HISTORY: United States and Canada

“Based on Joseph Sabin’s landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900’s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection is a cornerstone in the study of the western hemisphere.”

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) provides full-text searchable access to the digital images of 150,000 books and other materials published during the 18th Century. Based on the English Short Title Catalog bibliography, it includes English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.

This is a full-text collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides and periodicals published between 1639-1819. It combines two collections: “Early American Imprints Series I (1639-1800). Evans” and “Early American Imprints Series II (1801-1819). Shaw-Shoemaker”.

A full text collection of letters and diaries by hundreds of participants and witnesses to the Civil War. Includes biographies, bibliographies and a day-by-day record of events, all accessible via a detailed search engine.

Provides full-image reproductions of Harper’s Weekly from 1857-1912, one of the most important weekly magazines read by Americans during the 19th Century.

From 1935-1967, Time Inc. offered Americans views of significant historical events in their newsreel series The March of Time. Several hundred of these newsreels can be searched and viewed as streaming videos. Transcripts of these commercial, documentary, instructional and public service videos accompany the films. In support of research and teaching, the resource enables users to create, edit, and share playlists or film clips.

Provides streaming video access to the 60 Minutes news show archive for the third and fourth decades of this long-running show, plus segments from the CBS News program Sunday Morning. Includes transcripts of the videos for ease of citation, and a citation export feature. Topics include international and national news, politics, women’s studies, society and culture, and many more

Includes The South Carolina Gazette, 1732-1775; The South Carolina & American General Gazette, 1764-1775; The South Carolina Gazette & Country Journal, 1765-1775; The Gazette of the State34 of South-Carolina, 1777-1780

Google has a growing collection of digitized historic and contemporary newspapers mostly from the U.S. and Canada. It’s hard to know exactly what is included, but this link goes to the alphabetical list of papers including the years covered and number of issues scanned.

Historical coverage of the New York Times from 1857-2016, with both full page and individual article images. Searchable full text back to the first issue.

The Los Angeles Sentinel is the flagship newspaper of the local African-American community. The database provides coverage from 1934 to 2005.

One of the oldest African American newspapers of the United States, Amsterdam News was founded in New York in 1909 and is still published today. Keep in mind that this database does not contain the full run of the title.

Provides primary source documentation on Black history, politics, culture, and the arts. Full text search of articles, classified ads, display advertisements, bylines, headlines, obituaries and more. Cross-searchable with all other ProQuest titles.

The CDNC provides full text access to more than 5 million articles and 400,000 pages of 21 significant historical California newspapers published from 1846-2009, including the first California newspaper, the Californian, and the first daily California newspaper, the Daily Alta California. The San Francisco Call, the Sacramento Transcript and the Sacramento Daily Union also are included in the CDNC.

The Los Angeles Sentinel is the flagship newspaper of the local African-American community. The database provides coverage from 1934 to 2005.

This full-text collection documents “interactions between American Indians and Europeans [in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico] from their earliest contact, . . .[through] the civil rights movement of the mid- to late-twentieth century.” The documents are drawn from Edward E. Ayer Collection at the Newberry Library. Also includes maps and images, scholarly essays to provide context and bibliographies to suggest further reading.

“The archive includes extensive monograph, manuscript, newspaper, periodical and photograph collections.” It “sources collections from across Canadian and American institutions, providing insight into the cultural, political and social history of Native Peoples from the seventeenth into the twentieth century.”

Sanborn fire insurance maps, created to assist fire insurance companies assess risk, are large-scale community plans drawn at a scale of 50 feet to one inch. The maps give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, and house and block numbers. Sanborn maps also contain data about construction details, building use and the utilities and transportation infrastructure that supported the community overall. Several editions of maps exist for some cities.

The Everett D. Graff Collection is one of the major special collections on the American West. This database contains a full-text selection of original manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material and rare printed sources from that collection. It also includes such supplementary materials as scholarly essays and data maps. It is a rich resource to explore almost any aspect of the history of the American West.

Searchable full-text of the journals edited by Gary Moulton. Also includes related primary and secondary material.

“Alaska’s Digital Archives presents a wealth of historical photographs, albums, oral histories, moving images, maps, documents, physical objects, and other materials from libraries, museums and archives throughout our state.”

This index provides the first ready access to one of the richest sources for California history in the 20th Century. “The Appendices include reports produce by California executive agencies as well as the California Legislature. In a few instances, the reports include work by the United States federal government or the University of California.The reports are indexed by subject as well as by agency.

Sanborn fire insurance maps, created to assist fire insurance companies assess risk, are large-scale community plans drawn at a scale of 50 feet to one inch. The maps give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, and house and block numbers. Sanborn maps also contain data about construction details, building use and the utilities and transportation infrastructure that supported the community overall. Several editions of maps exist for some cities.

The Los Angeles Public Library’s History and Genealogy Department’s Photo Collection emphasizes the history of Los Angeles, Southern California, and California.

Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo) is a research portal to find and view high-definition, color Fire Insurance Maps, Real Estate Atlases, Plat Books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information.

UC Davis has licensed the maps for the state of California.

California County Agricultural Commissioners’ Reports from the California Department of Food and Agriculture. This collection consists of annual crop and livestock data from each of the 58 California Counties. The collection covers 1915-1981.

Special Collections at California State University, Chico’s Merriam Library has a fine collection of scanned historic topographic maps of California.

“The Chinese in California, 1850-1925 illustrates nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigration to California through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials. Included are photographs, original art, cartoons and other illustrations; letters, excerpts from diaries, business records, and legal documents; as well as pamphlets, broadsides, speeches, sheet music, and other printed matter.”  Some of this material is available online.