The Truth is Out There?

What exactly do aliens have to do with civil rights? What would drive supposedly sane people to believe something that defies all rational explanation? Why exactly are we so fascinated in what (or who) may exist outside the threshold of our world when we already have more than enough trouble to last lifetimes contained within our own borders? These are the questions that Matthew Bowman interrogates in his latest book The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill, a rigorously researched historical account of an alleged alien abduction of a married couple in 1961. Continue reading “The Truth is Out There?”

What’s Missing from this Digital Collection?

Many of our digital collections were created from microfilm surrogates, which is to say that the original print collection was at some point microfilmed (mostly in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s) for sale to libraries. Our own library bought many of these microfilm collections. Because it’s so much less expensive to digitize from microfilm (than from print originals), and because digitizing from microfilm spares those print originals from unnecessary wear and tear, many of our digital collections were created from these microfilm surrogates. You might be wondering how to determine whether a collection was digitized from microfilm. One good sign is if the documents in the collection are displayed in black-and-white (especially low bit-depth black-and-white) rather than color. Collections digitized directly from original print documents will usually display those documents in color. For example, the following: Continue reading “What’s Missing from this Digital Collection?”

New Online Resource: American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, 1684-1912

Library patrons now have access to EBSCO’s digital collection American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, 1684-1912. Originally released in five series, this collection has long been on our “wish-list”, and we have finally acquired the entire collection, which complements several existing digital collections (American Periodical Series Online, America’s Historical Newspapers, 19th Century American Newspapers, and Early American Imprints), and makes pre-1900 American print culture among the best covered source bases for online historical research here at the University of Illinois Library. Continue reading “New Online Resource: American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, 1684-1912

New Agricultural Newspaper Collection

Readex’s American Business: Agricultural Newspapers is a valuable, but in many ways disappointing collection. When complete, it will contain 238 farm newspapers from the 19th and late 18th centuries, the heyday of rural America. About 20% of the projected 238 titles are forthcoming.1 Over half of the titles currently available are represented by ten or fewer issues;2 almost half of the titles currently available are represented by five or fewer issues;3 and 33% of the titles are represented by a single issue.4 Only 58 of the newspapers have fifty or more issues. Continue reading “New Agricultural Newspaper Collection”

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture and Law

All extant legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world, as well as documents on free African-Americans before 1870. Includes every statute passed by every state and colony, all federal statutes, all reported state and federal cases on slavery, and hundreds of books and pamphlets on the subject. Free to use, but registration required. Part of Hein Online.


Go to Slavery in America and the World now.

Colonial America

When complete, this digital collection will comprise all 1,450 volumes/bundles of British National Archives Record Series CO 5 (Records of the Colonial Office: Board of Trade and Secretaries of State: America and West Indies, Original Correspondence). The collection will be released in modules, with the first two modules currently available: Module 1: Early Settlement, Expansion and Rivalries; and Module 2: Towards Revolution.

Papers of the NAACP (Digitized)

The papers of the NAACP held by the Library of Congress. Previously available on microfilm, the digitized version comprises six modules: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files (Parts 1, 2, 14, 16, 17, and 21 of the microfilm set); Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files (Parts 12, 19, 25, 26, 27, and 29 of the microfilm set); Special Subjects (Parts 11, 18, 24, 28, and 30 of the microfilm set); The NAACP’s Major Campaigns: Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces (Parts 3, 4, 5, 9, and 13 of the microfilm set); The NAACP’s Major Campaigns: Legal Department Files (Parts 22 and 23 of the microfilm set); and The NAACP’s Major Campaigns: Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses (Parts 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, and 20 of the microfilm set).

Digitized Historical Women’s Magazines

Two new collections featuring full color, digitized reproductions of historically significant women’s magazines: The Women’s Magazine Archive includes extensive runs of 5 major women’s magazines: Better Homes and Gardens (1925-1961), Good Housekeeping, (1887-1912), Ladies’ Home Journal (1887-1919), Parents (1949-1972), and Chatelaine (1940-2005). We also now have the complete Harper’s Bazaar Archive, full color reproductions of every issue from the very first in 1867 to the most recent.

African American Communities

Newspapers, periodicals, oral histories, organizational records, personal papers, pamphlets, and ephemera that document the history of African American communities in Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, New York, and North Carolina. Highlights of the collection include the Chicago Urban League records (1917-1985), the Town of Pullman records (1876-1919), the Lea Demarest Taylor papers on housing and race relations (1893-1966), the Urban League of St. Louis records, and an extensive oral history collection. Collection is organized around five broad themes: Desegregation, Urban renewal and housing problems, Civil rights activities and protests, Race relations and community integration, and African American culture.

Indigenous Peoples: North America

Books, newspapers, periodicals, manuscript sources, and photographs that document American Indian experience in North America, based on 13 previously published microfilm collections: Oregon Province Archives of the Society of Jesus Indian Language Collection: The Alaska Native Languages; Pacific Northwest Tribes Missions Collection of the Oregon Province Archives of the Society of Jesus; Association on American Indian Archives; Records of the Creek Factory of the Office of Indian Trade of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1795‐1 821; Citizenship Case Files of the U.S. Court in Indian Territory, 1896‐1897; Great Nemaha Agency Collection, 1866‐1873; The Indian School Journal; The Javitch Collection at University of Alberta; Letters Sent by the Indian Division of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, 1849‐1903; Moravian Mission among the Indians of North America; Papers of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft; Papers of the Society of American Indians, 1906‐1946; and the W. S. Prettyman Photograph Collection.