Databases and Archives from NYU Libraries
Activism & Art
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection 1 & 2
Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection is an archive of publications focused on U.S. Hispanic history, literature and culture from colonial times until 1960. Available in two series, Series 1 focuses on the creative life of U.S. Latinos and Hispanics. Series 2 focuses on Hispanic American civil rights, religion and women’s rights from the 18th through the 20th century. Content is written, indexed and searchable in Spanish and English.
Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle (History Vault)
ProQuest History Vault's coverage of the Black Freedom Struggle offers the opportunity to study the most well-known and also unheralded events of the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century from the perspective of the men, women, and sometimes even children who waged one of the most inspiring social movements in American history. This category consists of the NAACP Papers and federal government records, organizational records, and personal papers regarding the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century. The NAACP Papers collection consists of 6 modules. The NAACP Papers collections contains internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. It charts the NAACP's work and delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues. With a timeline that runs from 1909 to 1972, the NAACP Papers document the realities of segregation in the early 20th century to the triumphs of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and beyond.
Critical Collective is an initiative by art curator and critic Gayatri Sinha. Critical Collective works towards building knowledge of the arts in India. Since its inception in 2011, it has collaborated with institutions in India and abroad to create exhibitions and seminars on art. In order to expand the scale of its activities, Critical Collective created this website. This resource is intended to fill in the lacuna caused by an absence of publishing in the arts, a lack of reprints and a shortage of institutional infrastructure in India to support knowledge in the domain of arts.
DIS.art
The Dis.art database is a streaming platform for education and entertainment. Dis streams original series and documentaries by leading artists and thinkers. Subjects include contemporary art, culture, activism, philosophy, and technology.
Popular Culture in Britain and America: Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest
Rock and Roll explores the dynamic period of social, political and cultural change between 1950 and 1975. The resource offers thousands of colour images of manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera and memorabilia from this exciting period in our recent history. It includes an interactive chronology, visual resources, video footage, and more.
Examine how revolutions, protests, resistance, and social movements have shaped and transformed the human experience globally from the 18th to 21st century.
Women and Social Movements International
This full text resource consists of primary materials from 1840 to the present. Through the writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made, this collection lets you see how women’s social movements shaped much of the events and attitudes that have defined modern life.
Gender & Sexuality
Archives of Sexuality and Gender
The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other topical areas. This growing archival program offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history. The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program consists of four archives: 1. LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part I, 2. LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part II, 3. Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century, and 4. International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture.
Contemporary Women’s Issues is a multidisciplinary, full-text database that brings together relevant content from mainstream periodicals, the alternative press, and “gray” literature (including hard-to-find newsletters, NGO research reports, and ephemeral publications from research institutes and grass roots organizations), with a focus on the critical issues and events that influence women’s lives in more than 190 countries. It includes English-language titles from East and West Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe. The records are indexed by 17 categories, including subject, region, article type, and publication type.
Gender: Identity and Social Change
Gender: Identity and Social Change includes primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. This 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. Material has been sourced from across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. The earliest documents are from the nineteenth century and the latest from the early twenty-first century.
GenderWatch indexes scholarly, radical, community, and independent publications from 1970 to present relevant to gender, women’s, and LGBTQ studies. It provides information from both academic and grassroots perspectives on a wide range of gender-related topics, such as sexuality, family, religion, societal roles, race and ethnicity, feminism, masculinity, eating disorders, healthcare, and the workplace.
LGBT Life with Full Text provides access to core literature related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. It covers scholarly, popular, and regional resources, with publication types including journals, magazines, books, reference works, and more. It includes deep backfiles for key publications, many back to the first published issue. Examples of publications indexed back to their inaugural issues include The Advocate (1967), Journal of Homosexuality (1974) and Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review (1994).
Archival runs of influential, long-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. Some publications may contain explicit content.
