Guides: American Studies: Useful Resources

Library Databases

American National Biography This link opens in a new window
Access to portraits of more than 18,700 men and women, updated quarterly with new and revised entries, features thousands of illustrations, more than 80,000 hyperlinked cross-references, links to select web sites, and powerful search capabilities. Includes over 900 articles from The Oxford Companion to United States History, providing historical and social context to the biographies.
ACLS Humanities E-Book This link opens in a new window
The American Council of Learned Societies Humanities Ebook Collection consists of over 5,700 scholarly books curated by scholars for scholars. Approximately 300 books are added annually to the collection.
ProQuest Ebook Central tutorials This link opens in a new window
Tutorials on how to borrow, download, annotate, and create an online bookshelf for ebooks using Ebook Central.
Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window
Access to statistics published since 1878, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Sources of data include the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations. (Beginning in 2013, offered by ProQuest)
American Decades This link opens in a new window
Spanning American history in the 20th Century, this source offers access to more than 2000 primary source materials including selected speeches, letters, legal decisions, government documents, lyrics, advertisements, literary scripts, recipes, scrapbooks, cartoons, and many other types of material. This resource is continued by American Decades: 2000-2009.
Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Access to encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Titles can be searched alone, by subject, or all titles can be searched together.
American Men and Women of Science 31st ed. This link opens in a new window
Provides biographical information for the significant players in the physical, biological, and related sciences. Covers over 140,000 living scientists, providing birthdate; birthplace; field of specialty; education; honorary degrees; current position; professional and career information; awards; memberships; research information; and addresses for each entrant where available.
Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Access to nearly 3 million searchable citations, the most comprehensive collection of doctoral dissertations and master's theses in the world. Full text for most dissertations since 1997 with 1.2 million full text dissertations available for download in PDF format. Approximately 70,000 new dissertations and theses are added each year. Coverage from 1743 to the present.

Specialized Resources Online

American Studies Journals
a directory of worldwide resources : This website provides scholars with a one-stop shop for the latest research published in American studies journals throughout the world. Organized by the International Initiative of the American Studies Association and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this site is the outcome of a collaboration between numerous journal editors around the world.
American Studies Association
Chartered in 1951, the American Studies Association now has more than 5,000 members. They come from many fields: history, literature, religion, art, philosophy, music, science, folklore, ethnic studies, anthropology, material culture, museum studies, sociology, government, communications, education, library science, gender studies, popular culture, and others.
Encyclopedia Smithsonian: History & Culture
Explore topics from A to Z

American Memory Project This link opens in a new window
provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.

Poets.org
Site of the Academy of American Poets.
NINES: Nineteenth Century Studies Online
If you study 19th-century literature, check here! A peer-reviewed scholarly site bringing together a growing number of digital projects relating to nineteenth century literature.
National Archives and Records Administration
rich source for U.S. history, but only a small portion of the collection is available online.

Wright American Fiction 1851-1875 This link opens in a new window
This is 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.

General Web Resources

Project Gutenberg
Free full-text access to thousands of electronic books on a wide variety of topics. Includes books in English as well as many different foreign languages.
Life Photo Archive hosted by Google
millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today
Cambridge History of English and American Literature
"Considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published, the Cambridge History contains over 303 chapters and 11,000 pages, with essay topics ranging from poetry, fiction, drama and essays to history, theology and political writing." Arranged chronologically, and includes an index to the chapters in each volume, as well as an index to the bibliographies in each chapter.
Poetry Foundation
The publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in culture. Includes poems, articles and biographical information on poets.