Subject Guides: History: Databases and Indexes

Databases

Databases Containing Secondary Sources

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is a large multidisciplinary resource that includes the full text for most of the publications in its index.
Cambridge Journals Online
Cambridge Press currently publishes over 220 peer-reviewed academic journals for the global market containing the latest research from a broad sweep of subject areas.
Historical abstracts
Historical Abstracts covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding North America). For literature pertaining to history of the United States and Canada use http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=e1000028~S3>America: History and Life.
Humanities full text
Humanities full text brings full text (starting 1995) plus abstracts and bibliographic indexes (starting 1984) of noted scholarly sources in the humanities as well as lesser known specialized magazines. The database indexes abstracts and delivers the full text of feature articles interviews obituaries bibliographies original works of fiction drama and poetry book reviews and reviews of ballets dance programs motion pictures musicals operas plays radio and television programs.
International Medieval bibliography
International Medieval Bibliography is a comprehensive and current bibliography of journal articles conference proceedings book chapters Festschriften and other publications on all aspects of the European Middle Ages (AD 300 - 1500).
JSTOR
JSTOR provides image and full-text online access to selected scholarly journals in history economics political science demography mathematics and other fields of the humanities and social sciences.
JSTOR Early Journal Content
JSTOR has released journal content published prior to 1923 in the United States and prior to 1870 elsewhere. This content is now freely available to the public for reading and downloading and includes nearly 500 000 articles from more than 200 journals.
PAO collection
Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) provides access to hundreds of full text digitized journal backfiles in the arts humanities and social sciences. Coverage is from the first issue to 1995 for most titles and extends to 2000 for some journals.
Project MUSE
Project MUSE provides access to journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press primarily covering the humanities social sciences and mathematics.

Primary Source Databases

Defining Gender 1450-1910
The documents in the Defining Gender database reflect changing notions of masculinity and femininity and the social climate in which they developed during the 15th through 19th centuries particularly in Great Britain with an emphasis on social conduct and etiquette marriage and family life consumption leisure activities and the philosophy and practice of education.
Eighteenth Century Journals I
Eighteenth Century Journals I is drawn from the Hope Collection at the Bodleian Library Oxford and brings together 76 rare journals printed between 1693 and 1799. The collection combines well-known publications with more minor works offering users a wide-ranging view of eighteenth century publishing culture.
ICON : International Coalition on Newspapers
ICON is a directory of newspaper digitization projects from around the world.
InteLex Past Masters
The InteLex Past Masters provide full text databases in the humanities in original languages and translations which include philosophy English letters women writers religious studies political thought & theory and Germanic studies.
International historical statistics
International Historical Statistics includes socio-economic data from not only the Americas and Europe but also Africa Asia and Oceania.
Mass observation online
Mass Observation Online provides integrated access to 115 000 digital images from the Mass Observation Archive (MOA) at the University of Sussex. The range of topics covered is immense including British social history popular culture consumerism branding and fashion sex marriage and the family as well as attitudes to war politics and America Russian and Europe.
Points to the past
Points to the Past provides British Columbia residents access to historical primary sources such as newspapers diaries government documents manuscripts photos and maps. Collections of note include: the Declassified Documents Reference System comprised of government policies and meeting minutes from post-World War II Slavery and Anti-Slavery: a transnational archive a comprehensive collection of the scholarly study of slavery and British Literary Manuscripts Online which includes rare manuscripts poems correspondence diaries and essays from the 12th century to the Victorian era.
Times digital archive 1785-1985
The Times is the world's newspaper of record and covers all major international historical events from the French Revolution to the Falkland War. The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985 is an online historical archive delivering every page as published from 200 years of The Times users are able to search the full-text of the entire newspaper including articles editorials and advertising.
Women's travel diaries
Over 100 diaries written by British and American women who documented their travels to places around the globe including India the West Indies countries in Europe Africa and the Middle East as well as around the United States.

Secondary Source Databases

Canadian Business & Current Affairs
Canadian Business & Current Affairs is a comprehensive bibliographic full text reference and current events database. Information is available from a broad range of Canadian sources with the database containing over 4 million records. Subjects covered are current events, business, science, the arts, and Canadian academic information. Full text is available from over 750 journals with indexing for an additional 800 periodicals and daily news sources.
Publications of the British Columbia Historical Federation
The British Columbia Historical Federation has teamed up with the University of British Columbia to digitize the Federation's publications. This collection showcases research regarding BC's historical development.

