Posts Tagged ‘18th century’

Teaching Early American Literature at Lenoir-Rhyne University

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Dr. Julie Voss

Recent discussion on EARAM-L, the listserv of the Society of Early Americanists, centered on the shortcomings of anthologies for teaching early American literature to undergraduates. Julie R. Voss, assistant professor of English and coordinator of the American Studies Program at Lenoir-Rhyne University, wrote:

I teach at a small school with no rare books collections; however, we do have access to the online Early American Imprints collection. This semester, my students in Colonial American Literature are working with primary texts from this archive, after studying several works available in modern editions. (This course is intended to “expose” students to colonial lit, not “cover” the period, so I don’t fly through an anthology.) They seem to be enjoying the experience, and they are learning a great deal about early literature and culture, as well as about research and editing.

Prof. Voss has now written an article about her class’s experience – “Accomplishing Something: Using Early American Imprints to Introduce Students to the Era and to the Field” – for publication in the fall 2012 issue of The Readex Report. To subscribe to this quarterly Readex e-publication, please use this form.

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in American Literature, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

Press Release: Announcing Afro-Americana, 1535-1922 — the online edition of the Library Company’s unparalleled collection

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Today we distributed this news release:

Readex to Launch Digital Edition of the Library Company of Philadelphia’s Unparalleled Collection of Afro-Americana

More than 12,000 searchable books, pamphlets, and broadsides will stimulate new research on centuries of African American history, literature, and life 

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

January 16, 2012 (NAPLES, FL) – A digital edition of Afro-Americana, 1535-1922: From the Library Company of Philadelphia will be introduced in late Spring 2012 by Readex, a division of NewsBank. Created from the Library Company’s acclaimed collection—an accumulation that began with Benjamin Franklin and has steadily increased throughout its entire history—this unique new online resource will provide researchers with more than 12,000 wide-ranging printed works about African American history. Critically important subjects covered include the West’s discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of slavery in the New World along with the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought and racism; descriptions of African American life—slave and free—throughout the Americas; and slavery and race in fiction and drama. Also featured are printed works of African American individuals and organizations.

“The Library Company’s Afro-Americana Collection is one of the most comprehensive and valuable archives of printed material by and about people of African descent anywhere in the world,” says Professor Richard Newman of the Rochester Institute of Technology. “From early descriptions of African society and culture to the black struggle for justice in the Americas during the 19th century, it remains a touchstone for scholars and students alike. To have it available online and at your fingertips in a searchable format will be a dream come true.”

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

The works in this collection, many of which are quite rare, span nearly 400 years, from the early 16th to the early 20th century. Examples include David Walker’s 1829 Appeal . . . to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly to Those of the United States of America, a militant attack on both southern slavery and efforts to colonize free blacks; Lydia Maria Child’s 1833 essay, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans; William Still’s The Underground Rail Road: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-breadth Escapes, and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom (1872); William J. Simmons’ Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising (1887); and Booker T. Washington’s The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery, published in 1909.

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

Also included are such important but lesser-known works as Joseph Sidney, An Oration, Commemorative of the Abolition of the Slave Trade (New York, 1809) and Russell Parrott, An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade . . . First of January, 1814 (Philadelphia, 1814), two works by African American authors celebrating January 1 anniversaries of the end of the slave trade; Grand Bobalition of Slavery! (Boston, 1820), a satire of such celebrations, one example of a long-overlooked genre; Robert B. Lewis, Light and Truth (Portland, Maine, 1836), which champions the central role of black Africans in laying the basis for ancient civilization; William Wells Brown, The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements (an 1865 republication in newly-liberated Savannah of an 1863 collective biography of prominent blacks, many still alive, and most, like the author, former slaves); Martin R. Delany, Principia of Ethnology: The Origins of Race and Color, with an Archeological Compendium of Ethiopian and Egyptian Civilization (Philadelphia, 1879), a work by an African American analyzing the origins of color and race and championing black creativity; Charles Carroll, “The Negro a Beast” or “In the Image of God” (St. Louis, 1900), one of many savage works by whites denying the humanity of blacks; and three works by the preeminent African American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois: The Atlanta Conferences (Atlanta, 1902); Some Efforts of American Negroes for Their Own Social Betterment (Atlanta, 1898); and A Select Bibliography of the Negro American (Atlanta, 1905).

