UCF Research Guides: English & Literature: Primary Sources

Key Databases

America's Historical Imprints (NewsBank/Readex) (1639-1922)
- American Broadsides & Ephemera, Series I
- American Civil War Collection 1860-1922
- American Pamphlets, Series I, 1820-1922
- American Slavery Collection, 1820-1922
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Supplement, 1670-1800
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Supplement, 1801-1819
ArchiveGrid (OCLC)
"ArchiveGrid includes over 7 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,400 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies."
British Periodicals (1681-1939)
"offers facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries."
"British Periodicals Collection I consists of more than 160 journals that comprise the UMI microfilm collection Early British Periodicals, the equivalent of 5,238 printed volumes containing approximately 3.1 million pages. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences."
"British Periodicals Collection II consists of more than 300 journals from the UMI microfilm collections English Literary Periodicals and British Periodicals in the Creative Arts together with additional titles, amounting to almost 3 million pages. Topics covered include literature, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture."
Early English Books Online (EEBO) (ProQuest)
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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 from 1473-1700.

Available on the ProQuest platform. The Chadwyck Healey platform is no longer available.
HarpWeek: The Civil War Era Reconstruction I & II (1857-1912)
The 56 years of Harper’s Weekly provide a continuous record of what happened on a weekly basis from 1857 through 1912.
- Civil War Era: 1857-1865
- Reconstruction: 1866-1871 & 1872-1877
- Gilded Age: 1878-1912
Shaw-Shoemaker: Early American Imprints, Series II, 1801-1819
provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century.
"The continuation of Readex's Early American Imprints: Series I, this rich primary source database, based on the authoritative bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker and now supplemented by thousands of new items, allows students and scholars to explore the development of the American nation as never before.
From Aaron Burr to Zebulon Pike, from abolitionism to Tippecanoe, this unique Web-based collection thoroughly chronicles the people, ideas and events behind the early political, social, cultural and geographic growth of the United States. Researchers can study the emergence of American arts and literature, follow the progression of American economic, religious and scientific thought, track the westward expansion, and much more. Specific topics covered include the Adams-Onis Treaty, Bible societies, canals, the Embargo Act, fur trade, Hartford Convention, Lewis & Clark expedition, Louisiana Purchase, nationalism, Panic of 1819, romanticism, Seminole War, Treaty of Ghent, 12th Amendment, U.S. Military Academy, War of 1812, widows and wives, and thousands of others. Also included are the works of many European authors reprinted for the American public.
In addition to its books, pamphlets and broadsides, this comprehensive collection features many state papers and government materials, including published reports; presidential letters and messages; congressional, state and territorial resolutions.

Online Collections

18th Century Entertainment Ephemera
Comprises all 18th century Entertainment ephemera in the John Johnson Collection - Paybills, handbills, newscuttings and prints from the Theatre; London Play Places; Animals on Show; Circuses; Concerts; Dioramas; etc.
American Memory Project
An ongoing digital collection of primary sources related to all aspects of American life and history, including literature, culture, performing arts and music. Hosted and maintained by the library of congress.
Artists' Books Online
An online repository of facsimiles, metadata, and criticism. From University of Virginia.
Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts
This site was designed to enable users to find fully digitized manuscripts currently available on the web.
Digital Scriptorium
an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research.
Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts
To create a digital resource reuniting all the known holograph surviving manuscripts of Austen’s fiction in an unprecedented virtual collection.
Library of Southern Literature
This collection begins with some of the earliest texts about America written by British discoverers that set the foundation for American letters and traces the development of southern literature through to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Making of America Books
A digital library of primary sources in American history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in education, psychology, history, sociology, religion, & science, but does include some literature.
Mark Twain Project Online
Mark Twain Project Online offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents.
Modernist Journals Project
With magazines at its core, the MJP also offers a range of genres that extends to the digital publication of books directly connected to modernist periodicals and other supporting materials for periodical study.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
Collection history, related resources and images from a variety of NYPL digitized collections.
NINES
A scholarly site bringing together a growing number of digital projects relating to nineteenth century literature. Links primary and secondary sources.

OAIster
A union catalog of millions of records representing open access resources on a wide variety of topics from over 1,500 contributors.

Perseus Digital Library
An ever-growing online collection of primary source materials from all over the world that pertain primarily to the arts & humanities. Hosted and maintained by Tufts University.
The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
A digital edition of the Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Centenary Edition, edited and with notes by Edward Waldo Emerson.
The Rossetti Archive
When completed, the Archive will provide access to all of Dante's pictorial and textual works and to a large corpus of materials.
The William Blake Archive
A hypermedia archive sponsored by the Library of Congress and supported by the Carolina Digital Library and Archives at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Walt Whitman Notebooks 1850s -1860s
The Thomas B. Harned collection of the Walt Whitman papers spans the period 1842 to 1937, with most of the items dated from 1855 to 1892.
Wright American Fiction (1851-1875)
a collection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle Wright's bibliography American Fiction, 1851-1875. There are currently 2,887 volumes included (1,763 unedited, 1,124 fully edited and encoded) by 1,456 authors.

Images & Sounds

American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
Lots of historical resources here, but some literature and arts as well, including Walt Whitman and Zora Neal Hurston collections.
Flickr
Folkstreams » The Best of American Folklore Films
A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures - streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings and links to related websites.
Images & Sounds LibGuide
A guide to a wide variety of images & sounds resources.
Images from the History of Medicine
Provides access to nearly 70,000 images in the collections of the History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the U.S National Library of Medicine (NLM).
LCWP Videos Online
Interviews and readings with authors like Frank McCourt as part of the Litchfield County (Connecticut) Writers Project.
Poets.org
Freely available recordings of poetry read by poets and others. From the Academy of American Poets.
YouTube
A good way to find up-and-coming poets and spoken word artists who have not made it into scholarly databases or publications.