Historical primary sources online: Historical magazines & other periodicals
Multipart guide to VT Libraries' many digital archives, whether based on types of sources or thematic collections.
Historical periodicals in thematic collections
Vendors of digitized primary sources often bundle newspapers, magazines, government records, books, and unique items into thematic collections. Important tools for searching within and among such broad collections include
- Adam Matthew Digital databases: AM Explorer
- Gale Primary Sources
- HeinOnline
- Internet Archive Texts (not restricted to VT)
US historical magazines in full image
- American Periodicals Series from ProQuestAPS indexes over 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including scholarly, special interest, and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals. Covers all academic disciplines including the sciences, though news and literary magazines are most prevalent. An excellent source of primary documents. Full text provided in HTML and PDF.
- American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian SocietyAmerican Historical Periodicals Collection offers a documentary history of the American people from the Colonial Era into the 20th century, presenting North American thought, culture, and society through a variety of perspectives. Focused on American concerns, they were predominantly published in the US or Canada, though some were published overseas by Americans living abroad. From long-running publications to unusual and short-lived magazines, each periodical offers a cross section of the developing United States. Also with other digital archives in Gale Primary Sources (formerly Artemis) platform.
- Making of America (19th Century in Print)Making of America is a digital library of primary sources in US social history from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. MoA collection is split between Cornell and the University of Michigan; each collection is searchable and browseable.
- MoA (Cornell). Approximately 270 books (including Civil War official histories), 22 magazines/~100,000 articles, published 1840-1900. (Cornell MoA is hosted by HathiTrust.)
- MoA (Michigan). Approximately 10,000 books and 13 magazines/~50,000 articles, published 1850-1877.
- HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I & II (1857-1877)Browse, search, and retrieve full page images of Harper's Weekly, which chronicles the events of the American Civil War and reconstruction years. Page images are JPG; full text is HTML and PDF. Harper’s Weekly is a consistent, comprehensive, week-to-week chronological record of what happened worldwide in the last half of the nineteenth century.
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (EIMA) from ProQuest The Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (EIMA) is a digital high-resolution archive of over 40 US and UK trade and consumer magazines covering the broad spectrum of the entertainment industry and media including film, television, popular music, radio, and theatre. Titles include Variety (1905-2000), Billboard (1894-2000), Spin (1985-2000), Broadcasting & Cable (1931-2000), Vibe (1993-2014) and more. Each title includes individual indexing of articles, covers, ads, and reviews.
- Rolling Stone Archive from ProQuestThe backfile of Rolling Stone, from its launch in 1967 to the present. One of the most influential consumer magazines of the 20th-21st centuries, it initially sought to reflect the cultural, social, and political outlook of a generation of students and young adults. It has been a leading vehicle for rock and popular music journalism, as well as covering wider entertainment topics such as film and popular culture.
- National Geographic Magazine Archive from GaleEvery page of the famous illustrated magazine reproduced in full color, 1888-present
- Air & Space and Smithsonian Magazine Archive from GaleSearchable and browseable, full-page, color scans of both Smithsonian Magazine (1970-2010) and Air & Space Smithsonian (1986-2010) reflect the broad scientific, historical, and cultural range of the namesake institution. This digital archive parallels and serves same functions as National Geographic Archive, providing complete, full-color page images. Cross-searchable with other periodical archives in Gale Primary Sources portal.
- Magazine Archive from EBSCOhostFull-page images of these magazines are easily searched but not easily browsed. Cross-search any/all the magazines (including words in advertising) using the EbscoHost interface, select an article, then follow prompts in left sidebar to select articles in that issue or to change issues.
- Architectural Digest Magazine Archive (1920-2011. ISSN: 2163-3819). Monthly international design magazine features beautiful photography and information on architecture and interior design, art and antiques, travel destinations, and extraordinary products.
- Forbes Magazine Archive (1917-2000. ISSN: 0015-6914). Bi-weekly business magazine.
- Life Magazine Archive (1936-2000. ISSN: 0024-3019). Complete run of the popular magazine that defined American photojournalism: national and world news, culture, lifestyle reporting, long feature articles, all heavily illustrated, including work by celebrated photographers.
- National Review Archive (1955-present. ISSN: 0024-3019). Influential opinion magazine has been at the center of US conservative political and cultural discourse since the 1950s.
Browsing is difficult in the EbscoHost platform. It is easier to search the library's journal-title database for the bold-faced title or ISSN in the list above, select the magazine archive version, then pick publication year and drill down to an issue's table of contents to pick the article. To browse directly from one article to another, use PDF link in the left sidebar to browse through an issue in five-page increments or to navigate to another issue.
