Library Research Guides: HIST 245: History of American Capitalism: Primary Sources

Resources

America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full text of more than 1,000 historical U.S. newspapers. Contains Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922, and African American Newspapers, 1827-1998.
Dates: 1690-1998 CE

Making of the Modern World
Primary sources documenting world history through the lens of economics & trade, 1450-1914.
NOTE: Access is provided through the Boston Public Library with a Boston Public Library card. Get a BPL eCard

Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971 This link opens in a new window
More than 130 newspapers published by and for American ethnic groups, with German-American, Irish-American, and Japanese-American papers forming the bulk. English language news is predominant.
Dates: 1799-1971 CE
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1760-1900 This link opens in a new window
Full-color, high-resolution images of many pamphlets, fliers, advertisements, and more from the Revolutionary Period through the Spanish-American War.
Dates: 1760-1900 CE

Chronicling America: Digitized Historical Newspapers
Chronicling America is a website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Sort newspapers by ethnicity, date, and state.
Congressional Record
Debates & proceedings in the U.S. Congress 1789-present
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History

Archival Collections

American Revolutionary War Manuscripts at the Boston Public Library
Some of the topics covered include the war’s political origins, the unfolding of military and naval campaigns, foreign alliances, opinions, and the economic aspects of the struggle.
American Independence: Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Links to documents and sites with primary sources on American Independence.
Avalon Project: 18th-Century Documents
Legal sources, with a focus on revolutionary records.
Early US Economic Development Documents
Links to documents on economic development and expansion that illuminate early negotiations of capitalism.
Ayer Collection, Newberry Library
As a collection of general Americana, the Newberry’s Edward E. Ayer Collection is one of the best in the country and one of the strongest collections on American Indians in the world.
The Coming of the American Revolution, 1764-1776
Website includes documents on taxation, the Boston Massacre, the Tea Party, the Continental Congresses, and more.
Colonial America
"Consists of the original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies, making it a uniquely rich resource for all historians of the period." Coverage: 1606-1822.
French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, and Nineteenth-Century Louisiana Documents
Louisiana documents from 1655 to 1924 with a strong emphasis on the French colonial, Spanish colonial, and early national periods.
Frontier Life
The material covering North America covers the varied frontier regions from fur trappers in Canada to cowboys in Texas and government in Baja California. It is divided into the frontier regions of the American East, the American Midwest, the American Southwest, California & Mexico and Canada.
Slave Voyages
Searchable and sortable databases of the Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trades as well as the names of African people taken into captivity. Users can sort data on point of departure, gender, slave ship captain, and many many more variables. Site includes image galleries that contextualize data with historical maps, ship manifests, drawings, and more.

Newspapers and Periodicals

America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full text of more than 1,000 historical U.S. newspapers. Contains Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922, and African American Newspapers, 1827-1998.
Dates: 1690-1998 CE
Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
18th-century social, political, and literary life, as covered in full-text journals published in the United Kingdom and across its empire. Topics covered include life in Britain and its colonies (India, the Caribbean, Canada), the French and American revolutions, reviews of literature and fashion, political debates, gender and society, and London coffee house gossip and discussion.
Dates: 1685-1835 CE

The Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr, Jr.
Revolutionary-era Boston newspapers and pamphlets collected, annotated, and indexed by Harbottle Dorr, Jr., a shopkeeper in Boston.
Adverts 250
Advertisements in Colonial American newspapers from 250 years ago.

The West, Manifest Destiny, and Expansion

American West This link opens in a new window
Primary sources featuring books, journals, maps and more, documenting westward expansion in America. Includes sources on White American settlers, Indigenous peoples, Black migrants free and enslaved, and more.
Dates: 1718-1968 CE

Frontier Life
The material covering North America covers the varied frontier regions from fur trappers in Canada to cowboys in Texas and government in Baja California. It is divided into the frontier regions of the American East, the American Midwest, the American Southwest, California & Mexico and Canada.
Early Advertising of the West
The Early Advertising of the West collection consists of over 450 print advertisements published in local magazines, city directories, and theater pamphlets from 1867 to 1918.
Calisphere
Digitized materials from institutions in California. Collection strengths include California history, Chinese immigration, and the 19th century.

Civil War and the South

Confederate States of America Records
The records of the Confederate States of America span the years 1854-1889, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1861-1865, during the Civil War in America. The collection relates to the formation of the government of the Confederacy and the conduct of its internal, external, and military affairs.
Documenting the American South
Several collections of materials on the South. Focuses on North Carolina and the 19th century, but other periods and places may be found.
Civil War Collection, Library of Congress
Explore the faces, places and events of the U.S. Civil War through photographs, prints and drawings. The Prints & Photographs Division holds thousands of images relating to the Civil War, found in many different collections. This category allows research across those collections.

Race and Slavery

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Full-text of 282 Black American newspapers.
Dates: 1827-1998 CE

Library of Congress: African American Newspapers
Browse issues of African American newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Slave Voyages
Searchable and sortable databases of the Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trades as well as the names of African people taken into captivity. Users can sort data on point of departure, gender, slave ship captain, and many many more variables. Site includes image galleries that contextualize data with historical maps, ship manifests, drawings, and more.

Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971 This link opens in a new window
More than 130 newspapers published by and for American ethnic groups, with German-American, Irish-American, and Japanese-American papers forming the bulk. English language news is predominant.
Dates: 1799-1971 CE

Culture and Society

Women Working, 1800-1930
a digital exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression, from Harvard University.
Social and Political Cartoons: Boston Public Library
Over 100 cartoons, with a focus on the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
Over 3,300 advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1920, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States.
Political Americana
A major collection of materials from U.S. national political campaigns, including pamphlets, political cartoons, buttons, and more.

