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Database Spotlight: Victorian Popular Culture

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The A-Z database list on SOLO can take you to many weird and wonderful places. Each database provides a window into a new personality. Will I be the person who knows an uncanny amount about Early Zoological Literature[1]? Or perhaps seleucid coinage[2]? It seems that even just a little light reading in these databases would get me ahead of the pack – though perhaps Oxford is a city in which that is not reliably the case…

As tempting as these avenues of identity re-invention are, I have a feeling that I would have to somewhat crowbar these topics into conversation. Talking a lot about coins is something that is a little less charming when you’re the one who brought them up… Perhaps, I thought, it might be sensible to choose something a little more mainstream. So, this month I decided not to start a new chapter of my persona, but revisit an old one. The topic I’ve selected for this month indulges a subject I was obsessed with as a child, and the database itself is one that finds the perfect balance between accessible and delightfully specific: the database of Victorian Popular Culture. A sprawling resource with countless entries, this database is still extremely navigable and filled to the brim with treasures.

 

Arriving at the Database

When first opening the database of Victorian Popular Culture, you are greeting by a well laid-out menu. The initial drop down tab is arranged into the sections:

‘Introduction’ to give users a sense of what they can do with the resource

‘Browse documents’ for broad umbrellas of research topics

‘Explore’ for the researcher just dipping their toe into Victorian waters (ideally they’d also be wearing a very fetching Victorian bathing suit to boot)

‘Visual sources’ for photographs, plates, cinema footage – the list goes on

‘Help’ – for a more detialed guide of how to make the most of the database and further information

 

Screen cap of the home page of Victorian Popular Culture, with the drop down menu open
The drop down menu will take you wherever you want to go!

 

Having a Browse

While all the headings in the ‘Browse Documents’ section looked tempting, I decided to look into Circuses. Once in the item list, I was met with even more (delightfully organised) drop down boxes. Not unlike SOLO or the Ashmolean Database (our previous database spotlight), here you can select the item type you’re looking for. Perhaps it’s ephemera, or playbills. At this stage you can also filter by the Library/Archive that holds the item. This is a great feature for those that wish to find items they can visit in person.

 

Screen cap of list of items with thumbnails by each entry

 

Deciding not to filter the results at this stage, I began scrolling through the items. With thumbnail images of each item, you get a pretty clear idea of the sort of thing you’ll be looking at when you select an item. As I scrolled, enjoying snapshots of photographs and sheetmusic, my eye was caught by a diving figure of gold foiling on the cover of Acrobats and Mountebanks by Hugues Le Roux (1890)[3].

 

Gold foiling of an acbrobat mid-flip on a dark blue back ground
An eye-catching front cover!

Acrobats and Mountebanks

Clicking into the item took me to the catalogue page with publication information and item type. For example, here I learnt that this text is kept as part of the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield[4]. If I absolutely had to get trapped in an archive overnight, due to what I’m sure would be very legitimate and even likely circumstances, I could do worse than this one. (These are the kinds of scenarios you begin to ponder when you become a library graduate trainee…). If one database just isn’t enough, treat yourself to a browse of the NFCA and find materials on illusions, menageries, pleasure gardens and fairground rides[5].

The text of Acrobats and Mountebanks was digitized and I had the option of browsing the whole text page by page or navigating by chapter. I was struck by the high quality of the images, so entered into the world of the Victorian circus without a particular destination in mind. Weaving through the acts and attractions described in the book I could feel the the ghost of the author’s excitement; gorgeous illustrations throughout the text draw you into a world where horse drawn carriages carry ladies in smart dresses to the fair (p. 38), where ‘everyone is come for amusement and intends to get it’ (p. 39). In the preface it is promised that the reader will be led to ‘the threshold of an unknown world’ (p. vi) and I felt a little like someone about to attend the circus myself.

 

 

Further into the book, in the chapter titled The Private Circus, Le Roux writes of a certain number of people for whom simply attending the Circus was not enough. So allured were they by the world of the trapeze artist and conjurer that they would seek out and enter a very particular tent. It seems that during this period, it was possible for the circus itself to be a place that would not only dazzle spectators with the art of acrobatics, but teach them how to perform it themselves. With a suitably mythical turn of phrase, the transition from circus-goer to circus performer is described by Le Roux as a ‘metamorphosis’ (p. 308).

