Special Collections
History Librarian
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Getting Started
Welcome to the research guide for the Fall 2021 Buchanan Fellowship: The U.S. Presidency: Challenges of the Executive Branch. This guide serves to support your research, writing, and other work associated with the fellowship. Please contact any one of the fellowship mentors below with any questions you may have.
Fellowship Mentors:
- Carla BealsLibrary Brand and Graphic Design Manager
- Teresa GrayCurator of Special Collections
- Nathan JonesCurator of Television News Collections
- Frank LesterLibrarian for Political Science, Communication Studies, Government Information, and Cinema and Media Arts
- Jason SchultzLibrarian for African American and Diaspora Studies, American Studies, History, Islamic Studies
Biographical Resources
- American National Biography Online This link opens in a new windowBiographical essays profiling people from all periods of American history and culture. Bibliographic information, some illustrations, and online resources are included.
- Biography and Genealogy Master Index This link opens in a new window
Index of reference sources containing biographies.
Bibliographies, Encyclopedias, and Dictionaries
- American President: A Reference Resource This link opens in a new window
Information on presidents and first ladies, biographies of each cabinet member, listings of presidential staff and advisers, and timelines detailing significant events in the lives of each administration. Audio and video since Kennedy is also available.
- Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new windowLiterary guide to significant sources on a variety of subjects. Works as an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia.
- Oxford Research Encyclopedias This link opens in a new windowLong-form overview articles written, peer-reviewed, and edited by leading scholars. Both foundational and cutting-edge topics are covered in order to develop, over time, an anchoring knowledge base for major areas of research.
Access to selected content only. Some articles may not be available. - Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new windowCambridge Histories covering American, British, economic, regional, and general history, language and linguistics, philosophy, religious studies, theatre studies and performing arts, etc.
- Very Short Introductions This link opens in a new window
Concise overviews of hundreds of diverse topics from the abstract (Knowledge) to the concrete (Coral Reefs), written by experts in the field who combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make challenging topics highly readable.
American Political Leaders, 1789-2009Publication Date: 2010
Historical Dictionary of the U. S. PresidencyPublication Date: 2016
Historical Encyclopedia of U. S. Presidential Use of Force, 1789-2000Publication Date: 2001
The Presidency a to ZPublication Date: 2013
Presidential Campaigns, Slogans, Issues, and PlatformsPublication Date: 2012- The Presidents: A Reference HistoryCall Number: 4th Floor Central Reference: E176.1 .P918 2002
- Gale Literature: Book Review Index This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive guide to book reviews: cites or links to full-text reviews.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Index of academic historical journals on the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, etc.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowLarge and important archive for academic journals, books, and primary sources in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Many journals do not have current issues.
- ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Search all ProQuest databases simultaneously. Includes arts, humanities, social sciences, news, and science and technology.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective, 1890-1982 This link opens in a new windowIndex of articles from magazines, including full coverage of the original print volumes of Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature™. Atlantic Monthly, Century Magazine, Christian Century, Commonweal, Foreign Affairs, Fortnightly Review (London), Good Housekeeping, Harper's, Ladies Home Journal, Literary Digest, The Nation, New Republic, Reader's Digest, Saturday Evening Post, Saturday Review, Scribner's, and Women's Home Companion.
Central Library Floor Plans
- Central Library Floor PlansLink gives floor plan to Central Library building, which includes the Divinity Library and Special Collections. Books by call number, study rooms, and other library services and noted.
