Part 1: UM Campus Resources Part 2: Government Resources Part 3: Maryland and DC Metro Area Resources

Part 1: Campus Resources

University of Maryland Libraries

Online Catalog: Available through the UM Libraries' home page. Use the "choose campus" option to search the Catalog for holdings either at College Park or the entire University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI).

Research Port: Use Research Port as your source for e-journals and online databases, both indexes and full-text. Off campus? Log in with your 16-digit ID card barcode (on the back) for remote access.

Two essential Research Port databases:

1. WorldCat lists holdings of all major academic libraries and allows you to request them through interlibrary loan
2. JStor is an easy to navigate source of full text journals like Journal of American History in PDF formal

Premium online reference tools: free access to paid resources such as dictionaries like the OED, style manuals, and the Encyclopedia Britannica. See the Reference Shelf.

Professional Reference Staff: In addition to speaking directly to a staff member manning the Reference Desk (zone in on those professional librarians--they are the real experts), you can also contact members of the Reference Staff through email, the telephone, or via Internet Chat. The Information and Reference Service page provides the contact information you will need. We even a collection development/reference librarian subject specialist devoted to history, Eric Lindquist. Don't hesitate to drop him a line.

Government Documents and Maps: The University of Maryland Libraries are a Regional Depository Library for federal documents, which are shelved on the Fourth Floor of McKeldin Library. For more information, see the Government Documents and Maps.

We have eight libraries: Many of these have unique special collections that may match your historical interests. Two prized examples include the Architecture Library's World's Fair Art & Architecture collection and the Performing Arts Library's International Piano Archives (More on Special Collections below).

UM Libraries Research Guides

The subject specialist librarians have compiled research guides which they have classified under broad categories: Research Guides by Subject Discipline. The libraries' web site also provides content which may be helpful for teaching, including guides to Research and Library Skills and Using Specific Formats and Document Types.

UM Libraries Special Collections

These include archives, manuscripts, rare books, maps, and multi-media; search the collections using the excellent ArchivesUM research tool.

• Historical Manuscripts: Historical Manuscripts at the University of Maryland Libraries consist primarily of personal papers and archival collections documenting all aspects of Maryland history and culture. Other collection strengths include labor history and women's organizations.
• International Piano Archives at Maryland (IPAM): IPAM's collections comprise one of the world's most extensive concentrations of piano recordings, books, scores, programs, and related materials, including the archival papers of many great keyboard artists.
• Library of American Broadcasting: The Library of American Broadcasting holds a wide-ranging collection of audio and video recordings, books, pamphlets, periodicals, personal collections, oral histories, photographs, scripts, and vertical files devoted exclusively to the history of broadcasting.
• Literary Manuscripts Literary Manuscript holdings at the University of Maryland Libraries include correspondence, papers relating to published and unpublished literary works, publications, photographs, and memorabilia documenting twentieth- and twenty-first-century American, British, Maryland, and international literature and literary figures. The Papers of Katherine Anne Porter and Djuna Barnes are the primary archives for these twentieth-century American writers.
• National Public Broadcasting Archives: The National Public Broadcasting Archives (NPBA) brings together the archival record of the major entities of non-commercial broadcasting in the United States. It began as a cooperative effort among several broadcasting organizations and educational institutions. CPB, PBS, and NPR along with the Academy for Educational Development joined forces with the University of Maryland to preserve the history of public broadcasting in America.
• National Trust for Historic Preservation Library Collection: The National Trust Library cooperates with the Archives and Manuscripts Department to maintain special collections related to historic preservation.
• Special Collections in Performing Arts: Special Collections in Performing Arts (SCPA) is a unit of the Performing Arts Library containing research collections, many maintained through joint agreements with national and international performing arts organizations. The various collections are separately administered. In addition to these organizational collections, SCPA also administers collections donated by individuals: the Charles Fowler Papers, the Howe Collection of Musical Instrument Literature, the Irving and Margery Morgan Lowens Collection, and others.
• University Archives: The University Archives is the repository for a broad range of materials, including official office records, printed publications, photographs, and memorabilia, documenting the history and present activities of the University of Maryland, and in particular, the College Park campus. The holdings of the University Archives are strongest in the post-1916 period.

