Tag Archives: US History

New: US Department of State documents relating to Middle and Near Eastern affairs

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Thanks to our colleagues, Oxford researchers now have access to 5 new databases providing accesss to important source materials for Middle and Near Eastern history in the 19th and 20th centuries. The sources are all drawn from the US Department of State so obviously present an interpretation of affairs from a US perspective. On the other, and by virtue of being in English language, this source material is easily accessible to those without the requisite linguistic skills.

These resources are useful to those researching:

  • the history of many Middle and Near Eastern countries, incl. internal and foreign affairs, economic and social history with US commentary.
  • Arab foreign policy and diplomatic relations
  • Arab-Israeli relations, Palestine conflict
  • the history of US diplomatic and foreign policy, foreign relations and the organisation and management of the diplomatic service.
  • the support by the Department of State given to US citizens living or travelling in the Middle and Near East.
  • the foreign policy of other Western powers
  • Western colonisation and de-colonisation of the Middle and Near East
  • Military history, Suez Canal Crisis 1956, etc.
  • Christian-Muslim relations and conflict
  • Biographical details of Middle and Near Eastern politicians, officials, political or religious activities.

The countries include Aden, Egpt, Iraq, Libya and Persian Gulf States and Yemen.

The records from the US Department typically include correspondence, field reports, intelligence reports, agents’ diaries, memos, dispatches, minutes, maps, and newspaper excerpts. They provide much insight and a huge amount of detail on people, events and places. They help to understand the development of foreign policy and read of frank and the confidential exchanges of views and thoughts between US officials.

Cover page from the American Consulate in Port Said, dated 7 Jan 1955, noting the enclosure of the dispatch of a compendium of biographic information on leading personalities in the Suez Canal Zone and the Sinai Peninsula.

Central File: Decimal File 774.521, Internal Political And National Defense Affairs., National Defense Affairs. Army, Navy And Air. (General)., Intelligence Activities. Subversive Activities., Biographical Data. (** Nationality Of Individual). January 7, 1955 – November 13, 1957. MS, Egypt: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1853-1962: Records of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of Egypt (Decimal Files 774, 874, and 974), 1955-1959. National Archives (United States). Archives Unbound (accessed August 17, 2023). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/SC5111706452/GDSC?u=oxford&sid=bookmark-GDSC&xid=a51625b1&pg=2.

In many instances, the documents include verbatim records of meetings and discussions, or transcripts from local or regional media. Digitised documents have captured handwritten or typed annotations and official stamps.

Typed list of Arab names with brief biographical details. 'Abed, Muhammed: wa'ez [sic] of the Canal. Prominent religious figure. Effective speaker of the old school. Tall, well set up. About 55. Used at most public gatherings in Port Said.

Central File: Decimal File 774.521, Internal Political And National Defense Affairs., National Defense Affairs. Army, Navy And Air. (General)., Intelligence Activities. Subversive Activities., Biographical Data. (** Nationality Of Individual). January 7, 1955 – November 13, 1957, p2. MS, Egypt: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1853-1962: Records of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of Egypt (Decimal Files 774, 874, and 974), 1955-1959. National Archives (United States). Archives Unbound (accessed August 17, 2023). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/SC5111706452/GDSC?u=oxford&sid=bookmark-GDSC&xid=a51625b1&pg=2.

1. Aden: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1880-1906 (Archives Unbound)

Aden’s strategic location long made it a strategic asset. The British captured Aden in 1839, and it served as a key port on the route from the Mediterranean to India via the Suez Canal. The documents in this collection are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

2. Egypt: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1853-1962 (Archives Unbound)

This archive covers Egypt from the years before the opening of the Suez Canal through the era of British domination, Egyptian nationalism, and independence. The documents are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

3. Iraq: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1888-1944 (Archives Unbound)

Iraq, from Ottoman rule through British colonial occupation and independence, is treated here from the perspective of the United States. The documents are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

