LibGuides: English and American Literature Subject Guide: Historical Text Databases: American Literature

Selected Databases

Books: 17th Century to Present
Periodicals & Newspapers

These databases contain the images of material written and published in America from 1639 to the early 20th century, and sometimes beyond. Most of these materials are accessible by keywords as well as by author and title, and researchers can also search by place of publication, imprint, and language of publication. For best results, be certain to use alternative spellings.

American County Histories
Thousands of late 19th and early 20th century American County Histories that provide unparalleled access to local histories and community developments. Included are lists of all local participants in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, information on local governments, the medical and legal professions, churches and ministers, industry and manufacturing, banking and insurance, schools and teachers, noted celebrations, fire departments and associations, cemeteries, family histories, health and vital statistics, roads and bridges, public officials and legislators, and many additional subjects.
African American Communities
Access to essays, records, oral histories, articles, and images from the 18th-20th centuries covering topics including desegregation, urban renewal, and race relations in major American cities such as New York, Chicago, and Atlanta.
American Fiction
Includes novels, short stories, romances, fictitious biographies, travel accounts and sketches, allegories written by Americans from colonial times to the early twentieth century.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender
Includes articles, manuscripts, images, and correspondence on social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities globally; sex and sexuality; and related issues. Library has access to all five collections: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 part I-II, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century, and International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture.
Black Thought & Culture
Includes over 100,000 letters, speeches, essays, interviews, and trial transcripts by Black and African American leaders with a focus on 19th and 20th centuries.
Children's Literature and Culture (Adam Matthew)
Includes pamphlets, rare books, scores, and images in the area of children's literature from the 1820s-1920s.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans
Includes eBooks, pamphlets and other primary source materials about life in 17th- and 18th-century America, such as agriculture, foreign affairs, literature, music, philosophy, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, and witchcraft.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker
Includes ebooks, pamphlets and other primary source materials covering the political, social, cultural and geographic growth of the United States between 1801-1819 covering abolitionism, arts and literature, economic, religious, and scientific thought.
HathiTrust Digital Library
Search the full text of over 10 million volumes digitized primarily from research libraries covering all academic disciplines. View scanned pages of public domain and open access titles, or snippets from copyrighted material.
Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries
Includes personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts.
Race Relations in America
Includes records, images, case studies, audio recordings, and surveys from the Fisk University race relations department and its annual institute between 1943 and 1970 covering topics such as the Civil Rights Movement, segregation, discrimination, and racial theory.
Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice
Includes primary source documents on key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries covering slavery in the early Americas; African coast; urban and domestic slavery; resistance and revolts; the abolition movement and the slavery debate; legislation and politics; freedmen and free Black settlements; experiences of enslaved people; and the legacy of slavery.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Includes books, images, essays, book and website reviews, and other primary sources covering various women's and social movements between 1600-2000.

The newspapers and periodicals listed below were published in the United States from 1690 until the present. Although a few of the resources separately index by authors and subjects, most are best searched by keywords. For best results, be certain to try alternative spellings.

African American Historical Newspapers
The full contents of the following newspapers published for a Black American readership:
Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010)
The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010)
Chicago Defender (1909-2010)
Cleveland Call and Post (1934-2010)
Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2010)
New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010)
The Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2010)
The Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2010)
Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010)
Note: This collection is sometimes referred to as the ProQuest African American Historical Newspapers.
African American Newspapers
Access to collection of Black American newspapers covering cultural life and history during the 1800s and includes first-hand reports of the major events.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection (EBSCO)
Includes magazines and journals articles from 1691 to1877 covering topics such as Black and African American history and culture, agriculture, children's literature, education, medicine, religion, science and technology, the trades, and women's literature.
American Periodicals
Digitized images of over 1,000 American magazines and journals published between 1741-1900 and often beyond. Titles range from the scientific journal Medical Repository to Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal. 1740-1900. Access restricted to University of Connecticut.
American Periodicals from the Center for Research Libraries
Hundreds of American periodicals from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Atlanta Daily World

Full text coverage from 1931 to 2010 of the Atlanta Daily World.
Baltimore Afro-American
Digital archive for the Baltimore Afro-American from 1893 to 2010.
Boston Globe (Proquest Historical Newspapers)
Offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue, from 1872-1991.
Early American Newspapers (1690-1922)
Scanned newspapers published between 1690 – 1922.