Primary Source Databases

Canadiana discovery portal
The Canadiana Discovery Portal provides navigation and resource discovery system to find digital collections from Canadian libraries archives galleries museums historical societies in a wide range of formats: sound files video maps artifacts photographs paintings diaries posters books and public records.
Canadian historical newspapers
This is a list of freely accessible Canadian historical newspapers compiled by SFU library staff. The Google document this record links to provides a title list and the URLs for each title.
Canadian Newsstream
This database provides full access to the articles, columns, editorials and features published in a variety of Canadian newspapers, many with extensive backfiles. Database content is updated daily.
Early Canadiana online
Early Canadiana Online is a full text collection of more than 68 000 journals books and pamphlets documenting Canadian history from the first European contact to the late 19th century. The collection is particularly strong in literature women's history First Nations studies travel and exploration and the history of French Canada.
Globe and Mail : Canada's heritage from 1844
Our access to the Globe and Mail starts in June 1844 and includes all the stories published before December 2012 plus thousands of images advertisements classifieds political cartoons births and deaths.
House of Commons parliamentary papers
The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers provides access to Britain's parliamentary papers from 1801 to present and the Hansard from 1803 to 2005. This resource is kept current with quarterly updates.
Heritage
The Heritage project is a multi-year project that will digitize some of Library and Archives Canada's most popular archival collections made up of documents from the 1600s to the mid-1900s. These documents include: papers and correspondence from prominent Canadians files relating to Canada's aboriginal peoples early documents from core government departments military records and more.
Northern BC Digital Collection
UNBC's Northern BC Digital Collection holds digitized publications pertaining to Northern BC history, culture, and industrial development.
PG newspapers
The Prince George Newspapers Project is a digitization project initiative to provide online digital access to the historical newspapers of Prince George British Columbia by three libraries: the Prince George Public Library the College of New Caledonia Library and the Geoffrey R. Weller Library at UNBC.
Treaties, Surrenders, and Agreements
Treaties, Surrenders, and Agreements is a large collection of historic Canadian Indian treaties, land surrenders, and related agreements.

Secondary Source Databases

America: history and life
America : History and Life covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from 1863 to the present. For literature pertaining to world history excluding the United States and Canada use http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=e1000645~S3>Historical Abstracts.
Military & government collection
Designed to offer current news pertaining to all branches of the United States military the Military & Government Collection provides cover-to-cover full text for nearly 300 journals periodicals and pamphlets and includes indexing and abstracts for nearly 400 titles.

Primary Source Databases

Early encounters in North America
Early Encounters in North America contains 1 482 authors and over 100 000 pages of primary sources such as letters diaries memoirs and accounts of early encounters.
Empire Online
Empire Online is a powerful and interactive digital resource which spans five centuries: from a translation of Columbus's 1492 voyage to 21st Century works on Imperialism. It includes thousands of images of unique source material such as maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, paintings, drawings, and rare books.
European views of the Americas
This database created from European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas 1493-1750 contains more than 32 000 entries and is a comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. It covers the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of Native American peoples and includes a wide range of subject areas from natural disasters to disease outbreaks to slavery.

Frontier life
Frontier Life captures the experiences of people living on the edge of European settlement across the frontiers of North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Through a huge array of digitised primary source materials, it documents the relationships and interaction between new arrivals and indigenous peoples, and the results of these encounters: the creation of new states and trade networks, internal migration, and the marginalisation and decline of indigenous peoples.

Hubert Wenger Eskimo database
The Wenger Eskimo Database covers the literature and maps of first contact with Inuit/Eskimo peoples around the world. The Hubert Wenger Eskimo Database website is hosted by the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alaska USA.
Making of America journals (Cornell)
Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American 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.
Making of America journals (Michigan)
Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American 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.
North American Indian thought and culture
North American Indian Thought and Culture contains over 119 000 pages of text and images. Included are biographies auto-biographies personal narratives speeches diaries letters and oral histories.
Points to the past
Points to the Past provides British Columbia residents access to historical primary sources such as newspapers diaries government documents manuscripts photos and maps. Collections of note include: the Declassified Documents Reference System comprised of government policies and meeting minutes from post-World War II Slavery and Anti-Slavery: a transnational archive a comprehensive collection of the scholarly study of slavery and British Literary Manuscripts Online which includes rare manuscripts poems correspondence diaries and essays from the 12th century to the Victorian era.
Slavery abolition and social justice 1490-2007
This resource is designed as an important portal for slavery and abolition studies bringing together documents and collections covering an extensive time period (1490-2007) from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. It offers high quality greyscale images of many thousands of original manuscripts pamphlets books paintings maps and images not available elsewhere.

