Library Guides: Journalism: Historical Research

Reference Sources to Start Your Research

The following resources will help you gather background information on historic people and events:

Gale Virtual Reference Library
GVRL is a collection of online books that you can search all at once.
Try searching for the names of people or events to get additional background information beyond what you can find on Wikipedia. For example, here's an encyclopedia article on William Randolph Hearst from the Encyclopedia of World Biography.
American Decades
1900-1999, by decade. Divided into all facets of life. Search for a topic of interest, or click on Table of Contents and then choose a decade from the drop down menu on the right side of the page.
Biography Reference Bank
Find information on more than a half million individuals, both historical and current.
Biography in Context
Provides biographical information of more than one million people throughout history, around the world and across all disciplines and subject areas. Searchable by birth and death years and places, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender.
Pop Culture Universe
Pop Culture Universe contains a comprehensive and authoritative collection of information on popular culture in America, both past and present. Click on Topics to browse for information by decade or use the search box on the right side of the page.

Primary Sources

E.W. Scripps Papers
More than 3000 documents from the E.W. Scripps papers have been digitized and are available online. the full collection is available in the Archives & Special Collections. A finding aid can help you get a better idea of what is in the collection.
Archives & Special Collections
There are a number of historic American periodicals in the Archives & Special Collections. Contact Dr. Miriam Intrator, Special Collections Librarian for assistance accessing these collections and determining if what you need is housed in the special collections.
OhioLINK Archives Finding Aid
Finding Aids help you to know what sort of content is in an archival collection. OhioLINK has an online website of finding aids from libraries around the state. You can search the site to see if there is a collection on a topic you're interested in. Example: Miami University Men's Basketball Media Guides.
Black Thought and Culture
Consists of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures covering 250 years of history. Includes the Black Panther Newspaper.
Everyday Life and Women in America 1800-1920
This digital collection provides access to rare primary source material on American social, cultural, and popular history from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University and The New York Public Library. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century life.
Television News Archive, Vanderbilt University
The TV News Archive compiled by Vanderbilt University (1968-present) contains transcripts from U.S. news programs on major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, CSPAN, MSNBC, PBS and CNBC). Most transcripts are in abstract form; more recent broadcasts may be available instantly as streaming video.
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NOTE: OU Faculty and graduate students may order videotape duplications of entire broadcasts, or compilation tapes of individual news stories specified by the borrower. Contact Alden Library Interlibrary Loan. Do not order directly through the TV News Archive website; Alden Library has an agreement with Vanderbilt and can assist in borrowing tapes. The Television News Archive will make a LENDING COPY that must be returned by Alden Library to Vanderbilt University at a pre-arranged date. Please allow at least 2 weeks for the tape(s) to arrive. Loan period is typically 30 days but requests to keep tapes longer are usually honored by the Archive.
Digital Public Library of America
Search for public domain materials from around the US
Hathi Trust Digital Library
A large collection of digitized materials. Some materials may not be available, as we are not member libraries. But once you have identified a source, we can likely get another copy via InterLibrary Loan.
News & Public Affairs Archive (Internet Archive)
Alternative independent radio news programming including radio news shows and the Presidential Recordings collection of historical speeches and secret recordings.

University Libraries

Journalism

Reference Sources to Start Your Research

Primary Sources

OHIO UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES