Research Assistance
What Are Primary Sources?
Primary sources are documents from the time period, people, and events of the time under consideration. Primary sources can be:
- diaries or correspondence
- photographs
- illustrations
- newspaper articles (from the time period)
- manuscripts
- pamphlets, broadsides, or other ephemera
General Catalogs and Finding Aids
- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new windowSearches finding aids for historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in libraries, museums, and archives around the world. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.
- C19: Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window19th century books, journals, magazines, official documents, newspapers, and archives. Includes The Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index, Poole's Index, Palmer's Index to the Times, and Periodicals Index Online.
- English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) This link opens in a new window
Catalog of works printed in any language in England or its dependencies from the beginning of printing through the end of the eighteenth century, as well as works printed in English anywhere else in the world during that period. Includes the former Eighteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC) and the two print short-title catalogs covering 1475-1640 (Pollard & Redgrave) and 1641-1700 (Wing).
Note: Due to a major cyberattack on The British Library in 2023, the ESTC only recently has launched this new Beta version, with updates set to roll out during 2024.
Also still available is an alternate version on an independent, temporary search interface from an NEH- and NSF-funded project at UCSD and CMU.
- National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)Gateway for searching OCLC WorldCat manuscripts.
- Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new windowIncludes digital finding aids available from many California institutions, including UCLA Performing Arts Special Collections and YRL Special Collections.
- Subject CollectionsLast updated in 1993, this still-useful print source identifies special collections in the U.S. by broad subject.
- WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) This link opens in a new windowIn the Advanced Search, users can limit to "Archival Materials"
Full-Text Literature and Poetry Online
- Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new windowManuscripts, newspapers, diaries, maps, artwork, photographs, and rare printed books dating from the earliest contact with European settlers up to the mid-20th century. Cross-searchable with The American West database. This database was previously titled American Indian Histories and Cultures.
- Archive of Americana This link opens in a new windowMore a historical collection, but does include some creative works published in 18th and 19th c. America.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new windowFacsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries.
- Calisphere This link opens in a new windowCalifornia-focused digital collections, which contain some creative works.
- Digital ScriptoriumAn image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts.
- Discovering Literature: Romantics and VictoriansExcellent resource from the British Library, containing over 1,200 works along with critical essays, teaching resources and more.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new windowCitations from early English texts from 1475 to 1700, presented as digital images. Includes works by Malory, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle, Newton, Galileo; musical exercises by Henry Purcell and novels by Aphra Behn; prayer books, pamphlets, and proclamations; almanacs, calendars, and many other primary sources.
- Eighteenth-Century Book TrackerLinks to freely-available digital facsimiles of eighteenth-century texts available at sites like Google Books and the Internet Archive.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Thousands of books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more, based on the English Short Title Catalogue. A comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with major works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800.
- Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction This link opens in a new windowPlays, prose and poetry by Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Latin writers working in the US. The vast majority of the materials are from the Chicano Renaissance to the present. About 30% of the database is previously unpublished or rare materials.
- Literature Online This link opens in a new windowAlso known as LION. An array of literary databases (including the full text of poems, plays, and fiction), reference works (including bibliographies, encyclopedias, etc.), and links to other Web resources for the study of literature. The complete text of journal articles is available on the database for all or some of the journals indexed. Fully searchable texts of over 250,000 works in English and American Literature.
- The Making of AmericaA digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection contains over 10,000 books and 50,000 digitized journal articles,
- Manuscripts OnlineOnline primary resources relating to written and early printed culture in Britain during the period 1000 to 1500. The resources include literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books which are located on websites owned by libraries, archives, universities and publishers.
- Poetryfoundation.orgPublisher of Poetry magazine, and an independent literary organization committed to a presence for poetry in American culture.
- Stanford's Dime Novels - Full TextA relatively small collection of full-text dime novels from Stanford's Dime Novel and Story Paper Collection.
- Travel Writing, Spectable and World HistoryHundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early 19th century to the late 20th century. Students and researchers will find sources covering a variety of topics including; architecture; art; the British Empire; climate; customs; exploration; family life; housing; industry; language; monuments; mountains; natural history; politics and diplomacy; race; religion; science; shopping; war.
- Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new windowResearch portal for the study of popular entertainment in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Segments include: Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic.
- Victorian Women Writers Project (VWWP)Online collection featuring works of lesser-known British women writers of the 19th century - poetry, novels, children's books, political pamphlets, religious tracts, histories, and more. VWWP contains scores of authors, both prolific and rare.