One such individual who engaged in this act of transfiguration was Lieutenant Viaud. A man of many military and literary achievements[6], he gains another string to his bow with his acrobatic endeavours:

‘One feels that in him exists that spring of elasticity which raises a body from the soil and wrests it from the laws of gravitation’ (p. 309).

Despite finding this text through such an ordered sequence of tabs, drop down menus and chapter links, the quality of the digitized images and the ease of navigation within the database made for an immersive reading experience. I was as drawn into the world of the Victorian circus as Lieutenant Viaud, though my forward roll may yet leave something to be desired.

 

London Low Life

Closing the flap of the circus tent for now, let’s creep a little further into to the back streets of Victorian London with a dictionary of slang[7]. This extensive resource can be found on the ‘London Low Life’ a sister page of the Victorian Popular Culture database. Here is where you can find all things ‘street culture, social reform and the Victorian underworld’. After the bright lights of the circus a little shadiness might do us good.

 

Screen cap showing entries under the letter 'A' in the London slang dictionary
This dictionary can be browsed in alphabetical order and similarly defined phrases are grouped together for ease of navigation!

 

Scanning through the entries, a few favourites jumped out. I particularly enjoyed ‘a pig’s whisper’ (a grunt) ‘a bantling’ (a young child) and ‘knights of the rainbow’ (waiters, footmen, lacqueys). Having topped up my slang vocabulary, I thought I would round off my venture into the world of databases with a hop across to the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED.

 

Oxford English Dictionary Online

Available through SOLO, the OED is an incredible resource: ‘the definitive record of the English language’[8], no less.

The OED serves as a guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— including those that have dropped out of use – from across the English-speaking world.

Every entry has example quotations from across the period the word is/was used in, from literary examples to specialist periodicals, film scripts to cookery books.

 

Screen cap of OED entry for bantling
Entry for ‘bantling’

 

As you can see in the red text on the top right of this page from the OED, this entry has not been fully updated. The entries in the OED undergo constant revisions to stay up to date, each revision ‘subtly adjusting our image of the English language’[9].My deep dive into the word ‘bantling’ shows off some of its uses over time, both literal and figurative.

I hope this mini excursion goes some way to show how different databases, available both through SOLO and online, can work together to provide richer detail for whatever it is you’re researching. In my exploration into the world of Victorian circuses, I dipped into the database of Victorian Popular Culture, the National Fairground Archive and the Oxford English Dictionary. Knowledge breeds knowledge! So many potential rabbit holes showed themselves on this digital journey, and I can’t wait to keep digging – right after I’ve perfected my acrobatic routine.

 

References:

[1] http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/list/references?digitzed_only=true%20target=

[2] http://numismatics.org/sco/

[3] Don’t have a SOLO log in? No problem! View the book here instead  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45587/45587-h/45587-h.htm

[4] https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/nfca

[5] https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/nfca/collections/subject

[6] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Loti

[7] https://www.londonlowlife.amdigital.co.uk/research-tools/a-dictionary-of-slang

[8] https://www.oed.com/ In a recent bid for my heart, it seems, the OED published their word for 2022: ‘Goblin mode is our 2022 Word of the Year, recognising our desire, particularly as we emerged from the pandemic, to engage in ‘unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy’ behaviour that typically ‘rejects social norms or expectations’.’ Powerful stuff.

[9] https://public.oed.com/about/

Database Spotlight: Not all those who wander (in the Ashmolean) are lost

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Despite having visited it on many a rainy Sunday, I always seem to stumble across new rooms in the Ashmolean every time I go. Perhaps through a form of architectural respawning, or maybe just my poor sense of direction, many of the permanent exhibitions in the museum remain shrouded in mystery for me.

Picture of a staircase in the Ashmolean. Tall windows dimly light the area, silhouettes of statues stand in the alcoves.
Shot of some mysterious lighting in the Ashmolean to help prove my point.

 

I was scrolling through the databases available through SOLO while thinking about what I would write this post on. There were many that caught my eye – perhaps I could plunge into ‘Religion and Urbanity online’, or maybe enter the world of the Utrecht Psalter…tempting as these avenues were, when I spotted the Ashmolean online Catalogue, an idea began to form.

Perhaps this post would be my chance to get to the heart of the museum, once and for all. No more oohing and ahhing over the textile gallery (or the cakes in the cafe) on the lower ground floor. No more slumping in awe on the (rather too comfortable) velvet couches in the cast gallery right next to the entrance. This time I was going to overcome every eye-catching obstacle and make it all the way to the top floor. Using the database as my guide, I would make sure to select objects from  parts of the museum I’d never before stepped foot in.

 

The Database

The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology and it holds a collection that spans over ten thousand years. In recent years, they have been working on digitizing their collection. The Digital Collection programme was established in 2015[1], and as of now, you can now browse or search 200,000 of the treasures of the Ashmolean online.

With this catalogue at my fingertips, I felt sure I held the key to the most enlightening yet efficient visit to any gallery ever before experienced.

 

The plan

My plan, as it stood, was simple:

  1. Choose the items I want to visit from the data base.
  2. Plan a route.
  3. Get cultured.

 

Familiarising myself with the database

Whether you’re looking for something specific or just there for a fun like I was, the online collection is a fantastic resource. You can search items based on object type, date, artist/maker, material…the list goes on.

In a moment of weakness, I was in the mood for some 17th century sculpture, so that was where my hunt began.

 

Screen shot of the Ashmolean database page. A grid with object type and date is showing.
Selecting preferences on the database

 

Once you select object type and date, you can filter your results in the ‘sort by’ drop down. Here is where you could select a specific artist, place, etc. if you so wished. I went for ‘random’, as beyond my predilection for something early modern, I was happy for the database to surprise me.

A feature I found helpful for my purposes was the database showing you whether an item is currently on display or not – if you can visit it in the museum, there with be a small eye icon next to the entry on the online catalogue.

Another great feature for those with a thirst for knowledge in all its forms is the ‘further reading’ section. Catalogues that feature the item you’re looking at will be linked to the page for your convenience. There’s also a ‘reference URL’ so you can easily save the page you’re looking at for later! Perhaps you wish to share this particularly handsome fellow with a pal over coffee (https://collections.ashmolean.org/object/95623), or muse over what Ethel might be thinking of on your commute home after a long day (https://collections.ashmolean.org/object/383401).

 

Choosing my victims

Once I had settled on date and object type, it was as simple as choosing the items that caught my eye. A mix of small and large, intriguing and classic slowly filled up the top bar of my laptop screen as I opened many a background tab.

After a rigorous selection process (click on the thing that looks cool – patent pending) these beauties made it onto my list:

Items:

  • One of a pair of Fowlers – 17th century bronze figure

https://collections.ashmolean.org/object/746352

 

  • Sword hilt – mid-17th century

https://collections.ashmolean.org/object/746315

 

  • Mystical ring – 16th – 17th century

https://collections.ashmolean.org/object/349813

 

  • And finally, as this is a library blog after all, a magnificent book case, literally named ‘The great Bookcase’. Mid 19th century

https://collections.ashmolean.org/object/351723

 

Items selected and museum locations jotted down, I was ready to embark on my mission.

You’ll note that some of these items are not quite sculpture – one is even a book case! My search was also bolstered by the Ashmolean podcast Museum Secrets and some of the fascinating items that are discussed in the bite-sized episodes. The database was a fantastic resource that allowed me to see instantly whether the objects that featured in the episodes were currently on show.

 

Visiting

Wall of busts at the Ashmolean
Wall of busts at the Ashmolean

With a plan of action, I felt close to unstoppable. With only my poor sense of direction hindering me, I set out on my mission to get cultured. Item list in hand, I was ready to boldly go where most Oxford inhabitants have gone before…the Ashmolean!

Despite having a slightly humbling few minutes of dithering at the bottom of the what I thought were the stairs to the second floor (but, alas, were not), having a list of the rooms I needed to visit made me feel like something of a consummate gallery-goer. I strode through great halls and corridors with a feeling of purpose, only ever so occasionally getting distracted by the odd shiny thing…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Items

Small bronze sculpture of a man crouching with a brace of birds on his belt
sculpted by Italian Renaissance sculptor, Giovanni Bologna

The first stop on my self-made tour was the second floor, gallery 46. Here I was searching for two of the items on my list: the bronze sculpture of a fowler, that is, someone who hunts wildfowl, and the sword-hilt.

I love the tiny details on this first piece! The clothing, the birds hanging from the belt, the barbs of each feather etched into the surface…also I am jealous of his stylish little hat.

