EN-121 - Resources for Analytical Thinking, Writing, and Research: Information Literacy & Credibility

This guide will help students accomplish the 5 Milestone goals associated with EN-121: Choosing a topic| Planning the paper| Conducting research| Organizing research| Drafting the paper

Selected Primary-Source History Websites (Listed Alphabetically)

Africana Age

Africana Age
"African and African Diasporan transformations in the 20th Century" - from the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

American Historical Association

American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts, and the dissemination of historical research.

Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Searchable comprehensive database of Congressional biographies from 1774 to the present.

ProQuest Black Freedom Struggle in the United States

ProQuest Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
(No Login Required)
This website presents primary source documents from several time periods in American History... [with a focus on] the fierce, often violent opposition that Black people have faced on the road to freedom.
This website contains
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over 3,000 documents focused on six different phases of Black Freedom:

Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860)
The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era (1861-1877)
Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932)
The New Deal and World War II (1933-1945)
The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975)
The Contemporary Era (1976-2000)

Digital Collections in American History - Library of Congress

Digital Collections in American History from the Library of Congress
Items from the Library of Congress that are of historical importance to the United States.

Includes:

Discovering American Women's History Online

Discovering American Women’s History Online
Excellent guide to researching women’s history in the United States with multiple links separated by subject; as well as guides to finding primary sources.

Caribbean Histories Revealed

Caribbean Histories Revealed
“The history of the British Caribbean is explored in this exhibition through government documents, photographs and maps dating from the 17th century to the 1920s and discovered during a cataloguing project at The National Archives of the United Kingdom.” – from the website

Castle Garden Immigration Center

Castle Garden Immigration Center (Redirect)
From 1855 to 1890, Castle Garden was America's first official immigration center. The castlegarden.org website has been shut down, but the same US immigration records can be searched for Free at:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1849782

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers from the Library of Congress
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1924 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

Digital Library of the Caribbean

Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean.
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dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
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Digital Schomburg

Digital Schomburg
Visitors can locate online articles, digital exhibitions, photographs, audio and video streams, historical projects, and external links for research in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.
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Digital Schomburg provides access to trusted information, interpretation, and scholarship on the global Black experience through online materials at the Schomburg Center created and curated by our staff and librarians.
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Historical Documents in Foreign Relations

Historical Documents in Foreign Relations (1861-2000)
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.

New-York Historical Society

The New-York Historical Society
"The New-York Historical Society, one of America’s pre-eminent cultural institutions, is dedicated to fostering research, presenting history and art exhibitions, and public programs that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today. Founded in 1804, New-York Historical has a mission to explore the richly layered political, cultural and social history of New York City and State and the nation, and to serve as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.” – from the website

New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery

New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery
Welcome to the New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery of over 900,000 images. Selected from the world-class historical collections of the Archives, most of these unique photographs, maps, motion picture and audio recordings are being made accessible for the first time. - From the website

New York State Historical Literature Collection

New York State Historical Literature Collection (Cornell University)
Cornell University Library's New York State Historical Literature Collection consists of selected monographs, pamphlets and other public-domain materials with expired copyrights.

New York State Historic Newspapers

New York State Historic Newspapers
The NYS Historic Newspapers project provides free online access to a wide range of newspapers chosen to reflect New York's unique history.

New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center

New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center
New York and New Yorkers have answered the call for all of our nation's conflicts. The New York State Unit History Project is an attempt to make this history available to the public. Eventually, all of the conflicts will be represented on our site. - Website Description
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Research sources include:
Adjutant General Reports
New York National Guardsman: issues 1924-1940
Veteran's Oral History Project
Charts Showing Lineage of New York Units
New York State Awards, Decorations, and Medals
Medal of Honor Recipients Affiliated with New York
Digitized Archival Films

Thumbnail image of unidentified Black soldier in Civil War uniform catalogued as follows:
Photo Number: PA.2000.0564
Conflict United States--
History--Civil War, 1861-1865

NYPD & CRIMINAL PROSECUTION

NYPD Photographs: 1915-1940s
New York Police Department Photographs, 1915-1940s. WARNING: THIS COLLECTION CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF HOMICIDE VICTIMS.
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In addition to crime-scene and law-enforcement photographs, this collection includes photographs from the departmental operations and emergency services units, dating from 1928 to 1941.

Primary Source Sets from the Digital Public Library of America

Primary Source Sets from the Digital Public Library of America
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more.
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Thumbnail image from Exodusters: African American Migration to the Great Plains available here: https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/exodusters-african-american-migration-to-the-great-plains

The Pulitzer Prizes

The Pulitzer Prizes
A Website that includes an archive of Pulitzer Prize-winning works from past years including photos, editorial cartoons, music clips, and the full text of all articles.

Slavery in America

Slavery in America
Features a summary, videos, and links from the History Channel.

Transatlantic Slave Trade Database

Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (Rice University with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
This site provides access to four databases (Voyages, Estimates, Images, and African Names) with "information on almost 35,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between 1514 and 1866.

Westchester County Archives

Westchester County Archives
A database of public records created by the local government of Westchester County, New York (1680-present).

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, is the ultimate source for Holocaust education, documentation and research. From the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem's integrated approach incorporates meaningful educational initiatives, groundbreaking research and inspirational exhibits.

Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, & Website Evaluation

Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, and Website Evaluation

How to Use the Databases

How to Use the Databases - (Click to open presentation in a new tab)

The presentation below is also available as a PDF document. View or download by clicking on the icon above.

Video: Is This Article Scholarly?

THIS RESEARCH OR "LIBGUIDE" WAS PRODUCED BY THE LIBRARIANS OF MONROE UNIVERSITY

EMAIL: library@monroeu.edu -- Bronx Campus (646) 393-8333 / New Rochelle Campus (914)-740-6437