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

The Library Company’s Afro-Americana Collection began to gain international renown for its size, range, and significance in the late 1960s as scholars, influenced by civil rights activism, initiated fresh studies of slavery’s part in the American story. “As researchers rediscovered the importance of the long-neglected writings of African Americans, they told us that our collection was vital to new scholarship in African American studies,” says Librarian James N. Green. The Library Company mounted the path-breaking exhibition “Negro History, 1553-1903” in 1969, and followed that with the publication in 1973 of the magisterial bibliography Afro-Americana 1553-1906: A Catalog of the Holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Since then, Afro-Americana has been a priority of the Library Company, and the collection has grown with each year. A second edition of the Catalog, including 2,500 works acquired since 1973, was published in 2008, preserving and extending the legacy of this landmark work and now providing the bibliographic control for Readex’s online edition. Afro-Americana, 1535-1922 will be fully integrated into America’s Historical Imprints for seamless searching with Early American Imprints, Series I and II: Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker, 1639-1819 and the recent Supplements from the Library Company of Philadelphia, which have added nearly 2,000 newly discovered items. In addition, Afro-Americana, 1535-1922 will be cross-searchable with all Archive of Americana collections, including African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 and African American Periodicals, 1825-1995.

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

Researchers around the world have praised advance word of the partnership between Readex and the Library Company to digitize this landmark collection. UCLA Emeritus Professor Gary Nash writes, “The benefits to scholarship and teaching that will come when the Library Company’s Afro-Americana Collection is made into a digital database are virtually immeasurable. This will be a major step in infusing American history in general with its vitally important African American component. Teachers at all levels will find this a gold mine.”

And University of Michigan Professor Martha S. Jones says, “Today, early African American studies is a global enterprise that includes researchers throughout the United States as well as Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. This collaboration between the Library Company and Readex will bring new resources into reach and enrich this still expanding field of research and study.”

About the Library Company of Philadelphia

The Library Company is an independent research library specializing in American history and culture from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, the Library Company is America’s first successful lending library and oldest cultural institution. Free and open to the public, the Library Company houses an extensive non-circulating collection of rare books, manuscripts, broadsides, ephemera, prints, photographs, and works of art. The mission of the Library Company is to preserve, interpret, make available, and augment the valuable materials within its care. It serves a diverse constituency throughout Philadelphia and the nation, offering comprehensive reader services, an internationally renowned fellowship program, online catalogs, and regular exhibitions and public programs.

With the creation of the Program in African American History in 2007 (currently directed by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, an associate professor of history at the University of Delaware), the Library Company has expanded fellowships, conferences, exhibitions, publications, public programming, teacher training, and acquisitions to help achieve the full potential represented by its holdings in this area. For more information about this Program, see http://www.librarycompany.org/paah/

About Readex, a division of NewsBank

For more than sixty years, the Readex name has been synonymous with research in historical materials and government documents. Recognized by librarians, students, and scholars for its efforts to transform academic scholarship, Readex offers a wealth of Web-based collections in the humanities and social sciences, including the Archive of Americana, a family of historical collections featuring searchable books, pamphlets, newspapers, and government documents printed in America over three centuries, and the World Newspaper Archive, created in partnership with the Center for Research Libraries. Also available are the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports and the Joint Publications Research Service Reports, two of the U.S. government’s fundamental sources of political, historical and scientific open source intelligence during the second half of the 20th century.

