Collections for
African American Studies
African American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2, 1827-1998
African American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2, 1827-1998, provides online access to more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection, which includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states, features many rare 19th-century titles. Newly digitized, these newspapers published by or for African Americans can now be browsed and searched as never before.
Hundreds of titles—all expertly selected from leading repositories
Part of the America’s Historical Newspapers collection, African American Newspapers was created from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the world. Titles in Series 1 come from the Wisconsin Historical Society, Kansas… Learn more.
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995, features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres. These diverse periodicals—which have shaped, and in turn been shaped by, African American culture—will enable new discoveries on lives of African Americans as individuals, as an ethnic group and as Americans.
From Slavery to the Modern Era
Like African American Newspapers, 1827-1998, this new collection is based upon James P. Danky’s monumental African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography (Harvard, 1998). Drawn from… Learn more.
African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest, 1883-1922
African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest offers more than 1,000 fully searchable printed works critical for insight into African-American culture and life from the beginning of Jim Crow to World War I and beyond. In the previous period—from the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction to the year 1883—newly freed blacks in the United States witnessed significant gains. Progress, however, was short-lived. Through the development of Jim Crow laws and numerous other acts hostile to their interests, the rights of African Americans were systematically stripped away.
In 1883 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Civil Rights Act… Learn more.
African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883
African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle provides nearly 1,400 fully searchable printed works essential for understanding the African-American struggle for identity from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow. In the period immediately following the 1865 ratification of the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment—which definitively ended slavery throughout the United States—African Americans, whether once slave or always free, faced new challenges as a free people often surrounded by hostile whites.
Over the next 18 years—perhaps the most formative in African-American history—newly freed blacks in the United States witnessed significant gains. Among them were full citizenship;… Learn more.
African History and Culture, 1540-1921: Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia
Created from the renowned holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, African History and Culture, 1540-1921, is the most important and comprehensive collection of its kind. More than 1,300 fully cataloged and searchable books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera cover the history, peoples, and social and economic development of the African continent from the 16th century to the early 20th century. All areas of Africa and important adjacent regions are covered.
New research and teaching opportunities
Major subject areas covered include Africana Studies, Atlantic Studies, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, Economic Studies, Slavery and Diaspora Studies. Based on the Library Company collection that itself… Learn more.
Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922: From the Library Company of Philadelphia
Created from the Library Company’s acclaimed Afro-Americana Collection—an accumulation that began with Benjamin Franklin and steadily increased throughout its entire history—this unique online resource will provide researchers with more than 12,000 printed works. These essential books, pamphlets and broadsides, including many lesser-known imprints, hold an unparalleled record of African American history, literature and culture. This digital edition of one of the world’s preeminent collections for African American studies is available as a single complete collection, or in one or more of ten chronological segments, organized by historic era.
From African society to the struggle for justice
This collection spans nearly… Learn more.
American Race Relations: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996
As America transitioned from the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights movement and beyond, the rest of the world paid close attention. The only comprehensive collection covering these foreign reactions to America’s racial struggles in the mid-20th century is American Race Relations: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996. In addition to providing unique viewpoints on America’s fight for racial justice, this fully searchable online collection also offers rare insight into race relations in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
A wealth of unique research material
The documents in American Race Relations: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996, are derived from the archives of the Central… Learn more.
The American Slavery Collection, 1820-1922: From the American Antiquarian Society
Winner of the 2017 Outstanding Academic Title Award from the Association of College & Research Libraries' Choice magazine!
This digital edition of the American Antiquarian Society’s extraordinary holdings of slavery and abolition materials delivers more than 3,600 works published over the course of more than 100 years. Long awaited in fully searchable form, The American Slavery Collection addresses every facet of American slavery—one of the most important topics in U.S. history. These diverse materials, all filmed in full-resolution color, include books, pamphlets, graphic materials, and ephemera; among them are a significant number of invaluable Southern imprints.
New research and teaching… Learn more.
Black Authors, 1556-1922: Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia
Created from the renowned holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, Black Authors, 1556-1922, is the most complete and compelling collection of its kind. It offers more than 550 fully catalogued and searchable works by black authors from the Americas, Europe and Africa, expertly compiled by the curators of Afro-Americana Imprints collection, the largest existing collection of its kind. Found within are wide-ranging genres, including personal narratives, autobiographies, histories, expedition reports, military reports, novels, essays, poems and musical compositions.
New research and teaching opportunities
Major subject areas addressed in Black Authors include Literature, Ethnic History, Colonialism, Gender Studies, Slavery, Diaspora… Learn more.
Caribbean History and Culture, 1535-1920: Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia
Created from the renowned holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, Caribbean History and Culture, 1535-1920, is the largest and most significant collection of its kind. More than 1,200 fully cataloged and searchable books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera cover the history of this broad region from the 16th century to the early 20th century.
New research and teaching opportunities
Major subject areas covered include Atlantic Studies, Diaspora Studies, Economic Studies, History of Medicine, Ethnicity and Gender Studies, Latin America and Slavery. Based on the Library Company collection that itself was an ambitious attempt to gather all printed information about… Learn more.
Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1, 1718-1876: From the American Antiquarian Society
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876—the largest online collection of 18th- and 19th-century newspapers published in this region—will provide a comprehensive primary resource for studying the development of Western society and international relations within this important group of islands. This unique resource will prove essential for researching colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, international commerce, New World slavery and U.S. relations with the region as far back as the early 18th century.
Created in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society—one of the world's largest and most important newspaper repositories—this collection will provide students and scholars with easy access to more than 150 years… Learn more.
Civil Rights in America
From segregation to women’s suffrage to discrimination of all kinds, civil rights have shaped the course of American history. Civil Rights in America: From Reconstruction to the Great Society is a premier archive of official publications and primary source material related to civil rights in the United States. Fully searchable, with unique browsing capabilities and comprehensive metadata, this collection is indispensable for teaching and researching American history, political science, social justice, and related fields.
An untapped wealth of primary source documents
Focusing primarily on the century beginning shortly after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the federal documents in Civil… Learn more.