History Research

Seminal sources tend to be the major studies that initially presented an idea of great importance or influence within a particular discipline. These are the researchers/thinkers/authors that everyone discusses (whether or not current research agrees with their findings). If you don’t know of any specific researchers that are THE ones for your topic (think big names like Foner, Hofstadter, Sachar, etc.) then the following may refer you to important works, thinkers, or schools of thought on your topic. 

• Class notes
• Course readings
• Bibliographies/footnotes/endnotes of your textbook, journal articles, or other secondary sources.

• They can also help you identify relevant authors, concepts, works, or keywords for searching the library catalog, ebook database, or history databases.

  • There is not single strategy for finding seminal articles, but rather any strategy relies on a thorough examination and synthesis of the literature. Don't expect to see a "seminal article" label, rather you'll start seeing the same author and title frequently.

  • Keep in mind that seminal works were probably published quite some time ago. Limiting a database search to only the past 5 or 10 years, for example, may exclude seminal studies/books from your results. Try NOT using a date limiter, or, set your date limiters to 10+ years ago.​
• Search your topic on Google Scholar. Under each item is a link that says, ‘Cited by XX.’ Articles that have been cited many (think hundreds) of times are probably fairly key. You can pull some of these as seminal sources.

Newspapers and magazines from an era can be useful primary sources in historical research.  This guide identifies and annotates databases that provide access to those sources.

Accessible Archives

• Newspapers and magazines from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It includes African American and women's suffrage sources, as well as a civil war collection.

African American Historical Newspapers via ProQuest

• Contains the Chicago Defender (1910-1975) and New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993).

African American Newspapers via Readex/NewsBank

• Provides online access to U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience (1827-1998).

American Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 1-5 

• Contains magazines and newspapers published between 1684 and 1912.

Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876

• The largest collection of fully searchable 18th and 19th century Caribbean newspapers.

Chronicling America: America’s Historical Newspapers

• Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963.  

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

• Books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the renowned bibliography by Charles Evans.

Early American Newspapers (Series I)

• Searchable American newspapers, 1690-1876.

Ebony Magazine Archive

• Covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship and other social topics with an African-American focus. It includes more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.

Economist Historical Archive

• A complete, searchable copy of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2015.

International Herald Tribune Historical Archive

• Covers 1887-2013 and charts the history of the 20th century from luxury travel and opulent entertainment, to international conflicts, the spread of American culture abroad and globalization.

JSTOR

• This is a collection of scholarly journals with deep backfiles. Think of JSTOR as a way to capture the scholarly thinking of an era. (For example, what were contemporary articles in economics journals advocating should be done to lift the United States out of the Great Depression.)

Liberty Magazine, 1924-1950

• A perspective on a nation's daily life, interests and values as recorded in the pages of Liberty Magazine. 

Life Magazine Archive

• Full coverage from 1936 to 2000.

National Review Archive

• Full text of the magazine dating back to the first issue in 1955.

New York Times Historical via ProQuest

• Full-text and full-image articles beginning with the newspaper's first issue in 1851 to four years ago.  Does not include current issues. For current issues, go here: http://tinyurl.com/pakgu5w

NewsBank

• Full text newspapers from 1976 to the present.

Niagara Index, 1870-1900

• Documents the early history of Niagara University.

NY State Historic Newspapers  

• Provides access to a wide range of newspapers chosen to reflect New York's history.

Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992

• Over 150 years of history, satire and humor as recorded in the pages of British Punch magazine.

Sabin Americana, 1500-1926

• This primary source collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, customs and momentous events of the time. Get quick access to books, pamphlets, broadsides and documents from an assortment of genres – from sermons and political tracts to legislation and literature.

Saturday Evening Post, 1931-present

• Widely read by the American middle class between the 1930s and 1960s.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive

• A collection of materials on the history of slavery. Includes four parts: Debates Over Slavery and Abolition, Slave Trade in the Atlantic World, The Institution of Slavery, and The Age of Emancipation.

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law

• Historical materials and new scholarship about slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world.

Time Magazine

• 1923-present.

Times Digital Archive, 1785-2014

• Full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of the Times (London), one of the most highly regarded resources for eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth-century news coverage.

Women's Magazine Archive

• Full-text backfiles of some of the leading women’s interest consumer magazines: Better Homes & Gardens, Chatelaine, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, and Parents. Coverage varies by title and ranges from the late nineteenth century to 2005.

19th Century U.S. Newspapers

• Access to approximately 1.7 million pages of primary source American newspaper content from the 19th century.