American Civil War

Background Sources | Books | Articles | Primary Sources | Websites

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This webpage provides resources to help you find more information on the themes and topics of the course.

Most of the databases on this page are restricted to UW students, staff and faculty. These are marked with a lock . To connect to these databases from home you will need to first click on the Off-Campus Access link in the upper-right hand corner and login.

Have questions or need research help? Please contact Theresa Mudrock, the history librarian, via email at mudrock@u.washington.edu.

Background Resources

Encyclopedias and dictionaries provide background information and can be used to identify key people, events and dates which can then be used as search terms for finding additional information. More importantly, because encyclopedias often cover the major issues surrounding the subject, they can help you narrow your research from a broad “who, what, where, when” topic to a “how or why” question. In addition many encyclopedia articles include short bibliographies that will lead you to the major works on the topic.

Americans at War - Suz Reference E181 .A453 2005 Dictionary of American History - Suz Reference E174 .D52 2003 Encyclopedia of the American Civil War - Suz Reference E468 .H47 2000 Oxford African American Studies Center Oxford Companion to American Military History - Suz Reference E181 .O94 1999 Women in the American Civil War - Suz Reference E628 .W655 2008

Books

Use the following databases to locate books in the UW Libraries and in other libraries around the region, nation and world. Books unavailable at the UW can be requested through Summit (if available at one of the member libraries) or through Interlibrary Loan.

UW Libraries Catalog A listing of the books, journal subscriptions and other material available at the University of Washington Libraries. Summit Joint catalog of more than 25 academic libraries in Oregon and Washington. Books can be requested and shipped to the UW for pick-up. Beta Catalog/WorldCat Local Beta version of the catalog that simultaneously searches the UW Libraries Catalog, Summit and OCLC WorldCat plus an article database. Best used for topical searches; facilitates requesting books from other libraries.

Articles & Book Reviews

Use databases to find articles and book reviews on a topic. Use those which best fit your research topic. For a complete list of databases see Research Databases on the Library homepage.

To find a copy of the article, use the Check for UW Holdings button available on most databases to locate a copy in the library. If there is no button, search the UW Libraries Catalog for the title of the journal to locate a copy. Be sure to have the complete citation (author, title, journal name, volume, pages and year) of your article.

Articles from journals which the UW does not own can be requested via Interlibrary loan.

Academic Search Complete This is a good general beginning database that covers all subjects from astronomy to zoology. America History & Life This is the best database to find articles dealing with all aspects of American and Canadian history. Also includes citations to selected books, dissertations and reviews. Black Studies Center This database includes an index to articles (with some fulltext), topical essays and the Chicago Defender newspaper (primary source) JSTOR JSTOR is a collection of more than 40 full-text history-related journals. For another collection of searchable electronic journals related to history see Project Muse.

Finding Primary Sources in the Library

Using Secondary Sources to Find Primary Sources

Secondary sources, scholarly journal articles and books, are a great source for identifying potential primary sources as well as additional secondary sources. Find a few articles, books or dissertations related to your topic and then mine the footnotes and bibliography. You will have the best luck finding published primary sources such as books, government reports, newspapers and magazines within the UW Libraries. Use the UW Libraries Catalog to determine if we have the primary source.

Finding Primary Sources -- Books

The UW Libraries has a strong collection of books that can be considered primary sources for history. And for the Civil War era, a number of links to ebooks. These include books written during the period for your topic (i.e., during the 1860ss), books written by participants, published collections of correspondence and other personal writings, memoirs and reprints of collections of primary source material. Use the UW Libraries Catalog to search for these materials.

Limit your search by publication date. Search for books written by key participants and organizations such as Abraham Lincoln Use special subject terms that designate primary sources: sources, personal narratives, diaries, correspondence, interviews Example: civil war 1861 and correspondence women and diaries and civil war 1861 gettysburg and battle and personal narratives

Finding Primary Sources -- Articles

The UW Libraries has a fairly strong collection of magazines from 19th century. Many of them are in print (either in Suzzallo Periodicals or in a storage area), others are on microfilm.

The libraries also has a basic collection of U.S. newspapers on microfilm for the 19th centuries. Newspapers (and other material in microfilm) are housed in the Microform and Newspaper Collections (Mcnews) on the ground floor of Suzzallo.

Magazines American Periodicals Series Online Use APS Online to find full-text articles from American magazines written in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Includes the Liberator and other abolitionist publications. C19 Index to 19th century British and American magazine articles plus other material. Newspapers These are a selection Civil War era newspapers we have available on microfilm in the Microforms and Newspapers Collection on the ground floor of Suzzallo or online. Many of the runs are incomplete but the general date range of coverage is given. There are no indexes the papers on microfilm so you will need to browse through issues to find articles of interest. Those of you with King County Public Library (KCLS) cards will want to try their Nineteenth Century Newspapers, a digital collection of 100s of newspapers. All those residing in King County are eligible for KCLS library cards. African American Newspapers - 19th c. Boston Evening Transcript (1830-1882) A1551 Charleston Mercury (1822-1868) A7437 Early American Newspapers, Series II Knoxville Whig (1849-1864) A8510 National Intelligencer (1800 - 1869) A998 National anti-slavery standard (1840 - 1870) A4572 New York Evening Post (1801 - 1900) A3574 New York Times (1851-2004) New York Tribune (1841-1906) A2252 Non-Slaveholder (1846-1854) M357 North Carolina Whig (1858-1863) A8511 Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers Richmond Enquirer (1841-1861) A8488 Times Digital Archive (London, 1785-1985)

Government Reports

The UW Libraries has a strong collection of U.S. government documents including federal agency publications, congressional hearings and reports and other material. For more information about locating government documents check with the librarians in the Government Publications section located on the ground floor of Suzzallo.

American State Papers US Congressional material dating from 1789 to 1838. US Congressional Serial Set Full-text Senate and House reports, documents, and journals for the period 1817-1941. Congressional Universe Full-text debates, bills, reports dating back to approximately 1989 and indexing of congressional reports and hearings dating back to 1789.

Websites

Many collections of primary sources are now available from the web. These are a selection of sites with sources relating to the history of slavery and early American history. Many are from the collections of American Memory. For links to additional websites see History on the Web.

Abraham Lincoln Papers African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907 African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project Civil War Letters Collection (UW) Civil War Photographs Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment Civil War Treasures Confederate Broadsides Crisis of the Union Documenting the American South Frederick Douglass Papers From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection 1824-1909 Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection Slave Movement During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Slaves and the Courts The Valley of the Shadow Virginia Runaways Washington During the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft

Robert Knox Sneden drawing of Fair Oaks Statin, Virginia from Musarium: Eye of the Storm.