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History Department

Reference Books

Reference materials such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, or directories contain precise and authoritative facts, data, and background information. Reference boooks can help you explore a topic. You can also find a list of the library's reference sources for your own subject by doing an advanced search in the library catalog.

INTRODUCTION

  • The Annals of America. (Includes a cumulated index, and a conspectus) [REF E173.A793 ].
  • Dictionary of American History (online)
  • Dictionary of American history. [REF E174.M3 1978].
  • Handbook of American history. [1968]. [REF E178.2.C76 ].
  • The Oxford companion to American history. [1966]. [REF E174.J6 ].
  • The Reader's companion to American history.
    [REF E174.R43 1991 ].

DATES AND STATISTICS

  • The Almanac of American history. [REF E174.5.A45 1983 ].
  • The encyclopedia of American facts and dates.
    [REF E174.5.C3 1972 ].
  • Historical statistics of the United States, 1790-1970. [1973].
    [REF HA218.D63 ].
  • Historical statistics of the United States, colonial times to 1970.
    [REF HA202.A385 1976 ].
  • A short chronology of American history, 1492-1950. [1952].
    [REF E174.5.K8 ].

DOCUMENTS

MAPS

  • Atlas of American history. [REF G1201.S1 A8 1984 ].
  • Atlas of American Society. [REF HN 60.A5 1995].
  • Atlas of the historical geography of the United States. [1932].
    [REF OVR G1200.P3x].
  • Historical atlas of religion in America.
    [REF OVR G1201.E4 G3 1962 ].
  • Historical atlas of the United States.
    [ATLAS CASE G1201.S1 N3 1988].

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

  • American leaders, 1789-1987:a biographical summary.
    [REF E176.A495 1987].
  • Appleton's cyclopaedia of America biography. [1887].
    [REF E176.A65 ].
  • The Complete Book of United States Presidents.
    [REF E176.1 D43 1989].
  • Dictionary of American biography. [1973]. [REF E176.D56 Suppl ].
  • The National cyclopedia of American biography.
    [REF E176.N27 1984 ].
  • Who was who in America. [REF E176.W64 ].
  • A woman of the century, fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. [REF E176.W691 1967 ].
  • Encyclopedia of World Biography (online)

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL GROUPS AND ISSUES

For a history of specific ethnic and racial groups in America, look up the group as a subject heading in the library catalog (for example, Mexican Americans-History).

Or, browse in the Reference shelves at call numbers E184-E185

  • American decades. (1920-1969). [REF E169.12.A419 1994 ].
  • Encyclopedia of American social history. [REF HN57.E58 1993 ].
  • Handbook of North American Indians. [1978]. [REF E76.2.H36 ].
  • Handbook of American Popular Culture. 1978-1981.
    [REF E169.1.H2643].
  • St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (online)
  • This fabulous century. (1870-1970) [REF OFFICE E161.T55 ].

SPECIFIC ERAS

  • The American Revolution, 1775-1783:an encyclopedia.
    [REF E208.A433 1993 ].
  • The Civil War dictionary. [1959]. [REF E468.B7 ].
  • A dictionary of contemporary American history:1945 to present.
    [REF E740.7.H63 1993].
  • The Encyclopedia of colonial and revolutionary America.
    [REF E188.E63 1990].
  • Encyclopedia of the North American colonies. [REF E45.E53 1993 ].
  • Encyclopedia of the United States in the twentieth century.
    [REF E 740.7.E53 1996].
  • Sixties in America (online & print) [REF E841.S55 1999]
  • The United States in the First World War:an encyclopedia.
    [REF D510.U65 1995 ].

SPECIFIC TOPICS

BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND FURTHER RESEARCH

  • Footnotes to American history:a bibliographic source book.
    [REF E179.S57 1977 ].
  • Harvard guide to American history. [REF E178.H37 1974 ].
  • History:illustrated search strategy and sources.
    [REF D16.F87 1995 ].
  • United States history:a selective guide to information sources.
    [REF E178.B6 1994]

Databases

Web-based Resources

METASITES- AMERICAN HISTORY

US CIVIL WAR RESOURCES

Making of America
Includes digitized regimental lists from US "War of the Rebellion."

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
Basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of the CWSS is the Names Index Project, a project to enter information from 5.4 million soldier records in the National Archives and Records Administration.

New York Civil War Units
NYS Division of Military & Navy Affairs/NYS Military Museum site includes the Communities of New York and the Civil War:
The Recruiting Areas of the New York Civil War Regiments compiled by C. E. DORNBUSCH from Phisterer's New York in the War of the Rebellion 1861-1865.

METASITES - WORLD HISTORY

WWW-VL History Central Catalogue

This site, maintained jointly by the Department of History of the University of Kansas and the Lehrstuhl f_r Zlteredeutsche Literaturwissenschaft der Universit"t Regensburg, offers more than 1,700 connections to historical websites arranged alphabetically by subject. Subjects include specific countries, regions and time periods.

Government Views of D-Day 1944

List of web pages dealing with Operation Overlord. (The Normandy Invasion) This page is seperated by subjects ranging from Air Operations to Weather.  Maintained by the Cohen Library, The City College of New York


RESEARCH SITES - AMERICAN HISTORY

American Memory Collection

Photographs and "scrapbooks"of American History and culture from the Library of Congress, with links to digitized versions of historical manuscripts.

A Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents

Maintained by The University of Oklahoma Law Center, this site contains the full text of speeches from the pre-Colonial era to the present.

Cultural Maps of the United States

Published by the University of Virginia, this site provides a historical history to the United States through maps. In addition to an American Historical Atlas, this site provides links to map collections.

Presidents and First Ladies

This site has links to web sites of all presidents, and to some of the first ladies. It also has links to important documents in U.S. history, and to the presidential libraries.

From Revolution to Reconstruction...and what happened afterwards

The main body of this page is from "An outline of American History". Arranged chronologically by chapters, this page provides links to history sites pertaining to the colonial period through the modern times. It is a continually growing page.

The Supreme Court Historical Society

The Supreme Court Historical Society is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the history of the Supreme Court of the United States.

American and British History Resources on the Internet

Maintained by Rutgers University, this site contains links to history associations and directories;general and subject-specific historical collections; historical documents, treaties, maps, statistics and bibliographies;and electronic texts by historic period.

LOCAL HISTORY

SUNY Ulster's Local History page provides links to multiple Hudson Valley local history societies, local governmental websites, and with details of their own local history collection.http://sunyulster.edu/library/research_assistance/selected_sources_subject/local_history.jsp



RESEARCH SITES - AMERICAN AND WORLD HISTORY

Eighteenth Century History Resources

This site has a number of links to resources about this time period, divided into British History, American History, and European History.

EuroDocs:Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe

Published by the European Studies Bibliographer at Brigham Young University, this site provides links to Western European (mainly primary) historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. Although some of the documents are in its original language, much of the material has bene translated. The documents are searchable by country.

Northvegr Northern European Studies 

The Northvegr Foundation is a nonprofit educational foundation incorporated under Michigan state law. The Northvegr Foundation's goals center on bringing knowledge and understanding of northern European pre-Christian history, culture and spiritual values. This site contains online texts, articles, art, and language resources.

First World War.com:The War to end all Wars

The purpose of this website is to provide an overview of the First World War.

The Labyrinth:Resources for Medieval Studies

Sponsored by Georgetown University, the Labyrinth is an excellent starting point for Medieval research. You can search the site for a specific topic, or use its subject menu to go directly to your area of interest. The subject menus include National Cultures, International Culture, and special topics, including Arthurian Studies, Heraldry, Arms, and Chivalry and Medieval Women. The Labyrinth also consists of on-line bibliographies, course materials, and professional information, publications, and organizations.

Course Guides

The following are guides listing authoritative resources appropriate for projects and assignments in these courses. Each guide is developed and taught by a librarian for a specific class. The guides may help anyone researching a topic in History.

Spring 2009
  • HIS 151: American Heroes (L. Roper) - (Word) (PDF*)
  • HIS 492: Seminar in History: Race & Gender in the Progressive Era (S. Lewis) – (Word) (HTML)

Fall 2008
Spring 2008
  • HIS 328: American Social & Cultural History (S. Lewis) – (PDF*) (Word)
  • HIS 492: Seminar in History (R. Childress)– (PDF*) (Word)
  • HIS 492: Seminar in History (L. Roper)– (PDF*) (Word)
Fall 2007