Libraries HomeResearch Guide for Environment and Colonialism
Research Guide for Hist 407: Environment and Colonialism
If you have questions about doing your research, contact me:
John Russell
johnruss@uoregon.edu
541-346-2689
Back to History Research Guide
Finding Secondary Sources
America: History & Life - is the main database for finding citations & abstracts for U.S. (and Canadian) History articles or book reviews.
Historical Abstracts - provides citations & abstracts for articles and books covering historical topics outside of the U.S. and Canada.
JSTOR - provides full-text access to back issues of 44 major history journals (and is also useful for interdisciplinary and area studies work).
History Online - Customized search engine that searches secondary (and primary) sources freely available online.
Recommended reference books:
- Encyclopedia of World Environmental History, 3 vols. (REF KNIGHT GF10 .E63 2004)
- Raymond Howgego, ed., Encyclopedia of Exploration, 4 vols. (REF KNIGHT G80 .H678 2004, G80 .H679 2006, G80 .H68 2003, G200 .H694 2008)
Finding Primary Sources
You will likely need to be creative when searching for primary sources. Remember to ask yourself "who would have cared enough about this topic to document it in some form?"
Searching the library catalog:
- use subject keywords like Description and travel, Diaries, Personal narratives, Correspondence;
- limit your search by date to find material published contemporary to the time period covered by your topic;
- search for journals using subject keywords such as description and travel or geographical terms;
- search for people or organizations as authors.
Finding Primary Source Materials
Recommended online resources:
Aluka - Primary sources from Africa (images, texts, maps).
Early English Books Online - Full-text (scanned from microfilm) of books printed in England to 1700.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online - Full-text of books printed in English in the 18th Century; allows full-text searching across all texts.
American Periodical Series - Full-text searching of magazines and other periodical literature from the 18th Century into the early 20th Century.
American Memory - Freely available digital collections of primary sources relating to U.S. History.
Hansard Online, 1803-2005 - Full-text searching of British parliamentary debates. This is an on-going project, so it is not (yet) comprehensive.
Making of Modern Law - American and English legal treatises from 1800-1926.
Historical Maps - Perry-Castañeda Library
Historical Maps - David Rumsey Collection
