Alcohol & Temperance in the Atlantic World

Course Number:

HST 290

Starting Points

Library Catalog

Local holdings of library's books, videos, government documents, manuscript collections and journal holdings. (Note that the journal information in the catalog tells what issues we have but does not index individual articles.) Some web sites are also cataloged.

WorldCat

Cataloged holdings of over 9,000 libraries. WorldCat is the union catalog of books, web resources, and other material located worldwide cataloged by OCLC member libraries (approximately 26,000 libraries.) Books in the catalog are generally available via Interlibrary Loan, and many of the websites are freely available.

Articles & eResources

Scholarly Journal Databases & Indexes

Use these databases and journal indexes to search for articles in journals, magazines and newspapers:

America: History & Life

Indexes and summarizes article and reviews about U.S. and Canadian history published since 1957.

Historical Abstracts

covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present

Academic Search Complete

a multidisciplinary periodical index to over 8,000 journals and magazines, 4,700 of which are full-text online.

JSTOR

Full-text searching of an archive of over 40 history and 25 political science journals. Typically excludes the latest 3-5 years of publication.

Public Affairs Information Services (PAIS)

The PAIS Archive database contains references to monographs, periodical articles, government and non-governmental agency reports about public affairs, public and social policies and international relations. The archive database contains references from 1915 to 1976.

Palmer's Full Text Online

provides access to approximately one million articles from The Times®; covering almost a century of British and world history. (1875-1905)

Project MUSE

provides 100% full-text, to over 300 high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from 60 scholarly publishers. Includes over 50 journals in history.

Readers' Guide Retrospective

includes indexing for the most popular general-interest periodicals published primarily in the United States, 1890-1982.

HarpWeek

Harpers Weekly 1857-1876.

New York Times Archive

Full text of the NYT from 1851-2005 (The last three years are not available.)

North American Women's Letters and Diaries

provides full text of letters and diaries. The collection includes bibliographies of women's diaries and letters yet published. It lists over 2,000 published and unpublished items from a variety of sources.

Pennsylvania Gazette

1728-1800. Billed as "the New York Times of the 18th century, Accessible Archives also provides some other colonial papers from the Pennsylvania area.

Readers' Guide Retrospective

includes indexing for the most popular general-interest periodicals published primarily in the United States, 1890-1982.

Using the Library Catalog

Click here to search the Library Catalog

Subject Searching

The library catalog and WorldCat use Library of Congress Subject Headings. This list of authorized subject headings is available in the 5-volume set at the Reference Desk. However, you can start with keyword searches to gather some relevant titles, then look at their subject headings to discover the official terms to use.
Libraries and database creators try to structure language in a way to make browsable lists. Subject terms tend to be set up in a hierarchical manner. To understand this better, try a Keyword search in the Randall Library Catalog for "Drinking customs " Then, change the search to a Subject search on " Drinking customs" to see a hierarchical display of subject headings. Browse through results for various aspects and periods of history.
Subject headings may not be "natural language." For example, books on social history of places or groups commonly have the subheading Social life and customs.
Keep in mind that the most specific terms will be used as subject headings. For instance, a book about saloons will have the heading Bars (Drinking establishments) but may or may not have the broader heading Drinking of alcoholic beverages.
Just because an item's subject heading does not include "History" as a subdivision does not mean it has no history in it. In particular, look at the publication date. It may be a source contemporary to the period you are researching.
There are several commonly used subject subheadings that indicate an item is a primary source. Look for or search these subheadings:
- correspondence*
- diaries*
- interviews*
- personal narratives
- pictorial works
- songs and music
- sources
- speeches, addresses, etc.*
- treaties

Browsing

After finding some sources through searching the online catalog, be sure to browse the shelves near these times. The call numbers are devised to place materials on the same subject together on the shelf. In the catalog, the call number is presented as a link, so you can even browse the shelves when searching the catalog by clicking on the call number.

You may also wish to browse the Reference Collection to see what special sources are available. A basic outline of the Library of Congress Classification Scheme is at http://library.uncw.edu/guides/library_of_congress_classification. For more detail, see the outline from the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html

Books & Library Materials

International index

Indexes selected scholarly periodicals.

Poole's Index to Periodical Literature

Indexes selected popular magazines, 1802-1907.

Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals, 1824-1900

Indexes selected popular magazines 1824-1900.

Virginia Gazette

Index 1736-1780

News & Observer

(Raleigh) 1897-1901; 1965-present

Morning star (Wilmington, NC)

(no index available)

Times (London) [microform]

1788-1979

Websites

The free web is becoming a rich resource for primary source material. In particular, try these resources:

Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition

Brown University - This collection contains sources on alcohol consumption, the temperance movement, and prohibition legislation. Items include government publications and propaganda created by activist groups.

American Memory Project

American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

Archiving Early America

provides access to primary source material from 18th Century America — all displayed digitally. A unique array of original newspapers, maps and writings is included.