Outline of this guide: Chicago Style: Manuals & Guides Background Information Primary Sources Secondary Sources

Other resources & guides: Book Review Sources The Dewey Decimal System: An Outline The Library of Congress Classification System: An Outline Microfilm: How to Use It RefWorks RefWorks: A Guide Research Log Research Planner Research Planner 2 Scholarly Articles: How to Identify Them Text a Librarian Web Resources: Evaluation

• Office hours:
  • Monday 1:00-3:00 pm
  • Tuesday, 3:00-5:00 pm
  • Wednesday, 4:00-5:00 pm
  Location: Consultation Room (directly behind the reference desk)
• Also available by appointment.

Getting Started

• Question 1
• Question 2
• Question 3

Chicago Style: Manuals & Guides

• Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2010.
  Little Library Reference Desk: REF Z253 .U69 2010
  Note: up to ten people can search the online version at any one time.
  See also the Chicago Citation Quick Guide.
• A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. Kate Turabian; rev. Wayne C. Booth et al. 7th ed. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2007.
  Reference Desk 808.02 T929m7
• A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. Mary Lynn Rampolla. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010.
  Reference Desk: REF D13 .R295 2010
• You can also use RefWorks to generate in-text citations and reference lists in Chicago format.

Background Information

• Archive of Americana
  (c. 1639-1980) A collection of digital facsimiles of American books, broadsides, pamphlets, newspapers, and government documents. Includes:
  • American Broadsides & Ephemera
    (c. 1760-1900) Contains more than 30,000 digital facsimiles of broadsides and ephemera, including advertisements, handbills, trade cards, theatre and music programs, stock certificates, menus, and many other works.
  • Early American Imprints
    • Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800
      Contains digital images of over 37,000 books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in the British American colonies, and later the United States.
    • Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
      Contains digital images of over 36,000 American books, pamphlets, and broadsides.
• Documenting the American South, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  A collection of documents, images, and sound files related to the history of the American South.
• Google Books
  Be sure to limit your search to "Full view only" or "Public Domain only" in order to find books that you can view cover-to-cover and/or download.
• Hathi Trust
  A digital collection of works held by a number of major research libraries. Be sure to limit your search to "Full view only" to view works that you can view cover-to-cover.
  Note: as of March 2011, 26% of works in the Hathi Trust are in the public domain. For more information about public domain, see our guide to works in the public domain.
• Making of America
  Contains the full text of journals and books from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
  Note: There are two sites for the Making of America:
  University of Michigan site
  Cornell University site
• Overland Journeys: Travels in the West, 1800-1880
  (1800-1880) Includes digital facsimiles of books, government documents, and other materials; these works are selections from two microfiche collections, Travels in the West and Southwest (which Davidson owns; see below) and Plains and Rockies (which our library lacks). Part of Archives Unbound.
• Travels in the Old South [microfiche]
  Microfiche cabinet A-3
  Guide: REF Z1251 .S7 C54 2000 Index
  A collection of travelers' accounts of their visits to the Old South (1607-1860).
  Also consult the bibliography on which this collection is based:
  • Travels in the Old South: A Bibliography. Ed. Thomas D. Clark. 3 vols. Norman, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1956-1959.
    REF F209 .C5 1956r
    Vol. 1: The Formative Years, 1527-1783
    Vol. 2: The Expanding South, 1750-1825
    Vol. 3: The Ante Bellum South, 1825-1860
  • Travels in the West and Southwest [microfiche]
    Microfiche cabinets
    Contains a variety of books and other publications, such as speeches, promotional publications, biographies of Indian sympathizers, trappers, mountain men and cowboys, some periodicals, and many accounts of life in the vast region from St. Louis to San Francisco and from San Diego north to British Columbia.
    • Guide to the microfiche collection: REF Z591 .T685 1996 Index
    • Selections from this collection are available online in Overland Journeys: Travels in the West, 1800-1880, a component of Archives Unbound.

• American Diaries: An Annotated Bibliography of Published American Diaries and Journals. 2 vols. Laura Arksey et al. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1983-1985.
  Reference R 016.92 A721a
  Vol. 1: Diaries Written from 1492 to 1844
  Vol. 2: Diaries Written from 1845 to 1980
• American Women's Diaries [microfilm]
  Microfilm cabinet C-2
  This collection includes handwritten diaries from the colonial period through the beginning of the twentieth century. It is in three parts of this collection: New England Women (8 diaries), Southern Women (32 diaries), and Western Women (600 diaries).
  Guides:
     Segment 1, New England Women: Reference R 016.973 A5121n
     Segment 2, Southern Women: Reference R 016.973 A5121s
     Segment 3, Western Women: Reference R 016.973 A5121w
• And So to Bed: A Bibliography of Diaries Published in English. Patricia Pate Havlice. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1987.
  REF CT25 .H380 1987
• North American Women's Letters & Diaries
  This collection provides the full text of letters, diaries, and excerpts of diaries from the colonial era to the mid twentieth century. The texts were written contemporaneously; memoirs are not included.

• Collections of Newspapers
  
  • Accessible Archives
    • African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
      (1827-1902) Includes the full text of The Christian Recorder (1861-1902), a newspaper published by the African Methodist Church.
    • The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective
      (1 Nov. 1860 - 15 April 1865) Contains the full text of articles drawn from issues of the Charleston Mercury, New York Herald, and the Richmond Enquirer.
  • America's Historical Newspapers
    (1690- c. 1980) Contains digital facsimiles of over 1,375 seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth-century newspapers; the full text of these newspapers, including all articles, advertisements, and other contents, is keyword-searchable. Includes Early American Newspapers (1690-1922), African American Newspapers (1827-1998), The Civil War: Antebellum Period to Reconstruction (1840-1877), and Hispanic American Newspapers (1808-1980).
    This collection is part of the Archive of Americana.
  • Historical Newspapers: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post
    (1851-2006) Provides the full text of the New York Times with index (1851-2007), Wall Street Journal (1889-1993), and Washington Post (1877-1994). Page images can be viewed and downloaded as pdf files.
    See also: printing tips.
• Individual Newspapers
  Be sure to search the collections of newspapers too.
  • 19th Century Newspapers
    • Indexes to 19th Century Newspapers
    • 19th Century Newspapers in Little Library
  To find other newspapers, see the library's guide Newspapers held by other libraries: how to find them

• Guides to Magazines
  • African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography. Ed. James P. Danky. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1998.
    Reference R 015.73 A258
    Includes information about popular magazines
  • American Literary Magazines: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Ed. Edward E. Chielens. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1986. Reference R 016.81 A512
  • Index to City and Regional Magazines of the United States. Comp. Sam G. Riley and Gary W. Selnow. New York: Greenwood, 1989.
    Reference R 015.73 R573i
  • Magazines of the American South. Sam G. Riley. New York: Greenwood, 1986.
    Reference R 051 R573m
  • Regional Interest Magazines of the United States. Ed. Sam G. Riley and Gary W. Selnow. New York: Greenwood, 1991.
    Reference R 051 R336
  • Women's Periodicals in the United States: Consumer Magazines. Ed. Kathleen L. Endres and Therese L. Lueck. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995. Reference R 051.09 W8721
  • Women's Periodicals in the United States: Social and Political Issues. Ed. Kathleen L. Endres and Therese L. Lueck. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. Reference R 051.09 W872
• Periodical Indices & Collections
  • 19th-Century Masterfile
    Indexes articles in 479 British and American periodicals published in the nineteenth century.
    Note: The print version of Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906), which is part of 19th-Century Masterfile, is available in the Reference Index Area at call number R 050 P82.
  • Godey's Lady's Book (1830-1889, 1892-1893, 1896)
    In addition, the Library has some individual issues from July 1865, August 1865, July 1867, June 1869, and August 1870. These are kept in Permanent Reserve; please ask for help at the Circulation Desk.
  • Making of America
    Contains the full text of journals and books from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
    Note: There are two sites for the Making of America:
    University of Michigan site
    Cornell University site
  • Periodicals Index Online
    (c. 1665-1995) Indexes journal and magazine articles as well as book reviews in a broad array of humanities, social sciences, and science subjects.
• See also the library's guides on finding magazine articles:
  • 19th Century Popular Magazines & Journals
    • Guides to and Bibliographies for 19th Century Popular Magazines & Journals
    • Indexes to 19th Magazines and Journals
    • 19th Century Popular Magazines & Journals in Little Library