University of Maryland, Department of History: Projects

Freedmen and Southern Society Project

"The Freedmen and Southern Society Project was established in 1976 to capture the essence of that revolution by depicting the drama of emancipation in the words of the participants: liberated slaves and defeated slaveholders, soldiers and civilians, common folk and the elite, Northerners and Southerners."

"Drawing upon the rich resources of the National Archives of the United States, the project's editors pored over millions of documents, selecting some 50,000. They are presently transcribing, organizing, and annotating them to explain how black people traversed the bloody ground from slavery to freedom between the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 and the beginning of Radical Reconstruction in 1867. The documents vividly speak for themselves, and interpretive essays by the editors provide historical context."

Project Editors: Anthony E. Kaye, Steven F. Miller, and Leslie S. Rowland (project director).

Samuel Gompers Papers

"The Samuel Gompers Papers is a documentary editing project that collects, annotates, and makes available to as wide an audience as possible, primary sources of American labor history. Drawing on Gompers material and other labor-related sources at the Library of Congress, the U.S. Department of Labor, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and the George Meany Memorial Archives, as well as public and university manuscript repositories, various union offices, and other locations, the project has published two microfilm series of union records and eight edited volumes of Gompers' papers. The project also makes available its wide collection of microfilm, photocopied material, and annotation files to students and researchers. The Samuel Gompers Papers is sponsored by the University of Maryland, College Park, and housed in McKeldin Library."

Combined Caesarea Expeditions (CCE)

"CCE is an amphibious archaeological project that joins excavations in the terrestrial remains of ancient Caesarea, a Roman city on the Mediterranean present-day Israel, with underwater investigations in the ancient city's harbor." Contact Ken Holum for information on this project.

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Part 2: Government Resources

Government Information Online

The UM Libraries' Government Documents and Maps section maintains this extensive Web index of Government Information Online. Browse government databases alphabetically or by topic.

Library of Congress

LOC has a very good home page but the Library of Congress' Services for Researchers page is, as would be expected, a better starting point for the researcher. Find out more about their Manuscripts Reading Room below in the DC Metro Area Resources Section.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

One of the real advantages to pursuing a History degree at University of Maryland, College Park is the National Archives and Records Administration II (Archives II) facility located adjacent to the campus on Adelphi Road. A short description here would be utterly insufficient to describe the amount and variety of material available at Archives I and II. All of their collections are obviously related to government agencies and programs, but many materials can be used unexpectedly. Of particular note are the WWII Nazi and Japanese war crime papers, Works Progress Administration papers, and the Freedmen's Bureau Papers (with which Professor Leslie Rowland works). The first step to taking advantage of the facility would be to visit their Getting Started Page for Researchers. Also of interest is the library in NARA, Archives Library Information Center (ALIC), which has print collections related to American History and Archival Studies.

Federal Agency and Department Libraries and History Departments

Every Federal Agency or Department has some sort of History department (whether or not they call it by that name) that maintains some archives and records and writes institutional histories. With some digging on the web or the telephone, graduate students with a legitimate research need can normally get access to these records and, just as important, the staffs of those facilities. Three examples follow:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a NASA History Office at the NASA Headquarters building in Washington, D.C. The History Office's web site includes a Visiting NASA History Office page giving instructions for arranging to use their records for research.

The Department of Labor maintains the Wirtz Labor Library, which has a wealth of labor history resources, including Special Collections of historical interest.

The USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) oversees the National Agricultural Library, whose Special Collections are described below.

Maryland State Archives

The MD State Archives homepage brings together information on researching Maryland's history at the Archives in Annapolis. Of particular note is the large amount of material that has been digitized and made available on the web through the Archives of Maryland Online.