Databases Containing Secondary Sources

International Medieval bibliography
International Medieval Bibliography is a comprehensive and current bibliography of journal articles conference proceedings book chapters Festschriften and other publications on all aspects of the European Middle Ages (AD 300 - 1500).
Nines : Nineteenth-century scholarship online
NINES is an aggregator of digital resources that provide a comprehensive research environment for scholars working on Victorian and Romantic literature history the fine arts and philosophy of the long nineteenth century (1770-1920).

Databases Containing Primary Sources

Empire Online
Empire Online is a powerful and interactive digital resource which spans five centuries: from a translation of Columbus's 1492 voyage to 21st Century works on Imperialism. It includes thousands of images of unique source material such as maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, paintings, drawings, and rare books.
English historical documents
English Historical Documents is a collection of texts regarding the political social religious and economic history of Britain.
European views of the Americas
This database created from European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas 1493-1750 contains more than 32 000 entries and is a comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. It covers the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of Native American peoples and includes a wide range of subject areas from natural disasters to disease outbreaks to slavery.
House of Commons parliamentary papers
The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers provides access to Britain's parliamentary papers from 1801 to present and the Hansard from 1803 to 2005. This resource is kept current with quarterly updates.
InteLex Past Masters
The InteLex Past Masters provide full text databases in the humanities in original languages and translations which include philosophy English letters women writers religious studies political thought & theory and Germanic studies.
Medici archive
The goal of the Medici Archive Project is to create worldwide access to the historical data in the Medici Granducal Archive (Archivio Mediceo del Principato) by way of a fully searchable online database. This database currently describes 200 volumes of documents in the Archive with document records for approximately 10 000 letters and biographical records for approximately 11 000 people.
Medieval travel writing
The original multiple manuscript sources contain the journeys of famous travelers from Prester John and Marco Polo to Sir John Mandeville and John Capgrave. These sources talk about the attitudes and preconceptions of people across Europe in the medieval period shedding light on issues of race economics trade militarism politics literature and science.
Nines : Nineteenth-century scholarship online
NINES is an aggregator of digital resources that provide a comprehensive research environment for scholars working on Victorian and Romantic literature history the fine arts and philosophy of the long nineteenth century (1770-1920).
Points to the past
Points to the Past provides British Columbia residents access to historical primary sources such as newspapers diaries government documents manuscripts photos and maps. Collections of note include: the Declassified Documents Reference System comprised of government policies and meeting minutes from post-World War II Slavery and Anti-Slavery: a transnational archive a comprehensive collection of the scholarly study of slavery and British Literary Manuscripts Online which includes rare manuscripts poems correspondence diaries and essays from the 12th century to the Victorian era.
Times digital archive 1785-1985
The Times is the world's newspaper of record and covers all major international historical events from the French Revolution to the Falkland War. The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985 is an online historical archive delivering every page as published from 200 years of The Times users are able to search the full-text of the entire newspaper including articles editorials and advertising.

Primary Source Databases

China: trade politics and culture 1793-1980
The database provides Chinese history during the two centuries of monumental social and political upheaval that ultimately recreated China into a modern power relating to China and the West between 1793 and 1980.
Empire Online
Empire Online is a powerful and interactive digital resource which spans five centuries: from a translation of Columbus's 1492 voyage to 21st Century works on Imperialism. It includes thousands of images of unique source material such as maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, paintings, drawings, and rare books.

Research & Learning Services Librarian

Kealin McCabe

Email Me

Contact:

Library: 5-483

250-960-6473

Contact Us

Frequently Asked Questions
Check out our FAQs!
In Person
Drop by the Research Help Desk today!
Email
library@unbc.ca
Call
Have a question? We are available at (250) 960-6475
Text a Librarian
Have a research questions? Text us! (250) 999-0478

Geoffrey R. Weller Library

History: Databases and Indexes

Databases

Primary Source Databases

Secondary Source Databases

Primary Source Databases

Secondary Source Databases

Primary Source Databases

Databases Containing Secondary Sources

Databases Containing Primary Sources

Primary Source Databases

Research & Learning Services Librarian

Contact Us

Reach Us

About Us

Services

Resources