African-American Women: Primary Sources

This guide covers basic Rutgers University Libraries' resources and services, as well as selected resources for finding primary sources--predominantly sources available in digital formats--relating to the history of African-American women.

The Basics

Restricted Access

Many of the resources listed in the sections below are marked Restricted Access. You should have no problem connecting to these from any networked computer on campus. However, in order to use these from off-campus, you must log in with your Rutgers NetID. For instructions see the Libraries' Remote Access to Library Resources.

Off-Campus Links

Once you have gone to a Rutgers Libraries page and logged in with your NetID [your pegasus username and password] you can use the "Off-Campus Link" provided for each Rutgers-restricted resource below to connect to that database or article. Use the link embedded in the citation to access these resources on campus.

E-Reserves

To get to readings that your instructor may have placed on Reserve in the Library, click here. Once you get to the Lookup box, the easiest way to get to the right list is to search by the Instructor's name.

IRIS: Find Books

IRIS is the online catalog for all the Rutgers University Libraries except the Newark and Camden Law Libraries. Use IRIS to find out if the Rutgers Libraries have the specific books or journals that you need, or to locate books on topics that you're researching. Show Me How

Getting Books From Other Rutgers Libraries

If a book that you need is not available (not owned/checked out) at the Dana Library, but is available from another Rutgers Library, you can request delivery of that book to Dana by bringing up the record for the book in IRIS and clicking on tbe Deliver/Recall button. Show Me

Book Not Available/Not Owned by the Rutgers Libraries?

The fastest way to get a copy of a book that is not owned or not available (checked out/on Reserve/missing etc.) at the Rutgers Libraries is to request it through E-Z Borrow. E-Z Borrow books are normally received within about five working days. Tell Me More

If a book is not owned by the Rutgers Libraries and is not available via E-Z Borrow, you can place an Interlibrary Loan request. Tell Me More

Becoming an 'Expert' User

Want to maximize your use of Library resources? Check out Searchpath, the Libraries' interactive tutorial.

Citing Your Sources

You will most likely be using Chicago/Turabian style when citing the sources that you use in your research papers. The Chicago Manual of Style and Turabian's Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations are both available at the Dana Library Reference Desk. The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison also has a nice introduction to Chicago/Turabian Documentation that will give you the basic information you need to create bibliographic citations.

The above site does not, however, cover citing online resources. The Library of Congress has a guide on How to Cite Electronic Sources that show Turabian-style examples; the Bedford/St. Martin's site also offers useful information on Using Chicago Style to Cite and Document Sources

You can also import references from IRIS and many of the electronic databases into RefWorks, a web-based bibliography and database manager. RefWorks will build your bibliography for you based on whatever style sheet you specify (MLA, Chicago, etc.). For information on setting up your (free) RefWorks account see the RefWorks FAQ.

Not sure when you need to cite something? Check out the Plagiarism Guide

Remember that plagerism is a violation of the Rutgers University Policy on Academic Integrity for Undergraduate and Graduate Students and could result in your dismissal from the University!

Primary Sources Guides

Retrieving African-American Women's History: A Methodological Guide to Manuscript Sources in the Special Collections Library at Duke University: While the collections listed are those in the Special Collections Library at Duke, the general introduction and the introduction to each type of collection offers valuable insights not only to the types of primary source collections that may be used in researching the history of African-American women, but also issues, limitations, and special considerations each type of material warrents.

ArchiveGrid: Index to full-text archival finding aids developed by over 2500 libraries, museums, and archives worldwide.; Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access

Finding Digitized Books

For a book to be legally digitized and available online, either the holder of the copyright has to give permission for the digitization, or the book needs to be in the public domain. In the U.S., books in the public domain are usually those that were copyrighted prior to 1923, although under certain limited conditions later works may also be in the public domain. Books that are freely available online will be those that are in the public domain.

Google Books: Google has partnered with a number of universities to scan the full-text of public domain books in the university library collections. They've developed technology that enables them to scan more than 3,000 books per day. In addtion to the full-text of the books in the public domain, for many titles Google allows you to view snippets or selected pages from books still under copyright.

Internet Archive: Search the "Texts" files for specific titles or books on particular subjects.

Women in Slavery: Some eBooks

Autobiography of a Female Slave: Martha Griffith Browne. New York, Redfield, 1857.; Fictional account by the abolitionist Martha Griffith.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Harriet A. Jacobs and Lydia Maria Francis Child. Boston, 1861.; Also available as a LibriVox Audiobook.

Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of of Southern Domestic LIfe: H. Mattison. New York, 1861; Methodist minister and abolitionist Hiram Mattison interviewed Louisa Picquet, a freed slave, in May 1860.

Hampton and Its Students.: By Two of its Teachers, Mrs. M.F. Armstrong and Helen W. Ludlow. With Fifty Cabin and Plantation Songs.: New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1874.; Includes a section on The Woman Question Again

Finding Newspaper and Magazine Articles

American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900: The full text of articles, advertisements, illustrations etc., from American popular and literary magazines and journals that began publication between 1741 and 1900. Search by author, title, article type, publication title, date, and keywords in the full-text.; Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century: Search the full text of six major 19th century African American newspapers:; Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access.

Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers: Full-text database of 500 newspapers published between 1800 and 1900.; Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access.

Historical New York Times: Allows you to search and display the full image of articles published in the New York Times back to 1851. The two+ most recent years are not included, use Access World News.; Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access.

Digital Collections

American Memory: African American History: From the Library of Congress: "multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library's Americana collections." Among the collections that you can search or browse are:; The African American Odyssey

African American Perspectives: Pamplets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection 1818-1907

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project

The Frederick Douglass Papers

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909

The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress

Slaves and the Courts

Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz.

African-American Women: Online Archival Collections: From the Special Collections Library, Duke University.

Digital Schomburg: Digital collections from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library.

Black Thought and Culture: Some 100,000 pages of non-fiction writing by leading figures in African American life and culture. Includes books, speeches, interviews, pamphlets, letters, and oral history transcripts.; Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access

African American Women: Part of the New Jersey Digital Highway New Jersey Women's History site.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries: "The immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters."; Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access

Images

Digital Schomburg: Images of African Americans from the 19th Century: Search or browse a rich collection of images taken from the collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library.

The Library of Virginia: Portsmouth Photos: Includes the Lee F. Rodgers collection of approximately 1,500 photographs primarily of African American subjects.

Ad*Access: Searchable database of over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Includes five main subject collections: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II.

You can also use Google Image Search to look for images of particular people or subjects.

Race at the Movies

Filmography

The Movies, Race, and Ethnicity: African Americans: Annotated filmography from the Media Resources Center, UC Berkeley. For some films includes selected reviews and articles.

Finding Films

Want to know if the Rutgers Libraries own a particular film?

Select Advanced Search in IRIS, the Libraries' online catalog. Enter the title into the "TITLE" search box, and select Visual Materials from the format pull-down menu.

Videos/DVDs owned by the Dana Library are available for viewing in the Media Center on the 4th floor of Dana Library.

Videos that are only available from the Media Center in New Brunswick must be booked BY FACULTY for class viewing. All other users must view materials on-site at the Media Center on the Livingston Campus. Advance reservations for viewing rooms are recommended. Undergraduate students may make reservations no earlier than 24 hours in advance. To make a reservation, call 445-4980 (x155).

Finding Early Film Reviews

Film Review Index. 2 vols: Patricia King Hanson & Stephen L. Hanson, editors. Phoenix, Ariz., Oryx Press, 1986-; Dana Call Number: Ref. PN1995 .F513 1986

One of the best sources for finding early film reviews, the Film Review Index cites reviews to over 7000 feature films released between 1914 and 1985. Vol. 1: 1882-1949; Vol. 2: 1950-1985. In addition to popular magazines, the index also lists reviews in trade publications, newspapers, anthologies, and selected books.

Once you have the list of sources in which a specific film was reviewed, you will need to go to IRIS, the Rutgers Libraries online catalog, to find out if that source is available at Rutgers. Select Periodical Title Begins with when searching with the journal name or Title Begins with when searching for a book.

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. 1900- .: Dana Call Number: Ref. AI3. R48

The Readers Guide to Periodical Literature is an excellent source for finding film reviews published in general and popular magazines. To find reviews of specific films see the subject heading Moving picture plays.

Once you have the list of magazines in which a specific film was reviewed, you will need to go to IRIS, the Rutgers Libraries online catalog, to find out if that journal is available at Rutgers. Select Periodical Title Begins with when searching with the journal name.

Historical New York Times: Allows you to search and display the full image of articles published in the New York Times back to 1851. You can search the New York Times for film and books reviews, ads, and news articles relating to relevant themes and issues.
Off-Campus Access Restricted Access.

Variety Film Reviews, 1907-1984.. 19 vols.: New York, Garland Pub., 1983- .; Reproduction of reviews published in Variety. Vol. 2: 1921-1925; Vol.5: 1934-1937; Vol.6: 1938-1942.; Not in Dana Library. Available from Alexander and Kilmer: Ref. PN1995 .V34 1983

Searching the Web

Google: The biggest to the general search engines in terms of the number of sites that it crawls.

Yahoo: Doesn't cover as much territory as Google, but digs deeper into the sites that it visits.

Recommended Search Engines: Tables of Features: UC Berkeley guide comparing features in Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com.

Questions?
Natalie Borisovets (natalieb@andromeda.rutgers.edu)
John Cotton Dana Library
September 23, 2008