# # #

For more information, contact Readex Marketing Director David Loiterstein by calling 1.800.762.8182 or emailing dloiterstein@readex.com.

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in American History, American Literature, Announcements, Collection Development, New Collections, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Print Culture | 2 Comments »

The Readex Report: In Praise of Librarians and Archivists; Of Presidents and Papers; Ephemeral Loyalties; and Playing Hardball

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

In our latest issue: A professor lauds his colleagues in the library; dissecting a timeless inaugural speech; consumption versus nationalism in early America; and the unheralded impact of a hard-swinging civil rights giant.

In Praise of Librarians and Archivists: Appreciating the Colleagues Who Make Professors’ Jobs Easier

By Mark Cheathem, Associate Professor of History, Cumberland University

Since I was a child begging my mother to take me to the library on a daily basis, I have appreciated the designated keepers of books. Conducting research as an undergraduate student made me aware of the specialized jobs that academic librarians did every day to make life easier for the clueless young people like me who wandered into the building with no idea about how to find academic journal articles or primary sources…. (read article)

Of Presidents and Papers

By Martha King, Associate Editor, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, established at Princeton University, is preparing the authoritative and comprehensive edition of the correspondence and papers of our nation’s third president. As historians editing Jefferson’s incoming and outgoing correspondence, we are responsible for gathering documents and making them available to posterity in an accurate, transcribed, and contextualized format through our published and digital editions…. (read article)

Ephemeral Loyalties? Consumption, Commerce and Jeffersonian Politics, 1806-1815

By Joanna Cohen, School of History at Queen Mary, University of London

While the Revolution may have secured Americans their political independence, economic independence remained elusive. As early as 1783, Americans realized that they had not extricated themselves in any meaningful way from the mercantile system of the Atlantic world, still dominated by European imperial might…. (read article)

Playing Hardball: Brushing Off the Memory of a Civil Rights Giant

By Harvey M. Kahn, Humanities Reporter

Many scholars consider Rube Foster’s impact on the civil rights movement as important as that of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, or any other early twentieth-century figure. Today, with the exception of diehard baseball fans, few people recognize his name…. (read article)

Subscribe today to receive the next quarterly issue of The Readex Report in your inbox. Browse previous issues in our archive. If you would like to comment, contribute or suggest an article, please email The Readex Report editor: readexreport@readex.com.

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in American History, Announcements, Collection Development, Digital Humanities, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Print Culture, Product Updates, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

Archive of Americana transports you through time into 18th- and 19th-century America

Friday, October 28th, 2011

As a Readex account executive, I enjoy the opportunity to help bring our digital collections to the attention of students and scholars at some of the smallest four-year colleges. Occasionally, this extends to working collaboratively with librarians and faculty.

Among my accounts is Washington College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. At this liberal arts institution known for its strong commitment to undergraduate education, I consulted closely with Ruth Shoge, Associate Professor, College Librarian, and Adam Goodheart, Director of the College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, among others, to help bring the acclaimed Archive of Americana collections to their campus.

The Archive of Americana was used extensively by Adam Goodheart in writing his highly praised new book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening (Knopf, 2011). Reviewing 1861 recently, the Boston Globe wrote, “Goodheart shows us that even at 150 years’ distance there are new voices, and new stories, to be heard about the Civil War.” The New York Times review said, “1861 creates the uncanny illusion that the reader has stepped into a time machine,” and Pulitzer Prize winner James M. McPherson describes its author as “a Monet with a pen instead of a paintbrush.”

Last month Adam sent me these comments about our Archive of Americana, and encouraged me to share them further:

“Readex’s databases transport you through time into 18th- and 19th-century America. The eloquent, cantankerous voices of the young nation come through loud and clear in literally millions of speeches, sermons, editorials and newspaper ads. The most remarkable thing is that just a few years ago, reading many of these publications would have required traveling hundreds of miles to rare-book libraries or waiting weeks for microfilm reels to arrive. Now you can summon them up instantly without getting up from your chair. My own book would not have been the same without Readex.