What I first noticed first in this gallery, but also throughout my visit, was that going into a space and being on the hunt for specific objects really changed the energy of my experience. It was less of a passive dander, waiting to be impressed by something amazing, but a pointed search, engaging with each item in order to find what I was looking for.

It was also really cool to see the objects I’d looked at in isolation on the database in the context of some sculpture housemates. Looking at these sculptures in the Ashmolean, you see the object not against a plain background as when photographed for posterity, but amongst other bodies.

 

 

In my photographs of the ivory sword hilt you can spot the pair of Fowlers posing in the background. Different materials colour the back drop, the deep red gallery walls lending no small amount of drama.

 

My next stop was the ring display in gallery 56. Here I was looking for the rather murky toadstone rings.

A glass octagonal case with rings in each frame.
The glorious ring case on the second floor

Toadstone, or bufonite (bufo being Latin for toad), was thought to be great for protecting against poison. Not just a moody fashion statement, toadstones have a history of being worn as a protective amulet or charm[2]. It seems that the logic went as follows: toads are poisonous, therefore toadstones (believed to be formed in the heads of toads) protect against poison and even detect it. Please do not bother any of your friendly neighbourhood toads – this origin of the toadstone does not boast the electrifying acclaim of being peer reviewed. Fun fact – toadstones have nothing to do with toads at all, but are actually the fossilised teeth of an extinct genus of ray-finned fish![3]

Toadstone was allegedly most effective when worn against skin. A lot of these rings that have toadstone in them have open backs so the stone is always in touch with the wearers hand. It was believed that the stone would alert its wearer if they were ever poisoned by heating up or even changing colour. They were seen as something of a cure all, used in treatments for countless conditions and were even thought by some to protect ships from getting wrecked at sea.

Despite all these rather delicious claims to fame, the rings don’t particularly stand out in the display. In fact, I had to lap the jewellery case a couple of times before spotting these mystical little beauties. If you want to take a look for yourself, there is a helpful catalogue of the rings in the display case in folders that are kept near the case in gallery 56.

 

Toadstone ring, no. 115

 

For the final item we step away from the 17th century and into the Victorian age – peeking round the door of the office of William Burgess, a famous designer and architect of the gothic revival persuasion.[4]  Made to hold Burges’s art books, this elaborate bookcase had 14 painters contribute to it –  many of them being big names from the pre-Raphaelite movement. Edward-Burne Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Simeon Solomon were among the artists involved.  Each one was handsomely rewarded at £5 apiece.

 

Large ornate bookcase. Trimmed with gold and with a red background, this bookcase is covered in paintings of different people, animals and plants
The Great Bookcase in all its glory!

 

The external decoration relates to the books that would have been housed on that shelf so there is a great variety in the decoration. Biblical scenes mirror stories from ancient Greece and Egypt, and the entire piece is covered in depictions of animals and plants.

 

 

This piece is part of the spotlight trail at the Ashmolean, so you can scan the QR code and listen to some of the background of its creation.

 

With their target of making 25% of their objects available to view online by 2020 reached, the Ashmolean is continuing to make even more of its collection accessible. Collections currently being digitalised include the Egyptian collection and portraits from the collection of Revd F. W. Hope.

What I enjoyed most about this experience was the difference between browsing online to searching for my chosen objects in a physical space. I think I felt more connected to the pieces because I had sought them out. This is not to say I had laser focus…Drifting from room to room in the Ashmolean is a process of delightful distraction – you walk through different exhibitions to reach your destination and charming and unexpected pieces unavoidably catch your eye.

 

 

These bonus pieces are not unlike side quests that enhance your journey to your true aim: immunity to everything via proximity to a toadstone. I plan to visit it once a week for the rest of my days in order to experience maximum benefits.

I hope to bug my friends some weekend soon with this makeshift tour – why not put one together yourself with the Ashmolean online database!

