Good for: Exploring African literature and culture through books originally published in the Heinemann African Writers Series.
Contains: Novels, plays, poetry, folk materials, and non-fictional accounts.
Dates covered: 1962-2003.
Good for: Studying plays by Asian-American playwrights.
Contains: Plays, biographical information, and production details.
Good for: Studying plays by Black playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
Contains: Playscripts.
Good for: Reading short fiction by African American writers.
Contains: Short fiction like fables, parables, ballads, folk-tales, short story cycles, and novellas.
Good for: Exploring Black feminism through essays by women from the African diaspora, including African American and Caribbean writers.
Contains: Literature, essays, speeches, correspondence, and diaries.
Good for: Exploring poetry, fiction and essays from Caribbean writers.
Contains: Literary works, biographies, reference works, and literary criticism.
Good for: Reading play scripts and scholarly books analyzing drama.
Contains: Scripts for over 1000 plays, from Aeschylus to the present day, including modern classics from Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, Caryl Churchill and many more.
Good for: Reading memoirs, letters, and essays by Latin American women.
Contains: Written works by Latin American women.
Dates covered: 1600-present.
Good for: Reading novels, short stories, poems, and plays written by Americans of Spanish or Latin American heritage.
Contains: Literary works.
Dates covered: 1872-present.
Good for: Studying 19th-century London street culture.
Contains: Primary sources like ballads, slang dictionaries, brothel guides, and posters.
Dates covered: 1800-1910.
Good for: Theatre history research.
Contains: Reference texts, posters, playbills, photos, architectural images, floor plans, and ephemera.
Good for: Finding plays written by women in the United States and Canada.
Contains: Plays.
Dates covered: 1770-present.
Good for: Reading fiction, short fiction, and poems by South Asian and Southeast Asian writers.
Contains: Literary works.
The collection captures a broad range of personal experiences—South Asian elites educated in legacy British colonial schools; Indian descendants of 19th-century indentured plantation and railroad laborers, now living in the Caribbean or Africa; and writers born into immigrant communities in London, Toronto, and New York.
Good for: Exploring travel writing and its history.
Contains: Manuscripts, diaries, correspondence, drawings, guidebooks, and photographs.
Dates covered: 1818-1974.
Good for: Finding play scripts in multiple genres including Irish drama, off-Broadway and alternative theatre, political plays, and global and postcolonial theatre.
Contains: Play scripts.
Dates covered: 1900-2000.
Good for: Reading plays by Native American playwrights.
Contains: Dramatic works from playwrights from Cherokee, Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and other American Indian and First Nation communities.
Dates covered: 1920-2019
North American Indian Drama contains 249 plays by 48 playwrights representing the stories and creative energies of American Indian and First Nation playwrights of the twentieth century. More than half of the works are previously unpublished, and hard to find, representing groups such as Cherokee, Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and others. Together, the plays demonstrate Native theater’s diversity of tribal traditions and approaches to drama—melding conventional dramatic form with ancient storytelling and ritual performance elements, experimenting with traditional ideas of time and narrative, or challenging Western dramatic structure.
Good for: Primary sources representing aspects of the history of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples, as told by the individuals who lived through them.
Contains: Biographies, oral histories, personal papers, images, and audio files.
Dates covered: 1784-2006.
Good for: Finding plays published in the United States and Canada.
Contains: Plays.
Dates covered: 1900-2000.
The full text of letters and diary entries, often from works that have been previously published as books containing collections of letters or diaries. Use the Browse indexes to find works about specific historical or life events.
Good for: Exploring women’s letters and diaries to learn about historical events and details of daily life in the past.
Contains: Handwritten letters and diaries with a detailed index
Dates covered: 1770s-1970s
Good for: Exploring personal narratives of immigrants to the U.S. or Canada.
Contains: Letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories.
Dates covered: 1840-present.
Good for: Exploring the lives and experiences of North American women.
Contains: Diaries, journals, and letters.
Dates covered: 1770-1950.
Use the date range limit to narrow your search to a relevant time period.
Good for: Accounts of life, culture and historical events reported in newspapers from every U.S. state.
Contains: Historical newspapers.
Dates covered: 1690-1923.
Good for: Finding national periodicals, local community news and student publications from an Indigenous perspective.
Contains: Newspaper pages.
Dates covered: 1828-2016.
Good for: Searching newspaper articles by and for the African American communities in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Norfolk VA., Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
Contains: Newspaper articles.
Dates covered: 1893-2010.
Good for: Finding newspaper reports about life, culture and historical events published in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland.
Contains: National and regional newspapers representing multiple political and cultural views.
Dates covered: 1732-1950.
Good for: Finding newspaper articles about African American life and culture in Chicago.
Contains: Newspaper articles.
Dates covered: 1909-2010.
Good for: Finding newspaper articles about news and events in Chicago and the world.
Contains: Newspaper articles.
Dates covered: 1849-2015.
Good for: Finding newspaper articles about news and events from a newspaper known for covering world events.
Contains: Newspaper articles.
Dates covered: 1908-2007.
Good for: Researching historical events through American newspapers, including Nevada newspapers.
Contains: Historical newspapers.
Dates covered: 1789-1963.
Good for: News and commentary by and for Hispanic American communities in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas and New York.
Contains: Newspapers.
Dates covered: 1808-1980.
Good for: Researching historical news in Las Vegas.
Contains: Page images of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Dates covered: 1929-1996.
Good for: Finding newspaper articles about news and events in California, particularly the entertainment industry.
Contains: Newspaper articles.
Dates covered: 1881-2016.
Good for: Finding newspaper articles about national and international news and events.
Contains: Newspaper pages.
Dates covered: 1851-2021.
Good for: Finding newspaper articles about historical events before 1922.
Contains: Newspaper pages.
Dates covered: 1841-1922.
Good for: Finding newspaper coverage of news and events in Asia from English speaking reporters in Hong Kong.
Contains: Newspapers.
Dates covered: 1903-2001.
Good for: Finding articles from The Times (London).
Contains: The Times newspaper.
Dates covered: 1785-2019.
Good for: Finding newspaper articles about news and events in Washington, D.C. and beyond.
Contents: Newspaper pages.
Dates covered: 1877-2007.
search tips
Search for articles published in popular magazines and journals from different times in history.
Good for: Searching periodicals published by African American churches, educational and service institutions.
Contains: Newspapers and magazines.
Dates covered: 1816-1922.
Good for: Searching articles published in popular 19th century magazines, newspapers, and journals in the United States.
Contains: Periodicals.
Dates covered: 1684-1912.
Good for: Searching American magazines and journals published mostly before 1900.
Contains: Magazines and journals.
Dates covered: 1740-1940.
Good for: Studying Hispanic culture in the United States.
Contains: Publications in Spanish and English.
Dates covered: 1750-present.
Good for: Searching articles in magazines about British culture and society.
Contains: Popular British periodicals, mostly from the 19th century.
Dates covered: 1681-1920.
Good for: Reading articles with perspective on historical events and trends from The Economist magazine.
Contains: Issues of The Economist.
Dates covered: 1843-2015.
Good for: Finding out about 18th-century British and Irish culture through magazines and newspapers.
Contains: Literary, satirical, political, religious and theatrical publications from England, Ireland, Scotland, India and the Caribbean.
Dates covered: 1685-1835.
Good for: Studying the music, film, broadcasting, and theater industries.
Contains: Trade publications including Variety, Billboard, and The Hollywood Reporter.
Dates covered: 1880-2015.
Music, film, broadcasting and theater industry trade publications published before 2015 including Variety, Billboard, Spin, The Hollywood Reporter, American Cinematographer, American Film, Picturegoer and more.
Good for: Studying changes in American fashion, culture, and society.
Contains: Harper's Bazaar magazine.
Dates covered: 1867-present.
Good for: Magazine articles about 20th century celebrities and the popular music and film industries.
Contains: Film industry and fan publications.
Dates covered: 1903-1995.
Good for: Reading essays, letters, poems, and articles from the London Times Literary Supplement.
Contains: Essays, letters, poems, and articles.
Dates covered: 1902-2013.
Good for: Researching fashion and culture.
Contains: Images and text from Vogue Magazine.
Dates covered: 1892-present.
Good for: Searching North American women's magazines and their historical context.
Contains: Women's magazines including Better Homes and Gardens, Chatelaine, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents Magazine, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan and Essence.
Dates covered: 1887-2005.
Good for: Studying fashion industry history and trends.
Contains: Trade publication Women’s Wear Daily.
Dates covered: 1910-present.
Collections of several types of primary sources curated around a topic or theme.
Good for: Evidence about the lives of African Americans in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Contains: Government records of individuals including military service records, court documents, and emancipation and manumission papers.
Dates covered: 1792-1941.
Documents from the National Archives, plus smaller collections from Spain, Liberia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Italy, and Canada.
Good for: Studying African American communities in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and North Carolina.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1860s-1980s.
Good for: First hand accounts of European exploration, trade and colonization worldwide using primary sources.
Contains: Manuscripts, maps, illustrated documents, diaries, and ship logs.
Dates covered: 1420-1920.
Good for: Searching multiple American history primary source collections.
Contains: Archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Dates covered: 1493-1975.
Good for: Searching historical product catalogs and exploring advertising and marketing campaigns.
Contains: Archival records of ad agencies, marketing campaigns and catalogs.
Dates covered: 1850-1990s.
Good for: Exploring primary sources related to American history from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century.
Contains: Archival collections of correspondence, diaries, government documents, business records, books, pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides, photographs, artwork, and maps.
Dates covered: 1493-1945.
Good for: Finding primary source records of Native American and indigenous groups in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Contains: Manuscripts, artwork, and rare printed books.
Dates covered: 1400-1950s.
Good for: Examining primary sources collected to document the history of the American West.
Contains: Pamphlets, maps, books, ephemeral material, and rare printed sources.
Dates covered: 1830-1939.
Good for: Researching LGBTQ activism and the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1940-present.
Good for: Primary sources from the civil rights movement in the United States.
Contains: Official publications and primary source material including records of the NAACP, papers from presidential administrations, and relevant records from the FBI and other federal agencies.
Dates covered: 1901-2000.
Good for: Scholarly articles, reference and historical sources for Black Studies.
Contains: Journal articles, historical newspapers, and essays.
Good for: Researching international affairs from a British perspective.
Contains: Commentary, speeches, and analysis from a nonprofit NGO.
Dates covered: 1920-2008.
Good for: Exploring the socio-cultural history of the United States in the 19th century through children's literature.
Contains: Rare books, games, ephemera, and artwork.
Dates covered: 1790s-1930s.
Good for: Studying China's relations with the West in the 19th and early 20th century.
Contains: Academic and literary journals and missionary periodicals in English about China.
Dates covered: 1817-1949.
Good for: Exploring Chinese life and culture over the past 300 years.
Contains: Primary source documents like printed books, pamphlets, paintings, manuscripts, diaries, newspapers, and periodicals.
Dates covered: 1750-1980.
Good for: Understanding the perspective of Anglican missionary administrators and workers on cultural encounters around the world.
Contains: Newspapers, journals, and reports.
Dates covered: 1804-2009.
Good for: Evidence of changing views about gender, themed around conduct, domesticity, consumption and leisure, education, and the body.
Contains: Primary sources like correspondence, advice literature, periodicals, ephemera and government documents.
Dates covered: 1500s-1920.
Good for: Examining scripts of plays submitted for license in England before 1824.
Contains: Archive of plays, diaries, playbills, theatre records, and correspondence.
Dates covered: 1737-1824.
Good for: Exploring colonial history, politics, culture and society from British and European perspectives.
Contains: Primary sources from archival collections.
Dates covered: 1492-1969.
Good for: Studying American social, cultural, and popular history in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Contains: Primary sources like periodicals, pamphlets and books.
Dates covered: 1800-1920.
Good for: Studying personal experiences, propaganda, visual perspectives, and narratives of the First World War.
Contains: Archival collections, films, and oral histories.
Dates covered: 1900-1950.
Good for: Understanding the history of food and culture.
Contains: Archival materials, images, secondary works, documentaries, series, and visual ephemera.
Dates covered: 1900-present.
Key themes and disciplines with extensive coverage represented include marketing and consumerism, production and technology, food history, food movements, culinary and food design, food and identity, health, policy, religion, sociology, anthropology, and history. Coverage from the 1940s.
Good for: Studying European colonization in North America, Africa, and Australasia.
Contains: Primary sources like expedition records, letters, diaries, and government records.
Dates covered: 1650-1920.
Good for: Studying the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations, like women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, family and the body.
Contains: Primary sources like personal papers, diaries, and organizational records.
Dates covered: 1800-present.
Good for: Examining primary sources that tell the story of global trade in chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, oil, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits.
Contains: Archival collections.
Dates covered: 1500-present.
Good for: Studying 20th-century American advertising through the archives of a prominent ad agency.
Contains: Primary sources like brand case studies and account files.
Dates covered: 1880s-1990s.
Clients included: Kellogg’s, Kodak, Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Pan Am, the U.S. Marine Corps, and more.
Good for: Exploring American Jewish history through organizational records and archival collections.
Contains: Archival collections from the American Jewish Historical Society in New York.
Dates covered: 1654-1954.
Good for: Studying the works of Hispanic-American writers and activists.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1800-1960.
Good for: Studying the history of tourism.
Contains: Archival material from Thomas Cook travel agency.
Dates covered: 1850-1980.
Good for: Documents revealing the history of the book trade and printing/publishing community.
Contains: Primary sources from the Stationers Company in London.
Dates covered: 1554-2007.
Good for: Studying 19th-century London street culture.
Contains: Primary sources like ballads, slang dictionaries, brothel guides, and posters.
Dates covered: 1800-1910.
Good for: Studying the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century.
Contains: Market Research reports and other primary sources from the archives of Ernest Dichter and the Institute for Motivational Research.
Dates covered: 1935-1965.
Good for: Learning about the everyday lives of ordinary British people who participated in social science research.
Contains: Personal diaries, surveys, questionnaires, photos, and printed research analysis.
Dates covered: 1937-1960.
Good for: Studying historical medical advances during warfare.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1850s-1930s.
Good for: Studying Japan and its relations with the West.
Contains: Publications, papers, journals, and diaries of Edward Sylvester Morse.
Dates covered: 1850s-1930s.
Good for: Studying migration from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe, and Asia to the New World and Australasia.
Contains: Personal accounts, correspondence, maps, plans, and photos.
Dates covered: 1800-1924.
Good for: Finding primary sources about the development of urban centers and of the restructuring of society that took place during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.
Contains: Government and archival collections.
Dates covered: 1750-1916.
Good for: Studying the history of the John Murray publishing company and the publication history of authors like Byron, Austen, Darwin, and Bird.
Contains: Letters, literary works, and financial records.
Dates covered: 1768-1900s.
Good for: Learning about design concepts for various performance types.
Contains: Books, periodicals, archival material, and instructional videos.
Good for: Studying fringe political movements.
Contains: Campaign materials, periodicals, propaganda, government records, oral histories, and ephemera.
Dates covered: 1900-2000.
Good for: Studying popular culture in the US and Britain through music and alternative publications.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1950-1975.
Part of Americana combined search portal
Good for: Studying the fight for civil rights.
Contains: Speeches, reports, surveys, and analyses.
Dates covered: 1943-1970.
Materials sourced from the Fisk University Race Relations Department’s staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.
Good for: Exploring the story of World War II through newspapers for members of the armed forces.
Contains: Newspapers.
Dates covered: 1939-1948.
Good for: Exploring changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities, and sexual behaviors.
Contains: Archival research collections.
Dates covered: 1800s-2010s.
Please be aware that this resource contains material of a sexually explicit nature. Includes official records of pressure groups and community organizations, anonymous qualitative surveys, diaries, correspondence, periodicals, photographs, erotic fiction and visual erotica, papers of sexologists, newsletters, reports, pamphlets and ephemera.
Good for: Records and plans about the modern reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
Contains: Performance and architectural archives.
Dates covered: 1997-2016.
Good for: Researching the trade in enslaved people in America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba using material examining European, Islamic, and African involvement in the slave trade.
Contains: Case studies and primary source documents.
Dates covered: 1490-2007.
Good for: Viewing documentaries, newsreels, and feature films from a socialist perspective.
Contains: Films by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, East European, British and Latin American filmmakers.
Dates covered: 1918-1990.
Good for: Studying consumer advertising, marketing, and life in America.
Contains: Catalogs, price lists, and brochures.
Dates covered: 1850-1950.
Good for: Exploring travel writing and its history.
Contains: Manuscripts, diaries, correspondence, drawings, guidebooks, and photographs.
Dates covered: 1818-1974.
Good for: Finding primary sources related to popular entertainment in America, Britain, and Europe.
Contains: Books, posters, scrapbooks, and optical toys.
Dates covered: 1779-1930.
Good for: Documents recording the experiences of colonized women.
Contains: Primary sources.
Dates covered: 1820-present.
Good for: Studying women's reform activities.
Contains: Books, images, historical documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies.
Dates covered: 1600-2000.
Good for: Primary sources about woman suffrage and women’s roles in Britain and its territories.
Contains: Archival collection, finding aid for women’s studies in the National Archives U.K.
Dates covered: 1903-1962.
Good for: Primary sources collected from world's fairs, exhibitions, and expos.
Contains: Official records, monographs, publicity, artwork, and artifacts.
Dates covered: 1851-2000s.
Digitized collections of books published during different time periods.
Good for: Accessing historical books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in North America.
Contains: PDFs of monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents, and ephemera.
Dates covered: 1639-1923.
Good for: Exploring 19th-century controversies through published advice and opinions.
Contains: Pamphlets.
Dates covered: 1820-1922.
Good for: Reading primary sources that document the evolution of feminist consciousness and the women's rights movement.
Contains: Books and periodicals.
Dates covered: 1543-1945.
Good for: Access to nearly any public domain (pre-1929) book owned and scanned by a library.
Contains: Digitized books.
Digitized photos and art images.
Good for: Finding and using digital images for research and teaching.
Contains: Art digital images and related data.
Good for: Finding images held by the Library of Congress.
Contains: Images.
These links allow you to search across multiple databases at the same time.
Good for: Searching across all primary source collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Contains: Archival collections.
Includes American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society, Archives of Sexuality and Gender, Archives Unbound, British Library Newspapers, Chatham House Online Archive, China and the Modern World, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Environmental History, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals, Political Extremism and Radicalism, Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney and Nichols Newspapers Collections, The Economist Historical Archive, The Times Digital Archive and The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.
Good for: Searching all ProQuest U.S. historical newspaper collections simultaneously.
Contains: Newspapers.
Dates covered: 1841-2014.
Good for: Searching historical periodicals.
Contains: Magazine and journal articles.
Dates covered: 1740-1940 with some more recent.
American Periodicals (1740 - 1940)
British Periodicals (1681 - 1939)
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (1880 - 2000)
The Harper's Bazaar Archive (1867 - current)
Periodicals Archive Online
The Vogue Archive
Women's Magazine Archive (1846 - 2005)
The Women's Wear Daily Archive
Good for: Searching across historical newspapers and books for primary sources about American life and culture.
Contains: American historical newspapers, printed books, pamphlets, and ephemera.
Dates covered: 1639-1922.
Search multiple collections of historical primary sources from Readex simultaneously: America's Historical Imprints; America's Historical Newspapers, including Hispanic American Newspapers; American Underworld - the Flash Press; Territorial Papers of the United States.