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For a comprehensive search you can use One Search. This will search for monographs, reference materials, newpapers, journal articles simultaneously. One Search is available as a search box on the library homepage.
When using One Search be sure to control the size of your results set with the facets available on the left hand side of the screen. This will allow you to limit by format, subject and date. A PDF tutorial to One Search is also available.
Books
Catalog - used to identify materials held at the University of Mississippi Library or electronic owned or licensed by the library.
WorldCat - this is a combined catalog for most libraries in the world. The volume of information is immense so be sure to search for fairly specifc topics. Those items held by the University of Mississippi are clearly marked.
Journal Articles
America: History and Life - Indexes historical journals and magazines and dissertations and thesis about regions which currently compose the United States and Canada published after 1963. You can limit a search to a particular time period.
Historical Reference Center - a historical database indexing over 1600 monographs, encycolpedias and other published works as well as documents, maps, photos and over 80 hours of video content.
Women Working, 1800-1930 - Digital exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression. Working conditions, workplace regulations, home life, costs of living, commerce, recreation, health and hygiene, and social issues are among the issues documented in this free online research collection from Harvard University.
Humanities International Complete - Includes all data from the Humanities International Index plus unique full text content, much of which is not found in other databases. Provides full text access to more than 1,200 journals.
SocIndex with Full Text - covers all sociological topics including all subdisciplines and related areas of study.
Newspapers
- Lists every Mississippi newspaper on microfilm in the J.D. Williams Library by title, date, city, and county.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers 1836-1922. This collection has been produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (a collaborative effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities).
Census and Population Resources
The online source for the census information directly from the Census Bureau. If you need assistance using the American Factfinder, Vanderbilt University has prepared a tutorial.
United States Historical Census Data Browser
The University of Virginia, in cooperation with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, provides this informative, unique site with population and economic data from 1790 to 1960. Depending on the year, the data vary in category and whether the collection was at the level of the household or the individual. A fascinating and reliable source for historical statistics.
Reference Books
Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Encyclopedia of social welfare history in North America
Americans at war : society, culture, and the homefront
Political encyclopedia of U.S. states and regions
Historical encyclopedia of American business
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: New Englandabcarcne2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: The Great Plains Regionabcarcgpr2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: The Mid-Atlantic Regionabcarcmar2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: The Midwestabcarcmw2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: The Pacific Regionabcarcpr2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: The Rocky Mountain Regionabcarcrmr2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: The Southabcarcsouth2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: The Southwest
The American Economy: A Historical Encyclopedia
Specialized encyclopedias, such as those listed above, are useful tools when beginning a research process. The entries will generally outline the general facts relating to a person, event or topic and will often have a short list of important sources related to the topic.
The library has two online collections of encyclopedias and searching in either one will bring results relevant to your research topic.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Internet Resources
American Memory - The Library of Congress has begun digitizing many of its collections, some of which are relevant to this time period.
The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 documents the historical formation and cultural foundations of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage, through books, pamphlets, government documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and motion picture footage drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress.
Haymarket Affair - This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair. The violent confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1886 proved to be a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights. These materials pertain to: the May 4, 1886 meeting and bombing; to the trial, conviction and subsequent appeals of those accused of inciting the bombing; and to the execution of four of the convicted and the later pardon of the remaining defendants. Of special interest and significance are the two dozen images of three-dimensional artifacts, including contemporary Chicago Police Department paraphernalia, labor banners, and an unexploded bomb casing given to juror J. H. Brayton by Chicago Police Captain Michael Schaack. The cornerstone is the presentation, as images and searchable text, of the transcript of the 3,200 pages of proceedings from the murder trial of State of Illinois v. August Spies, et al.
- This presentation features 68 motion pictures produced between 1898 and 1901 of the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine Revolution. The Spanish-American War was the first U.S. war in which the motion picture camera played a role. These films were made by the Edison Manufacturing Company and the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company and consist of actualities filmed in the U.S., Cuba, and the Philippines, showing troops, ships, notable figures, and parades, as well as reenactments of battles and other war-time events. The Special Presentation presents the motion pictures in chronological order together with brief essays that provide a historical context for their filming.
- Between 1897 and 1911 Elizabeth Smith Miller and her daughter, Anne Fitzhugh Miller, filled seven large scrapbooks with ephemera and memorabilia related to their work with women's suffrage. The Elizabeth Smith Miller and Anne Fitzhugh Miller scrapbooks are a part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. These scrapbooks document the activities of the Geneva Political Equality Club, which the Millers founded in 1897, as well as efforts at the state, national, and international levels to win the vote for women. They offer a unique look at the political and social atmosphere of the time as well as chronicle the efforts of two women who were major participants in the suffrage movement.
