Utopia: Intentional Communities in America, 1630-1997
Professor: Sarah McMahon (
)
Librarian: Ginny Hopcroft (
)
Fall 2006
Sabbathday Lake Quartette; circa 1900; New Gloucester, Maine
Beginning Research
- Library Research and Navigation: Getting Started
- Basic Library Research Strategies
- American History Research Guide
Gain Background from Reference Books
- Encyclopedia of American Social History, Main Ref HN57 .E58 1993
- Reader's Companion to American History, Main Ref E174 .R43 1991
- Dictionary of American History, Main Ref E174 .D522
- Encyclopedia of America in the 20th Century, Main Ref E740.7 .E53 1996
- United States in the Nineteenth Century, Main Ref E169.1 .E626 2001
- Dictionary of American Communal and Utopian History, 1980. Main Ref HX653
- New England Town Histories (locate in library catalog)
Find Secondary Information
Catalogs for Books
- Bowdoin College Library Catalog
Access to Bowdoin Library's holdings of books, videos, government documents, etc. - MaineCat
Includes the holdings of most Maine libraries. It has an online request button—requests from Colby and Bates take 1-2 days. - NExpress
Combines access to the library holdings of Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Wellesley, Williams and Northeastern; requests usually arrive in 2 days. - WorldCat
Combined database of library catalogs nationwide.
Indexes and Databases
- America History and Life
- Academic Search Premier
- J-STOR Journals
- History Cooperative (for recent historical journals)
- Periodicals Index Online
- American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
- The Making of America
- Essay and General Literature Index
Web Sites
- The Religious Movements Homepage Project @The University of Virginia
- An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Sources for the Study of American Communal History
- The Society for Utopian Studies, collections of links.
Locate Primary Information
CBB Library and IT Consortium: Primary and Secondary Sources
- Diaries, Memoirs, etc.
- Period Newspapers
- Bibliographies in Secondary Sources
- Web Sites
- Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (nineteenth century)
- Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1897-present); Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
- New York Times Archive Online (1851-2001) or in Microfilm (1851-present)
- American Culture (microfilm set)
- Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Online and print: Govt Ref C 3.134/2:H 62/789-970/
- American Periodicals Series Online
- America's Historical Newspapers
General Research Tips
- Search by both keyword and subject heading in the Library Catalog and other databases.
- Check descriptors or subject headings for additional search words.
- Use footnotes and bibliographies for further information.
- Browse the library shelves in your subject area.
- Ask a reference librarian.
From Drop City-- a community that formed in the hills of southern Colorado in the late 1960's.
Photo from Shelter and Society,ed. by Paul Oliver
