N3 Z6620.U5 N3 Index 1959-1969
  Contains manuscript records entered by libraries from 1959 forward. Hagerty’s holdings cover an eleven-year period from 1959-1969. For coverage closing the gap between 1969 and the electronic coverage begun in 1986 (see electronic NUCMC above), see the NUCMC hard copy held in the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks.
• PACSCL: Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries — WWW
  Find links to a number of archives, special collections, and specialized research libraries in the greater Philadelphia area. Many of the organizations provide links to their library catalogs and online finding aids.
• Original Sources — ELECTRONIC
  Contains original source documents, critical selections, and acclaimed works from US and world history, as well as related fields. Includes full text of more than 350,00 documents and more than 5,000 complete books.
• Using Primary Sources on the Web — WWW
  Online guide to finding and using primary sources from the internet for historical research.  Includes tips for evaluating web resources.  From the History section of the ALA’s Reference and User Services Association.
• WorldCat.org — ELECTRONIC
  Search for archival materials in WorldCat by selecting the “Archival Materials” from the “Format” list on the Advanced Search page.  Duplicates materials in OCLC section of online NUCMC (above) but has a more user-friendly search interface and record display.  Also available as an iPhone/Android app.
• Vogue Archive (1892 - Present) - ELECTRONIC

  A complete searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. The Vogue Archive preserves the work of the world's greatest fashion designers, stylists and photographers and is a unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society from the dawn of the modern era to the present day.

Selected Web Resources

This list includes only a small fraction of useful web resources for this field. More web sites, which have undergone the same selection process, as available in my Pinboard tags on the right-hand side of this research guide.

• American Historical Association — WWW
  Website for the major professional association for American historians. Includes information about graduate programs in history, job and career information, and book awards and fellowships.
• American Memory — WWW
  From the Library of Congress. Provides access to more than seven million digital items from more than 100 historical collections, including written & spoken word, sound recordings, still & moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
• The Avalon Project — WWW
  A project of Yale Law School, this site provides full text of documents in law, history, and dilomacy from ancient history to 21st Century materials. Includes a collection of documents from the International Military Tribunal for Germany.  Browseable by time period and subject.
• eHistory — WWW
  An excellent site produced by the Department of History at Ohio State University. Contains primary sources, maps & images, book reviews, multimedia resources, and more. Much of this material can be used, with proper citation, in student papers and projects.
• Voice of the Shuttle – History — WWW
  A web portal from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Contains links to high-quality web resources of interest to those studying history.