HSTEU 490 - History of Sexuality

History of Sexuality

Background Sources

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 subect, 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.

Encyclopedia of the Renaissance
Suzzallo Reference, Undergraduate Reference - CB361 .E52 1999
Human sexuality: an encyclopedia
Suzzallo Reference - HQ9 .H846 1994
The International encyclopedia of sexuality
Undergraduate Reference - HQ21 .I68 1997
Encyclopedia of European social history from 1350 to 2000
Suzzallo Reference, Undergraduate Reference - HN373 .E63 2000
Oxford Classical Dictionary
Suzzallo Reference, Undergraduate Reference - DE5 .O9 1996

Finding 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 UWorld Express (interlibrary loan).

UW Libraries Catalog
A listing of the books, journal subscriptions and other material available at the University of Washington Libraries.
Summit
A listing of the books, journal subscriptions and other material available in 26 university and college libraries in Oregon and Washington. Books requested and shipped to the UW for pick-up.
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 access chapters of recent books, use the "Words" search option.

Finding Articles

Use indexes (databases) to find articles (from scholarly journals, popular magazines and newspapers and sometimes books, dissertations, government reports, etc.) on a topic. There are indexes covering all sorts of subjects, use those which best fit your research topic. For a complete list of electronic indexes see Databases & Catalogs on the Information Gateway.

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.

Interdisciplinary Databases:

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.
International bibliography of periodical literature
General index to articles, especially strong in European sources. To access you need to navigate through a few pages (Databases - IBZ - International Bibliography...).
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.

Specialized Databases:

ATLA Religion Database
Major index to articles and books religious history and religious studies.
Bibliography of the History of Western Sexuality 1700-1945
Indexes more than 16,000 books and articles (primary and secondary) dealing with the history of sexuality in Europe, Canada and the United States.
MLA [UW only]
Major index to articles and books in literature.
Historical Abstracts [UW only]
Major index to articles in world history from the period 1450 onward (excluding US and Canada).
International Medieval Bibliography [UW only]
Major index to articles and books in medieval studies. Also see Iter [UW]and Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index.
Italinemo
Index to current articles in Italian studies.
L'Annee Philologique [UW only]
Major index to articles and books in ancient history and classics. Also see Diotima: women & Gender in the Ancient World.

Finding Published Primary Sources

Using Secondary Sources to Find Primary Sources

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.

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 1890s), books written by participants, published collections of correspondence and other personal writings, memoirs and reprints of collections of primary source material.

In the UW Libraries Catalog:

Limit your search by publication date.
Search for books written by key people.
Browse the shelves in the appropriate subject area.
Use special subject terms that designate primary sources:
sources, personal narratives, diaries, correspondence, early works
Example:

(chastity or virginity) and su:early works
sex* and (england or britain) and su:sources

Specialized Database:

Early English Books Online [UW only]
Database of full-page images of more than 80,000 works published between 1475 and 1700 in England and its colonies. Also see the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership [UW] for transcriptions of selected documents.
Gallica
The Bibliotheque Nationale de France's digital library of texts and images. Also see ARTFL, American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language project. [UW]

Selected Web Sites

For a more complete listing of history-related websites see History on the Web. For tips on evaluating primary sources on the web see Using Primary Sources on the Web.

Image: Detail from Henri Matisse's Reclining Nude, 1935. Courtesy of the State Hermitage Museum.

Slides | Gay & Lesbian Studies | History Subject Page | Women's Studies | UW Libraries

1 April 2004
Theresa Mudrock --- Alvin Fritz --- Susan Kane