Tulane Libraries Expands Access to Primary Sources with over 30 New Databases
Published
By the Scholarly Engagement Department
Tulane University Libraries has added 26 new databases — and expanded four more existing databases — through a cost-savings agreement with AM (formerly Adam Matthew), bringing $3.4 million worth of digital primary sources to Tulanians at a fraction of the cost. The acquisition supports growing research programs, including the forthcoming Ph.D. in Sociology and the new Global Humanities Center.
Sourced from reputable special collections and archives around the world, these databases form a treasure trove of historical materials on interdisciplinary topics such as armed conflict, colonialism, and mass migrations, as well as daily life and culture throughout the modern period. A further subset sheds light on Western presence in and influence on Asian politics and life since the eighteenth century.
From magazines and artwork to government documents and newsreels, this acquisition extends primary source coverage on historical and contemporary social topics, including Gender & Sexuality Studies and International Relations and the Sociology of Politics, popular interdisciplinary areas at Tulane. Faculty and students in these fields will find the databases invaluable when investigating lived experiences for research papers, art projects, or even podcasts.
What Tulane Researchers Are Saying
Linda Pollock, Mouton and Leatrice Bickham Memorial Chair in European History, on Early Modern England: Society, Culture and Everyday Life, 1500–1700:
"I've been wanting Early Modern England: Society, Culture and Everyday Life, 1500–1700 for a while, so I'm delighted to see it has arrived. I see this database as an invaluable source not only for my research but for research papers for the course I teach. It is very difficult to access English manuscripts in the UK for US students, but this type of database brings a collection right to them. And this collection is unusual in focusing on ordinary life instead of politics."
Kaylie McCarthy, Ph.D. Candidate in History:
"There are some real winners in these new databases! The Adam Matthew Digital databases help me situate my research within a historical moment by providing me with a better understanding of the social, political, and cultural contexts of the U.S. around the turn of the century. The new acquisition provides a rich diversity of sources that encompass a variety of different topics and themes — incredibly useful for scholars like me, whose research requires combing through several databases to locate different pieces of the puzzle that fit together."
Kaylie's research explores tattoos and identity during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She tested keywords such as "tattoo," "tattooing," "tattoo artist," and "indelible marks" across the new databases relevant to her time period and geographic focus. Through this method, she discovered that the Medical Services and Warfare database contains documents and medical journals describing various applications of tattooing as a method for covering wounds and disfigurements on soldiers returning from war — a striking example of how these sources open unexpected windows into history.
What's Included
Database |
Source Types |
Description |
| Age of Exploration | Primary Historical Sources; Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons; Maps and Cartography; Government Documents; | Key events in European maritime exploration from c.1420–1920, featuring rare manuscripts, maps, correspondence, diaries, and ships' logs from voyages by figures such as Vasco da Gama. |
America in World War Two: Oral Histories and Personal Accounts |
Primary Historical Sources; Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons; Oral Histories; Maps and Cartography; |
Personal experiences of American military personnel and civilians during WWII through oral histories, correspondence, diaries, photographs, and military records. Sourced from the National WWII Museum, New Orleans. |
|
Government Documents; Primary Historical Sources |
British Foreign Office files tracing the history of Persia (Iran), Central Asia, and Afghanistan from the decline of the Silk Road through the "Great Game" to early Soviet influence. |
|
Books & eBooks; Fiction; Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons; Popular Literature; Primary Historical Sources |
Rare books, games, ephemera, and artwork from the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries documenting the cultural history of childhood in the U.S. Sourced from the American Antiquarian Society and Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. |
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Facsimiles Government Documents Legal Documents Maps and Cartography Primary Historical Sources
|
Colonial America is a collection of British government manuscript materials documenting seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American history and the early modern Atlantic world. Tulane University Libraries provides access to Modules I–V, covering early settlement, revolution, colonial politics, trade, and development. |
Early Modern England: Society, Culture & Everyday Life, 1500-1700 |
Facsimiles; Government Documents; Legal Documents; Literary Works; Primary Historical Sources; Scripts and Monologues |
Documents and objects from seven archives illuminating everyday life in England from 1500–1700, including legal records, wills, correspondence, playscripts, and commonplace books. |
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Government Documents; Primary Historical Sources; Maps and Cartography; |
Primary sources from the India Office Records at the British Library documenting British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent from 1599–1947, including charters, treaties, diaries, and expedition reports. |
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Streaming Audio |
Ethnographic audio and video recordings, notebooks, correspondence and related primary historical source material from the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive. |
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Facsimiles Government Documents Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons Maps and Cartography Oral Histories Primary Historical Sources Streaming Audio Streaming Video |
A vast multi-archive collection documenting the Great War through personal diaries, propaganda, artwork, military files, and film. Sourced from 27 libraries and archives in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, and New Zealand. |
|
Primary Historical Sources; Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons |
Primary sources exploring food and drink throughout history, covering links between food and identity, politics, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Sourced from 11 libraries and archives in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. |
|
Government Documents; Primary Historical Sources |
British Foreign Office documents on dealings with Japan across three sections: 1919–1930, 1931–1945, and 1946–1952. |
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Facsimiles Government Documents Primary Historical Sources
|
This collection addresses the policies, economies, political relationships and significant events of major Middle East powers during regional conflicts such as the Arab-Israeli War, the Lebanese Civil War and the Iranian Revolution. Also examined in detail are the military interventions and peace negotiations carried out by regional and foreign powers like the United States and Russia. |
|
Government Documents; Primary Historical Sources |
British Foreign Office files on Cold War Malaysian and Indonesian affairs. Tulane has access to Section I: 1963–1966. |
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Books and e-Books Facsimiles Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons Magazines News and Newspapers Primary Historical Sources Reports Trade and Professional Publications
|
Documents the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. The collection offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics. |
|
Magazines |
Annuals, comics, magazines, and periodicals aimed at girls throughout the twentieth century, from The Girl's Own Paper (1890s) to Sassy (1990s), spanning the U.K., U.S., and Australia. |
|
News and Newspapers; Primary Historical Sources |
Over 9,000 editions of print journalism from Indigenous peoples of the U.S. and Canada (1828–2016), including national periodicals, community news, and student publications — some bilingual or in Indigenous languages. |
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Primary Historical Sources; Images, Illustrations, & Cartoons |
Archive of one of the world's oldest advertising firms, documenting twentieth-century cultural, social, business, and consumer history from 1887–2014. |
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive, London |
Facsimiles; Images, Illustrations, & Cartoons; Primary Historical Sources; Scripts & Monologues; Oral Histories |
Essential sources for English literature, Renaissance theatre, and print culture history, including The Entry Book of Copies — the most comprehensive record of printed works registered in England through the mid-nineteenth century. |
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Primary Historical Sources |
This collection consists of the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation between 1980 and 2010 and the thousands of responses to them from the hundreds of Mass Observers. |
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Primary Historical Sources; Oral Histories; Streaming Video |
Hospital records, medical reports, and first-hand accounts charting the history of injury, treatment, and disease on the front line across the Crimean War, American Civil War, WWI, and WWII. Sourced from 15 libraries and archives in the U.S. and U.K. |
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Primary Historical Sources |
Documents the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, and Asia to the Americas and Australasia in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tulane has access to Module 1 (Century of Immigration) and Module 2 (The Modern Era). |
|
Facsimiles; Images, Illustrations, & Cartoons; Primary Historical Sources |
Over 1,400 items from the archive of John Murray publishing (est. 1768), including materials related to Lord Byron and Charles Darwin, as well as correspondence, diaries, drafts, and financial records. |
Poverty, Philanthropy and Social Conditions in Victorian Britain |
Government Documents; Primary Historical Sources |
Documents from The National Archives, the British Library, and Senate House Library tracing social reform in Britain from the New Poor Law (1834) to the abolition of the workhouse system (1930). |
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Datasets and Statistics Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons Primary Historical Sources Reports Streaming Audio
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Sourced from the Amistad Research Center, this primary source collection documents the Race Relations Department at Fisk University from 1943–1970. Featuring speeches, reports, surveys, and analyses from leaders including Charles S. Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thurgood Marshall, it highlights key decades of the Civil Rights Movement and efforts to address racial conflict and community education. |
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News and Newspapers; Primary Historical Sources |
Over 300 newspaper titles from nations across the globe that brought news and camaraderie to forces at home and overseas, in languages including English, German, Hindi, Russian, French, Hebrew, and Swahili. |
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Primary Historical Sources; Streaming Video |
Archives of sexologists, researchers, advocacy groups, and campaigners. Tulane has access to Module II, focusing on lived experiences across the spectrum of human sexuality, LGBT history, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. |
Shakespeare's Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance |
Facsimiles; Images, Illustrations, & Cartoons; Primary Historical Sources; Oral Histories |
Documents over 200 performances at the reconstructed Globe Theatre (1997–2016) through prompt books, wardrobe notes, posters, programmes, and photographs. |
Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda |
News and Newspapers; Streaming Video |
Documentary films and newsreels produced by socialist filmmakers and state organizations in Eastern Europe, Russia, China, Korea, and Cuba from the late 1940s to the late 1980s. |
|
Primary Historical Sources; Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons |
Personal collections, business records, and visual content exploring America's transformative age of industrialization, expanding wealth, inequality, and social change. |
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Primary Historical Sources; Images, Illustrations, and Cartoons; Trade and Professional Publications |
Illustrated primary source documents highlighting commercial tastes, consumer trends, and domestic life in America between 1850–1950. |
Start Exploring
Ready to dig in? Contact a subject specialist to learn how to use these primary resources in your own research or to engage your students critically with these collections.