“Best regards to you—and thanks to all those at Readex who work hard to create these tremendous resources.”

I was pleased to also learn that our databases are now helping Adam research his second book.

Does your institution have research needs that Readex digital collections might help fill? Please let me know. My e-mail address is gmauerhoff@readex.com. 

 

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in American History, Collection Development, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

Early American Newspapers, Series 1: Key Titles and Their Nameplates

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Artist: Joseph H. Davis (1811-1865). Title: Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Otis and Child (1834). Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Focusing on the 18th and early 19th centuries, the first series of Early American Newspapers offers over 350,000 issues from more than 710 titles. This widely used digital collection, based primarily on Clarence S. Brigham’s authoritative “History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820,” contains newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia.

Below is a brief description—and the nameplate—of several key titles:

Albany Register (New York)
One of the most successful and influential American newspapers of the late 18th and early 19th century, the Register was edited from 1808 to 1822 by the ardent anti-Federalist Solomon Southwick.

• Includes 485 issues published between 1794 and 1813. Early American Newspapers, Series 2 includes 1,462 issues published between 1789 and 1822.

American Beacon (Norfolk, Virginia)
Published by a ship captain in the busy 19th-century seaport of Norfolk, the Beacon focused on seafaring activities.

• Includes 1,670 issues published between 1815 and 1820

American Mercury (Hartford, Connecticut)
With a reputation for outspokenness, the Mercury was for many years Connecticut’s leading reform paper as well as a key proponent of ensuring legal equality for religious sects.

• Includes 2,586 issues published between 1784 and 1829. Coverage between 1830 and 1833 will be found in Early American Newspapers, Series 6

American Minerva (New York)
Self-described as “Patroness of Peace, Commerce, and the Liberal Arts,” Noah Webster’s federalist newspaper was established to support the policies of President George Washington.

• Includes 744 issues published between 1793 and 1796

American Weekly Mercury (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Founded in 1719 and the first newspaper in the Colonies to be published outside Boston, the Mercury was well known for its essays on political liberty.

 

• Includes 1,370 issues published between 1719 and 1746

Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock)
One of the first newspapers west of the Mississippi, the Gazette was founded 16 years before Arkansas achieved statehood. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, it remained one of the most influential newspapers in the region.

 

• Includes 337 issues published between 1819 and 1826. Early American Newspapers, Series 6 includes 8,638 issues of the Arkansas Gazette published between 1820 and 1900.

Boston News-Letter (Massachusetts)
Established in 1704, the News-Letter was the first regularly published newspaper in the British Colonies of North America. Noted for its pro-British sympathies, the News-Letter went through a succession of printers, including Margaret Draper, one the few women printers of the 18th century.

• Includes 3,500 issues published between 1704 and 1776

City Gazette (Charleston, South Carolina)
The City Gazette provides extensive coverage of the culture and history of Antebellum South Carolina, including the invention of the cotton gin and the rise of slavery.

• Includes 10,306 issues published between 1787 and 1821. Early American Newspapers, Series 2 includes 3,011 issues published between 1712 and 1826, and Series 4 includes 1,864 issues published between 1827 and 1833.

Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.)
As the official publication for Congressional reports, the Intelligencer’s government news was shipped to editors across the country.

• Includes 2,127 issues published between 1813 and 1820. Early American Newspapers, Series 6 includes 16,763 issues published between 1821 and 1869.

Eastern Argus (Portland, Maine)
This long-running weekly argued for Maine’s independence from Massachusetts.

• Includes 2,582 issues published between 1803 and 1833. Early American Newspapers, Series 3 includes 488 issues published between 1833 and 1880, and Series 7 will include issues published between 1835 and 1876.