 

[1] https://collections.ashmolean.org/collection/about-the-online-collection

[2] Listen to Lucie Dawkins’ podcast Museum Secrets here for a great mini-podcast in which Matthew Winterbottom, curator at the Ashmolean, discusses toadstones and other magic jewellery at the Ashmolean! https://www.ashmolean.org/museum-secrets

[3] https://www.ashmolean.org/museum-secrets, at the 5:00 minute mark exactly

[4] https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Burges

Database Spotlight: Kanopy

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The word "Kanopy" is written in white in an all lowercase serif font on a black background.
The Kanopy logo

One of the characters in Wong Kar-wai’s 2000 motion-picture masterpiece In the Mood for Love tells us that, “In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn’t want to share… They went up a mountain, found a tree, carved a hole in it, and whispered the secret into the hole. Then they covered it with mud. And left the secret there forever”. While one of the many poignant moments from a heart-breaking film, the libraries of Oxford have now very much entered the modern day and are committed to sharing as much as we can about the myriad real and virtual secrets we hold in our collections. For the next instalment of the Graduate Trainee blog’s “Database Spotlight” series, I would like to showcase the streaming platform Kanopy.

Accessible under “Databases A-Z” on the “Useful Links” section of the SOLO homepage, Kanopy is “dedicated to thoughtful and thought-provoking films… that foster learning and conversation”, providing access to a wide array of feature films, short works and educational documentaries. In actual fact, their raison d’être is broad enough that we can enjoy many different styles of content, some of which I will highlight here. Though I first came across Kanopy around three years ago as an undergraduate student at SOAS, University of London which also subscribed, the Bodleian Libraries has only this autumn provided access so I believe this will be an unheard-of resource for most Oxford students and staff (the institutional Single Sign-On login is required) which needs promoting!

 

A black and white image of Tarkovsky, a man with light skin, short dark hair and a moustache. He points to the camera and stares at something just behind the viewer. He wears a patterned scarf around his neck.
Legendary Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky

 

One of the first films I came across on the platform was the aforementioned In the Mood for Love, now widely considered one of the greatest films of the twenty-first century exemplifying both Wong Kar-wai’s distinctive lush, colourful visual style and subtle storytelling in its presentation of the impossible love affair between the film’s two married protagonists. Most of the films included on Kanopy belong more to the ‘traditional’ canon of classic films, however. Though filmed in the 1970s Soviet Union and set in a distant dystopian future, legendary director Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (remade in 2002 and starring George Clooney) centres around a similarly-impossible love story with the science-fiction and philosophical themes much more in the background. French filmmaker Chris Marker’s 1962 short film La Jetée also combines a fated romance with darker, denser contemplations on the Cold War and would be of interest to fans of the 1995 Terry Gilliam Hollywood remake 12 Monkeys, echoing and expanding on many scenes of the earlier work and featuring outstanding performances by Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Christopher Plummer.

In contrast, Tarkovksy’s other films, like Stalker, Andrei Rublev and Mirror would appeal to audiences more interested in the philosophical and existential themes and preoccupations of the director as he struggled continuously with the impositions placed on artistic freedom in the later years of the USSR. For others interested in the history of Russian cinema, Kanopy has selected Sergei Eisenstein’s epics Battleship Potemkin, Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky as integral instances of its must-see works for Film Studies students.

 

 

 

By far the most complete genre collection I would say Kanopy has selected would be Hollywood Film Noir, running from its origins in the 1930s and ‘40s to revisionist and complex 1970s’ “New Hollywood” offerings. Particular recommendations would be the definitive 1944 noir Double Indemnity directed by Billy Wilder, well known for his comedies Some Like It Hot and The Apartment but really an all-rounder of the old and best type, together with the quite comical Suddenly! worth watching for Frank Sinatra’s charismatic performance. Of the later noirs, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie would stand out to those attracted to the genre’s seedier side and to its cult status as part of actor/director John Cassavetes’ canon. And, on that note, fans of his would be very much interested in his performance alongside Peter Falk (AKA Lieutenant Columbo) in Mikey and Nicky who also stars in Cassevetes’ directorial magnum opus, A Woman under the Influence.

 

 

 

As you can see, for the one who is willing to have a good hunt through a fair few less-desirable offerings, Kanopy presents a veritable treasure trove for any cinephile. And I haven’t even mentioned that you can find both parts I and II of The Godfather!

 

Database Spotlight: Black History Month

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Although Black History month has now come to an end, we wanted to highlight some of our resources that are available year-round regarding the work of people of colour. This is also a way to kick-start a series of blog posts we intend to write shining a spotlight on some of our favourite lesser-known databases available to staff and students at the University.

A lot of work goes into creating and curating collections of resources like these, and they can often prove invaluable in helping to better direct and inform research. Part of our job as Graduate Trainees is learning more about what collections our readers have access to, so that we can signpost them to readers in need!