- World Folklore and Folklife This link opens in a new window
Thousands of classic folk tales, including the complete Hans Christian Andersen stories, Grimms' fairy tales, and folktales from around the world. Contextual material adds new depth to familiar stories.
Spoken Word and Other Audio
- Drama Online — Bloomsbury This link opens in a new windowIncludes full text of plays and reference works, as well as streaming audio and video of performances. UCLA subscribes to the modules: Core Collection, Asian Theatre Video, Aurora Metro Books, BBC Drama Films, British, American, and Australian Video Collection, Classic Spring Oscar Wilde Collection, Critical Studies and Performance Practice, Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy, European Theatre Video Collection, L.A. Theatre Works, Maxine Peake as Hamlet, National Theatre Collections, Nick Hern Books Modern Plays, Oberon Books, Playwrights Canada Press, RSC Live Collections, Shakespeare in the Present, Shakespeare Video Collection, Shakespeare's Globe on Screen, Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 1, Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 2, Shakespeare's Heroes and Villains, Shakespeare in the Present, Stage on Screen, Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection, TCG Plays, Theatre Performance and Practice Video Library.
- Folkstreams » The Best of American Folklore FilmsA 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.
- Poets.orgFreely available recordings of poetry read by poets and others. From the Academy of American Poets.
- YouTubeA good way to find up-and-coming poets and spoken word artists who have not made it into scholarly databases or publications.
Images
Images are becoming easier to find these days, thanks to the Internet. However, you do need to think about copyright if you are going to use images in publications, on web sites, and so on.
The easiest source for images is to do a Google search and click on Images link near the top of the page. Be careful about trusting the descriptions of these images--they may not be historically accurate. Here are some other, more reliable sources:
- American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital LibraryIncludes images, manuscripts, maps, ephemera, and more.
- UCLA Library Digital Collections This link opens in a new windowRare and unique digital materials developed by the UCLA Library to support education, research, service, and creative expression, including the AIDS Poster Collection, the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive and more.
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowCombines Grove Art Online, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, the Oxford Companion to Western Art, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Includes image partnerships with ARTstor, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Images for College Teaching, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society, and numerous international art galleries and artists.
- Images from the History of MedicineFrom the National Library of Medicine
UCLA Special Collections
Below are links to primary locations for print special collections of relevance to the study of literature at UCLA. Select online finding aids are also available via the Online Archive of California.
- UCLA Library Special CollectionsCollections include a wide variety of literary rare books, as well as manuscripts and archival collections relating to specific authors and poets.
- Performing Arts Special Collections (PASC)Primary location for music, film and television, and theater special collections. Click on "Archival Collections" to browse. Performing Arts Special Collections shares the same space with YRL Special Collections.
- William Andrews Clark Memorial LibraryLocated in the historic West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, UCLA’s Clark Library is a rare book and manuscript library specializing in the study of England and the Continent from the Tudor period through the long eighteenth century. Other subject strengths include Oscar Wilde, book arts and fine press printing, and Montana and the West. The Clark Library is open to anyone who wishes to conduct research with its holdings.
- Elmer Belt Library of VincianaPart of UCLA Library Special Collections, the Elmer Belt Library is a special collection of books and materials concerning Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian Renaissance. The Library was given to UCLA in 1961 by Dr. Elmer Belt, a Professor Emeritus in the UCLA School of Medicine and a collector of Vinciana for over sixty years.
Newspapers
For current newspaper access, your best bet is either to look up the newspaper title in our catalog or search Nexis Uni or Factiva. For alternative press, you can also try Alt-Press Watch and Ethnic NewsWatch.
Historical newspapers can be more tricky to access. Many have not been digitized, so you may have to look at microfilm or print copies. Some have not even been indexed which means you have to figure out a date or range of dates and browse manually for information.
Here are some good historical newspapers available online:
- Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to digital facsimiles of the British Library's collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817), the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media.
- Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new windowPrimary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from urban and rural regions throughout the US. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with emphasis on topics such as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration, and Antebellum-era life.
- History Commons (North American Collections) This link opens in a new window
Previously titled Accessible Archives Complete. UCLA's access to historical sources includes 19th-century African American Newspapers (The Christian Recorder, The Colored American, Frederick Douglass Paper, Freedom's Journal, The National Era, The North Star, Provincial Freeman, Weekly Advocate); Godey's Lady's Book (pt.2-3); The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalog; and Pennsylvania Newspaper Record.