FictionMags Index

A freely available resource indexing hundreds of thousands of magazines published in English from the nineteenth-century to the present. There are indexes for author/illustrator, title, series, and issue-by-issue. There are also indexes for anthologies and collections reprinting the contents of these magazines, and original biographical data about the authors and illustrators are sometimes given. Note: this is not a full-text database though some of the magazines indexed are available online.

Hartford Courant (Proquest Historical Newspapers)
Full-text of the Hartford Courant from 1764-1997.
Hispanic American Newspapers 1808-1980
Full text to various Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Indigenous Newspapers in North America
Includes articles from newspapers reporting on and by indigenous peoples throughout the United States and Canada, including Alaska, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Nevada and Oklahoma, from 1828 to 2016. News articles for some Connecticut tribes; Eastern Pequot, Golden Hill Paugussett, Lenape, Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan, Nipmuc, Schaghticoke; are included in this resource.
Lily, The
Access to the online archive of the Lily (1849-1856), a temperance and abolitionist newspaper, and the first newspaper for women.
Los Angeles Times
Access to the the Los Angeles Times from 1881-2000.
National Citizen and Ballot Box
Access to National and Ballot Box, a monthly journal deeply involved in the roots of the American feminist movement from 1876-1881.
Nation Archive, The
Searchable archive of The Nation Magazine, 1865-2020.
New York Amsterdam News
Digitized version of the New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010), one of the U.S.'s leading Black newspapers and one of New York's most influential Black-owned institutions.
New York Times (Proquest Historical Newspapers)
Access to The New York Times from 1851-2019.
Pennsylvania Gazette
Full-text access to this Philadelphia newspaper from 1728 through 1800.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Major American and international newspapers. Includes Arizona Republican (1870-2007)*, Atlantic Constitution (1868-1984), Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010), Baltimore Sun (1837-1997)*, Boston Globe (1872-1991), Chicago Defender (1909-2010), Chicago Tribune (1849-2013), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2009)*, Cleveland Call & Post (1934-2010), Detroit Free Press (1831-1999)*, Hartford Courant (1764-1997), Jewish Advocate (1905-1990)*, Leftist Newspapers and Periodicals (1845-2015)*, Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2010), Los Angeles Times (1881-1999), Louisville Defender (1951-2010), Michigan Chronicle (1939-2010), Minneapolis Star Tribune (1867-2001)*, New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010), New York Times (1851-2019), New York Tribune / Herald Times (1841-1962), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2010), Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-2001)*, Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2010), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1786-2003)*, Vermont Collection, Wall Street Journal (1889-2011), Washington Post (1877-2007). A full list is given below.
Atlantic Constitution (1868-1984), Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010), Baltimore Sun (1837-1997), Boston Globe (1872-1991), Chicago Defender (1909-2010), Chicago Tribune (1849-2013), Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953), Cleveland Call & Post (1934-2010), Detroit Free Press (1831-1999), The Guardian and the Observer (1791-2003), Hartford Courant (1764-1997), Irish Times and the Weekly Irish Times (1859-2021), Le Monde (1944-2000), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2010), Los Angeles Times (1881-1999), Louisville Defender (1951-2010), Michigan Chronicle (1939-2010), New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010), New York Times (1851-2019), New York Tribune / Herald Times (1841-1962), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2010), Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-2001), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2010), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010), Times of India (1838-2010), Vermont Collection, Wall Street Journal (1889-2011), Washington Post (1877-2007)
Reader's Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
Article abstracts for most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States between 1890-1982.
Wall Street Journal (Proquest Historical Newspapers)
Access to the Wall Street Journal newspaper from 1889 to 2011.
Washington Post
Access to the Washington Post newspaper from 1877-2007.
Women's Magazine Collection
The complete contents (in color) of one dozen popular consumer magazines, published between 1846 and 2005, intended for a female readership.
Women's Studies Archive: Issues and Identities
Women's Studies Archive: Issues and Identities contains material from eleven different source libraries, including the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, The National Women's History Project, and the New York Public Library. Includes manuscripts, ephemera, documents, newspapers, periodicals, journals, history collections, women’s literature covering historical, social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

English and American Literature Subject Guide — Historical Text Databases: American Literature

Selected Databases