Library Guides: Social Studies and World Languages Education: National History Day/Historical Research Resources

Contact the Librarian at your campus for more help!

University Park / World Campus:
Karla Schmit
(KMS454@psu.edu or 814-863-5521)

Berks:
Brett Spencer
(DBS21@psu.edu or 610-396-6261)

Erie:
Jane Ingold
(JLI4@psu.edu or 814-898-7278)

Harrisburg / World Campus:
Bernadette Lear
(BAL19@psu.edu or 717-948-6360)

Introduction

National History Day (NHD) is an annual, history-themed research competition for students in grades 6-12. This page is a starting point for Penn State faculty, staff, and students who are supporting NHD, and for others who are curious about the historical resources that Penn State offers.

Before visiting any Penn State library, contact staff ahead of time to confirm building hours, availability of computers, and other details. Teachers wanting to bring student groups to the library should make prior arrangements with University Park library staff or their nearest Penn State campus library.

Please note that many of the databases listed below are subscription-based. Current Penn State faculty, staff, and students can access them remotely, but community residents must visit a Penn State library in-person and use the databases on-site. They must also abide by the library's policies for safety and well-being of children, use of computer software, use of public access workstations, and other policies.

Beginning Your Historical Research / Gathering Basic Facts

Researching historical figures and events is a multistep process: 1). getting basic facts, 2). getting secondary sources (recently-published books and articles), and 3). getting primary sources. It's especially important to note any clues relating to names, organizations, places, and other details that could lead to additional information. Here are some places to start, especially for biographical topics:

American National Biography Online This link opens in a new window
Offers biographical information on more than 17,000 men and women from all eras and walks of life. Most entries include bibliographies or notes about relevant primary sources.
The American National Biography Online offers portraits of more than 17,000 men and women -- from all eras and walks of life -- whose lives have shaped the nation. The online version reproduces the full-text of the original 24 volume set published in 1999, with new and updated entries added regularly. The online edition features thousands of illustrations, hyperlinked cross-references, links to select web sites, and powerful search capabilities.

National Park Service Search
Searches the National Park Service's web sites, blogs, and other publications. Penn State account not required.

Oxford African-American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedia entries, scholarly articles, and primary sources on African American history.
African American Studies Center The AASC features the new, three-volume Encyclopedia of African American History 1619-1895, published by Oxford in 2006; the three-volume Black Women in America, Second Edition, edited by Darlene Clark Hine in 2005, the highly acclaimed five volume Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience The Center also includes content from much-anticipated forthcoming print publications including the African American National Biography project (estimated at 8 volumes), edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., scheduled for publication in 2008; and the Encyclopedia of African American Art and Architecture, due for publication 2007. In addition to these major reference works, AASC offers other key resources from Oxford's reference program, including the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature and selected articles from other reference works.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Focuses on Great Britain, but can be helpful in researching colonial Americans who began their lives there.
An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of noteworthy men and women who shaped Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000
Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) This link opens in a new window
Publisher of Contemporary Black Biography; Who's Who Among African Americans; and other biographical series, as well as American Eras, American Decades, and other reference books on American History.
A collection of over 1000 reference resources.
Gale Literary Sources This link opens in a new window
Very helpful if you are researching an author or other literary figure -- combines several Gale databases on literary biography and criticism, including Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Something About the Author.
The Gale Literary Sources interface enables users to cross-search all of PSU's subscribed Gale literary content.

Who's Who in America by A. N. Marquis
Call Number: in print at University Park
Publication Date: 1899-present
This annual, printed reference book--available at the Arts & Humanities Library at University Park--contains biographical information on hundreds of people who are not readily findable through Google searching. Some institutions subscribe to Marquis Who's Who, the database version of the printed resource.

Pennsylvania Literary & Cultural Heritage Maps
Biographical and encyclopedia-style information about people, events, and items that connect with Pennsylvania history. Penn State account not required.
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia
Background information for topics in southeastern Pennsylvania. Penn State account not required.

Gathering Secondary Sources: Articles and Books

Below are first-stops for finding articles and books at Penn State. Whenever you can, it's helpful to read newer scholarly materials first, because (hopefully) they will correct some of the inaccuracies and biases that could appear in earlier sources.

America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Uniquely provides access to state and county historical societies' journals. Includes Pennsylvania History, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Pennsylvania Heritage, and Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, as well as journals and magazines published by some (but not all) of the PA county historical societies.
Search for articles on all aspects of the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Articles from national, state and local historical journals are covered, as well as historical articles in major humanities and social science journals. Also includes citations to reviews, books, and dissertations. Keywords: African-American, Afro-American, Black, Hispanic, Latino, Colonial, Pennsylvania, Native Americans, women, gender, revolution, revolutionary war, civil war, Vietnam War, Cold War, World War I, World War II, Immigration, Immigrants, labor, agriculture, culture, society, politics, religion, economic, military, historiography.

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Free access to most issues of Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Penn State account not required.
Pennsylvania History
Free access to most issues of Pennsylvania History. Penn State account not required.
Western Pennsylvania History
Free access to most issues of Western Pennsylvania History. Penn State account not required.

Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Covers journals, magazines, and newspapers produced by Black, Latino, Native, and other ethnic communities.
Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW) is a comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Continuously growing since 1991, with archival material back to 1985, Ethnic NewsWatch is now a collection of more than 470,000 full-text articles from over 200 publications. Searchable in both English and Spanish, with titles in both languages and more than 100,000 articles in Spanish, ENW offers in-depth coverage of a wide range of current and retrospective topics easily accessed using free text and fielded searching. An average of 7,500 new articles is added each month.

Area and Cultural Studies Subject Guides
A list of research guides that list the library's resources for specific populations, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, and other groups.

Catalog (Penn State University Libraries catalog) This link opens in a new window
Searches all Penn State libraries for books and other materials. Use the "refine" options to the left of your results list to narrow down by date and other criteria.
This is the online catalog of materials owned by Penn State Libraries. All formats (books, journals, audiovisuals, maps, recordings, etc.) are included. Circulation status for individual items is also provided. Coverage: Presently contains about 7 million records. Updates: Continuous up-to-the-minute as new records are added.
WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window
Searches catalogs from libraries around the world. Penn State faculty, staff, and students can request other libraries' materials via ILLiad; other users can request items through their public libraries' interlibrary loan services.
OCLC WorldCat database is the OCLC online union catalog. It contains over 43 million records describing library holdings around the world.

Google Books
Google's search engine for books. Includes some partial and full text. Penn State account not required.

Primary Sources: Pennsylvania-Specific Resources

Although abundant historical material is available on the Internet, finding complete and faithful versions is a challenge. Many amateur historians have transcribed and posted things online, but in too many cases, the original sources aren't cited or the copies are incomplete or altered. Here are some reputable resources for primary sources:

Philadelphia Inquirer, 1860-2001 [Full Page Reproduction] This link opens in a new window
An important Philadelphia newspaper.
A complete digital archive of one of the longest surviving daily newspapers in the United States. Includes all news stories, editorials, advertisements, illustrations and other content. The Inquirer is known for its coverage of the American Civil War; its published works by literary figures such as Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe; and its reporting of breaking news in the city, country, and around the world. The Philadelphia Inquirer offers a regional perspective on historical events as they unfolded.
Philadelphia Tribune, 1912-2001 [Full Text Reproduction] This link opens in a new window
Philadelphia's African American newspaper.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1786-2003 [Full Page Reproduction] This link opens in a new window
An important Pittsburgh newspaper.
A complete digital archive of the Post-Gazette one of the earliest newspapers west of the Alleghenies. Includes news stories, editorials, advertisements, illustrations and other content. The Post-Gazette offers coverage of the U.S. westward expansion, the industrial revolution—from coal mining to the rise of the steel industry and notable figures such as Andrew Carnegie. Henry Clay Fricke. Andrew Mellon. and H.J. Heinz. The Post-Gazette provides researchers a valuable regional perspective on international, national and local news.
Pittsburgh Courier, 1911-2010 [Full Text Reproduction] This link opens in a new window
Pittsburgh's African American newspaper.

Pennsylvania News Archive
A growing database of freely-available, digitized newspapers.
Pennsylvania Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Block-by-block maps of Pennsylvania communities, most dating from the 1880s through the 1920s. Penn State account not required.
Pennsylvania History Subject Guide
Additional links to primary resources for Pennsylvania history.

Primary Sources: More Newspapers, Photographs, and Documents

America's Historical Imprints This link opens in a new window
Best for finding items dating before 1820. Combines several databases of early American books, booklets, flyers, and other published material.
Searchable monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and ephemera including American Broadsides and Ephemera; Afro-Americana Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1535-1922; Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800, and Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800; Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819, and Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1801-1819.
American Periodicals Series (1740-1900) [full page reproduction] This link opens in a new window
Popular magazines of the 19th century.
Search a selection of periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals. Contains full-text of American magazines and journals that originated between 1741 and 1900. Digitized page images reproduce the publications as they appeared when originally published.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 This link opens in a new window
Popular magazines published in the 20th century.
The online version of the original Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, offers subject access to over 3 million articles from approximately 375 leading magazines. Use Readers Guides Retrospective to find contemporary magazine accounts documenting events in politics, fashion, media, film, television, health and medicine, literature, popular culture, religion and science.
America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922 [full page reproduction] This link opens in a new window
Historical newspapers from around the U.S.
Readex's Early American Newspapers (1690-1922) is a unique, webbased archive of Americana that provides a fascinating glimpse into our nation's past. The Early American Newspaper Collection will feature the images and full-text content from scores of historical publications.
ProQuest - U.S. Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
Includes five major daily newspapers; The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune.
Includes five major daily newspapers; The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. The only database to provide recent years of the LA Times and Chicago Tribune. Titles can be searched individually or collectively.

Newsfinder
A great tool if you need to find a particular newspaper at Penn State.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
America's largest library; owns many of the nation's most important collections of primary sources. Check here for materials that have been digitized. Penn State account not required.
Digital Public Library of America
More than 30 million historical documents, photographs, recordings, and other materials from libraries across the United States. Penn State account not required.
History Subject Guide -- Using Primary Sources
Click on the "Databases" tab in the middle of the page to see a list of all the other primary source databases Penn State subscribes to.

Beyond Penn State, there are additional resources that could be pursued at local libraries and historical societies, and at organizations related to the topic of your search. Ask a librarian for help in identifying the best contacts.