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowPublished between 1741 and 1900, these periodicals include special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children and women magazines, and many other historically significant periodicals.
- Boston Globe Historic ArchivesOnline database to the Boston Globe, 1872-present. UCLA does NOT have online access to the articles. Once you locate articles, check the UCLA Library Catalog to see if we have the dates you need on microfilm. If we don't have it, UCLA students, staff and faculty can request it on Interlibrary Loan.
- California EagleA Los Angeles African American newspaper (1879-1964).
- Center for Research Libraries (CRL) Online Catalog: NewspapersNewspaper holdings include over 16,000 titles, more than 10,000 of which are published outside the US. CRL endeavors to collect extensive and, whenever possible, complete runs of newspaper titles, and its holdings of some titles are the most complete in existence. As a member of CRL, UCLA students and faculty can borrow any of these titles on interlibrary loan.
- Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersDigital project from the Library of Congress including online access to newspapers published from between 1690-present. Search newspaper pages digitized through the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
- Early American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2 (America's Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Thousands of fully searchable historical newspapers from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., chronicling the evolution of American culture and daily life from 1690 to 1922. Series One covers 1690-1876, and Series Two includes 1690-1900.
- Eighteenth Century Journals, 1685-1835 This link opens in a new windowA collection of rare newspapers and journals printed between 1685 and 1835 in the UK and colonies, including India, the Caribbean, and Canada, illuminating all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Includes an index to The Lady's Magazine, 1770-1818.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Complete text of articles from 1959 to the present from publications of the ethnic, minority, and native press. Covers news, culture, and history, and is searchable in both English and Spanish.
- Harper's Weekly 1857-1912 This link opens in a new windowProvides full-image reproductions of Harper's Weekly from 1857-1912, one of the most important weekly magazines read by Americans during the 19th Century.
- Irish Newspaper Archives This link opens in a new windowFull text of many Irish newspapers, including both historical and current content from the 1700s to current day.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Afro-American This link opens in a new window
The Baltimore Afro-American was the most widely circulated black newspaper on the Atlantic coast. It was the first black newspaper to have correspondents reporting on World War II, foreign correspondents, and female sports correspondents.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Amsterdam News This link opens in a new window
The major Black newspaper in New York.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Atlanta Constitution This link opens in a new window
The Atlanta Constitution offers full page and article images with searchable full text from 1868-1984. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Defender This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Defender (including Daily Defender) is included as part of Black Studies Center (1921-2010). Proquest's Chicago Defender content does not include the newspaper's "City Edition," which is currently only available on microfilm.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images with searchable full text, covering 1849-2014 of the paper. For access to current issues, see Chicago Tribune [1985-present].
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Sentinel This link opens in a new window
Major Black newspaper in Los Angeles, covering May 17, 1934 - 2010. For access to current issues see Ethnic NewsWatch.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images with searchable full text from the first issue in 1881 to 1995. For full text access to current issues, see Los Angeles Times [1985-present].
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images with searchable full text from the first issue in 1851 to 2020. For access to current issues, see The New York Times [1980-present]. Contains the former Historical Index to the New York Times (1851-1923) from the database Historical Newspapers Online.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: San Francisco Chronicle This link opens in a new windowFull page and article images with searchable full text from the first issue as the Daily Dramatic Chronicle in 1865 to 1922.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Times of India This link opens in a new window
Complete issues of the widely circulated English daily newspaper, 1838-2011.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: the Wall Street Journal. This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images with searchable full text, from 1889 to 2012. For access to current issues, see Wall Street Journal [1984-present].
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images with searchable full text from the first issue in 1877 to 2007. For access to current issues, see Washington Post [1987-present].
- Modernist Journals ProjectA joint project of Brown University and the University of Tulsa. A collection of digitized journals from the modernist literary/intellectual movement.
- The Crisis (Modernist Journals Project)Founded in 1910 as the house magazine of the NAACP and edited by W. E. B. Du Bois, The Crisis quickly became the most important voice of the African-American struggle for cultural identity and civic justice in the U.S. Includes all issues 1910-1922.
- Times of London Digital Archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Includes full text and page images of the entire newspaper, including articles, editorials, advertising and images (excluding the Sunday Times) for 1785-2019.
- World Newspaper Archive (Center for Research Libraries) This link opens in a new window
American, African, Latin American, and South Asian newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries. UCLA subscribes to a subset of this collection.