Enquirer (Richmond, Virginia)
This influential southern newspaper was edited and published for 41 years by leading American journalist Thomas Ritchie. Of the Enquirer, Thomas Jefferson wrote:” I read but a single newspaper, Ritchie’s Enquirer, the best that is published or ever has been published in America.” Later issues of the Enquirer offer perspectives on the Confederacy’s reaction to Reconstruction.

• Includes 1,905 issues published between 1804 and 1820. Early American Newspapers, Series 2 includes 258 issues published between 1838 and 1865, and Series 6 will include issues published between 1866 and 1876.

Evening Post (New York City)
First published by Alexander Hamilton in 1801 as a broadside, the Post remains today the oldest continuously published daily in the country. It gained national fame under the editorship of poet and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant.

• Includes 6,090 issues published between 1801 and 1821. Early American Newspapers, Series 7 will include issues published between 1822 and 1876.

Farmer’s Cabinet (Amherst, New Hampshire)
The Cabinet is especially noteworthy for remaining neutral when many newspapers of its time were openly influenced by political controversy.

• Includes 4,943 issues published between 1802 and 1879

Georgia Gazette (Savannah)
Georgia’s first newspaper, the Gazette provides a rich record of southern colonial life.

• Includes 363 issues published between 1763 and 1770. Early American Newspapers, Series 2 includes 600 issues published between 1788 and 1802. Early American Newspapers, Series 5, includes 19 issues published in 1803.

Massachusetts Spy (Boston and Worcester)
Initially neutral but soon openly supporting the Patriots, the Massachusetts Spy was arguably the most important newspaper in America leading up to the Revolution. It was co-founded by Isaiah Thomas, one of the most successful and colorful journalists of the 18th century and founder of the American Antiquarian Society.

• Includes 283 issues published in Boston between 1770 and 1775, and 2,371 issues published in Worcester between 1775 and 1820. Early American Newspapers, Series 6 will include issues published between 1821 and 1876.

National Aegis (Worcester, Massachusetts)
Offering a political counterpoint to Worcester’s Federalist paper, the Massachusetts Spy, the Aegis defended Jeffersonian Republicanism throughout its run.

• Includes 989 issues published between 1801 and 1820. Early American Newspapers, Series 2 includes 155 issues published between 1825 and 1827, and Series 7 will include issues published between 1821 and 1876.

New-England Courant (Boston)
Shortly after founding the Courant in 1721, James Franklin was imprisoned and his paper suppressed for its radical views against the General Court. Franklin’s younger brother, Benjamin, who had been serving his apprenticeship at the Courant, assumed control of the paper in 1723. Benjamin Franklin’s early writings, under the name Silence Dogood, appear in this paper.

• Includes 243 issues published between 1721 and 1726

New-Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth)
The first newspaper in the state of New Hampshire, the Gazette is also one the nation’s oldest existing papers.

• Includes 4,140 issues published between 1756 and 1833. Early American Newspapers, Series 2 includes 415 issues published between 1836 and 1844, Series 3 includes 486 issues published between 1834 and 1851, Series 4 includes 772 issues published between 1836 and 1851, and Series 7 will include issues published between 1852 and 1876.

Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia)
Published by Benjamin Franklin, this prominent 18th-century newspaper contains not only in-depth articles on every aspect of Colonial America but also the full text of many seminal government documents, including the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers.

• Includes 635 issues published between 1742 and 1757. Early American Newspapers, Series 2 includes 1,524 issues published between 1736 and 1775

Providence Patriot (Rhode Island)
The Patriot, an influential and often eloquent paper, provides a local look at two early race riots: the 1824 Hardscrabble Riot and the 1831 Snow Town Riot in which working class whites attacked African American residents. Unable to control the violent mob, Providence officials requested that the Governor send in military troops.

• Includes 1,507 issues published between 1814 and 1829. Early American Newspapers, Series 2 includes 1,192 issues published between 1814 and 1834.