- CQ Magazine (formerly CQ Weekly) Formerly a close competitor of National Journal, CQ has stumbled in recent years, and the library will not renew its subscription in 2024. Weekly political news magazine featuring in-depth reporting on public policy, politics, congressional legislation, and elections extending back to 1983, including: a complete wrap-up of news on Congress, the status of bills in play, behind-the-scenes maneuvering, committee and floor activity, debates, and all roll-call votes.
- CQ Researcher CQ Researcher publishes single-themed, 12,000-word reports researched and written by a seasoned journalist and noted for in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Reports provides an overview; background and chronology; assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro/con statements from opposing positions; and bibliographies. Pre-1996 are HTML; newer are PDFs. 1991-present.
Academic journal archives (could be primary or secondary, depending on use)
- PAO: Periodicals Archive OnlineComplementing the better-known JSTOR with a more international orientation, PAO is a archive of more than 700 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences since their first issues. More than 150 are in languages other than English. Coverage is from volume 1, issue 1 of each journal, and all issues are digitized from cover to cover.
- JSTORan archive of academic journals in the humanities, social science, and sciences, back to their earliest issues. So for some purposes, it is a collection of secondary sources and for others, primary sources.
If you want to do a comprehensive search of the literature on a topic, don't start in JSTOR; use a discipline-specific database instead and/or Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984, a simple but historically deep index of academic articles that includes historical headings mapped to current ones:- Although a few journals in JSTOR include content up to the current issue, in most cases the latest content in JSTOR will be at least two years old.
- While JSTOR journals are among the most reputable in their subject areas, not all subject areas are included.
- JSTOR articles are presented as they were originally published: they will include terms and information that today could be regarded as inappropriate, incomplete, or worse. But if you want to know what scholars in, say, the 1930s said about controversial topics like race, some religious traditions, gender and sexuality, or mental or physical impairments, you will need to use search terms that match those of that time, even though they may offend you deeply.
- HeinOnline Portal Large and wide-ranging collections of historical and contemporary legal materials, including codes, treaties, constitutions, topical collections of historical documents, law reviews (resembling JSTOR), legal treatises from the US, Canada, and the UK. Not limited to narrowly legal topics: includes, for example, Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law.
Non-US historical magazines and the like
- British Periodicals Collection I & II from ProQuestBritish Periodicals is a collection of digitized periodicals covering the humanities, performing arts, history, science, architecture, and especially literature. Documents are available as high-resolution images and downloadable PDFs. Browse individual journals or search across the collection. All content is indexed, including advertising. Searches can be limited to multimedia types, including maps, illustrations, comics, photos, and music scores. 1681-1939.
- Economist Historical Archive from GaleThe Economist Historical Archive comprises the complete content of all printed editions of the Economist featuring full-color images, multiple search indexes, and the facility to browse each and every issue - all combined to offer a unique primary source covering the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
- Eighteenth Century Journals from Adam Matthew DigitalBringing together rare journals printed between c.1685 and 1835, this resource illuminates all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Topics covered are wide-ranging and include colonial life, provincial and rural affairs, the French and American revolutions, reviews of literature and fashion throughout Europe, political debates, and London coffee house gossip and discussion.
- Service Newspapers of World War 2 from Adam Matthew Service Newspapers of World War Two contains an extensive range of both rare and well-known wartime publications for soldiers serving in major theatres around the world. Publications are included from many key nations involved in the conflict, such as the US, Canada, New Zealand, India, and the countries of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Both Allied and Axis publications are presented, offering a broad view of the war and the experiences of those on its front lines. 1939-1948.
Indexes to popular and specialist literatures
- C19: The Nineteenth Century Index: Periodicals (from ProQuest)C19 will shift to the more robust ProQuest platform in late 2022. Portal to citations in American and British periodical indexes from the "long" 19th century. Search individually or cross-search with several governmental and book indexes. Tech won't necessarily have online or physical access to every indexed item.
Currently on Chadwyck-Healey platform: linking to full-text can be flaky, even to other ProQuest databases; you may want to use the bibliographic information to search Discovery Search by author names or article titles to find in full-text online and/or by publication title for our print or microform holdings of the periodical.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 from EBSCOhostReader's Guide Retrospective indexes citations to articles published in popular magazines and newspapers published in the United States.
- Book Review Digest Retrospective from EBSCOhostCollecting nearly eight decades of H.W. Wilson's Book Review Digest, this archive database provides over a million book review citations from 1903 to 1982. It covers adult and juvenile fiction and nonfiction and provides at least one review excerpt per book.
- Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 from EBSCOhost Humanities & Social Science Index Retrospective offers the ability to search a wide range of important journals in the humanities and social sciences as far back as 1907. Coverage also includes content from H.W. Wilson’s International Index.1907-1984.
- Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective: 1908-1981 from EBSCOhost The Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective indexes citations to articles and summaries in annual surveys of laws and courts, legal journals, and legal yearbooks. 1908-1981.