- he Chinese in California, 1850-1925 illustrates nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigration to California through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials. Included are photographs, original art, cartoons and other illustrations; letters, excerpts from diaries, business records, and legal documents; as well as pamphlets, broadsides, speeches, sheet music, and other printed matter. These documents describe the experiences of Chinese immigrants in California, including the nature of inter-ethnic tensions. They also document the specific contributions of Chinese immigrants to commerce and business, architecture and art, agriculture and other industries, and cultural and social life in California. Chinatown in San Francisco receives special treatment as the oldest and largest community of Chinese in the United States. Also included is documentation of smaller Chinese communities throughout California, as well as material reflecting on the experiences of individuals. Although necessarily selective, such a large body of materials presents a full spectrum of representation and opinion. The materials in this online compilation are drawn from collections at The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley; The Ethnic Studies Library, University of California Berkeley; and The California Historical Society, San Francisco.
- From February 8, 1918, to June 13, 1919, by order of General John J. Pershing, the United States Army published a newspaper for its forces in France, The Stars and Stripes. This online collection, presented by the Serial and Government Publications Division of the Library of Congress, includes the complete seventy-one-week run of the newspaper's World War I edition.
The World of 1898: The Spanish American War - This presentation provides resources and documents about the Spanish-American War, the period before the war, and some of the fascinating people who participated in the fighting or commented about it. Information about Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Spain, and the United States is provided in chronologies, bibliographies, and a variety of pictorial and textual material from bilingual sources, supplemented by an overview essay about the war and the period. Among the participants and authors featured are such well-known figures as Presidents Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as Admiral George Dewey and author Mark Twain (United States), together with other important figures such as Antonio Maceo and José Martí (Cuba), Román Baldorioty de Castro and Lola Rodríguez de Tió (Puerto Rico), José Rizal and Emilio Aguinaldo (Philippines), and Antonio Cánovas del Castillo and Ramón Blanco (Spain).
Populism - Historian Worth Robert Miller of Missouri State University has authored this guide to information on the Populist Movement which includes extensive bibliographies and digital documents.
Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library - The Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson College has undertaken the monumental task of creating a presidential digital library that will serve as a repository for all Roosevelt-related documents, photographs, and ephemera, providing instant access via the internet in a well-organized, comprehensible manner. It is working closely with other institutions such as the Library of Congress and Harvard College to obtain copies of their holdings in order to create a truly comprehensive digital collection.
Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South -
Researching the UM Libraries Archives and Special Collections
The Archives & Special Collections is open Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM (not on weekends).
The Archives & Special Collections collects material related to the University of Mississippi, the state of Mississippi, and the Blues.
Patrons are not permitted to browse the stacks or remove material from the department. Therefore, identifying specific holdings that are most likely to be useful in your research is extremely important.
Strategies for identifying collections and items related to your topic:
- Conduct keyword searches in the library catalog (http://umiss.lib.olemiss.edu/). Use the “Advance Search” option to limit list to items in Special Collections. Try a variety of search terms. Special Collections will not only have secondary source publications on your topic, it also possesses contemporary documents, memoirs, recordings, and oral histories that can be used as primary sources.
- Review archives subject guides (http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/archives/tools/research_tools.html) on topics related to your research. These will include brief descriptions of manuscript collections and usually provide links to the more extensive descriptions offered by collection finding aids. In addition, several subject guides provide lists of catalogued publications on the topic.
- Use the custom Google search box on the archives website to conduct keyword searches of all online collection finding aids (http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/archives/tools/research_tools.html). Be aware that the search will pull up links to more than just finding aids.
- Most importantly, tell an archivist what you are working on and see if they have any suggestions about resources. Ask more than one archivist!
Once a catalogued item or collection is identified, complete a card to page the material. If using collections, patrons must also complete a researcher registration form that is kept on file for one year and requires a photo ID.
Copies:
- Not all material may be copied. Check with the person at the reference desk first.
- Photocopies cost .10 per page. The copier takes only coins and dollar bills.
- Special Collections permits digital photographs and personal scanner, but patrons using this method must complete a separate form and log a description of each image.
Archives Contact:
Dr. Leigh McWhite
Political Papers Archivist & Associate Professor
(662) 915-1850