Publick Occurrences (Boston)
The first newspaper in North America, Publick Occurrences: Both Forreign and Domestick was published for the first and last time on September 26, 1690 before being shut down for printing “sundry doubtful and uncertain Reports” without royal consent.

• Includes the single issue published in 1690

Vermont Gazette (Bennington)
Publisher Anthony Haswell, who brought the first printing press to Vermont, was jailed for publishing articles in the Gazette that criticized the United States’ newly established government.

• Includes 2,199 issues published between 1783 and 1832. Early American Newspapers, Series 3 includes 105 issues published between 1843 and 1844, and Series 5 includes 834 issues published between 1832 and 1850.

For more information about Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876, please contact readexmarketing@readex.com or visit our website.  To request a free trial for your institution, please use this form.

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in American History, Collection Development, Journalism History, Print Culture | No Comments »

Newly Discovered Materials Enrich Early American Imprints

Monday, October 10th, 2011

Nearly 2,000 rare printed items from the Library Company of Philadelphia—previously unavailable in the Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker series—have been digitized by Readex.

Available in two parts, Supplements from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1819 may now be seamlessly searched and browsed within Readex’s fully integrated America’s Historical Imprints collection—the definitive resource for researching every aspect of 17th- and 18th-century America.

Representing the largest collection of early American imprints to have been identified and cataloged during the last 40 years, these new series of remarkable printed materials include items relevant to a host of humanities topics and are representative of numerous genres of colonial print. These newly discovered materials are particularly valuable for studying popular culture; many emanate from the middle and lower orders of society.

Early American Imprints, Series I:

Supplement from the Library Company

of Philadelphia, 1670-1800

Sample Documents – Title List – Request Trial


Early American Imprints, Series II:

Supplement from the Library Company

of Philadelphia, 1801-1819

Sample Documents – Title List – Request Trial

 “These collections are rich in imprints that have never before been available in the digital Early American Imprints because they came to light after the completion of the bibliographies on which it was based,” says James N. Green, the Library Company’s Librarian. “By adding them to their Archive of Americana, Readex has made it even more truly the national digital library of early American print.”

 

For more information or to arrange a product trial, please contact Readex at 800.762.8182, sales@readex.com or use this form.

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in American History, American Literature, Announcements, Cataloging and Indexing, Collection Development, New Collections, Print Culture, Product Updates | No Comments »

Writing the First Biography of Noah Webster in the Digital Age

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

More than America’s greatest lexicographer, Noah Webster (1758-1843) published a supremely influential spelling book, served as confidant of both George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, effectively supported the U.S. Constitution through a widely read essay, edited New York City’s first daily newspaper American Minerva, served as a state representative in both Connecticut and Massachusetts, and helped to found Amherst College.

To bring this “full-bodied human being to life,” award-winning journalist Joshua Kendall, author of The Man Who Made Lists, recently published The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of American Culture (Putnam, 2011). Joseph J. Ellis calls Kendall’s new biography “by far the best, and best written, life of Webster,” and James McGrath Morris says “Kendall single-handily rescues the least-known founder of American politics and culture and gives him his long overdue place of importance.”

In his note on sources used to write The Forgotten Founding Father, Kendall explains:

From America's Historical Newspapers. Click to open full advertisement in PDF.

“I aimed not to write the definitive academic biography but to introduce Noah Webster to the broad reading public, who know him largely as a name pasted onto a reference book. Intrigued by the psychological turmoil which fueled his literary activity, particularly the dictionary, I was interested in bringing the full-bodied human being to life.  To tackle this assignment, I deemed it necessary to peruse as many primary sources as possible, especially since Webster’s descendants had done so much to sculpt his public image….