• American Memory, from the Library of Congress
  Contains a wide variety of photographs and other images from all periods of American history
.
• AP Images
  (1826 to present [photographs]; 1920 to present [audio clips]; 1990 to present [charts and maps]; 1997 to present [text]) A collection of over 2 million photographs, 1 million audio clips, 48,000 diagrams, charts, maps, and timelines, and 2.8 million news briefs from the Associated Press (AP). Updated daily.
  Note: Only one person can search this database at any one time; if you are unable to login because this limit has been reached, please wait a few minutes and try again.
  Photographs and graphics from the Archive cannot be sold, syndicated, loaned or used for advertising or for trade without the written consent of AP. In addition, users cannot republish any of the photographs on a Web page.
• ARTstor
  A collection of over one million images covering art, architecture, and archaeology from a wide range of cultures and time periods as well as tools to manipulate and analyze those images.

• To find accounts of travelers' accounts, do Subject searches in the Library Catalog and WorldCat; include the name of the state or region and the phrase "description and travel."
  Example:
  • California description and travel
• Archive of Americana
  (c. 1639-1980) A collection of digital facsimiles of American books, broadsides, pamphlets, newspapers, and government documents. Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 and Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 both contain published travel accounts.
• Making of America
  Contains the full text of journals and books from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
  Note: There are two sites for the Making of America:
  University of Michigan site
  Cornell University site
• Travels in the Confederate States: A Bibliography. E. Merton Coulter. Norman, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1948.
  Reference R 016.917 C85t
• Travels in the Old South [microfiche]
  Microfiche cabinet A-3
  Guide: Reference R 016.975 C595t
  A collection of travelers' accounts of their visits to the Old South (1607-1860).
  Also consult the bibliography on which this collection is based:
  • Travels in the Old South: A Bibliography. Ed. Thomas D. Clark. 3 vols. Norman, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1956-1959.
    Reference R 016.917 C59tr
    Vol. 1: The Formative Years, 1527-1783
    Vol. 2: The Expanding South, 1750-1825
    Vol. 3: The Ante Bellum South, 1825-1860
• Travels in the West and Southwest [microfiche]
  Microfiche cabinet A-3
  Guide: Reference R 016.979 T979
  Contains a variety of books and other publications, such as speeches, promotional publications, biographies of Indian sympathizers, trappers, mountain men and cowboys, some periodicals, and many accounts of life in the vast region from St. Louis to San Francisco and from San Diego north to British Columbia.

