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Library Contacts and Subject Guides

James Kessenides (james.kessenides@yale.edu): Kaplanoff librarian for American history, Department of Area Studies and Humanities Research Support, Sterling Memorial Library.

Bill Landis (bill.landis@yale.edu): associate director for public services, Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library.

Kenya Flash (kenya.flash@yale.edu): librarian for political science, global affairs, and government information, Marx Science and Social Science Library.

Librarians curate research guides on every subject taught at Yale. These guides provide detailed lists of and links to the best resources in each field.

Nineteenth Century America

Post-1945 U.S. History

Twentieth Century America

Government Documents and Information

A full list of subject guides, by disciplinary area, for Yale Library resources is available here.

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Standard Search Portals

Yale Library Catalog (Orbis) Searches the books, e-books, journals, government documents, and other physical and digital items owned by the library. Individual journal articles are not retrieved by the search. Can be used to find both primary and secondary sources. The Advanced search page can be useful for finding primary sources – you can search the “Subject” (instead of the default “Keyword Anywhere”) field and limit by date of publication and other search filters.

Quicksearch A combined search of the library’s books, journal articles, databases, and more. Searches Orbis as well as Morris, which is the Law Library catalog. Consider this a Google-like search of a vast amount of resources, but keep in mind some library materials are not indexed by the search. The search refinements and availability of multiple search fields are key to limiting the usually large number of results and finding the most relevant sources.

Archives at Yale The search portal for finding archival materials at Yale. Look for the Scope & Contents notes, inventories, and PDF Finding Aids to assess the relevance of materials to your research project.

Borrow Direct Services currently suspended due to COVID-19: Use the Borrow Direct platform to find and borrow books from partner libraries when our copy is checked out or we do not own the item.

Primary Sources at Yale An engaging introduction to what primary sources are, how to find them, and what some of the major primary source collections are at the Yale University Library. Provides an excellent overview.

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Finding Secondary Sources and General Information

Reference:

Background or “reference” sources are a great place to start in building your bibliographies. These are scholarly encyclopedias, handbooks, bibliographies, and similar sources that will often contain lengthy essays with background information on a topic and overviews of the relevant scholarship. Citations to the secondary literature will always be included, and often so too will citations to primary sources.

Gale in Context: Global Issues

Gale in Context: U.S. History:  This resource includes a variety of sources, such as academic journals, biographies, news, magazines, primary sources, and videos. The news content is largely current and recent; much of the remaining content is historical. Material can be browsed and keyword searched, but is also arranged into topics, such as “Immigration.”

Gale in Context: World History

Oxford Bibliographies: This is a large collection of bibliographic “articles,” each containing numerous bibliographic annotations, often of both primary and secondary sources. Includes articles such as “Immigration Politics and Policy in the United States” by Heather Silber Mohamed and Emily M. Farris (Political Science module) and “Immigration to the United States” by Greta A. Gilbertson and Mary G. Powers (Latino Studies module).

The Oxford Handbooks Online

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History

Wiley Online Library

Scholarly journal articles:

America: History and Life: Provides historical coverage of the United States and Canada and indexes over 2000 historical journals. This is a key resource if you are searching for historical scholarship related to your research project.

Social Sciences Full Text: Provides access to English-language journals published in the social sciences. Provides indexing for periodicals dating back to 1983.

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Primary Source Digital Collections

The following databases are licensed by the Yale University Library – information about how to access these resources remotely is available here.

America’s Historical Imprints

America’s Historical Newspapers

Hein Online: A key resource for legal research and government information. Includes: - Law Journal Library - Federal Register Library - Code of Federal Regulations - U.S. Supreme Court Library - Treaties and Agreements Library - U.S. Attorney General Opinions - Legal Classics - U.S. Federal Legislative History Library - U.S. Statutes at Large - U.S. Presidential Library

Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle

Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War

American Indians and the American West

American Politics and Society

International Relations and Military Conflicts

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Your Assignment For ...

