History Newsletter February 2025

We issue this newsletter twice yearly.  Old newsletter issues.

We are always happy to give you a tour of Widener and an orientation to our catalog, HOLLIS, and our other resources.

Announcements

Zotero Workshops

Zotero is a free and open-source citation management software that allows you to manage your research materials, create bibliographies, format citations, take notes, and collaborate with others. Learn how to save time and effort by using Zotero to:

  • Easily save references
  • Organize PDFs
  • Create in-text citations & footnotes
  • Create bibliographies automatically

 Find dates for online and in-person classes and register at: https://bit.ly/Harvard-Zotero-classes  

Finding Archival Collections workshop

Friday, February 21, 2025
11:00am-12:30pm
Register for workshop

In this online session, you will learn about different avenues for finding archival/manuscript collections, both in the United States and elsewhere in the world. You will also practice developing a good research strategy for finding archival materials relevant to a specific topic or question. 

Note: Archival/manuscript collections in this context refers to original, digital, or surrogate copies of the records or personal papers of organizations, governments, and individuals. 

GIS Workshops and Office Hours

GIS in the Humanities workshop
In this class, we will cover GIS basics for humanities scholarship. We will be using the free and open source tool, QGIS. No experience is required. This workshop will take place in person, in Widener 240. Spaces are limited, so please register for one of the two (identical) workshops below:

 

GIS Office Hours 
Join us for Spring 2025 for weekly GIS office hours in the Harvard Map Collection to:

  • Chat about GIS tools and datasets
  • Meet others using GIS in their work
  • Share projects and get feedback

 

Data Workshops (International Love Data Week)

International Love Data Week is fast approaching, and we wanted to share registration details (now live on the OSRDS website) for all Love Data Week offerings, both from OSRDS and our amazing colleagues across the Harvard libraries:

Houghton Library Events

Monday, February 10th, 5:30pm: “‘For Purposes of Investigation or Instruction’: The History of Collecting Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Harvard” and opening reception for Incipit: A History of Early Manuscripts at Harvard

In building Harvard University’s collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, both private collectors and university librarians have played important roles. This lecture reviews some important acquisitions and reflects on changing collection development polices and some missed opportunities. It is also intended to function as an introduction to Incipit and an extended example of provenance research, which will be the subject of the associated workshops. More information online here; no registration required.

Thursday, February 13th, 10:30am or 3pm: “An Introduction to Provenance Research on Early Manuscripts and Books”

This workshop will introduce basic resources and principles of provenance research. It will develop some examples using Harvard manuscripts and early printed books themselves and supporting documentation. Examples from the collections of George Dunn and William King Richardson will be used as well as manuscripts from less well-known English collectors such as C. S. Ascherson, C. H. St. John Hornby, and American collectors such as Edward Duff Balken, Acton Griscom, and Charles Walker Clark. Pre-registration is required for either the 10:30am-12:30pm session or the 3-5pm session; the content will be the same for both.

Non-Harvard Archives and Manuscripts in HOLLIS

In Advanced Search in either HOLLIS Catalog&Articles or Library Catalog, if you do a search and limit to Resource Type Archives/Manuscripts you get the same number of records which are all collections at Harvard. Example.

If, in Catalog&Articles only, if you do select Resource Type: Any Resource Type, do the search, then open, under Filters, Resource Type Show More, then Archives/Manuscripts (External Providers), you get abundant digitized archives/manuscript material derived from university digital collections, JSTOR Collections (see History Newsletter May 2022, Harvard Library E-Resource databases, and many other sources. Example.

Non-Harvard E-Resources

Victorian Anti-Vaccination Discourse Corpus (VicVaDis). "The purpose of this corpus is to provide a (freely accessible) historical resource for the investigation of the earliest public concerns and arguments against vaccination in England, which revolved around compulsory vaccination against smallpox in the second half of the 19th century."

Bibliography for an AntiRacist History of Technology

The Bibliography of Slavery and World Slaving "is a searchable database containing verified references (except as noted) to approximately 25,000 scholarly works in all academic disciplines and in all western European languages on slavery and slaving, worldwide and throughout human history, including modern times. It includes all known print materials published since 1900 in scholarly formats, as well as digital scholarly journals, recent unpublished presentations at academic conferences, professional historical sites, and major museum exhibitions and catalogs."

American Historical Review Digital Primary Sources "Between 2016 and 2021, each issue of the American Historical Review included a short list of websites that contain freely available digital primary sources. This website reproduces that list (with minor edits), including the site's geographic category as it appeared in the AHR and brief blurb associated with each site."

New News Resources

CRL Library Catalog Newspaper Search retrieves newspapers in the collection of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL)
Limit to: Online Resources
Limit to: Suggested Topics within your search (open More) AND/OR
Limit geographically by Global Resources Program or by Geographic Subject
Shift to Advanced Search if desired
--Other papers are available on microfilm via Interlibrary Loan
--For help accessing non-open access material

 ProQuest historical newspapers. Le monde (1944-2000)

ProQuest historical newspapers. Edmonton journal (1911- )

ProQuest History Vault

We now have access to the whole ProQuest History Vault.  You can search within a single collection with the Collection title box.

The History Vault collections are listed under general headings on the ProQuest History Vault Libguide with Browse and Search links. If you don’t see Access provided by HARVARD UNIVERSITY at the top of the Browse and Search pages, then search Harvard University at Log in through your library to access more features.

Another list of the collections and subcollections.

New E-Resources

Africa  --   Asia  --  Middle East  --  North America

Africa

Evangelism in Africa : correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1835-1910

Asia

Evangelism in India : correspondence of the Board of Foreign Mission, 1833-1910

Middle East

Trismegistos : an interdisciplinary portal of the ancient world (Largely Egypt 800BC-800AD)

 Evangelism and the Syria-Lebanon mission : correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1869-1910

North America

HeinOnline Taxation and Economic Reform in America (1781-2009) offers tax regulations, laws, and legislative histories, with congressional committee reports and hearings; includes Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office reports.