 

African Writers Series

A South-African man with wrinkled skin and closely cropped afro-textured black and grey hair wearing a suit.
Nelson Mandela
  • About: Here you can read the full text of over 250 works of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose published by Heinemann’s African Writers Series. Heinemann’s has an over 40-year history in publishing postcolonial writings by prominent African authors, including important figures such as Ama Ata Aidoo, Steve Biko, Buchi Emecheta, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, Doris Lessing, Nelson Mandela, Dambudzo Marechera, Christopher Okigbo, Okot p’Bitek and Tayeb Salih.
  • Where can you find it? You can access the database here OR go to SOLO > Databases A-Z (under useful links tab on SOLO’s homepage) > All databases are listed in alphabetical order – you can scroll down until you find the database, or you can use the little search box (top right-hand corner) which will allow you to search for specific databases!

Black Authors 1556-1922

An African-American man with naturally styled black and grey hair and a goatee and moustache. He is wearing a suit.
Frederick Douglas
  • About: Curators of the Afro-Americana Imprints collection created the database ‘Black Authors 1556-1922’ using resources from the Library Company of Philadelphia; a library that specialises in 17th-19th century American history research. The database has over 550 works written by Black authors, including fiction, poems, play, sheet music as well as biographies, cookbooks, letters, sermons and more.
  • Where can you find it? You can access the database here OR go to SOLO > Databases A-Z (under useful links tab on SOLO’s homepage) > All databases are listed in alphabetical order – you can scroll down until you find the database, or you can use the little search box (top right-hand corner) which will allow you to search for specific databases!

Black Drama, Third Edition

A black and white photo of author Zora Neale Hurston. She wears a black hat and an embroidered dress and smiles at something off-camera.
Zora Neale Hurston
  • About: Here you can find (and read in full!) over 1,700 plays written by a wide variety of playwrights from America, the Caribbean or Africa in the mid-19th century. This collection comprises of many works that are out of print or that are normally very difficult to find. You can browse the collection by title, playwrights, genres or subjects.
  • Where can you find it? You can access the database here OR go to SOLO > Databases A-Z (under useful links tab on SOLO’s homepage) > All databases are listed in alphabetical order – you can scroll down until you find the database, or you can use the little search box (top right-hand corner) which will allow you to search for specific databases!

Black Studies Centre

A black and white image of a young black boy carrying a bag of newspapers over his shoulder, he holds one in his hand with the title "Chicago Defender".
Boy selling the Chicago Defender
  • About: This digital collection of primary and secondary sources combines several key resources that record and expound on Black experiences across history. It includes scholarly essays, articles, indexes, and the historical full-text of one of the most influential black newspapers in the US, The Chicago Defender.
  • Where can you find it? You can access the database here OR go to SOLO > Databases A-Z (under useful links tab on SOLO’s homepage) > All databases are listed in alphabetical order – you can scroll down until you find the database, or you can use the little search box (top right-hand corner) which will allow you to search for specific databases!

Black Thought and Culture

A black and white photo of activist Assata Shakur. She wears a plaid shirt and has her hair in dreadlocks tied into ponytails. She smiles off-camera and gestures with her hands close to her face.
Assata Shakur
  • About: This incredible collection contains approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders – teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures – covering 250 years of history. Much of the material in this collection was previously inaccessible but is now presented in one easy to access and searchable database.
  • Where can you find it? You can access the database here OR go to SOLO > Databases A-Z (under useful links tab on SOLO’s homepage) > All databases are listed in alphabetical order – you can scroll down until you find the database, or you can use the little search box (top right-hand corner) which will allow you to search for specific databases!

Oxford African America Studies Center

A young light-skinned African-American woman, with bouffant styled hair and a double ribbon headband across her forehead; she is wearing drop earrings.
Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent
  • About: The Oxford African American Studies Center is an incredible resource for African histories, encyclopaedias, and biographies. With over 10,000 articles it is one of the most comprehensive collections of scholarship on the lives and events shaping African and African-American history and culture.
  • Where can you find it? You can access the database here OR go to SOLO > Databases A-Z (under useful links tab on SOLO’s homepage) > All databases are listed in alphabetical order – you can scroll down until you find the database, or you can use the little search box (top right-hand corner) which will allow you to search for specific databases!