• Archive of Americana
  (c. 1639-1980) A collection of digital facsimiles of American books, broadsides, pamphlets, newspapers, and government documents. Includes:
  • American State Papers
    (1789-1838) Contains the fully-searchable text of early American Congressional and Executive Department documents.
  • U.S. Congressional Serial Set
    (1817-1994) Contains the fully-searchable text of the Serial Set, a rich collection of primary source materials on all aspects of U.S. political, military, cultural, economic, ethnic, and social history. Includes U.S. Senate and House of Representatives reports, documents, and journals.
• Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909. Congressional: To Close of Sixtieth Congress; Departmental: To End of Calendar Year 1909. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: G.P.O., 1911.
  Reference Extension GP 3.2:C 41/2
  Also available online from the Internet Archive.
• A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
  From the Library of Congress's American Memory project. Contains the full text of American State Papers (1789-1838), Statutes at Large (1789-1875), Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-179, and a wealth of other resources.
• A Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States, September 5, 1774 - March 4, 1881. Comp. Benjamin Perley Poore. Washington, DC: G.P.O., 1885.
  Online:
  • In the U.S. Congressional Serial Set
  • JScholarship (pdf), from Johns Hopkins University
  • University of North Texas Libraries
  Print: shelved in Government Documents Office [fragile condition]; ask at the Reference Desk.
• LexisNexis Congressional
  Indexes Congressional documents and includes the full text of:
  • The Congressional Record (1789 to present)
  • Published and unpublished committee hearings (1824 to present)
  Note: many of the early records and statutes are available full-text through A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation (for a full description, see above) and the U.S. Congressional Serial Set (see above). The Davidson College Library also has print copies of American State Papers (1789-1838) and the Annals of Congress (1789-1824).
• U.S. Census data
  • Decennials: Census of Population and House (1790-1900), from the U.S. Census Bureau (pdf files)
  • Historical Census Browser (1790-1960), from the GeoStat Center at the University of Virginia Library
  • The Davidson College Library also has many volumes of decennial census records, including the following.
    They are shelved on the ground (lower) floor, at the start of the Government Information Stacks (i.e. the shelves immediately to your right as you exit the main stairwell on the ground floor).
• U.S. Congressional Serial Set
  Part of the Archive of Americana (see above).

• American Memory, from the Library of Congress
  Contains a wealth of primary source material for American history, including:
  • Abraham Lincoln Papers
  • "California as I Saw it": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900
  • The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865
  • First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920
    Part of the Documenting the American South collection described below
  • The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
  • The Thomas Jefferson Papers
• Archives Unbound
  (c. 1500-1993) Contains over 50 digital primary source document collections; each collection focuses on a particular topic. Examples include: The Civil War in Words and Deeds, Overland Journeys, and The War Department and Indian Affairs, 1800-1824.
• Documenting the American South, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  A collection of documents, images, and sound files related to the history of the American South.
• Making of America
  Contains the full text of journals and books from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
  Note: There are two sites for the Making of America:
  University of Michigan site
  Cornell University site

Secondary Sources

General search tips:

• Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to connect terms/concepts
• In most databases, the truncation symbol is a *
• Enclose phrases in double quotation marks " "

• Library Catalog
  Lists the books, government documents, and journals, magazines, and newspapers in our Library.
  • To locate works about a person, do a subject search for the person's name (last name first).
  • To locate bibliographies on a person or topic, do a keyword search and add the following: su bibliography.
  Tips:
  • Truncation symbol: $
  • Some relevant subject headings:
    • Reconstruction U S history
    • Southern states history
    • United States history 1865-1898
    • United States history civil war 1861-1865
    • United States history colonial period
    • United States history Revolution
• ebrary
  A collection of over 55,000 e-books published by academic, trade, and professional publishers; covers all subject areas. Also includes tools that allow you to create your own virtual bookshelf, bookmark pages, and add and save notes and highlights.
  Note: for full functionality, you need the ebrary Reader. This plugin is on all library and ITS computers, but if you are using your own computer, you can download it from the ebrary home page.
• WorldCat
  Lists books, periodicals, and other materials held by libraries around the world. You can submit an interlibrary loan request to borrow books that aren't available at Davidson.
  • Identify relevant Library of Congress Subject Headings in the Library Catalog first; you can then do a subject search in WorldCat to find additional items with these subject headings.
• See also:
  • Google Books
    Be sure to limit your search to "Full view only" or "Public Domain only" in order to find books that you can view cover-to-cover and/or download.
    For more information about public domain, see our guide to works in the public domain.
  • Hathi Trust
    A digital collection of works held by a number of major research libraries. Be sure to limit your search to "Full view only" to view works that you can view cover-to-cover.
    Note: as of February 2011, 26% of works in the Hathi Trust are in the public domain. For more information about public domain, see our guide to works in the public domain.