4. Libya: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1796-1885 (Archives Unbound)

This archive documents the American consulate in Tripoli. Included here are correspondences of Secretary of State James Madison during the Tripolitan War, 1801-1805, between the United States and the piratical North African Barbary States. Handwritten correspondences from Secretary of State William H. Seward in the Lincoln Administration, relating to the opening of the port of New Orleans in 1862, and exchanges from Secretary of State James G. Blaine, in the Garfield Administration, make this a rich resource in U.S. diplomatic history. The collection is sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration,

5. Persian Gulf States and Yemen, The, 1950-1959 (Archives Unbound)

This Archives Unbound collection of U.S. State Department Central Classified Files relating to the internal affairs of the Persian Gulf states and Yemen, contains a wide range of materials from U.S. diplomats.

These documents highlight the structure and activities of the Persian Gulf States’ and Yemen’s political system, government, judiciary, laws, military, customs, economy, finance, agriculture, natural resources, industry, communications, and media. Because of the broad scope of these records, they both supplement and complement the coverage offered by the State Department’s Foreign Relations of the United States series.

While you are here, you may also be interested in:

Do you want to know which other resources are useful for your study? Check out our LibGuides:

Useful Oxford Libraries and subject specialists:

New Archives Unbound databases for US History on 19th and 20th centuries political, cultural and social history

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[Re-blogged from Vere Harmsworth Library blog, 25 July 2023]

I am pleased to report that the VHL has committed funding towards four new databases from the Archives Unbound collections from Gale.

These four collections are now available for all Bodleian readers to use, and can be found in SOLO or our Database A-Z. You can find out more about each collection below. Their topics range from the American Confederacy, religion, politics and African American movements in 1930s/40s America.

You can search across all the above databases via Gale Primary Sources. Please note that you will need to use your Single Sign On to access these resources remotely.

Confederate Newspapers: A Collection from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama

This collection is a mixture of issues and papers from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama ranging from 1861-1865. These newspapers “recorded the real and true history of public opinion during the war. In their columns is to be found the only really correct and indicative ‘map of busy life, its fluctuations and its vast concerns’ in the South, during her days of darkness and of trial.” The newspapers are text-searchable, and include advertisements. Topics include everyday life in the Confederacy, as well as discussions of the Civil War and Slavery.

Election of 1948

This collection provides documents and the perspectives of the four base camps from the 1948 United States presidential election: Democrat incumbent President and eventual victor Harry S. Truman (1884–1972; U.S. President, 1945–1953), Republican and New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey (1902–1971), Progressive and former Vice President Henry A. Wallace (1888–1965) and Dixiecrat and South Carolina Governor J. Strom Thurmond (1902–2003). Sources include Papers of Harry S Truman, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Papers of Americans for Democratic Action as well as selections from several southern newspapers. These sources show the political landscape of the United States post-WWII, and the growing tensions within the country.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945

This new series contains a collection of essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement-concerned with the issues of Lynching, Segregation, Race riots, and Employment discrimination. FDR’s record on civil rights has been the subject of much controversy. This new collection from FDR’s Official File provides insight into his political style and presents an instructive example of how he balanced moral preference with political realities. Topics also include the migration of African Americans to northern states, the role of Eleanor Roosevelt in championing equal rights and racial justice, and reports on key individuals and organisations, such as the NAACP.

Global Missions and Theology

This collection documents the broad range of Nineteenth Century religious missionary activities, practices and thought in the United States by reproducing pivotal personal narratives, organizational records, and biographies of the essential leaders, simple missionaries, and churches. This collection includes materials on missionary activities among Native Americans and African Americans, both slaves and freedmen. In addition, it highlights activities in far-flung regions and countries, such as Africa, Fiji and Sandwich Islands, India, China, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Hawaii.

Bethan Davies, Vere Harmsworth Librarian

New: African American Periodicals 1825-1995

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[re-blogged from the VHL blog post]

The Vere Harmsworth Library has purchased online access to the resource African American Periodicals for the University.

Based on the work of James P. Danky in African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography (Harvard, 1998), this vast collection covers over 150 years of American history, from slavery up to the modern era. The collection features over 170 titles, written by and for African Americans.

