Library

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.

Some of these databases contain the full text of the journal articles they index. Others provide citation only. Use either the “Check Availability” link in the database or the “Find Journals” function in the Library Catalog to determine journal availability at Bowdoin.

LexisNexis Academic
Online Database
Full text of domestic and international news and legal information. Dates of coverage vary by title but many go back to 1980.

America: History & Life
Online Index 1964-
Main Periodical Index 1964-1981
Indexes articles, books, and dissertations covering with the U.S. and Canada with links to full text when available.

Essay and General Literature Index
Online Index 1985-
Main Periodical Index 1900-1994
This index is unusual because it emphasizes the contents of books (i.e. chapters or sections). Coverage includes literature, social science and history.

Academic Search Premier
A mix of scholarly journals, including history, and general interest magazines, covering articles published back as far as 1980. About 40% of the articles are full-text.

History Cooperative.org
http://www.historycooperative.org
About 20 history journals, including the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, and the Western Historical Quarterly can be searched and their articles retrieved in fulltext.

J-Stor History Journals
Full-text articles from selected scholarly journals. Coverage begins with a title’s first issue however the most recent five years are not available. When you go to the J-Stor screen, click the SEARCH button to access a search screen and to choose your subject grouping of journals to search.

Periodicals Index Online
1770 - 1990/1991.
An index only, but if a cited article is included in JStor, PCI will link to the full text. While not comprehensive, PCI represents a beginning in online indexing to many of the Library's 19th and early 20th century journals.

Poole's index to periodical literature: 1802-1906
Main Periodical Index
A subject index to British and American periodicals of the nineteenth century. Bowdoin Library owns many of these nineteenth century periodicals in its collections.

Readers' Guide Retrospective
1890 – 1982
Indexing for the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States. Bowdoin has many of the early 20th century journals.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set, Digitized : 1817 - 1980 (when complete)
Gov Docs Y1.1/2: (Print volumes)
The U.S. Congressional Serial Set is comprised of thousands of sequentially numbered volumes containing congressionally-produced reports and documents. In the 19th century, many executive agency documents were published in the Serial Set as well, making it an extraordinarily rich source of primary documents for American History and culture.

Bibliography of Native North Americans
1989 - Present
Citations to literature published from the sixteenth century to the present. Includes books, journals, conferences, Canadian and US government documents

Dictionary of American History
Main Ref E174 .D52 2003
Multi-volume set with extensive entries on events, movements, people, and other topics in American history. Articles contain bibliographies.

Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates
Main Ref E174.5 .C3 1993
Detailed chronology of American history starting with Norse exploration in 986, including brief descriptions of social, cultural and economic trends as well as political events.

Encyclopedia of American Social History
Main Ref HN57 .E58 1993
Three-volume, specialized encyclopedia of lengthy scholarly signed articles with bibliographies on social and cultural topics in American history.

Encyclopedia of the United States in the twentieth century
Main Ref E740.7 .E53 1996
Alphabetical collection of articles on events and movements of the twentieth century.

The Reader's Companion to American History.
Sponsored by the Society of American Historians.
Main Ref E174 .R43 1991
Consists of short substantive signed articles with bibliographies by historians on topics in American history.

United States History : A Selective Guide to Information Sources.
Main Ref E178 .B57 1994
A bibliographic guide arranged chronologically by event.

Bowdoin College Library holds numerous primary sources for the study of American history in print, microform and electronic formats. For a definition of primary and secondary sources and how to find them, please see the CBB Guide to Primary and Secondary Sources . For government records please see the section on Government Documents in this guide.

Historical Periodicals/Books

Print Journals/Magazines

Bowdoin College Library has an unusually large collection of magazines and journals from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The following indexes are best for identifying specific articles in these older journals:

Poole's Index in Print Periodical Index Area
Reader's Guide Retrospective
Periodicals Index Online
Library of Congress' Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals-- you can obtain texts of articles in about 20 nineteenth century periodicals from the web.

American Periodicals Series Online
"...Digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century.

Current National Newspapers in Microfilm or Online

The newspapers listed below have print indexes located in the Microform Index Area. For current newspapers online, see Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.

The New York Times 1852—, microfiche and online
Boston Globe 1960—
Los Angeles Times 1974—
Chicago Tribune 1974—
Wall Street Journal Archive 1889—

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800

Old Newspapers in Print, Microfilm, and Online

For nineteenth and early twentieth century newspapers other than those listed below, check the Library’s Newspaper research guide.

Early American Newspapers Series I, 1690-1876

Microform Periodical Collections
American periodical series: eighteenth century.
Main Micro Film 0717- 0749

American periodicals, 1741-1900 : an index to the microfilm collections--American periodicals 18th century, American periodicals, 1800-1850, American periodicals, 1850-1900, Civil War and Reconstruction
Main Micro Index Z6951 .H65

Periodicals on Women and Women's Rights
Main Micro Index Z7964.U49 P4

The individual Microform periodicals are filed alphabetically in the Microform Room or by film or fiche number. See the Library Catalog record for each periodical title to locate the microfilm.

