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 are strictly bibliographic, i.e. they provide citation only. To discover whether Bowdoin Library either holds the journal in print or provides online access to the full text, please click the “check availability” link in the index. Or select the "Find Journals" search screen on the Library Gateway and enter the name of the journal in the search form.

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

Historical Abstracts
1967 – Present.
Indexes articles, books, and dissertations covering the world with the exception of the U.S. and Canada.

Periodicals Contents Index
1770 - 1990/1991.
An index only, but if a cited article is included in JStor, PCI will link to the full text.

JStor
Dates vary. JStor contains the full text in digitized image form of about 120 journals, including decades-long runs of many history journals.

Readers' Guide Retrospective
1890 – 1982
For an American perspective to events in 20th century Europe. Reader’s Guide indexed the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States.

Iter (Middle Ages and Renaissance Studies)
1843-
Indexes full run of over 300 journals; book, dissertation coverage coming in future; search by keyword, title, author. Post 1990 Renaissance records have subject headings.

Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)
Online 1972-
Main Periodical Index (Print) 1915-1994
Index for "publications on all subjects that bear on contemporary public issues and the making and evaluation of public policy, irrespective of source or traditional disciplinary boundaries." Sources include articles, books, government documents and NGO reports.

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

This is a selective list of reference books providing an overall background for European history. Please search the catalog or browse the appropriate subject sections in the Reference area to find reference books for specific countries or topics.

The Annual register of world events; a review of the year, 1758- present
Main Ref D2 .A7

European yearbook. The Hague, Nijhoff
v.1 (1948/53)-
Main Ref JN3 .A5

Encyclopedia of European Social History
Main Ref HN 373 .E63 2001

The Longman handbook of early modern Europe, 1453-1763 / Chris Cook, Philip Broadhead;
Main Ref D209 .C66 2001

Europe 1450 to 1789 : encyclopedia of the early modern world
Main Ref D209 .E97 2004

Ancient Europe 8000 B.C.--A.D. 1000: encyclopedia of the Barbarian world
Main Ref D62 .A52 2004

Europe 1450 to 1789: encyclopedia of the early modern world /
Main Ref D209 .E97 2004

Europe since 1945: an encyclopedia / editor, Bernard A. Cook.
Main Ref D1058 .E8754 2001

Dictionary Of The Middle Ages
Main Ref D114 .D5 1982

Annual review of global peace operations

For more about primary and secondary sources, please see the CBB guide.

Library Holdings

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.

Nineteenth Century, General Collection
Main Micro; Fiche 1151
Content is located through an online index called Nineteenth Century which gives access to the library’s microfiche collection of the same name. It contains non fiction books and pamphlets held in manuscript form in the British Library.

New York Times Archive
1851-2001 online
1853-present (microfilm)
Electronic full image database in pdf format; also microfilm.

The Times (London) 1906-present
Main Microform
Microfilm of the Times of London for nearly a century.

Early English Books Online
1473-1700
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere. Includes books, pamphlets, newspapers, and manuscripts.

Early English Newspapers [microform]
Main Micro, 1600 reels
Represents the largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media available at the British Library. The material is overwhelmingly published in London, although there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and even a handful of examples from the American colonies.

Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council law no. 10, Nuremberg, October 1946-April, 1949, 15 v
Washington, D.C. : U.S. G.P.O., 1949-1953.
Govt Doc D 102.8

On the Web

EuroDocs
http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/homepage.html
Primary historical documents from Western Europe

Modern History Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
Links aren’t updated but there’s still some good material here.

Medieval History Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
Again, links aren’t current.

Documents of Diplomatic History
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/irhistry.htm

World History Sources- Europe
Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/whmfinding.php?function=find&area=areaeur

Images

Images Shaping of the Modern World -- development of modern world civilization since the Scientific Revolution
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/core/pics/

Maps

Historical Maps from Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/index.html

Oddens’ Bookmarks
http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.php

The Bowdoin Library has a more than 200-year tradition in collecting British resources. Because our collections are particularly strong in British history and because the Bowdoin faculty’s teaching reflects this, we’ve added a specialized section for publications on British history.