Primary sources found here include news, commentary, advertisements, literature, drawings and photographs, Key titles in this unique resource include African Repository, El Mulato, The Black Warrior, Pennsylvania Freedmen’s Bulletin, Colored Harvest, Voice of the Negro, Horizon: A Journal of the Color Line, The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, Blue Helmet: A Magazine for the American Negro Soldier of All Wars, Harlem Pointer, African World, Black Pride Newsletter, Right On! and others from every region of the United States. Primary sources found here include news, commentary, advertisements, literature, drawings and photographs, helping to capture the voice of African American history and culture.

Our online platform allows our readers to search the African American Periodicals by full-text, or to browse by periodical title, historic period, or themes. Readers may also search via article type, such as advertisements, or opinion pieces. You may access the resource by clicking here

Bodleian readers may also search across our Readex databases, using Readex AllSearch. This allows researchers to cross-search across multiple primary resources, including the African American Newspapers and Ethnic American Newspapers.

Similar resources include:

If you would like any advice on using our databases or resources, please contact the Vere Harmsworth Librarian, Bethan Davies (bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

New: Presidential Recordings Digital Addition

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[re-blogged from Bethan Davies’ VHL Blog post of 13. Dec 2019.]

I am pleased to announce that the Vere Harmsworth Library, in partnership with the Social Science Library, have purchased online access to the Presidential Recordings Digital Edition for the University.

The Presidential Recordings Programme (PRP), was established by The Miller Center in 1998. Its aim was to make the previously secret taped conversations of six consecutive American Presidents (FDR to Richard Nixon) available for researchers. Covering historical events such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Kennedy Assassination, Vietnam and Watergate, the tapes offer “a unique and irreplaceable source for the study of U.S. history and American government.”

Previously, Oxford researchers could only access the curated transcripts hosted on the Miller Centre’s website. Now, through the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford researchers can access the Presidential Recordings Digital Edition (PRDE), the online portal for annotated transcripts of the White House tapes from the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon era. This includes a searchable database that allows full text searches for specific phrases and terms. It also includes options to filter search results based on dates, participants and topics. The PRDE is continually being updated with new transcripts and recordings, as they become available.

Similar Resources:

If you would like any advice on using our databases or resources, please contact the Vere Harmsworth Librarian, Bethan Davies bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

New eresources: African American Newspapers (1827-1998); Ethnic American Newspapers (1799-1971)

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Our wonderful colleagues in the Vere Harmsworth Library have secured access to two more historical American newspaper resources, both funded by a very generous donation from the Association of American Rhodes Scholars. Here is what they blogged on 20 December 2018:

African American Newspapers (Series I), 1827-1998

Chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience, African American Newspapers, Series 1, features 280 newspapers from 35 states, including many rare and historically significant 19th-century titles. These titles published for or by African Americans constitute valuable primary sources for researchers exploring such diverse disciplines as cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies and more. Beginning with Freedom’s Journal (NY)—the first African American newspaper published in the United States—the titles in this groundbreaking series include The Colored Citizen (KS), Arkansas State Press, Rights of All (NY), Wisconsin Afro-American, New York Age, L’Union (LA), Northern Star and Freeman’s Advocate (NY), Richmond Planet, Cleveland Gazette, The Appeal (MN) and hundreds of others from every region of the U.S.

Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971

Access to over 130 digitised newspapers published by and for ethnic groups in the United States, particularly those of Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak and Welsh descent.

Spanning the Early Republic’s Open Door Era to the Era of Liberalization in the mid-1960s, Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection covers two centuries of immigrant life in the United States. Nineteenth-century topics include the denial of citizenship to “nonwhites”; the founding of nativist political movements, including the anti-immigrant “Know-Nothing” party; the 1849 discovery of gold in California, which lured people from all over the world; New York City’s place as the world’s largest Irish city in 1860 with more than 200,000 Irish-born citizens; and the Immigration Act of 1882, which levied a tax on all immigrants landing at U.S. ports.

