This guide is intended to assist students performing research in the area of American History. It suggests both print and Internet resources available, but it is by no means a comprehensive list of all materials available either in the Library or on the Web but is a representative sample.
The Online Catalog is an excellent place to start your research. It will allow you to identify books in the Davis Memorial Library about your topic about American History. The Online Catalog is available from any Internet accessible computer. Use the Keyword search to locate materials. Type in the concepts you are looking for, using "and" to combine terms (e.g. "North Carolina" and "civil war").
Electronic databases are used to identify journal, magazine, or newspaper articles on a particular topic. Some databases are designated as full-text, which means that the whole text of the article is available in that database. You can print, save, or email that article. When using a database or any other tool in the Library, always write down the full citation to an article (author, article title, journal title, volume, issue, date, and pages) so you will have this information for your bibliography. If the article is not available with full-text try Journal Finder to see if articles from that journal are available in another database or in print in the Library.
General Resources
Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier is a general database with many full-text articles included. It is a good place to look for almost all American history topics, so start your research for journals here. Also, select the "Scholarly" button to limit your results to scholarly, academic, peer-reviewed, and/or refereed journals. If you are looking for a book review of a specific title, search on the name of the book. You can identify book reviews usually since the word “book” is given after the title. Remember to use Journal Finder for articles that do not have full-text included.
Project
MUSE
Project MUSE is a full-text database with articles going back to 1993. Journals may be browsed or searched. Results are organized by relevance (number of times the terms searched match in the text), so there may be results that are not on target for your search. Revise your search and try again.
WorldCat
Use WorldCat to search for books. The database accesses library holdings from around the world, giving the user information about the book including which library or libraries own it.
For titles the DML does not own, inquire about interlibrary loan at the Circulation Desk or use this online form. Please allow at least two weeks for delivery.
Online Books and Document Collections
American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Historic Events of the 20th Century
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
The Reference section of the library is a good place to develop possible topics, begin your research, and find critical pieces of information to finish your project. Try some of the following titles for information.
| Title | Location |
| Bibliographies | |
| AHA Guide to Historical Literature | R 900.16 A512 |
| The Harvard Guide to African-American History | R 973.0496 H339 2001 |
| Biographies | |
| African American Lives | R 920.0092 A258 2004 |
| American National Biography | R 920.073 A512 1998 vol. 1-2 |
| Cyclopedia of American Biography | R 920.073 A649 vol. 1-6 |
| Dictionary of American Biography | R 920.073 D554d vol. 1-18 |
| Dictionary of North Carolina Biography | R 920.0756 D554; vol. 1-6 |
| Who Was Who in America | R 920.073 W628 vol. 1-17 |
| Atlases | |
| Atlas of American Military History | R 355.00973 A881 2003 |
| Atlas of the Civil War | R 973.7W912a 2004 |
| Atlas of Slavery | R 306.362 W241a 2006 |
| The D-Day Atlas | R 940.54 M583d 2005 |
| National Geographic Historical Atlas of the United States | Atlas 911.73 F535n 2004 |
| General | |
| Almanac of American History | R 973 M648n 2006 |
| Dictionary of American History | R 973.03 D554 2003 vol. 1-10 |
| Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates | R 973.0202 C319e 1987 |
| Encyclopedia of American Political History | R 973.03 E56 2001 |
| Facts About the States | R 973 K16f 1989 |
| Encyclopedia of Women's History in America | R 305.40973 C967e 2000 |
| Oxford Companion to United States History | R 973.03 O98 2001 |
| Colonial and Revolutionary | |
| Companion to the American Revolution | R 973.3 C737 2000 |
| Encyclopedia of Colonial and Revolutionary America | R 973.303 E56 1990 |
| Civil War | |
| Encyclopedia of the American Civil War | R 973.703 H465e 2000 vol. 1-5 |
| Encyclopedia of the Confederacy | R 973.713 E56 1993 vol. 1-4 |
| Twentieth Century | |
| A-Z of Modern America | R 973.92 D826z 1999 |
| Cold War Chronology: Soviet American Relations 1945-1991 | R 327.73 H646c 1993 |
| Encyclopedia of the Korean War | R 951.9042 E56 2000 vol. 1-3 |
| Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War | R 959.703 E56 1998 vol. 1-3 |
| Encyclopedia of World War II | R 940.5303 E56 2005 v.1-5 |
| Oxford Companion to World War II | R 940.5303 O98 2005 |
| Rediscovering America | R 973.90202 R371 2003 |
| Regional | |
| Encyclopedia of North Carolina | R 975.6003 E56 2006 |
| Encyclopedia of Southern Culture | R 975 E56 1989 |
| New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture | R 975.003 N532 2006 v.1-4 |
| New Encyclopedia of the American West | R 978.003 N532 1998 |
| Slavery | |