Subject Search Examples

By time period

• Great Britain -- History -- Roman period, 55 B.C.-449 A.D
• Great Britain History Tudors, 1485-1603
• Great Britain History Stuarts, 1603-1714
• Great Britain -- History -- 18th century
• Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
• Great Britain -- History -- 20th century

By name

Great Britain History Edward II, 1307-1327

By event

Great Britain History Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485

See also

Great Britain Social Life And Customs (and subheadings)

Call number examples

Historical Atlases of Great Britain
G 1800s, in Reference and Main, folio or regular shelving.

British History General Dictionaries, Handbooks, and Factbooks
DA 34, primarily Reference

British History Bibliography
Z 2010-2019, in Reference and Main

Reference Sources

The Oxford companion to British history / edited by John Cannon
Main Ref DA34 .O93 1997

Reader's guide to British history / David Loades, editor
Main Ref DA34 .R43 2003

Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia
Main Ref DA550 .V53

The Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals, 1824-1900.
Main Ref Z2005 .W4
Although titled an index, this series is really a table of contents listing with cross- references to subjects. It is a very helpful access source for locating nineteenth century periodical articles, especially if a particular author is known or a specific journal is noted for articles on your research topic

Tudor England : an encyclopedia
Main Ref DA315 .T753 2001

Annual bibliography of Victorian studies
Main Ref Z2019 .A64

Medieval England : an encyclopedia
Main Ref DA129 .M43 1998

Twentieth-century Britain : an encyclopedia / editor, F.M. Leventhal
Main Ref DA566 .T835 1995

Parliamentary debates (Hansard). House of Commons official report. House of Lords official report.
Bowdoin has 1806 to present. 1806 to 1990 are print volumes; from 1991 on the series is in microfiche.
Main Libr J301 .K22 v.1-211
Main Micro Fiche 1179 6th ser. v.198
This series, generally cited as Hansard, reports debates in the houses of Parliament. The first four series, covering debate up to 1908, although authorized, are neither complete or necessarily verbatim. The fifth and sixth series, starting with 1909, are complete and verbatim. Parliamentary debate before 1803 is covered by Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England from the earliest period to the year 1803. This work is a retrospective compilation rather than a current record.

Select list of British parliamentary papers, 1833-1899 [by] P. Ford and G. Ford
Main Ref J301 .M3 1833-1899
Catalogue of parliamentary papers, 1801-1900, with a few of earlier date
Main Ref J301 .M3 1801-1910
Catalogue of parliamentary papers, 1901-1910, being a supplement to catalogue of parliamentary papers, 1801-1900
Main Ref J301 .M3 1801-1910 suppl

British And Foreign State Papers , v.1-170 1812-1969
Main Libr JX103 .A3

The public general acts and General Synod measures1972-1997
Main Libr KD125

Web Sites

Encyclopedia of British History
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Britain.html
Very useful, though each page contains advertising.

Victorian Studies on the Web
http://www.victoriandatabase.com/

The Victorian Web
http://www.victorianweb.org/

Historical Directories for England and Wales
http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp
A digital library of local and trade directories for England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919.

Irish History on the Web
http://larkspirit.com/history/
The site appears to need updating but there is still a lot of content.

Best of History Web Sites
http://www.besthistorysites.net/

History On-Line from the University of London
Choose Europe or Britain and Ireland
http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Resources/Geographical/index.html

Voice of the Shuttle
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2713#id877

World History Compass
http://www.worldhistorycompass.com/whlindex.htm#Europe%20Index

WESSWeb-- Western European Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~wessweb/index.html
Below you will find resources specific to Great Britain. Additional sources which have relevance to Europe in general, such as The Annual register of world events, may be found in the general listing above.

REESWeb- Virtual Library for Russian & East European Studies
http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/reesweb/