Documents
Primary Sources | Secondary Sources

Primary Sources: Original Documents in Electronic Format

American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement, produced by the Wisconsin Historical Society, provides full text for over 150 books, manuscripts and travel narratives dating from 1,000 to 1844.

American Memory compiled by the Library of Congress National Digital Library, is a gateway to primary source materials regarding the history of the United States. Over a million items are available through this project, and the ability to keyword search across all collections is available. Examples of specific collections follow. For broadsides and printed ephemera, see An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and other Printed Ephemera. For 19th century periodicals, see The Nineteenth Century in Print: The Making of America in Books and Periodicals. For over 100 pamphlets and books concerning the experiences of slaves in the American Colonies and the United States, see Slaves and the Courts: 1740-1860. The Library of Congress also has a number of online exhibitions.

Colonial Connecticut Records (1636-1776) provides access by date and volume to the public records of the Colony of Connecticut. Full text and keyword searching is not currently available. Use the Colonial Pathways link for access to some selected materials by type.

Curtis Botanical Magazine (1787-1807) is an online version of the first 26 volumes of this journal, presented by the National Agricultural Library, ARS, USDA. This searchable site provides 1,048 plates and 1,456 pages of text.

Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture Electronic Facsimiles is a collection of digitized texts from the University of Wisconsin Libraries and the Chipstone Foundation. [BROWSE] [SEARCH] [ABOUT] [SUBJECT GUIDES]

Documenting the American South from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a collection of over 570 books and manuscripts concerning Southern history and culture from the colonial period to the early 20th century. Although not specifically concerned with the decorative arts, this site is useful for the history and literature of the area.

Eighteenth-Century E-Texts is a listing of publicly available electronic texts, maintained by Prof. Jack Lynch of Rutgers University.

Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers of Diderot and d'Alembert (1751-1772), the massive reference work of French Enlightenment knowledge in 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates, is available in a searchable online version under the auspices of the ARTFL Project. Twenty illustrations related to furniture, for example, can be retrieved by setting the "type of entry" field to plate_legend and searching for the "head word" MEUBLES. A companion project in process hosts a collaborative translation website.

Full Text Humanities Resources on the Internet: A Selection provides a list of publicly available text collections.

Le Garde-meuble, ancien et moderne (Furniture Repository, Ancient and Modern) was a 19th century French periodical consisting entirely of illustrations of designs for furniture, window treatments and room settings. This online document presents the Smithsonian Institution Libraries' nearly complete set of the early (1841-1851) issues.

Godey's Lady's Book Online provides access to five issues of this journal from 1850; a University of Vermont site for Godey's Lady's Book provides access to complete and partial issues from later years. UW-Madison researchers have access to a licensed version (Godey's Lady's Book 1830-55).

A Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, London, 1856. This web page by James Rowan, Boston College, provides excerpts from the 1856 text and images of selected colorplates.

Historical Maps of Pennsylvania presents maps of Pennsylvania from the 17th through the 20th centuries. The quality of the digital images varies.

Internet Library of Early Journals provides full text for large runs of 18th and 19th century British journals including the Annual Register, The Builder, Gentleman's Magazine and others.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook, edited by Paul Halsall of Fordham University, is a metasite for history documents. The site provides links to publicly available historical texts. The texts are not specifically concerned with decorative arts but are useful for historical perspective and context. The site is large and may be slow to load. Information on the Internet History Sourcebook Project is available at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/.

Library of Virginia Digital Library Program has digitized more than 2 million original documents, photographs and maps. The documents are accessible through a variety of databases.

Making of America is a collaborative effort of the University of Michigan and Cornell University. Included are over 50,000 articles from 19th century journals and over 8,500 books.

Plymouth Colony Archive Project provides access to court records, colony laws, 17th century journals and memoirs, probate inventories, wills, town plans, maps, and more.

Probate Inventory Database, Gunston Hall Plantation provides transcriptions of over 300 Virginia and Maryland probate inventories between 1740-1810.

University of Pennsylvania Library, Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image Women's Studies Collection contains facsimiles from the university library, including women's diaries, manuscript cookbooks and more, dating from the 19th and 20th centuries.

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Secondary Sources: Journals and More

African-American Archaeology Newsletter provides full text online articles for 1994-2000 issues.

American Art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum includes full text or abstracts of the current issue, as well as indexes to past issues.

American Antiquity is the principal journal for the Society of American Archaeology. Tables of contents from 1995, with abstracts from 1999 to present, are available.

American Furniture, published by the Chipstone Foundation, provides full text of articles for the years 1993-1996, and one full text article from the 2002 issue. Additional online access is planned.

American Historical Review includes full text of articles and book reviews from June 1999 to current issue.

Antiques and the Arts Online is a newsletter for the arts and antiques market, primarily concerned with American art and decorative art. Articles, a calendar of events and an on-line discussion forum are available through the site.

Journal of American History provides full text of most articles and book reviews from June 1999 to current issue

Journal of Material Culture contains the tables of contents from 1996, including abstracts from 1998, to current issue.

Maine Antique Digest is a print publication for the art and antiques market with an online supplement. Although not a scholarly journal, it provides a wealth of information. Access to some information may require registration and/or a print subscription.

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography includes tables of contents and/or indices from 1952. From the Historical Society of Pennsylvania website, choose "Publications," then "PMHB" in the left bar.

Resource Library Magazine, an online publication devoted to American representational art, contains a section on American decorative arts. Not a scholarly journal, though the information provided from museums and organizations on exhibitions may be useful.

Silver Magazine on the Web, provides tables of contents and full text of selected exhibition and book reviews, including some images. Full text of a selection of articles is available at the Best of Silver Magazine.

Studies in the Decorative Arts from Bard Graduate Center has tables of contents from 1993 to present.

William and Mary Quarterly includes tables of contents from July 1997. Full text book reviews are available from January 2000 to present.

Winterthur Portfolio: A journal of American material culture (Electronic Edition) provides full text beginning with Volume 37, number 1 (Spring 2002). Tables of contents for editions beginning in 1995 are also available.

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