Library

Library Catalogs

Bowdoin College Library Catalog
Books, videos, government documents, etc. in Bowdoin's library.

NExpress
A combined catalog containing the library holdings of Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Wellesley, Williams, Middlebury, and Northeastern. Requests take 2-3 days.

MaineCat
Includes the holdings of most Maine libraries. Requests take 2-5 days

WorldCat
A combined database of many library catalogs worldwide. Request items found in WorldCat through our Interlibrary Loan service.

Reference Sources

This is a sampling only of the sources that you will find in the reference section of H-L Library. There are many more that cover African-American biography, history, statistics, and more. It is suggested that you browse the E185 call number area.

Africana : The Encyclopedia of The African and African American Experience
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005
Main Ref DT14.A37435 2005, v.1-5.

Black Biography, 1790-1950: A Cumulative Index
Alexandria: Chadwyck-Healey, 1991
Main Ref E185.96.B52 1990 v.1

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History
New York : Macmillan Library Reference, c 1996
Main Ref E185.E54 1995 v.1-5

Historical Statistics of Black America
New York: Gale Research, c1995
Main Ref E185 H543 1995 v.1-2

The State of Black America (annual)
[New York] : National Urban League
Library has 1978-, Curr. ed. in REF; older in STACKS
Main Ref E185.5.S7

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights
Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2003
Main Ref E185.61 .E54 2003 v. 1-2

African American History in the Press, 1851-1899
Detroit : Gale, c1996
Main Ref E185.2 .A25 1996 v.1-2

Primary Sources

African American history in the press, 1851-1899: from the coming of the Civil War to the rise of Jim Crow as reported and illustrated in selected newspapers of the time.
Main Ref E185.2 .A25 1996

Afro-American History Series
Main Micro Fiche 1182(58 microfiche)
Reproduction of documents relating to Black history in America

Antebellum Black Newspapers: indices to New York Freedom's Journal (1827-1829), The Rights of All (1829), The Weekly Advocate (1837), and The Colored American (1837-1841)
Main Ref E185.5 .J33
Of these newspapers, Bowdoin Library has only Freedom's Journal. Plan to use interlibrary loan for articles from other papers. Freedom's Journal, 1827-1829 also available on the web.

The Bayard Rustin Papers (microform)
Main Micro Film #2671-2693
Guide to the Papers is at Main Micro Index Section as E185.97 R9D6 1988

Black Abolitionist Papers, 1830-1865
Main Micro Film #2374-2390
Guide to the Papers is at Main Micro Index E449 .B625 1981 guide

Black Culture Collection
Main Micro Film #1701-1881
Guide to the Collection is at Main Micro Index Section GN645 B55 guide

The Black Women Oral History Project : From the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College, 10 v. + supplement
Main Libr E185.86 .B544 1991

Black Workers in the Era of the Great Migration, 1916-1929 (microform)
Main Micro Film #2536-2560
Guide to the collection is at Main Micro Index E185.8 .B562 guide

Civil Rights During the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969: A Collection From the Holdings of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin Texas (microform)
Main Micro Film #2490-2535

Civil Rights During the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963: A collection From the Holdings of the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts (microform)
Main Micro Film #2601-2619
Guide to the collection is at Main Micro Index JC599 .U5 C567 guide

FBI File on Paul Robeson (microform)
Main Micro Film #2391-2392
Guide to the file is at Main Micro Index E185.97 R63F4 guide

Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans (1917-1925): The First World War, The Red Scare, and The Garvey Movement (microform)
Main Micro Film #1966-1990
Guide to the collection is at Main Micro Index E185.61 .F434 1985 guide

In The First Person
Index to English language personal narratives, including letters, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories. The full text is available for many of the collections. Browse by subject, date of event, subject of interviews, etc.

Marcus Garvey: FBI investigation file (microform)
Main Micro Film #1615 Microfilm of FBI file papers, including clipping from the New York Times, dating from 1921-1971, also visit web site for sample documents http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/

The Martin Luther King, Jr. FBI File (microform)
Main Micro Film #3092 (25 reels)
Guide to the file is at Main Micro Index E185.97.K5 M34 guide. Part 1 covers reels 1-16; part 2 covers 17-25.

