Library Research Guides: Victorian Studies: Literary Resources

Literary Resource Databases and Indexes

African American Poetry
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African American Poetry contains nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Provides a survey of the early history of African American poetry, from the first recorded poem by an African American (Lucy Terry Prince's 'Bars Fight', c.1746) to the major poets of the nineteenth century, including Paul Laurence Dunbar and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922
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Afro-Americana imprints, 1535-1922 is a searchable collection of over 12,000 works, including books, pamphlets and broadsides, and many lesser-known imprints, and presents a record of African American history, literature and culture.
Created from the Library Company of Philadelphia's acclaimed Afro-Americana Collection, this collection covers the West's discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of slavery in the New World along with the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought, including political protest and resistance to racism; descriptions of African American life -- slave and free -- throughout the Americans; and slavery and race in fiction and drama. Also featured are printed works of African American individuals and organizations.
American Drama 1714-1915
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Contains more than 1,500 dramatic works from the early eighteenth century up to the beginning of the twentieth century. Represented genres include plays in verse, farces, melodramas, minstrel shows, realist plays, frontier plays, temperance dialogues, and others.
Major dramatists include David Belasco, Rachel Crothers, Augustin Daly, Clyde Fitch, Edward Harrigan, James Herne, William Dean Howells and Joaquin Miller.
America's Historical Imprints
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This resource offers more than 100,000 early American books, pamphlets, broadsides and rare printed materials. Featuring extensive indexing and full bibliographic information, they together illuminate more than 250 years of American history, literature, culture and daily life.
Most texts included are from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Archive of Americana
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Historic American publications, books, broadsides, ephemera, newspapers, dating from as early as 1535 through the 20th Century.
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index
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Sources for research into the 19th century, comprising tens of millions of records and providing access to finding aids for books, periodicals, official publications, newspapers, archives, and reference material. Includes Nineteenth-Century Short Title Catalog (NCSTC).
The 25 million+ records in C19 Index include the following sources: Nineteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue, The Nineteenth Century publishing program, ProQuest’s American Periodicals, ProQuest’s British Periodicals, Cotgreave's Index, An Index to Legal Periodical Literature, Cumulative Index to Niles' Register 1811–1849, Periodicals Index Online, Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, Stead's Index to Periodical Literature, The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Proceedings of the Old Bailey, The U.S. Serial Set, Archive Finder, Palmer's Index to The Times, The "Bookman" Directory of Booksellers, Publishers and Authors, and Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism.
Literary Manuscripts: Berg Collection
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Literary research collection of a broad range of authors from across the nineteenth century.
The Berg Collection is recognized as one of the finest literary research collections in the world, and the Victorian holdings are the undisputed jewel in its crown. A broad range of authors from across the nineteenth century make this an essential research tool for all scholars and students researching Victorian literature. Most of these unique manuscripts are unavailable in any medium elsewhere. Supplemented by some rare printed materials, including early editions annotated by the authors. Each author collection is included in its entirety, allowing users to browse and search the manuscripts. Authors include Matthew Arnold, the Brontes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Wilkie Collins, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, George Gissing, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Ruskin, Alfred Tennyson, and William Makepeace Thackeray.
Literature and Culture Collection
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Primary and secondary materials by some of the era's most enduring figures: William Wells Brown, Herman Melville, Matthew Arnold, Christina Rossetti, and Emily Shore.
Rotundas Literature and Culture collection offers scholars and students at all levels an invaluable source of primary and secondary materials by some of the eras most enduring figures: William Wells Brown, Herman Melville, Matthew Arnold, Christina Rossetti, and Emily Shore.
Early American Fiction 1789 - 1875
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An enhancement of Early American Fiction 1789-1850, this database includes its predecessor and over 300 additional first editions of major fiction titles from the late 18th century to 1875.
The full-text of each work is available and searchable, and page images of the original editions are included. Includes novels and short stories by such authors as Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain, as well as a host of minor writers of the period.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
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Full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1801-1819
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Full text access to American imprints not not included in Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker's American Bibliography
From the acclaimed holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia comes a broad range of recently uncovered books, pamphlets and broadsides, most of which were not included in Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker's American Bibliography. Printed during the Early Republic, spanning the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson and passage of the Indian Civilization Act, these nearly 1,000 rare and unique items represent a remarkable enrichment of the Readex digital edition of Early American Imprints.
Gale Literature
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Gale Literary Sources contains primary sources, critical articles, literary and cultural analysis, and biographies.
English Drama
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More than 3,900 plays in verse and prose from the late thirteenth century.
English Poetry
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English-language works of British, Irish, Scottish and Welsh poets, from the Anglo-Saxon period through the end of the nineteenth century.
The English Poetry database contains over 4,500 volumes by 1,350 poets, comprising over 165,920 poems. Poets whose works are included have been selected from The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (available in the IU Research Collections under the Call Number REF Z 2011.N53). The poems are the English-language works of British, Irish, Scottish and Welsh poets, from the Anglo-Saxon period through the end of the Nineteenth century.
Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period
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Poetry by approximately 50 Irish women writing between 1768 and 1842.
Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period includes more than 80 volumes of poetry by approximately 50 Irish women writing between 1768 and 1842. Compiled and edited by Stephen Behrendt of the University of Nebraska, the database also offers numerous biographical and critical essays prepared by leading scholars specifically for the project. New content is added to the collection on a regular basis.
Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period
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Collection of 60 volumes of Romantic poetry composed by Scottish women poets. Also includes extensive contemporary critical reviews and numerous scholarly essays specially commissioned for the project.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
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Primary resources for Asia and the West, British politics and society, British theater and music; and the Corvey collection of European literature
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926
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Full-text database based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America from Its Discovery to the Present Time. Covers more than 400 years and more than 65,000 volumes in North, Central, and South America and the West Indies. The collection includes sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature, highlighting the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions, and momentous events of occurring 1500-1926.
Victorian Women Writers Project
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Provides highly accurate transcriptions of literary works by British women writers of the late 19th century.
The goal of the Victorian Women Writers Project is to produce highly accurate transcriptions of literary works by British women writers of the late 19th century, encoded using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The works, selected with the assistance of the Advisory Board, will include anthologies, novels, political pamphlets, and volumes of poetry and verse drama.
Perry Willett, General Editor

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