| The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery | R 306.362 H673r 1997 vol. 1-2 |
| A Historical Guide to World Slavery | R 306.362 H673 1998 |
| African-American | |
| Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience | R 960.03 A258a 2005 v.1-5 |
| Civil Rights Chronicle | R 323.1196 C321c 2003 |
| Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939 | R 973.0496 C726 2006 |
| Native American | |
| British Museum Encyclopedia of Native North America | R 970.004 G797b 1999 |
| Presidency | |
| American Presidency | R 973.099 A521 2004 |
| Reader's Companion to the American Presidency | R 973.0092 R286 2000 |
American Indian History and Related Issues - American Indian History and Related Issues" is a developing site supervised by Professor Troy Johnson and is dedicated to the presentation of unique artwork, photographs, video and sound recordings which accurately reflect the history, culture and richness of the Native American experience in North America and has been expanded to include Indian people of Central America and Mexico."
American Women - "Unlike most American Memory presentations, American Women is not a collection of digital items. It is a gateway--a first stop for Library of Congress researchers working in the field of American women's history. The site contains a slightly expanded and fully searchable version of the print publication American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2001). The guide has been redesigned for online use, with added illustrations and links to existing digitized material located throughout the Library of Congress Web site."
Gateway to African-American History - The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs' Gateway to African American History provides information about African American History and states that it "has been established to assist its international audience in acquiring information on the rich and varied contributions of African-Americans to the culture and history of the United States and the world. Updated throughout the year, the Gateway includes documents, articles, Internet sites and other resources which honor and acknowledge the accomplishments of African-Americans."
Making of America - "Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints."
Civil Rights
Civil Rights in Mississippi - Created by the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, this digital archive contains more than 700 items including manuscripts, letters, photographs, and other pieces valuable to scholars. Oral histories are also available, some only as transcripts but others available as audio files.
We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement - This website created by the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Transportation, The Federal Highway Administration, and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers provides information about Civil Rights places of interest across the United States. The "Learn More" section provides a useful bibliography of print and web resources for further study.
General
The American Experience - From PBS, The American Experience website accompanies the popular television program of the same name. With each topic from D-Day to Joe DiMaggio, John Brown to Gold Fever, website users will find materials designed to bring the information to life. Interactive maps, timelines, and bibliographies accompany many of the articles.
American Memory - From the Library of Congress, the American Memory collection contains over seventy collections online. These collections contain documents, maps, motion pictures, photographs prints, and sound recordings. Users can search the collection to locate information by topic, original format, time, place, and digital format. Current collections include: Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, Baseball Cards, 1887-1914, Civil War Maps, Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies, American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 - 1940, the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799, and much more.
Best of History Websites: Unites States History - This frequently-updated site suggests the "best" sites in American History. Sites are categorized by topic or by period "Best of History Web Sites aims to provide quick, convenient, and reliable access to the best history-oriented resources online in a wide range of categories. BOHWS has been designed to benefit history teachers and their students . . ."
Encyclopedia Smithsonian - This resource from the Smithsonian Museum provides "links to Smithsonian resources on subjects from A to Z." Try here for information on a variety of American History topics to obtain descriptions, photographs, links and references.
National Museum of American History - This Smithsonian Museum has digitized a number of items from its collection. Use the "Collections" tab to view items by category. The "History Explorer" (needs the Macromedia Flash Player to work) allows you to navigated the collections by era.
Southern Culture/History
Documenting the American South - "Documenting the American South (DAS), an electronic collection sponsored by the Academic Affairs Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture. . .Currently, DAS includes five digitization projects: slave narratives, first-person narratives, Southern literature, Confederate imprints, and materials related to the church in the black community."