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Part 3: Maryland and D.C. Metro Area Resources

These libraries, archives, and museums are listed in alphabetical order.

• Catholic University of America Libraries
  • American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives (Catholic and Labor History)
  • Rare Books and Special Collections (Catholic and European History)
• Center for History of Physics (part of the American Institute of Physics near the College Park Metro station, this spot is primarily of interest for the records held at the Niels Bohr Library, which include the Emilio Segre Visual Archives.
• Folger Shakespeare Library See the Guide to the Folger Collections for a discussion of the scope and content of their rare book, modern book, manuscript, and microfilm holdings. "The collections focus on British and European literary, cultural, political, religious, and social history from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, with particular strength in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."
• George Mason University Libraries
  • Special Collections and Archives (Northern Virginia History, Performing Arts, Planned Communities, and Civil War History)
• George Meany Memorial Archives (Labor Unions and Labor History). The Archives is part of the George Meany Center for Labor Studies. The Center is located on New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring, MD.
• George Washington University Libraries
  • Special Collections (Gelman Library) (Washington History, Soviet, Russian, and East European History)
  • I. Edward Kiev Collection (Jewish History)
• Historical Society of Washington, DC The Society opened the City Museum of Washington, D.C. in the Spring of 2003. Their collections document "over 200 years of Washington history."
  • The Kiplinger Research Library
  • Research Collections (overview)
• Howard University Libraries
  • Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (African American History)
• Library of Congress
  • LOC Reading Room: Manuscript Division
  • African American History Guide
  • Labor History Guide
  • Women's History Guide
  • Founding of the Nation Guide
  • Federal Judiciary Guide
  • Arts and Literature Guide
• Maryland Historical Society The Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore maintains museum collections, as well as the MDHS Library -- "The library maintains an extraordinary collection of books, journals, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, photographs, prints, broadsides, pamphlets, obsolete currency, oral histories, ephemera, and microfilm reflecting the history of Maryland and its people."
• National Agricultural Library, Special Collections The NAL Special Collections contain rare books, art work, photograph, and manuscript collections. Their collections focus on the history of botany and agriculture in the United States. Special highlights include their enormous seed catalog collection from both European and American vendors (of interest to historians of natural history or business history), manuscripts and rare books documenting the exploration of the West. Of particular note are the Forest Service Historical Photographs, which "… create a pictorial documentation of the westward movement in America--the farmers, foresters, miners, cowboys, American Indians, scientists, and others who changed the face of the land" between 1898 and the 1960's.
• National Archives and Records Administration See description above, under Government Resources.
• National Library of Medicine: History of Medicine Division The National Library of Medicine has a historical collection of interest to historians of technology, science, and medical practice.
• Smithsonian Institution Archives
  • Archives of American Art
    
  • American History Museum Archives
  • National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives
  • Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Archives
  • Archives of American Gardens
  • Eliot Elisofon Photo Archives (African Art Museum)
  • Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collection
  • Juley Photographic Archive (American Art)
• Smithsonian Institution Catalog Online (SIRIS): Use to search the SI's library and archival holdings
• Smithsonian Institution Libraries There are sixteen SI libraries. Some highlights include:
  • Anacostia Museum Library (African American)
  • Dibner Library (History of Science and Technology)
  • American History Museum Library
  • W.M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art (Cultures of Africa & African Diaspora)
• Smithsonian Institution Museums offer a broad array of research offerings, encompassing their museum material culture collections, art work, archives, and library collections. Subjects correspond to the various museum themes:
  • Smithsonian Research Resource Page
  • American History
  • Natural History/Anthropology
  • African American History
  • American Art
  • Asian Art
  • African Art
  • American Technology (see American History Museum and Air and Space Museum)
  • Native American History
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Research Collections The United States Holocaust Museum has a number of material culture collections, oral histories, photographs, film and videos, as well as an archives and a library.