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. 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 variety 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

Age of Exploration: 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: 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.

Central Asia, Persia, and Afghanistan 1834-1922: 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.  

Children's Literature and Culture: 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.

Colonial America: 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: Documents and objects from seven archives illuminating everyday life in England from 1500–1700, including legal records, wills, correspondence, playscripts, and commonplace books.

East India Company: 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.

Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings: Ethnographic audio and video recordings, notebooks, correspondence and related primary historical source material from the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive. 

First World War: 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. 

Food and Drink in History: 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.

Foreign Office Files for Japan, 1919-1952: British Foreign Office documents on dealings with Japan across three sections: 1919–1930, 1931–1945, and 1946–1952.

Foreign Office Files for the Middle East: 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. 

Foreign Office Files for Southeast Asia, 1963-1980: British Foreign Office files on Cold War Malaysian and Indonesian affairs. Tulane has access to Section I: 1963–1966.

Gender Identity and Social Change: 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. 

Girlhood: Magazines and Print Culture: 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.

Indigenous Newspapers in North America: 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.  

J. Walter Thompson: Advertising America: 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: 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.

Mass Observation Project, 1981-2009: 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.  

Medical Services and Warfare: 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.

Migration to New Worlds: 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).

Nineteenth Century Literary Society: 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: 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).

Race Relations in America: 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.

Service Newspapers of World War II: 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.

Sex and Sexuality: 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: 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: 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.

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Personal collections, business records, and visual content exploring America's transformative age of industrialization, expanding wealth, inequality, and social change.

Trade Catalogues and the American Home: 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.