Resources at Princeton
Selected Primary Source Collections on Microfilm at Princeton
African-American Newspapers (1829-present)
Center for African American Studies
African-American Studies Databases
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E-journals: Area and Ethnic Studies
Department of Rare Books and Special Collections
"The Library" by Jacob Lawrence
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Finding books, articles, and databases
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Bibliographies
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Encyclopedias and Guides
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Biographical Sources
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Newspapers
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Public Opinion
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Statistics and Census Data
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E-Journals
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Images and Photographs
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Institutes
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Museums
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Research Centers
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Collections on the Internet
Finding books, articles, and databases.
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Catalog
Princeton University Library's online catalog is the main entry point for a wide range of books and other library materials about African-Americans in the United States.
- Articles and databases - African-American Studies
Access the most important online resources for citations, journal articles, reports, and bibliography in general.
Bibliographies
Black Access: a Bibliography of Afro-American Bibliographies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984. (F) Z1361.N39N578 1984
Black American Culture and Society: An Annotated Bibliography. New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 1994. (F) Z1361.N39B498 1994
Davis, Nathaniel. Afro-American Reference: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Sources. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985. (DR) Z1361.N39 D37 1985
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800).
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819).
Early Black Bibliographies, 1863-1918. New York, NY: Garland Pub., 1982. (DR) Z1361.N39 E25
Guide to Scholarly Journals in Black Studies. Chicago, IL: Chicago Center for Afro-American Studies and Research, 1981. (F) Z1361.N39 G83
Joyce, Donald F. Blacks in the Humanities, 1750-1984: A Selected Annotated Bibliography. New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 1986. (F) Z1361.N39 J69 1986
Miller, Elizabeth W. The Negro in America: A Bibliography. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970. (F) (Stokes) 1099.0064 1970
Potter, Vilma Raskin. A Reference Guide to Afro-American Publications and Editors, 1827-1946. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1993. (DR) Z6944.N39 P63 1993
Redfern, Bernice.Women of Color in the United States: A guide to the Literature. New York, NY: Garland, 1989. (DR) Z7964.U49 R4 1989
Stevenson, Rosemary M. Index to Afro-American Reference Resources. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. (DR) Z1361.N39 S77 1988
Williams, Ora. American Black Women in the Arts and Social Sciences. 3rd ed. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1994. (F) Z1361.N39 W56 1994
Work, Monroe Nathan, comp. A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1928. (DR) Z1361.N39 W8
Encyclopedias
African American Encyclopedia. New York, NY: Marshall Cavedish, c1993. 6 vols. (DR) E185.A253 1993
Africana: the Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 2nd Edition. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. (DR) DT14.A37435 2005
Bogle, Donald. Blacks in American Films and Television: an Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Pub., 1988. (F) PN1995.9.N4 B58 1988
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Edited by Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith and Cornel West. New York, NY: Macmillan Library Reference; London: Simon and Schuster and Prentice Hall Int., 1996. (DR) E185.E54 1996
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: the Black Experience in the Americas. Edited by Colin A. Palmer. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, c2006. (DR) E185.E54 2006
Encyclopedia of African-American Education. Edited by Faustine C. Jones-Wilson ... [et al.]. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996. (F) LC2717.E53 1996
Encylopedia of African and African-American Religions. Edited by Stephen D. Glazier. New York: Routledge, 2001. (DR) BL2462.5 .E53 2001
Encyclopedia of Black Studies. Edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama. Tousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2005. (DR) E185.E554 2005
Encyclopedia of Civil Rights. Edited by David Bradley and Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe Reference, 1998. (DR) E185.61.E544 1998
The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Edited by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001. (DR) E185.H326 2001
Library of Congress. The African-American Mosaic.
Reference Library of Black America. Detroit, MI: Gale Research; Distributed by Afro-American Press, c1992. 5 vols. (DR) E185 .P56 1992
Smith, Robert C. Encyclopedia of African-American Politics. New York: Facts on File, c2003. (DR) E185.S58155 2003
Weir, William. The Encyclopedia of African American Military History. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2004. (F) UB418.A48 W45 2004
Biographical Sources
African-American Biographical Database. The Largest Electronic Collection of Biographical Information on African Americans. 1790-1950.
African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. New York, NY: Garland, 1993. (DR) E185.96 .A45 1993
Asante, Molefi K., 100 Greatest African Americans: a Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2002. (F) E185.96 .A83 2002
Carey, Charles W. Aferican-American Political Leaders. New York: Facts on File, c2004. (F) E185.96C18 2004
Contemporary Black Biography. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1992- . (DR) DT18 .C66
Kranz, Rachel. African-American Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs. New York: Facts On File, c2004. (DR) HC102.5.A2 K73 2004
Logan, Rayford Whittingham. Dictionary of American Negro Biography. New York, NY: Norton, 1982. (F) (DR) E185.96 .L6 1982
Notable Black American Women. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1992. (DR) E185.96 .N68 1992
Who's Who among African Americans. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, c1996-. (DR) E185.96 .W52
Newspapers
Accessible Archives. African American Newspapers: The 19th Century.