Historical Document Collections in Microform

Below is list of links to sets of primary documents for American history that the Library holds in microform. They are often overlooked, and to facilitate better use of these collections, this guide lists the names of the collections and their corresponding indexes.

Specialized Microform Sets--General American History
Specialized Microform Sets--Native Americans
Specialized Microform Set--African American History and Civil Rights

Historical Government Publications

Bowdoin College began collecting both Maine and U.S. government publications in the early 1800s. Some of the major historical series are listed below. For other historical government documents, please consult the Government Documents Librarian.

Annual report of the American Historical Association
Govt Doc SI 4.1

Writings on American history, 1962-73 : a subject bibliography of articles
Main Ref Z1236 .W69
These annual reports, produced by the Smithsonian, consist of lengthy essays on historical topics. Access is by bibliographies and short indexes.

Congressional Record
Govt Doc X1- X100 1789-present
The title has changed over the years, but the Congressional Record remains a daily record of the debates taking place on the floor of Congress. In the 1st to the 31st Congress, the Government Printing Office published summaries of the debates and proceedings. From the 32nd to the present Congress, the GPO publishes full text of debates and proceedings.

Historical Statistics of the United States from Colonial Times to 1970, in print and online
Govt Ref C 3.134/2: H 62/798-970/
A compilation by the Census Bureau of demographic, social, and economic statistics describing the U.S. for nearly three centuries.

Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789
Govt Ref GS 4.20 247/2
Collection of letters, documents, and proceedings of the delegates to the Continental Congress.

A compilation of the messages and papers of the presidents.
Main Ref J81 .B96g

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
Govt Ref AE 2.114:
Together, these sets publish the public statements of all the presidents except Roosevelt, whose papers were privately published.

United States Congressional Serial Set
Online
Govt Doc Y1.1/2 1789-present
The U.S. Congressional Serial Set is comprised of thousands of sequentially numbered volumes containing congressionally-produced reports and documents. In the 19th century, many executive agency documents were published in the Serial Set as well. A key source of primary source documents for American history.

United States statutes at large
Govt. Docs. AE 2.111:
An annual compilation of laws passed by Congress, arranged chronologically.

Treaties and other international agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949.
Govt Doc S 9.12/2: 1776-1949
Govt. Docs. S 9.12: 1950-
Chronological compilations of the treaties to which the U.S. is a party.

Special Collections and Archives

Special Collections and Archives, located on the third floor of the Library, has an extensive collection of old and rare published materials, family papers, documents and manuscripts. Many Special Collections materials are recorded in the Library Catalog, but some are not yet cataloged, so consulting the Special Collections staff and their card file is important. The Archives area contains materials relating to the history of the college and its graduates, many of whom have been prominent in U.S. history, such as George J. Mitchell and Thomas Brackett Reid. The manuscript collections are strong in the early history of Massachusetts and Maine, the Civil War and Reconstruction, 19th century American literary life, and Arctic exploration. Please see Manuscript Collections for a description of that part of Special Collections.

American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html
Manuscripts, motion pictures, sound recordings, photographs, prints from the Library of Congress.

American Studies Web - Historical and Archival Resources
http://lumen.georgetown.edu/projects/asw/
Links to eighteenth and nineteenth century newspaper articles and other primary documents, organized by subject.

The Avalon project at the Yale Law School
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
Full text documents relating to history, law and government organized by time period. The emphasis is on American and European history. An internal search engine simplifies access.

Documents for the Study of American History
http://www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/amdocs_index.html
A bibliography of primary documents, essential to the study of U.S. history, available in full text. The Find in Page button will simplify title access, or the list of topics can be browsed.

The Making of America
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/
A collection of primary source material–letters, magazine articles, diaries, short monographs-- from 19th century.

National Archive Information Locator (NAIL)
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/index.html
Prototype for a full catalog of National Archives holdings. Digitized texts, photos and prints, and descriptions of NARA's extensive microform collections.

Center for New History and Media, George Mason University
http://chnm.gmu.edu/
An Internet clearing house for a wide variety of materials about history.

A Century of lawmaking for a new nation: U.S. Congressional documents and debates 1774-1875
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html
Includes digitized versions of the following documents: Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-89); The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787; The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution; the Journals of House of Representatives and the Senate; United States Statutes at Large; the Senate Executive Journal; the Annals of Congress. The American State papers may be added in the future.

Historical census data browser.
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/
Using data from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), this site allows users to browse selected census data from 1790 to 1970 by state and county. Data from the early years (1790 to 1830) focuses solely on population characteristics, while data after those years include selected economic, manufacturing, and agricultural information.