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The South: Culture and History

This library guide is designed for researchers studying any topics related to the South's culture and history.

General Collections

These resources offer a mixture of books, newspapers, images, diaries, and other primary source materials.

African-American Mosaic- a Library of Congress resource guide for the study of African-American history and culture.  Documents on colonization, abolition, migration, and civil rights. Contains materials from the WPA project.

American Memory Project- Gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. Offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.

Alabama Mosaic- a database of Alabama's culture and history. Several libraries and archives in the state digitized items in their collections to build Alabama Mosaic. Offers newspaper clippings, photographs, books, other materials from Alabama's earliest days to the present.

Documenting the American South-- a collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. It is organized into the projects listed above. The Academic Affairs Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sponsors DAS, and the texts come primarily from its Southern holdings.

Sabin Americana, 1500-1926- "original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more."

You can also focus on a specific Southern state by using the State Archives Collections Online, a directory of digital collections by state.

Books

Scout—gives the call number and locations of items in the Gorgas Library and Hoole Special Collection. Here are some techniques for locating primary sources using the Catalog:

Combine keywords describing your subject with such words as sources, letters, speeches, writings, documents, diaries, papers, regimental history, etc.  For example, searching for “civil war” and diaries will locate diaries written during the Civil War era.

Search for historical figures as authors.  For example, searching for Jefferson Davis as an author will locate writings and speeches of Davis.

Find secondary sources on your topic.  Look in the bibliographies for primary sources, then look for the primary sources in the Catalog.

The Hoole Library holds many primary sources that are not listed in the Catalog.

Images

Whether they're daguerreotypes of soldiers or editorial cartoons of political leaders, images can be used as primary sources along with textual documents.  

American Memory- gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. Offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.  Holds textual materials, but particularly noted for its images and multimedia items.  Created by the Library of Congress.

ARTstor- over a million historical images, including propaganda posters, artwork, newspaper illustrations, cartoons, photographs, maps, pictures of artifacts, and historical costumes.

Images of the American Civil War: Photographs, Posters and Ephemera- battlefield photos, portraits, cartoons, song sheets, recruiting posters.  Many of the photos come from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.   

You can also find images in many of the newspaper databases and Google Images.

Government Materials

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies- One of the most heavily used sources for Civil War military history.  Contains government and private materials ranging from telegrams, dispatches, battle reports, letters, rosters, meeting notes, speeches.  Indispensable for Civil War studies.

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion- Similar to The War of the Rebellion, except focused on the naval conflict.

Congressional Serial Set- House and Senate reports, committee prints, hearings, and legislative histories 1789-1969.  Excellent source for warfare, international relations, politics, and economy.  Please be sure to limit to the proper date.

Congressional Record- formerly known as the Congressional World or Congressional Globe, this is the official record of the debates held in Congress.  Read speeches and discussions about states’ rights, slavery, manufacturing, the New Deal and the World Wars, etc.

Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America- the records of the CSA Congress, offering the same types of materials as the Congressional Serial Set does for the USA.

Making of Modern Law- over 22,000 legal treatises from 1800 to the early 1900s. “Society and its changing morality can be studied through titles on the morality of the law. Discussion of cases, procedures and reasons for a change in the law, offer the historian a fascinating insight into attitudes, predominant prejudices and the manner in which society functioned.”  Read about laws regarding race, gender, and social class in the South.

The U.S. government is the largest publisher on earth, and the Congress, State Department, and various agencies have generated thousands of documents related to South history.  For example, government documents allow you to read civil rights laws, Congressional debates about desegregation, agricultural studies in Southern states, economic reports, and military orders from the Civil War.