LGBT Studies in Video is a cinematic survey of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as the cultural and political evolution of the LGBT community. This collection of online streaming videos features documentaries, performances, interviews, archival footage, animation, and select feature films exploring LGBT history, gay culture and subcultures, civil rights, marriage equality, LGBT families, AIDS, transgender issues, religious perspectives on homosexuality, global comparative experiences, and other topics. It provides students and researchers across disciplines a multi-content perspective on the LGBT political, cultural and social movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day.
LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social, and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day. The collection includes materials ranging from texts, letters, speeches, interviews, and ephemera covering the political evolution of gay rights as well as memoirs, biographies, poetry, and works of fiction that illuminate the lives of lesbians, gays, transgender, and bisexual individuals and the community. These materials represent selections from The National Archives in Kew, materials collected by activist and publisher Tracy Baim from the mid-1980s through the mid-2000s, the Magnus Hirschfeld and Harry Benjamin collections from the Kinsey Institute, periodicals such as En la Vida and BLACKlines, select rare works from notable LGBT publishers including Alyson Books and Cleis Press, as well as mainstream trade and university publishers.
The Sex and Sexuality collection explores changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities and sexual behaviors throughout the twentieth century. Investigate the breadth and complexity of human sexual understanding through the work of leading American sexologists, sex researchers, organizations and the public consciousness.
Cultural Diversity & Ethnicity
American Indian Histories and Cultures
A wide-ranging digital resource presenting a unique insight into interactions between American Indians and Europeans from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library's extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection. Includes manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books, photographs and newspapers. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.
Arab World Research Source is a unique online database ideal for students and researchers of Arabic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and Islamic Studies. This rich resource offers academic journals, trade publications, conference papers, industry profiles, and more that are published in or pertain specifically to the Arab World. The comprehensive database covers a diverse range of disciplines including Art, Business, Law, Politics, Religion and more. Key titles include DOMES: Digest of Middle East Studies, Journal of Social Sciences, Arab Journal of Nephrology & Transplantation, Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Marine Sciences, Annals of Arts & Social Sciences, and Journal of Sharia & Islamic Studies.
Asian Film Online offers a view of Asian culture as seen through the lens of the independent Asian filmmaker. Through a selection curated by film scholars and critics, viewers can explore the impact of globalization and urbanization on people’s everyday lives throughout the greater Asian region.
African American Communities presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity. The collection focuses predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina and includes a selection of visual material, photographs, and mass ephemera.
Black Short Fiction and Folklore (African, African American, and Diaspora)
Collection of stories from Africa and the African Diaspora. When complete, it will offer more than 8,000 short stories and folktales, ranging thematically from oral traditions that date back many hundreds of years to contemporary tales of modern life. In addition to these works, the database includes complete runs of selected literary magazines, such as Kyk-Over-Al and The Beacon.
Black Studies in Video is a signature Alexander Street Press collection featuring award-winning documentaries, newsreels, interviews and archival footage surveying the evolution of black culture in the United States. In partnership with California Newsreel, the database provides unique access to their African American Classics collection, and includes films covering history, politics, art and culture, family structure, social and economic pressures, and gender relations.
Contains 1297 sources with 1100 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African-Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.
Chicano Database indexes monographs, journal articles, book chapters and other material related to the study of Mexican-American and Chicano history and culture; some materials also may be relevant for U.S. Latino studies more broadly. The database is produced by the Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California, Berkeley, with extensive coverage from the 1960s to the present and selective coverage to the early 20th century.
Comprehensive collection of Korean full-text databases and indexes covering a wide range of subjects. These include arts and humanities, social sciences, sciences, medical sciences, and physical education. Formats available include monographs, periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, research reports, law, classical literature, dictionaries and encyclopedias, and video lectures. North Korean academic journals are also included.
Ethnic NewsWatch is an interdisciplinary, multi-lingual (English, Spanish, French, German, and more) database of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic, minority, and native presses. Full-text content ranges from the 1940s to present day.
