Research Resources
for
History 421/Women Studies 421
European Women's History
Consult a Reference Work: | Selected Reference Works
Find books and Articles on Your Topic: | Books | Articles | Looking for More
Locate Primary Source Documents: | Collections of Printed Source Documents | Letters, Diaries, Memoirs, etc… | Collections on Microformat | Collections of Primary Sources Online | Early News and Magazine Articles
Selected Reference Works
Biographie Universelle: Ancienne et Moderne
Biography and Genealogy Master Index
Use to locate biographies appearing in other reference works.
Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages (3 volumes)
Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350 to 2000 (6 volumes)
Encyclopedia of Modern Europe: Europe 1789-1914 (5 volumes) Online via Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Encyclopedia of Modern Europe: Europe Since 1914 (5 volumes) Online via Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Europe , 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World (6 volumes)
Political and Historical Encyclopedia of Women
Essays on political topics such as “Women in the Revolutions of 1848, Women in the Spanish Civil War”, etc… Essay include extensive lists of additional readings.
Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe : an Encyclopedia
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STEP 2 - FIND BOOKS AND ARTICLES ON YOUR TOPICTo find BOOKS (and other materials) at Penn State use the library's catalog, The CAT. Use OCLC WorldCat to search for materials in libraries worldwide. Use the “Request via ILL” link and the item you want will be delivered to you. For more information see our Interlibrary Loan FAQ, |
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Tips for locating published primary sources in The CAT
Use the Subject Heading “ Sources ” to search for collections of primary source documents. Combine this with a broad topic, e.g. women AND sources.
You can limit searches by date to find items published at the time an event occurred.
Also see the section: Primary Source Collections
To Find Scholarly Articles on Your Topic use an Index . Many of these indexes can be searched online. A few key databases are:
- Francis. Tell Me More
- Historical Abstracts. Tell Me More
- History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. Tell Me More
- IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Literature). Tell Me More
- Magazine Stacks: Tables of contents for European Historical Journals
- Periodicals Index Online. Tell Me More
- Web of Science (Citation Index). Tell Me More
- Women's Studies International. Tell Me More
Full-Text Databases
These databases include the full-text of selected History and Women's Studies journals.
- Contemporary Women's Issues. Tell me More
- Gallica (Bibliotheque Nationale de France)
- GenderWatch. Tell Me More
- History Cooperative. Tell Me More
- JSTOR. Tell Me More
- MUSE. Tell Me More
- Periodicals Archive Online. Tell Me More
Looking for More?
Find Articles by Subject lists hundreds of database by discipline/major. Also consider consulting a Bibliography (a list of sources usually on a specific theme) . A few to try:
- Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature
- A Selected Bibliography on Modern French History: 1600 to the Present
- Early Modern Bibliographies
- Women's Studies : a Recommended Bibliography
- Women in Western European History: A Select, Chronological, Geographical, and Topical Bibliography
STEP 3 - LOCATE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS
Now that you have read what others have written it is time to research relevant historical documents. The books and articles you have read should provide some leads, but you will also want to discover sources on your own. Below are some historical collections in the University Libraries to help get you started.
Collections of Printed Source Documents
Many historical documents are reproduced years later and published in anthologies. A few examples:
- Ages of Woman, Ages of Man : Sources in European Social History, 1400-1750
- Conduct Literature for Women, 1500-1640 (Altoona)
- Conduct Literature for Women, 1640-1710 (Altoona)
- European Women : a Documentary History, 1789-1945
- Varieties of Women's Sensation Fiction, 1855-1890
Use the Subject Heading “Sources ” in The CAT to search for collections of primary source documents. Combine this with a broad topic, e.g. women AND sources.
Letters, Diaries, Memoirs, etc…
The easiest way to locate these works is to search The CAT by the individual's name, e.g. Marie Antoinette, Mary Wollstonecraft, or Margaret Thatcher. If you do not know a name the books below can help you identify sources written by women.
- British Women's Diaries: A Descriptive Bibliography of Selected Nineteenth Century Women's Manuscript Diaries.
- Encyclopedia of Women's Autobiography (Essays on individual authors and their works. Can search by Ethnicity/Nationality)
- Personal Writings by Women to 1900: a Bibliography of American and British Writers
- Women's Diaries, Journals, and Letters: An Annotated Bibliography (Includes a Place Index you can use to identify women by country)
Collections on Microformat
MANY primary source documents are in microformat (microfilm, fiche, etc…). What are Microforms?
- Cornell University Collection of Pamphlets on Women's Rights, 1814-1912
- Les Femmes: Rare Works from France from the Bibliothèque Nationale (127 titles dating from the 17th to 20th century)
- French Revolution Research Collection.
Section 9 : The Reorganization of Society (includes Women & the Family) - Proletarische Frauenbewegung : of the 19th & Early 20th centuries : Alltagserfahrungen, Soziale Frage
Early texts about working class women in Germany - Sex & Sexuality, 1640-1940. Part 1, Sources from the Bodleian Library, Oxford and the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London
61 texts on perceptions of the body and attitudes towards sex
Collections of Primary Sources Online
- Digital Library Classic Protestant Texts (16 th & 17 th century)
- Early English Books, 1475-1800
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online, 1701-1800
- Empire Online, 1492-1969
- European Library (digital books, maps, images, etc…).
- Gender Issues and Sexuality: Essential Primary Sources (found in: Gale Virtual Reference Library)
- Internet Women's History Sourcebook
- Women's History Online, 1543-1945 (Full text books, pamphlets and periodicals including many European publications)
- WomenWatch: Documents and Databases
- WSSLinks: Women and Gender Studies Sites on the Web
See also the News section.
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Magazine and news articles published shortly after an event can provide a snapshot of contemporary opinion on a topic, revealing current attitudes.
America's Historical Newspapers,1690-1922
For a U.S. perspective on Europe . Early editors often reprinted articles from European news sources, especially British publications.
American Periodicals Series, 1741-1900+
Full-text of over 1,000 magazines. Some coverage of European events/topics.
Bibliographie der Deutschen Zeitschriftenliteratur, 1896-present
A print index to European publications, with an emphasis on German scholarship. Available online since 1984 as IBZ ( http://alias.libraries.psu.edu/eresources/IBZ) .
Early English Newspapers (microfromat)
Use THE CAT to get a list of titles in the collection.
European Women's Periodicals. Unit 2: France and Unit 3: Germany
Political, professional and popular periodicals written for and by women. Many titles are not complete; for a list of issues included see the print guide.
New York Times, 1851-2003
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906)
Mostly covers American publications, with some British sources.
Times of London, 1785-1985
After 1985 articles can be found on Academic Universe
Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900
An index to articles in British sources on CD-ROM at the Arts & Humanities Reference Desk, 2 nd Floor Pattee Library
LOOKING FOR MORE? No all news sources are online. Many more are on Microformat (microfilm, microfiche, etc...). See Microfinder for a list of newspapers on microfilm,
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Questions????Ask at any Reference Desk, or contact
Eric Novotny, ecn1@psu.edu,
814-865-1014,
IM: HistoryLibrarian
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