History/GWS 249 History of Women’s Voices in America

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"A Writing Desk for Every Home"
American Memory Project, Library of Congress

Professor: Sarah McMahon
Librarian: Ginny Hopcroft
Spring 2008

Catalogs
Reference Books
Indexes and Databases
Primary Sources
Strategies for Historical Research

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.

Reference Books

The pen is ours : a listing of writings by and about African-American women before 1910 with secondary bibliography to the present
Main Ref PS153.N5 Y44 1991
The Oxford Companion To Women's Writing In The United States
Main Ref PS147 .O94 1995
A To Z Of American Women Writers
Main Ref PS147 .K67 2000
American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide From Colonial Times to the Present. 4 volumes
Main Ref PS147.A4
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism (NCLC)
Main Ref PN761 .N5
In addition to individual author criticism, check out these nearly book-length articles on women writers:
Women’s autobiography, Nineteenth Century: NCLC v.76, p.285-368

American and British Women’s Diaries, Nineteenth Century: NCLC v.48, p.308-354

Literature Criticism From 1400 to 1800
Main Ref PN86 .L53 1984
In addition to individual author criticism, check out these nearly book-length articles on women writers:
American women prose writers to 1820, Main Ref PS149 .A54 1999

American women prose writers, 1820-1870, Main Ref PS149 .A55 2001

American women prose writers, 1870-1920, Main Ref PS362 .A83 2000
Dictionary of American History
Main Ref E174 .D52 2003
Encyclopedia of American Social History
Main Ref HN57 .E58 1993
United States government documents on women, 1800-1990: a comprehensive bibliography
Main Ref HQ1410 .H85 1993 v.1.
Reference books in the following areas:
Main Ref HQ 1115.B65 - HQ1883.W36 (Women's Studies)
Main Ref E184.A1.H35 - E185.96.W52 (Ethnicity in the US)

Indexes and Databases

Academic Search Premier
Date coverage varies.
Academic Search Premier indexes over 1800 peer reviewed journals in the social sciences, humanities and science, as well as general interest magazines and a few major American newspapers.
America History and Life
1960 to present.
From the menu for the search box at the top of the screen choose either "U.S. and Canadian History" or "World History excluding the U.S. and Canada." These are the two foremost bibliographic indexes for the scholarly literature of history. Both index articles, books and dissertations published throughout the world from the 1960’s to the present.
History Journals in the J-STOR Electronic Journal Service
Date coverage varies and doesn't include the most recent five years.

Reader's Guide Retrospective
1895 to the present
U.S. general interest magazines and journals.

Primary Sources

American Periodicals Series
1740 to 1900.
"...Digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century."
Government Documents Monthly Catalog
1976 to present, online
Print--1892 to 1976.
Bowdoin's collection of U.S. government documents is not yet fully cataloged, so these print and online indexes are used to locate government publications. When you locate a document in this index, please make note of the "Sudocs" classification number in order to locate the document in Bowdoin's collection.
Poole's Index
Main Per Index –1802 to 1906
Poole's Index is a print subject index to British and American periodicals of the 19th century. The Library holds many of these 19th century periodicals.
America’s Historical Newspapers
1740 to 1900.
 “Features cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers, providing more than one million pages as fully text-searchable facsimile images.”
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
A growing collection of primary source documents relating to women.
A Celebration of Women Writers
Contains gems like The American Woman's Home, or, Principles of Domestic Science by by Catharine Esther Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe; and From a New England Woman's Diary in Dixie in 1865.
Here is a list of women American women writers who lived between 1600 and 1900.
The Woman's Building at the Chicago World's Fair, 1893
Collection of texts and speeches given by women for the fair on such topics as “Changing Ideals in Southern Womanhood,” and “Characteristics of the Modern Woman.”

Strategies for Historical Research

  1. Use both subject and keyword searching in any electronic database or index, including the library catalog.

  2. When you find a relevant record for a book or article, always check the descriptors or subject headings for additional search terms.

  3. Read bibliographies and footnotes of books and articles for additional relevant information.

  4. For information on primary sources, please read the CBB Guide to Primary and Secondary Sources.

  5. Evaluate web sites carefully for accuracy, timeliness and authority.

  6. Consult “Library Research and Navigation” for a summary of the research process.

  7. Begin research EARLY. Interlibrary loans always take at least a few days; for obtaining specialized items, such as microfilm of old newspapers, several weeks may be necessary.




    This page created and maintained by Ginny Hopcroft. Last updated February 2008.