Home - HIST 168B: America in the Progressive Era - Primary Sources

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Deputy University Librarian

she/her/hers

Contact:

lhibbler@brandeis.edu

781-736-4656

Subjects: African and African American Studies, Asian Studies and Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, History, Rabb GPS

Historical Newspapers & Magazines

Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Includes 19th century newspapers from a range of regions throughout the United States.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
With content from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), this database includes American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912. Covers advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry and professions, religious issues, culture and the arts, and more.
American Periodicals (1740-1940) This link opens in a new window
Includes special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Includes the American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922), American Israelite (1854-2000), Atlanta Constitution (1868-1945), Atlanta Daily World‎ (1931-2010), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Baltimore Sun‎ (1837-1998), Boston Globe (1872-1993), Chicago Tribune (1849-1999), Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953), Cleveland Call and Post‎ (1934-2010), Communist Historical Newspaper Collection‎ (1919-2013), Jerusalem Post (1932-2008), Jewish Advocate (1905-1990), Jewish Exponent (1887-1990), Korea Times‎ (1956-2016), Leftist Newspapers and Periodicals (1845-2015), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), Los Angeles Times (1881-2000), Michigan Chronicle‎ (1939-2010), Minneapolis Star Tribune‎ (1867-2001), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), New York Times (1851-2020), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2010), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2010), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010), St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1874-2003), St. Petersburg Times/Tampa Bay Times (1901-2009), Times of India (1838-2011), Wall Street Journal (1889-2012), and Washington Post (1877-2007)
Religious Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
A searchable archive of magazines devoted to religious topics, spanning 19th-21st centuries. The publications were originally written by/for a wider populace rather than academic/cultural elites and offer insights into, for example, the influence of belief systems on public life, the history of popular religious movements and the means used by religions to gain adherents and communicate their ideologies. A wide variety of religions and denominations are represented, allowing for comparative studies of religions during this period.

Letters, Diaries, & Memoirs

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories includes thousands of authors, providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Includes the correspondence and diaries of women, covering colonial times to 1950.

Government Documents

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Access to congressional publications, hearings, debates, committee prints, CRS reports, legislative histories, bills, current laws, and regulations. Presently includes the full texts of hearings from 1824-2024, House & Senate Reports (Serial Set 1 & 2) from 1789-2003, CRS reports from 1916-2003, committee prints from 1830-2022, historical Congressional Record (debates) from 1789-1997 as well as the current Daily Congressional Record (debates) from 1985 to present, the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations.
Immigration: Records of the INS, 1880-1930 This link opens in a new window
Covers the investigations made during the massive immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century, including Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930; and European immigration. There are also extensive files on the INS's regulation of prostitution and white slavery, and on suppression of radical aliens.

More Primary Sources

American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window
Collection of digitized primary source materials covering American history from 1493 to 1945. Includes unique manuscripts, along with maps, engravings, posters, broadsides, and pamphlets covering colonial America through World War II.
Ancestry Library This link opens in a new window
Full text of 1790-1950 US census records, UK and Ireland census collection, immigration collection, military records, and birth, marriage and death records. An excellent resource for research in genealogy.
Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle This link opens in a new window
Includes records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle, as well as federal government records. Includes the records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
This database includes "Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century" and "NAACP Papers."
NAACP Papers This link opens in a new window
See Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) This link opens in a new window
19th century primary sources, including monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, and photographs. While many of the collections are from areas beyond the US, the Women: Transnational Networks collection may be of interest. This collection includes the archive of The Journal of the American National Women's Trade Union League.
Jewish Life in America (1654-1954) This link opens in a new window
Collection of manuscripts from the American Jewish Historical Society, including major organisational collections and collections of personal papers.
Law and Society since the Civil War This link opens in a new window
Features 11 collections from the Harvard Law School Library, highlighting three Supreme Court Justices, the first Black federal judge, high-profile cases, and insights into developing ideologies and laws, as far back as 1861 with the Papers of Oliver Wendell Holmes, which span from the Civil War to the Great Depression. The Papers of Louis D. Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter provide a behind-the-scenes view of the Supreme Court between 1919 and 1961.
Public Health Archives: Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970 This link opens in a new window
Documents the rise of the twentieth-century public health system in the United States through correspondence, reports, pamphlets, ephemera, and more.
Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new window
Provides a history of the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and offers a look at the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society. Includes documents such as diaries, letters, photographs, news clippings, organizational records, and journals, covering the nineteeth and twentieth centuries.

The Library of Congress has compiled materials related to different topics, including: