History Pathfinder: U.S. Colonial History

Indexes

An index is a specialized database that organizes information about the locations of articles in journals/magazines, reports and newspapers; and book chapters, papers in conference proceedings, and book reviews. Indexes provide the complete bibliographic citation of an article, including the title of the article, author, name of the journal, volume number, the pages of the journal in which the article can be found, and a short summary, or abstract, of the article. Some indexes are in book form, and some are electronic databases. Some eletronic databases, including America: History & Life, do NOT provide the complete text of articles. For tips on how to effectively search databases, and how to find journals that are not available on-line, contact your librarian, or consult How to Find Materials on History in the Waidner-Spahr Library .


America: History and Life
Covers scholarly literature on United States and Canadian history. Materials treating all aspects of history from prehistoric times to the present. The rest of modern world history is covered in a companion database, Historical Abstracts.

Humanities Full Text
Covers journal articles in the humanities, archaeology, art, classics, film, folklore, history, journalism and communications, linguistics, literature, music, performing arts, and religion.

Humanities and Social Sciences Retrospective
A bibliographic database that cites articles from English-language periodicals. Coverage includes a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of humanities and social sciences journals.

JSTOR
An interdisciplinary archive of over 600 journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Lexis-Nexis
Lexis Nexis will provide you with full-text from newspapers around the world, for up to the past ten years.

Project Muse
Project Muse covers numerous subject fields in the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts, including history. Journals covered by Project Muse are scholarly and peer-reviewed, published by a not-for-profit press or scholarly society, and be a sensible fit with titles in the humanities, the social sciences and the arts.

ProQuest
ProQuest is a good index to use in the beginning stages of your research project. It is an index that covers major journals in English and many other subjects in which Dickinson College offers a major. It offers access to thousands of periodicals and newspapers, many of which are supplied full-text. ProQuest supplies both scholarly and non-scholarly resources. See your librarian for tips on how to narrow to scholarly topics.

WorldCat
A catalog of books and other materials in libraries worldwide. You can use this database to find out what libraries own material you might need.

 

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Dictionaries and encyclopedias are helpful in finding basic information about your topic area. They may also serve as sources of inspiration to you as you search for new topics to research. The following list is not comprehensive. Search the library catalog for more encyclopedias and dictionaries. Refer to How to Find Materials on History in the Waidner-Spahr Library for tips on how to best perform a search, or contact your librarian for assistance.


Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies
REF E45 .E53 1993

The Encyclopedia of Colonial and Revolutionary America
REF E188 .E63 1990

Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History
REF JK49 .K38 1972

A Dictionary of American History
REF E174 .P87 1995

The Reader's Companion to American History
REF E174 .R43 1991

Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World
REF DA357 .W34 1999

Biographies

Print:

Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography
REF CT213. C36 1995

Dictionary of American Biography
REF E176. D563

Who Was Who in America
REF E663 .W632 1942

Electronic:

Biography and Genealogy Master Index
Biography and Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) is the best place to begin a search for information about people. It is an index of reference sources containing biographical information on individuals, both living and deceased, from every field of activity and from all areas of the world. This index is not full-text, but Dickinson College owns many of the materials referenced in the database. A librarian can help you locate any materials you are having trouble locating.

American National Biography (ANB)
Nearly 20,000 biographies, revised three times per year.

 

Bibliographies

Books About Early America: 2001 Titles
REF E188 .A54 1989

 

Statistics

Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970
REF HA202 .B87 1975

 

Primary Resources

American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900
Over 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.