General Sources

Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961
This collection consists of the Confidential Print for the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America, and covers such topics as slavery, Prohibition, the First and Second World Wars, racial segregation, territorial disputes, the League of Nations, McCarthyism and the nuclear bomb. The bulk of the material covers the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century.

American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1760-1900 This link opens in a new window
Full-color, high-resolution images of many pamphlets, fliers, advertisements, and more from the Revolutionary Period through the Spanish-American War.
Dates: 1760-1900 CE
Gilded Age and Progressive Era This link opens in a new window
A wide variety of primary sources focused on America's transformative age of industrialization, urbanization, expanding wealth, extreme inequality, and social change, with an emphasis on 1870-1920. Themes include art and literature, charity and philanthropy, protests and strikes, roles of women, and more.
Dates: 1800-1976 CE
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
An archive of American printed primary sources from pamphlets to children's books from the early republic to the last founding father's presidency. An emphasis on English-language documents.
Dates: 1801-1819 CE
Migration to New Worlds This link opens in a new window
This source contains letters, journals, images, and more that cover all aspects of the migration experience, from motives and departures (from Europe and Asia) to arrival and permanent settlement (in North and South America as well as Oceania).
Dates: 1800-1924 CE

Avalon Project: 19th-Century Documents
Legal sources, focuses on Manifest Destiny and foreign policy.
Nineteenth Century in Print
Popular magazines of the era digitized by Cornell

Culture

Political Americana
A major collection of materials from U.S. national political campaigns, including pamphlets, political cartoons, buttons, and more.
The Great Depression: Library of Congress
Dust Bowl Migration and Great Depression visual and textual digitized materials.
J.Walter Thompson: Advertising America
"The J. Walter Thompson Company Archive documents the history, operation, policies and accomplishments of one of the world's largest and oldest advertising firms. The papers here reveal many aspects of twentieth-century cultural, social, business, marketing, consumer and economic history while investigating the human psyche."
Trade Catalogues ad the American Home
"Explore domestic consumerism, life and leisure in America between 1850-1950 with Trade Catalogues and the American Home. This resource presents a wealth of highly illustrated primary source documents that highlight commercial tastes and consumer trends, and provide a valuable visual record for a breadth of interdisciplinary study."
Market Research & American Business, 1935-1965
"Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965 provides a unique insight into the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century through access to the complete market research reports of Ernest Dichter, the era’s foremost consumer analyst, market research pioneer and widely-recognised ‘father’ of Motivational Research."
Leisure, Travel, and Mass Culture
"Guidebooks and brochures, periodicals, travel agency correspondence, photographs and personal travel journals provide unique insight into the expansion, accessibility and affordability of tourism for the masses and the evolution of some of the most successful travel agencies in the world."

Work, Labor, Radicalism, and Activism

Farmworker Movement Documentation Project
A website with image, text, and video resources on the farmworker labor movement and Cesar Chavez.

Gilded Age and Progressive Era This link opens in a new window
A wide variety of primary sources focused on America's transformative age of industrialization, urbanization, expanding wealth, extreme inequality, and social change, with an emphasis on 1870-1920. Themes include art and literature, charity and philanthropy, protests and strikes, roles of women, and more.
Dates: 1800-1976 CE

American Radicalism: MSU Digital Collections
Several digital collections on radicalism. Citations are minimal.

War and Diplomacy

Avalon Project: 20th-Century Documents
Focus on international military and economic documents, and major laws and acts.
Foreign Relations of the United States
Official historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions, declassified (meaning a significant delay) and edited for publication. Earlier volumes available from the University of Wisconsin.

Race

Race Relations in America
"Documenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Department’s staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall."

Chicago Defender, 1909-1975 This link opens in a new window
The full text of one of America's biggest African-American newspapers. Browsable by article type (obituary, editorial, etc).
Dates: 1909-1975 CE
African American Communities This link opens in a new window
Focusing primarily on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and North Carolina, this resource documents multiple aspects of African American communities through pamphlets, news, letters, photos, maps, and oral histories. Themes include arts and culture, civil rights and Black power, education, policing, and faith and religion.
Dates: 1810-2011 CE
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Full-text of 282 Black American newspapers.
Dates: 1827-1998 CE

Library of Congress: African American Newspapers
Browse issues of African American newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Newspapers and Media

Ad Views
Thousands of television commercials created or collected by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency, dated 1950s - 1980s.

Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Index of over three million articles from more than 550 US and Canadian magazines on every topic from science to forestry, social issues to biking.
Dates: 1890-1982 CE

News
by Wellesley College Research & Instruction Staff Last Updated Aug 30, 2024 436 views this year

American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Discover historic programs of publicly funded radio and television across America. Watch and listen.
Ad*Access
Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955.

Gender

Gender: Identity and Social Change This link opens in a new window
Primary sources documenting representations and experiences of gender roles and relations, including pamphlets, speeches, newsletters, diaries, images, and more. About half of the materials from 1900-1950.
Dates: 1575-2014 CE

Bureau of Economic Analysis
Search for historical economic data online.
Historical Statistics of the United States
The standard source for the quantitative facts of American history.
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
Researches data on food production and supply, organic sales, chemical use, demographics of U.S. producers, and more. Every five years it conducts the Census of Agriculture that provides agricultural data for every county in the United States. Data begins in 1840.

Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Interactive maps exploring U.S. census, socioeconomic, and demographic data over time and across different, neighborhoods, cities, counties, states, and other geographies.
Dates: 1790 CE-present

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor is the principal Federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.