XX

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Anna Strunsky Walling Papers (MS 1111)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Correspondence, diaries, writings, memorabilia and photographs. The correspondence (1897-1964) which includes family, friends and political associates documents Walling's involvement in political causes. The letters also reveal Anna Walling's feelings on personal matters, social questions and her reactions to meetings with prominent persons both in the United States and abroad. There are also a number of letters from prominent political and literary figures of the period, among them Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Zona Gale, Arnold Genthe, Jesse Jackson, Vida Scudder, Irving Stone, Henrietta Szold, Norman Thomas and Rabindranath Tagore.

Materials used in class session

Box 1:

Folder 1: “A” correspondence, circa 1925-1964.

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Rose Pastor Stokes Papers (MS 573)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Correspondence, writings, printed material, clippings, and other papers of Rose Pastor Stokes, writer, artist, and radical political and social activist. Much of the material relates to Stokes's activities and involvement with various radical groups, including the American Communist Party and the Socialist Party. The correspondence reflects these involvements and contains many letters exchanged with American political radicals, labor leaders, and anarchists from the early 20th century.

Materials brought to class session:

Box 1:

Folders 8 & 9: Letter from Leonard Abbott of the Birth Control Committee (New York City), 27 April 1916, and correspondence regarding the National Birth Control League, 1916-1918.

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James Graham Phelps Stokes Papers (MS 1587)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Correspondence of James Graham Phelps Stokes and Rose Harriet Pastor Stokes between 1903 and 1910. Correspondents include personal friends, family members, and colleagues active in social reform work and the Socialist Party. Invitations to speaking engagements and arrangements for public appearances are the subjects of many of these letters.

Materials brought to class session:

Box 2:

Folder 51: New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, correspondence, reports, and printed brochures, 1903-1905.

Box 4:

Folders 94 & 103: Correspondence relating to the University Settlement Society of New York, West Side Branch, 1903-1905, and the West Side Neighborhood House, 1903-1904.

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Philip M. and Lorna Sarrel Papers (MS 1922)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Contains biographical information on Philip M. and Lorna Sarrel; files documenting the establishment of the Young Mothers Program (YMP) at Yale-New Haven Hospital, an outgrowth of the teenage pregnancy clinic; the inclusion of sex education courses in curricula for a New Haven high school and Yale undergraduate and medical students; audiotapes of Sarrel's lectures; films, mostly commercially produced, depicting aspects of human sexuality for the training of college students and medical personnel; and related writings by Sarrel and others.

Materials brought to class session:

Box 1:

Folders 9 & 21: Report, “The New Haven Young Mothers Program: A Total Community Approach,” 1967, and article on and student statements from a Yale School of Medicine student seminar on human sexuality, 1970-1974.

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Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders Records (MS 1961)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview: Correspondence, topical files, reports, meeting minutes, legal research, litigation and amicus files, publications, volunteer and training manuals, and newspaper clippings documenting the work of the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), a nonprofit legal organization dedicated to defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and people with HIV, primarily in New England. The records document all aspects of the organization, including its history, structure, and activities from its founding in 1978 to the present. The collection provides a rich resource for the study of GLAD, anti-discrimination efforts, and the legal issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and people with HIV in the United States.

Materials brought to class session:

Accession 2015-M-014, Box 26:

Folder 3: Correspondence regarding the legal case Abbott v. Bragdon, 1994-1995.

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May Day Rally and Yale Collection (RU 86)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Collection assembled by Manuscripts and Archives from a variety of sources includes correspondence, press releases, oral history transcripts, objects, and printed material documenting Yale student involvement in the 1970 May Day rally in New Haven, Connecticut and published materials collected by a stringer for the "New York Times" related to Yale's student strike, the anti-war movement, and the Black Panthers trial in New Haven. Also included are publications related to anti-war activities nationally.

Materials brought to class session:

Accession 1971-A-004, Box 1:

Folder 2: Reports and printed ephemera relating to the New Haven Black Panther trials, 1970.