In addition to the major contributions of immigrants to business, music, science, education, labor movements and war efforts, later topics include the Naturalization Act of 1906, which for citizenship required immigrants to learn to speak English; the 1921 Emergency Quota Act, which favored northern and western Europeans; the 1942 internment in “War Relocation Camps” of Japanese Americans, several of whom published newspapers; Truman’s 1953 Commission on Immigration and Naturalization, which revealed the positive impact of immigrants; and much more.

Both collections are now available via SOLO / Databases A-Z.

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Also of interest:

New: The War of 1812: Diplomacy on the High Seas

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Our wonderful colleagues in the Vere Harmsworth Library have also arranged permanent access to the eresource collection The War of 1812: Diplomacy on the High Seas.

They write:

“We’re delighted that once again thanks to a generous donation, we now have access to another new eresource collection: The War of 1812: Diplomacy on the High Seas.

Part of the Cengage Archives Unbound platform, this collection contains records and papers from the US National Archives and US State Department. The bulk of these date from 1812-1814 and include letters of marque to private vessels engaged in the conflict, passenger lists, passport records, and correspondence relating to prisoners of war.

Access is available via SOLO or Databases A-Z. University members can use single sign-on for remote access.”

New: The American Revolution from a British Perspective, 1763-1783 – Congressional Hearings 1824-1979

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Our colleagues in the Vere Harmsworth Library have arranged permanent access to the online The American Revolution from a British Perspective, 1763-1783. 

They write:

“We are delighted to announce that thanks to generous donations, the Bodleian Libraries now have access to the following new eresources for American history:

The American Revolution from a British Perspective, 1763-1783

A collection of pamphlets published in Britain between 1763 and 1783 relating to American affairs and providing a British perspective on the American Revolution.

Congressional Hearings, 1824-1979 (ProQuest Congressional)

Includes the full text of published committee hearings from the US Congress from 1824-1979. Published hearings are the official record of committee hearings proceedings held to enable committees to gather opinions and information to help Members make decisions regarding proposed legislation or to help them fulfill their oversight and investigation responsibilities. Official hearings publications may include: written and oral statements of witnesses, transcripts of question-and-answer sessions, reports and other materials submitted for the record, and correspondence and other materials submitted by interested parties.”

The collections may be accessed via SOLO or our new Databases A-Z listing; University members can use single sign-on for remote access.”

New: American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection (1684-1912)

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Our colleagues in the Vere Harmsworth Library have arranged permanent access to the online American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection (1684-1912). They write:

“We’re delighted to announce that Oxford users now have access to all five parts of the American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection from EBSCO.

The collection provides digital access to the full text of thousands of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912, digitised from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society. Titles cover a broad range of subjects and interests related to every aspect of American life and culture, from politics to religion, science, law, literature and the arts.
>>More information on the AAS periodicals collection

Access is available via Databases A-Z – use single sign-on for remote access.”

From the VHL Blog post [accessed 15 March 2018]

Also useful:

Trial until 8th February: American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection

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The Vere Harmsworth Library has set up a trial to the full online American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection. The trial ends Friday 8th February.

The collection provides digital access to the full text of thousands of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912, digitised from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society. Titles cover a broad range of subjects and interests related to every aspect of American life and culture, from politics to religion, science, law, literature and the arts. >>More information on the AAS periodicals collection.

Access is available via OxLIP+ – use single sign-on for remote access.

Please send comments and feedback to jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

[from the VHL Blog post on 9 Jan 2018]

Trial until 24 December: San Francisco Chronicle, 1865-1984

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The Vere Harmsworth Library is running a trial of the San Francisco Chronicle 1865-1984.  Researchers at Oxford are invited to explore it and send any comments or feedback to jane.rawson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

We now have trial access to the San Francisco Chronicle, 1865-1984, via Readex’s America’s Historical Newspapers platform. Access is available via OxLIP+ until 24th December…

Source: Trial until 24 December: San Francisco Chronicle, 1865-1984