New Deal agencies and Black America in the 1930s (microform)
Main Micro Film #1952-1965
Guide to the collection is at Main Micro Index JK723.A34 N48 guide

The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality: Addendum, 1944-1968 (microform)
Main Micro Film #2276-2300
Guide to the Papers is at Microform Index Section E185.61 C67P3 Suppl. guide

Papers of the NAACP, Part 1 and Part 4 (microform)
Part 1: Meetings of the Board of Directors, records of annual conferences, major speeches, and special reports, 1909-1950 (28 reels)
Part 4: The voting rights campaign, 1916-1950 (13 reels)
Main Micro Film #3038
Guide to the Papers is at Microform Index Section as E185.61 N3P3

President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights (microform)
Main Micro Film #1991-2000
Guide to the collection is at Main Micro Index E185.61 .P647 guide

Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution Through the Civil War, Series C, Selections from the holdings of the Library of Congress, part 1 [microform]
Main Micro Film #3086 no. 1-8
Guide to the Records is at Microform Index Section HD1471 .U5 R45 ser. C

Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution Through the Civil War, Series E, Selections from the University of Virginia Library, University of Virginia, part 2 [microform]
Main Micro Film #3087 no. 1-26
Guide to the Records is at Microform Index Section HD1471.U5 R45 ser. E, pt. 2-3

Primary Sources at Bates or Colby

Papers of the NAACP. Part 21, Relations with the modern civil rights movement, 1956-1965 (microform) 22 reels and printed guide

Records of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 1895-1992 (microform) 26 reels and printed guide

Bowdoin College Library Special Collections

African American History Resources
"...houses several manuscript, archival and print collections that contain records and information relevant to the study of African American history. They are especially rich in material concerning 19th century African Americans, both in Maine and nationwide."

Web Sites

Gateways

African American Studies (Howard University)
Topics include: Affirmative Action, Architecture, Art, Biography, Civil Rights, Communications, Curriculum, Demographics, Education, General Sources, Health & Welfare, History, Literature, Military Science, Music, Organizations, Periodicals, Politics, Publishers & Booksellers, Research Resources, Science & Technology, and Videos and Films.

African Studies WWW (U. Penn)
Extensive Collection of links. Focus is fairly academic. Click on Africa Web Links: an Annotated Resource List for a list of sites by subject.

A Roadmap to African-American Resources

An A-Z of African Studies on the Internet

Columbia’s African Studies Internet Resources

History

Bowdoin College Library African History research guide

The Britannica Guide to Black History
Covers 400 years of African-American history through five distinct time periods. Features over 550 articles and includes historical film clips, audio recordings, and hundreds of photographs and other images.

Historical Census Browser (University of Virginia)
Statistical data from 1790-1960

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Resources for African American History (Prof. Patrick Rael, Bowdoin College)

African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907
351 rare pamphlets offering insight into attitudes and ideas of African Americans between Reconstruction and the First World War.

The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture

Virginia Center for Digital History

Black Facts Online
A searchable database of events in African-American history. You can search by date or by keyword. Delete

SARAP, the South African Research and Archival Project (Howard University)
Primary documents on recent South African history

Southern Africa’s Struggle for Democracy: Anti-apartheid periodicals, 1950 – 1994

Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition

Art

African American Art
Bowdoin library guide

Art and life in African Online

Literature

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
Full text of 52 books and pamphlets from NYPL's Schomburg Collection.

Quarterly Black Review of Books
Covers current African-American fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children's books. Also includes list of classics.

Voice of the Shuttle: African-American
Literary links from Alan Liu, an English professor at UCSB.

Voice of the Shuttle: Africa

Other

AllAfrica News Service
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views.

Africa South of the Sahara
Search by countries and topics.

Howard University's Gateway to Historically Black Colleges and Universities