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Office of the President, Yale University, Records Concerning the May Day Rally (RU 16)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Background materials on the Black Panther party, information on the trial, and a series of Strike Newspapers issued by Dwight Hall. Also included are materials documenting Yale's approach and efforts toward organizing peaceful co-existence during the weekend events, as well as published information chronicling each day and summarizing media coverage. Other materials describe the faculty meeting held to address the issue of suspending academic activities during the trial, as well reaction to President Kingman Brewster, Jr.'s, famous speech before that assembly. A significant number of letters detailing positive and negative feedback from Yale alumni and those unrelated to Yale comprise the correspondence files.

Materials brought to class session:

Box 8:

Folder 70: Correspondence relating to the New Haven Black Panther trial and Kingman Brewster’s stated skepticism regarding the “ability of Black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the U.S.”, 1970.

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Harry Weinberger Papers (MS 553)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview: Correspondence, legal papers, notes, and other materials documenting Weinberger's career as a lawyer who specialized in civil liberties cases and, later in his career, copyright law. The one hundred and sixteen (116) case files include legal briefs, writs, and memoranda prepared by Weinberger and his staff, and similar material prepared by opposing attorneys. Correspondence files include letters with clients and individuals interested in a specific case. Weinberger's clients included: Alexander Berkman, Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, Emma Goldman, and Eugene O'Neill.

Materials brought to class session:

Series I, Box 27:

Folder 17: Correspondence between Harry Weinberger and Alexander Berkman, 1916-1917.

Series I, Box 28: 

Folder 13: Correspondence between Harry Weinberger and Emma Goldman, April-June 1918.

Series I, Box 35:

Folders 12 & 13: Correspondence and court documents relating to the arrest and trial of Henry Jager for the use of profane and indecent language, 1917.

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Eero Saarinen Collection (MS 593)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Drawings, photographs, correspondence, writings, clippings, and audio-visual material relating to Saarinen's professional work as an architect, as well as a small amount of personal material created by himself and his wife, Aline Saarinen. A small amount of material in this collection documents the work of his father, architect Eliel Saarinen.

Materials brought to class session:

Series IV, Box 92:

Folders 193 & 197: Leaflet, An Imaginary Tour of the Proposed Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the Mississippi River at St. Louis, by Eero Saarinen, 1948, and clippings relating to the design competition and construction of the memorial, 1948.

Series IV, Box 273:

Folder 902: Publicity clippings and magazines relating to the Trans World Airways Flight Center at Idlewild (now John F. Kennedy) Airport in New York City, 1962.

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John V. Lindsay Papers (MS 592)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Personal correspondence, schedules, appointment books, speeches, subject files, campaign records, the papers of ten assistants to the mayor, photographs, and other materials document the life and political career of John Lindsay from his student days at Yale through his two terms as mayor of New York City, 1965-1973. Accessions to the collection provide additional material relating to Lindsay's congressional and mayoral years, as well as his 1972 Democratic presidential nomination bid and his 1980 Senate primary campaign.

Materials brought to class session:

Part II, Series V, Box 70:

 Folders 402 & 409: Speeches given by Mayor Lindsay to the Day Care Council of New York, 8 May 1967, and to the Citizens’ Union of the City of New York, 11 May 1967.

Part II, Series IX, Box 201:

Folder 3: Draft report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (known colloquially as the Kerner Commission), of which Lindsay was a member. “Part II. Why Did It Happen?,” 1 January 1968.

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Robert Moses Papers (MS 360)

Link to the online finding aid

Collection overview:  Mimeographed and printed matter, together with a few photocopies of letters, compiled by Robert Moses. These form a record of projects which he sponsored or was connected with, particularly the New York World's Fair (1964-1965), the Power Authority of the state of New York and the Triborough Bridge Authority. Also clippings of newspaper and magazine articles by and about him, texts of speeches and reports by agencies of which he was a member.

Materials brought to class session:

Box 3A:

Folder 2: Bound volume containing brochures and reports on conflicts of interest, state parks, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the conversion of Mitchel Field air base to community use, and other primarily New York City and state topics, 1961.

Box 5:

Top volume in box: Bound volume containing brochures, reports, and other printed ephemera relating to the New York World’s Fair, 1964.