An essential resource for examining the early life and culture of African-Americans during the antebellum period from the perspective of African-Americans.Antislavery Newspapers and Periodicals. Edited by John W. Blassingame and Mae G. Henderson. Boston: G. K. Hall, c1980-1984. 5 Volumes. (DR) Z1249.S6 A57
Black Newspapers Index. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI, 1987-. Continues Index to Black Newspapers, 1977-1986. (FilmB) AI3.I46
Campbell, Georgetta Merritt. Extant Collections of Early Black Newspapers: A Research Guide to the Black Press, 1880-1915, with an Index to the Boston Guardian, 1902-1904. Troy, NY: Whitston Pub. Co., 1981. (DR) Z6944.N39C35
Early American Newspapers (1690-1922).
Ethnic NewsWatch.
ENW is a full-text database of publications produced by a variety of ethnic groups in the United States. Users will find newspapers, journals, and magazines published from the 1960's to the present. African-American publications include the Chicago Defender, the New York Amsterdam News, Caribbean Today, and Black Issues in Higher Education.Henritze, Barbara K. Bibliographic Checklist of African American Newspapers. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1995. (DR) Z6944.N39 H46 1995
LexisNexis. Ethnic News.
Very limited coverage of African-American journals and newspapers. The following publications are selectively indexed from 2001 to the present: Atlanta Daily World, Birmingham Times, Black Issues Book Review, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Black Scholar, Carolina Peacemaker, and the Jackson Advocate.Miscellaneous Negro Newspapers on Microfilm. MICROFILM S01557; reels 102-113
A collection of newspapers published in various cities from the mid-1800's to the mid-1940's. The newspapers were microfilmed by the Library of Congress for the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies, 1947. For a list of Princeton holdings see Princeton University Library. African-American Newspapers 1829 to present.Tuskegee Institute News Clipping File. MICROFILM 05488; (FilmB) Z1361.N39 xT8 1978
Dr. Monroe Nathan Work, who was Director of the Tuskegee Institute Department of Records and Research from 1908 until his retirement in 1938, compiled a highly useful file of international, national, and regional news accounts relating to Africans and African-Americans. The clippings are from more than 300 newspapers and from less prominent newspapers, magazines, and special interest publications. Coverage is from 1899 to 1966, however, the vast majority of the clippings date from 1910 to 1966. Some of the major topics include civil rights, discrimination, economic conditions, lynchings, and politics.
Public Opinion
Statistics and Census Data
1990 Census of Population. Characteristics of the Black Population. Washington, DC: US Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, [1994]. (DOCS) C 3.223/10:1990 CP-3-6 also in (SPR) HA201 1990w
Black Americans: A Statistical Sourcebook. Boulder, CO: Numbers & Concepts, c1990- . (DR) E185.86 .B52563
Data and Statistical Services Selected Resources: Race, Ethnicity, and Ethnic Relations.
DPLS Archive. Slave Movement During the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Education Statistics on the Web.
Fedstats. MapStats: United States.
Fogel, Robert William. New Orleans Slave Sale Sample, 1804-1862. Principal investigators, Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman. Ann Arbor, MI : Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, 1976.
Additional data sets are available in ICPSR's Economics of American Negro Slavery Series.Historical Statistics of Black America. Compiled and Edited by Jessie Carney Smith and Carrell Peterson Horton. New York: Gale Research, 1995. (DR) E185.H543 1995
Historical Statistics of the United States.
Statistical Record of Black America. Detroit Michigan: Gale Research Inc., 1990-. (SSRC) E185.86.S725
U.S. Census Bureau. Black Population in the United States.
___________. Minority Links: Facts on the Black or African American Population.
___________. Race Data.
___________. We the People: Blacks in the United States.
United States Historical Census Data Browser.
A convenient way for users to access state and county decennial censuses from 1790 to 1960. Users interested in slave and free Black population by state and county may browse, sort, graph, and calculate a selected list of variables for each decade.
E-Journals
Images and Photographs
American Museum of Photography. "The Face of Slavery & Other Early Images of African Americans".
The Jackson Davis Collection of African American Educational Photographs.
Digital Schomburg Images of African Americans from the 19th Century.
Images of Blacks in American Culture: A Reference Guide to Information Sources. New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 1988. (F) NX652.A37 I43 1988
Madame C. J. Walker Digital Image Collection.
Marian Anderson Collection of Photographs, 1898-1992.
Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore.
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - African American Photos for Paris Exposition 1900.
Teenie Harris Archive Project.
Through the Lens of Time: Images of African Americans from the Cook Collection.
Institutes
Carter G. Woodson Institute. University of Virginia.
Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute.
The Institute for Research in African-American Studies. Columbia University.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.
W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Harvard University.
William Monroe Trotter Institute. University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Museums
A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum.
African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation and Museum.
The African American Museum in Philadelphia.
Association of African American Museums.
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
DuSable Museum of African American History.
International Civil Rights Center and Museum.
Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University.
Museum of Afro-American History Boston.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.
Rosa Parks Library and Museum.
Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum.
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Research Centers
Avery Research Center. College of Charleston.
Black Film Center/Archive. Indiana University.
Center for African and African-American Studies. University of Texas.
Center for Black Music Research. Columbia College Chicago.
Center for Contemporary Black History. Columbia University.
Center for Research Libraries.
Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. City University London.
Institution for Social and Policy Studies. Yale University.
Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture. University of Chicago.
Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. Yale University.
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Howard University.
Ralphe J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, UCLA
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. New York Public Library.
Collections on the Internet
Library of Congress. American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital Library. African-American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907.
Daniel A. P. Murray worked at the Library of Congress from 1871-1923. During his period of employment he selected a variety of pamphlets for the 1900 Paris Exposition exhibit of Negro Authors. Following the Exposition, the Library of Congress used these works to create the Collection of Books by Colored Authors. Murray also maintained a private collection of books and pamphlets which he later donated to LC in 1926. Twenty-two volumes of bound pamphlets from his private collection form the digitized collection of 351 titles. A very rich resource for sermons, speeches, prayers, annual reports of charitable, educational, and political organizations; voting rights, violence against African-Americans, and the colonization of Africa by freed slaves.__________. American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital Library. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938.
The Works Progress Administration, also know as the Works Project Administration, was established by Congress in 1935 for emergency job programs during the Depression. The Federal Writers' Project of the WPA employed over four thousand writers who wrote important studies of black culture. A series of books describing the histories and folkways of rural and urban American was produced under the American Guide Series. The rural studies component of the American Guide Series resulted in the production of in-depth interviews with over 2000 ex-slaves.__________. American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital Library. From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909.
The 397 titles were selected from the miscellaneous pamphlet collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. The majority of pamphlets were written by African-Americans who hoped to educate the public about the plight of people in bondage. The richness and variety of materials include such items as first-person accounts of slavery, sermons, organizational proceedings, and legislative and presidential campaign materials. This collection complements the African-American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907.__________. American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital Library. Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860.
Drawn from the resources of the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, users may access first-hand accounts of trials and cases, reports, arguments, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, and other primary historical materials. Although limited to 105 items, some of the more noteworthy works include the Case of Dred Scott in the United States Supreme Court, the Trial of John Brown, and the Argument of John Quincy Adams, before the Supreme Court of the United States, which is also known as the Amistad Case.New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Digital Schomburg African-American Women Writers of the 19th Century.
During the nineteenth-century, laws were enacted banning the teaching of reading and writing to the majority of African-Americans held in bondage. Inspite of laws limiting access to education many did learn to read and write. As part of the Digital Schomburg, this web site provides full-text access to 50 literary works produced by African-American women in the nineteenth-century.St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project. Freedom Suits in Missouri.
Between 1814 and 1860, nearly 300 enslaved persons in St. Louis sued their owners for wrongful servitude in Missouri courts. The most famous case was the 1846 petition filed by Dred Scott and his wife Harriet. Collectively these cases became known as the St. Louis Circuit Court Freedom Suits which are part of the larger St. Louis Circuit Court Case File Records Series. So far, these cases represent the largest collection of freedom suits filed by enslaved persons in nineteenth-century America.United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Slave Trade Archives Project.
Under the auspices of UNESCO, this project is one of the first international efforts to document, preserve, and digitize original archival materials and finding aids of the international trade in slaves during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. So far, the following countries have agreed to participae in the project: Angola, Benin, Brazil, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haïti, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo.University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries. Documenting the American South: North American Slave Narratives.
"Digitized narratives of fugitive and former slaves published in broadsides, pamphlets or book forms in English up to 1920, and many biographies of former slaves as well."University of Virginia. American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology.
This web page provides samples of slave narratives with photographs drawn from The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1972-79. (F) 1083.122University of Virginia. Electronic Text Center - Modern English Collection through the World Wide Web. African-American.
The African-American section of the Modern English Collection presents literary texts by and about African-Americans published from 167 C.E. to 1993.Yale University. The Avalon Project: Documents on Slavery.
The Avalon Project at the Yale University Law School brings together digitized primary documents, treaties, speeches, and biographical texts relevant to the fields of history, economics, politics, law, diplomacy and government. The documents on slavery include literary works, federal and state statutes, and treaties and agreements concerning the slave trade. Coverage spans pre-eighteenth century to the twenty-first century.
Please send comments and suggestions to: belcher@princeton.edu
Last modified: 11/06
