Research Guides: American Civil War: Databases

What is a Database?

A library database is a searchable online collection of published works. Many publications are subscription-based (also known as paywalled) and typically require a fee to access. The library provides free full-text access to high-quality publications that would otherwise be behind a paywall. Finding and using these types of resources for your assignments is crucial to your academic success.

Resources include (but not limited to):

Peer-reviewed, scholarly articles
Book chapters
Newspaper articles
Trade publications
Dissertations and theses

Explore History databases with descriptions and links below.

For a full list of databases subscribed to by the library, consult the Databases by Title page.

Databases

Academic Search Complete
A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary database, with more than 5,500 full-text periodicals.
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index forms the bibliographic spine of 19th century research, comprising tens of millions of records and providing integrated access to the most important finding aids for books, periodicals, official publications, newspapers, archives, and reference material. Users can query its many component indexes simultaneously or can conduct more detailed research using search pages for specific indexes or content types.
JSTOR
Provides full-text access to hundreds of humanities, social science, and science scholarly books and journals.
ProQuest Central
Brings together complete databases across major subject areas, including business, health and medical, language and literature, social sciences, education, science and technology, as well as core titles in the performing and visual arts, history, religion, philosophy, and includes thousands of full-text newspapers from around the world.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice
Bringing together primary source documents from archives and libraries across North America and the UK, this resource allows students and researchers to explore and compare unique material relating to the complex subjects of slavery, abolition and social justice. In addition to the primary source documents there is a wealth of useful secondary sources for research and teaching; including scholarly essays, tutorials, a visual sources gallery, chronology and bibliography.

History Commons
*Accessible Archives collection is part of History Commons
Collections include: African American Newspapers, Quarantine and Disease Control in America, and Texas County Histories
Historical newspapers, magazines, books, images, government documents
American Periodicals
Contains periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals.
ARTstor
NOTE: As of August 2024, ARTstor is now integrated with JSTOR. This link currently redirects you to the new website, but soon you will just link to JSTOR.
A digital library of approximately 550,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes.
Civil War Primary Source Documents
Captures various accounts of the Civil War as it was experienced on land and at sea; the collection provides firsthand perspectives from hospitals and prison camps and reactions to the War from the home-front.
Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs
A full-text collection of books, periodicals, and pamphlets focused on women's history in the world.
HarpWeek-Harper's Weekly (1857-1912)
Provides electronic access to Harper’s Weekly, the illustrated 19th century "Journal of Civilization," for a 56-year period: 1857-1912.
Periodicals Archive Online
An archive of hundreds of digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Texas Historical Newspapers
Search 43 historical Texas newspapers, with coverage dating from the 1800s.

Google Scholar
Covers peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts, and other scholarly literature from all broad areas of research. Click on Scholar Preferences, go down to Library Links, fill in University of Texas at Tyler, then Find Library. Check box.
Library of Congress--Making of America
Maps from 1500 to the present, mostly of the US, including panoramic maps and the Jedidiah Hotchkiss Civil War map collection.
Making of America - Cornell
Making of America - Mich

Hein Online
Contains more than 145 million pages and 150,000 titles of legal history and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format.
Military & Government Collection
Provides full text for nearly 300 journals and periodicals pertaining to all branches of military and government.
Military Database
Covers topics across all government and military branches, including international relations, political science, criminology, defense, aeronautics and space flight, communications, civil engineering, and more.