“I also immersed myself in Webster’s own published words.  As the first Webster biographer of the digital age, I could do much of this reading on my own laptop.  The online resource The Archive of Americana now features scanned copies of most American newspapers between 1690 and 1922.  By searching Webster’s name, I was able to find countless newspaper articles by and about this prolific journalist, including some not mentioned in the six-hundred-page tome A Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster, edited by Edwin H. Carpenter (New York, 1958). Likewise, the early American imprints section of the database includes the full text of many of Webster’s books and speeches, such as his various Independence Day orations and his 1806 ‘compend.’”

As Kendall notes, the Archive of Americana provides online access to cohesive collections of historical newspapers and books. This growing family of searchable printed materials, which also includes essential U.S. government publications, puts tens of millions of pages of primary documents at researchers’ fingertips.

For more information about the Archive of Americana, please contact readexmarketing@readex.com or visit our website.

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in American History, American Literature, Announcements, Collection Development, Digital Humanities, Journalism History, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Print Culture, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

Latest Newsletter Available: The Readex Report (April 2011)

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

In our new issue, you’ll find the deliciously rich history of chocolate; cavalier attitudes toward a deadly plague in a Brazilian port; forgotten battles of the Revolutionary War; and the intriguing rise and demise of the advertising card.

Chocolate: A Readex Sampler

By Louis E. Grivetti

Professor of Nutrition, Emeritus, at the University of California, Davis, and co-editor of Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage (Wiley, 2009)

Finding Fatalism and Overconfidence in a Cruel Port: The Bubonic Plague’s First Appearance in Brazil

By Ian Olivo Read

Author of The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822-1889 (Stanford University Press, forthcoming)

The Importance of Newspapers in Chronicling the American Revolution

By Norman Desmarais

Author of Battlegrounds of Freedom and The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in Canada and New England

The Development of the American Advertising Card

By Bruce D. Roberts

19th-century advertising card expert and author of Clipper Ship Sailing Cards (2007) and Mechanical Bank Trade Cards (2008)

Subscribe today to receive the September 2011 issue in your inbox. Browse previous issues in our archive. If you would like to contribute or suggest an article, please write to The Readex Report editor by emailing readexreport@readex.com.

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in American History, Announcements, Digital Humanities, Journalism History, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Print Culture, Trends in Database Use, World History | No Comments »

Select historical newspapers published in cities, states, regions or any combination

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

From Maine to California, the most comprehensive collection of U.S. newspapers published in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries is America’s Historical Newspapers. Continually expanding, this unique online resource features thousands of historical newspapers published in more than 450 cities from Alaska to Florida. And now, you can create your own customized collection from all available titles published in any U.S. region, state, or city.

Easily build a custom collection that meets your institution’s budget

America’s Historical Newspapers Select is an essential tool for many types of historical research. Students and faculty can easily search any combination of titles within a single, easy-to-use interface, and when your institution’s needs expand, titles from additional locations can be added at any time.

Consider any custom configuration, including:

• Appalachian states

• Coastal Colonial cities

• Confederate States of America

• Deep South

• Ghost Towns

• Great Plains

• Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

• New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia

• New Orleans and Mobile

• Rocky Mountain states

• West Coast

• Your city, your state or your region—or any combination

 Create a collection today!

To get started, use the easy form on the Readex website. Select specific locations to generate a custom list, then click “Request Information” to receive pricing based on your institution’s type and size. For more information, please email us at sales@readex.com or call 800.762-8182.

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in American History, Announcements, Collection Development, Journalism History, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Product Updates | No Comments »

Early American newspaper issue takes $12,300 at auction

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
 
Antiques and the Arts Online recently reported the results of a Judaica auction held this past May that included important Americana items. Among the books sold was the first Haggadah printed in America (New York, 1837), which had been part of the Gratz College of Philadelphia’s library for nearly 100 years.
 
Bringing $12,300 was a June 19, 1790 issue of the Gazette of the United States, which contains this transcript of George Washington’s four-paragraph letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, Georgia.   (more…)
Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in American History, Collection Development, Digital Humanities, Journalism History, Primary Sources in the Classroom | No Comments »