Comparative Empires in Early Modern America
Background Sources |
Books | Articles| Primary Sources in the Library
| Primary Sources on the Web
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.
Most of the books listed here are located in Suzzallo Reference, first floor Suzzallo Library.
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- Colonial wars of North America, 1512-1763 : an encyclopedia
Suzzallo Reference -- E46.5 .C65 1996
- Colonialism: an international, social, cultural, and political encyclopedia
Suzzallo Reference -- HV22 .C59 2003
- Dictionary of American History
Suzzallo Reference -- E174 .D52 2003
- Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history
Suzzallo Reference, OUGL Reference -- E185 .E54 1996
- Encyclopedia of American social history
Suzzallo Reference , OUGL Reference-- HN57 .E58 1993
- Encyclopedia of the North American colonies
Suzzallo Reference, OUGL Reference -- E45 .E53 1993
- Literature of travel and exploration: an encyclopedia
Suzzallo Reference -- G465 .L565 2003
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Use the following databases to locate books in the UW Libraries and in
other libraries around the region, nation and world. Databases marked UW Only require that you access these from computers on campus or from home using UWICK or the libraries proxy server. Books not available at
the UW nor in Summit can be requested through the
UWorld Express.  |
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UW Libraries Catalog
A listing of the books, journal subscriptions and other material
available at the University of Washington Libraries.
- Summit
Use Summit to find and request books in more than 25 Oregon and Washington academic libraries. Very useful when the book you need is checked out here.
- OCLC WorldCat [UW only]
A listing of books, journal subscriptions and other material
available in hundreds of major libraries in the U.S. and abroad.
- OhioLINK
Use OhioLink to search for chapters in recent books (published in the past decade).
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Use indexes to find articles and book reviews (from scholarly journals, popular magazines and sometimes books, dissertations, government reports, etc.) on a topic.
Once you identify articles you need make sure you have the complete citation (author, title, journal name, volume, pages and year), then look in the UW Libraries Catalog for the journal name (do a title search for the journal name to see if the UW subscribes) to see if and where the journal is kept (library location and call number).
Databases marked UW Only require that you access these from computers on campus or from home using UWICK or the libraries proxy server.
Articles
from journals which the UW does not own can be requested through
UWorld Express.
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- America History & Life [UW only]
Major index to articles in U.S. and Canadian history. Also includes citations to selected books, dissertations and reviews.
- Expanded Academic Index [UW only]
General index to magazine and journal articles in all subjects, includes some full-text. For other interdisciplinary databases see
Research Library and the Web of Science.
- JSTOR [UW only]
Searchable collection of back issues of selected journals including the Historical Journal and the Journal of British Studies. For another collection of searchable electronic journals related to history and the humanities see Project Muse.
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Finding Primary Sources in the Library
Using Secondary Sources to Find Primary Sources
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Secondary sources, scholarly journal articles and books, are a great source for identifying potential primary 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.
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Finding Primary Sources -- Books
The UW Libraries has a strong collection of books that can be considered primary sources for history. These include books written during the period for your topic (i.e., during the 1700s), books written by participants, published collections of correspondence and other personal writings, memoirs and reprints of collections of primary source material. Formats include print, microfilm and electronic.
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Using the UW Libraries Catalog
- Limit your search by publication date.
- Search for books written by key participants and organizations.
- Browse the shelves in the 970s (Suz. 4th floor) for colonial records.
- Use special subject terms that designate primary sources:
sources, personal narratives, diaries, correspondence, interviews, early works to 1800 - Example:
- african americans and massachusetts and su:(sources or narratives or diaries or correspondence)
- slaves and laws and sources
Databases of Early Books
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Finding Primary Sources -- Articles
The UW Libraries has a fairly strong collection of magazines and journals from the 18th and 19th centuries. 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 18th and 19th centuries. Newspapers (and other material in microfilm) are housed in the Microform and Newspaper Collections (Mcnews) on the ground floor of Suzzallo.
 
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Magazines
- American Periodicals Series Online [UW Only]
American Periodicals Series Online includes full-pages images of more than 1,000 18th, 19th and early 20th century American magazines such as the Liberator, American Monthly Knickerbocker and Niles' Weekly Register.
Newspapers
These are a just a few of the newspapers we have available on microfilm in the Microforms and Newspapers Collection on the ground floor of Suzzallo. Many of the runs are incomplete but the general date range of coverage is given.
- American Weekly Mercury (Philadelphia) (1719 - 1745)
A59
- Boston Evening Post
(1739 - 1775)
A75
- Boston Gazette
(1719 - 1798)
A21
- Connecticut Courant
(1764 - 1820)
A445
- Connecticut Gazette
(1755 - 1768)
A436
- Maryland Gazette
(1728 - 1734; 1752 - 1758)
A282
- New York Gazette and Weekly Post-boy
(1744 - 1773)
A24
- New York Weekly Journal
(1733 - 1751)
A23
- Pennsylvania Gazette
(1728 - 1800) [UW only]
Also on microfilm A14
- Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser
(1742 - 1793)
A183
- South Carolina Gazette
< (1732 - 1775)
A800
- Virginia Gazette
(1736 - 1780)
A157
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Many collections of primary sources are now available from the web. These are a selection of sites with sources relating to the history of early America. For other sites see History on the Web.
It is important to remember that anyone can publish on the web. There is no quality control so before citing a web site in your research paper take time to judge the quality of the web page. See Using Primary Sources on the Web for additional information.
 
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- American Journeys
"American Journeys contains more than 17,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later."
- American Memory
Premier collection of primary sources dealing with American history. collections include: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation , George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, Slaves and the Courts and more than 100 other digital collections spanning the history of the United States.
- Archives of Maryland
Online version of the multi-volume set of colonial records and papers.
- Colonial Connecticut Records
Digitized version of the printed colonial records covering 1636-1776 provided by the University of Connecticut Libraries.
- Digital Library of Georgia
Growing digital collection of materials dealing with Georgia history. Current collections cover issues dealing with Native Americans, the Civil War, colonial records and newspapers.
- New France, New Horizons
Portal to more than 1 million images including manuscripts printed material, maps and images documenting the history of New France. See other exhibits and collections at Libraries and Archives Canada. Also see the freely available portion of Early Canadiana Online.
- Virginia Runaways
"The Virginia Runaways Project is a digital database of runaway and captured slave and servant advertisements from 18th-century Virginia newspapers."
- Virtual Jamestown
Growing collection of primary documents from Jamestown including maps, public records, letters and contracts. Also see the Plymouth Colony Archive.
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