Indian Claims Insight provides researchers with the opportunity to understand and analyze Native American migration and resettlement throughout U.S. history in the context of U.S. Government Indian removal policies and subsequent actions to address Native American claims.
Indigenous Peoples: North America
Indigenous Peoples: North America sources collections from across Canadian and American institutions, providing insight into the cultural, political and social history of Native Peoples from the seventeenth into the twentieth century. Including diverse manuscripts; book collections; newspapers from various tribe and Indian-related organizations; materials such as Bibles, dictionaries and primers in Indigenous languages all enable students’ examination of important primary source materials.
Latin America in Video provides access to a streaming video library of documentaries from producers and filmmakers in Latin America. Films in this collection cover issues such as cultural identity, political history, human rights, popular culture, agribusiness and education.
The Latino American Experience is a digital resource focusing on the history and culture of Latinos in the United States. Its chronological coverage spans the pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations of the Americas, the Spanish colonial period and the nineteenth century, up to the present day. Content includes articles and essays, reference materials, excerpts from primary sources, and a tool for simple analyses of statistical data.
South Asia Open Archives (SAOA)
South Asia Open Archives is a free open-access resource for research and teaching – a rich and growing curated collection of key historical and contemporary sources in arts, humanities and social sciences, from and about South Asia, in English and other languages of the region. SAOA’s collection currently contains hundreds of thousands of pages of books, journals, newspapers, census data, magazines, and documents, with particular focus on social & economic history, literature, women & gender, and caste & social structure.
Immigration
African Diaspora, 1860-Present
African Diaspora, 1860-Present provides an understanding of Black history and culture, and allows scholars to study the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent. With a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France, the collection includes digitized primary source documents, including personal papers, organizational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters, and ephemera.
Border and Migration Studies Online
Border and Migration Studies Online is a collection that explores and provides historical background on more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including: U.S. and Mexico; the European Union; Afghanistan; Israel; Turkey; The Congo; Argentina; China; Thailand; and others. Featuring text, video, and images, the collection is organized around fundamental themes associated with border and migration issues.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Contains contemporaneous letters, diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives.
Intersectionality
Black Women Writers (African, African American, and Diaspora)
Provides access to fiction, poetry, and essays from three continents and 20 countries, representing voices of women from Africa and the African diaspora. Currently features over 50,000 pages of poetry and prose.
Disability in the Modern World
Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement is a landmark online collection that fills a gap that is largely absent from the scholarly record, with a comprehensive and international set of resources to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy. At completion, Disability in the Modern World will include 150,000 pages of primary sources, supporting materials, and archives, along with 125 hours of video. The content is important for teaching and research—not only in the growing disciplines of disability history and disability studies, but also in history, media, the arts, political science, education, and other areas where the contributions of the disability community are typically overlooked.
Latin American Women Writers is a searchable collection of prose, poetry, and drama composed by women writing in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. It also includes essays by Latin American feminists that address the concerns of women broadly as well as the distinctive issues pertaining to women’s struggles in the region.
Race
Based at Fisk University from 1943-1970, the Race Relations Department and its annual Institute were set up by the American Missionary Association to investigate problem areas in race relations and develop methods for educating communities and preventing conflict. Documenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Department’s staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.
Stream a thought-provoking movie
The staff at the Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media have put together a list of films, including documentaries and features, that focus on different aspects of racism in our society and its impact. You can stream them right from the link.
The Understanding Hate in America database collection includes papers promoting as well as those opposing white nationalism. It brings together local, regional, and national newspapers published by Klan organizations and by sympathetic publishers from across the U.S. It also includes key anti-Klan voices from newspapers published by ethnic, Catholic, and Jewish organizations.
Religion
The MODIYA Project is an open source resource for exploring the interrelation of Jews, media, and religion as an area of research and teaching.
Religions of America traces the history and unique character of religious movements that originated in or were re-shaped by the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection pays especially close attention to America’s unique role as a birthplace for new religious movements within the context of the nation’s origins as a home for religious dissenters.