Victorian Studies

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.

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.

Major dramatists include David Belasco, Rachel Crothers, Augustin Daly, Clyde Fitch, Edward Harrigan, James Herne, William Dean Howells and Joaquin Miller.

Most texts included are from the 18th and 19th centuries.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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