Tag Archives: American Politics

New AKS books for 2025/2026

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Each year, the Association of American Rhodes Scholars generously pays for the library to purchase approximately £3000 worth of books in memory of Frank Aydelotte (first American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships), Paul Kieffer (President of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars, 1957-1969), and Courtney Smith (second American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships) in order to develop the breadth and depth of the VHL Collections.

The collection for 2025/2026 is now available and can be found on the ground floor of the Vere Harmsworth Library, next to the Alain Locke Collection. All books in the AKS Collection are loanable.

Books displayed on shelf with AKS plaque.

Selections from previous years are shelved as part of the main collection. The books currently on display separately can be identified by the ‘AKS’ shelfmark prefix.

A list of the latest AKS books can be found on SOLO by performing an advanced search for shelfmarks containing ‘AKS’, limiting the scope to the Vere Harmsworth Library.

We are grateful as ever to the Association of American Rhodes Scholars for funding these purchases and for their ongoing support of the library.

If you have any further questions about the AKS Collection, or the display, please contact Bethan Davies. If you have any further questions about working in the Vere Harmsworth Library, please email vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

New Alain Locke Collection Titles – Summer 2025 intake!

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The new selection of titles for the Alain Locke Collection are now available and on display in the Vere Harmsworth Library!

Book shelves. Poster above says Alain Locke Collection.

Readers will be able to see the new selections on the Ground Floor of the Library. This area, as part of our agreement with the Association of American Rhodes Scholars (AARS), will be dedicated to displaying and promoting the Collection.

With the kind agreement of the AARS, two collection intakes will be taken each year, totalling $10,000 worth of books per year.

Book covers.
Book covers from our August 2025 intake.

You can view the full list here and you can view all selected Alain Locke Collection titles here.

About the collection

In spring 2021, the VHL and RAI agreed to create the Alain Locke Collection with support from the AARS. Named after the first African American Rhodes Scholar, the collection aims to focus on research monographs in the areas of African American history, politics, biography and culture, alongside notable gaps in material not produced by commercial publishers.

The Bodleian is committed to providing students and researchers with world class access to resources to enable them to fulfil their scholarly ambitions. We are therefore hugely grateful to the AARS for pledging a gift of $25,000 over five years supporting the Alain Locke Collection. This supports our intention for the VHL to become a leading centre for the study of African American history, politics, and culture.

The establishment of the Alain Locke Collection will allow the VHL to expand the purchase of African American focused research monographs, without affecting expenditure on other research areas. It will build on the VHL’s current holdings and run alongside the continued intake of research monographs via the legal deposit agreements and e-book packages. It will allow the VHL to identify and address potential gaps in some of the older materials. Most significantly, it will demonstrate our commitment to representing African American history and culture within our collections.

Current students and researchers can recommend titles to be purchased for the Alain Locke Collection by contacting the Vere Harmsworth Librarian (bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

If you have any further questions about the Alain Locke Collection, or the display, please contact Bethan Davies. To find out more about supporting the Vere Harmsworth Library and the Alain Locke collection please contact the Vere Harmsworth Library (vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

New! Online Resource: Carter Administration and Foreign Affairs

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I am pleased to report that the Vere Harmsworth Library has committed funding to purchase a new database, Carter Administration and Foreign Affairs, which is now available to Bodleian readers.

Black and white photo of President Jimmy Carter stood at Presidential lectern.
[President Jimmy Carter announces new sanctions against Iran in retaliation for taking U.S. hostages], Trikosko, Marion S., 1980 Apr. 7. Print copy held by the Library of Congress.

This online resource includes official documents from the Carter administration related to Foreign Affairs, housed in the Carter Presidential Library. These include presidential correspondence and memorandums with his cabinet, other Executive departments and agencies and other heads of state; telegrams and cables between foreign missions and the State Department; briefing books for international conferences and official reports.

Historical events and topics covered include Middle East Peace and the Camp David Accords; NATO and the Rapid Deployment Force; Human Rights; relations with the People’s Republic of China; Panama Canal Treaty; Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II); covert intervention in Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion and the Iran Hostage Crisis.

This database continues to build our modern American political history collections, as well as our collections focused on international relations and diplomacy.

You can access this collection here.

New! Online Resources: Gender and Sexuality, Slavery and Antislavery, and Disability Histories!

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Bodleian Readers now have access to three new databases, which build on and expand our collections in three key areas: gender and sexuality, slavery and disability histories.

These three databases are part of a broader purchase of online resources. In line with the Bodleian Libraries’ strategy (pdf) to enhance our collections, the Bodleian Libraries committed substantial funding to a set of purchases of electronic research resources deemed to be important to researchers in the University. The below three have been highlighted as being of interest to Americanists.

You can find out more about all purchases made on the History Faculty Library blog.

Slavery and Antislavery: A Transnational Archive: Part III: The Institution of Slavery

Decorative image of Dred Scott. Caption of image reads: Portrait of Dred Scott (1795-1858) by an unknown artist. Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his and his family's freedom after having lived with their owner in several free states in the 1830s. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Scott, claiming that as a slave, he was not a citizen of the United States and therefore his case could not be heard before a federal court.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Institution of Slavery module explores, in vivid detail, the inner workings of slavery from 1492 to 1888. This compliments our existing collection Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World. Includes:

  • Papers and diaries of slave owners, traders and pro-slavery advocates.
  • Papers of key political figures and families, such as US Attorney General and governor of Kentucky John J. Crittenden, and Massachusetts state senator, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, and U.S. attorney Caleb Cushing.
  • Court records related to the case of Dred Scott, and personal papers of the Blair family, who were involved in Scott’s council during the trial.
  • court cases, petitions and legislation related to slavery from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
  • Records related to East Florida (1737-1858) in English and Spanish, including resources related to slavery.
  • Senate Select Committee papers into John Brown’s raid of Harper’s Ferry (1859).
  • Slave narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project, collected and published in the 1930s.
  • …alongside records related to the institution of slavery in British North America and the Caribbean.

History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century

Decorative image of books. Caption underneath reads: Books from Special Collection S.32.A. (Feeble-minded, Mental Deficiency, et al) of the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Photo by Philip Virta, 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century presents monographs (books), manuscripts, and ephemera that provide a historical view of disabilities from the seventeenth to twentieth century. All collections in this database are sourced from the New York Academy of Medicine Library.

  • Papers of the general superintendent of the New York City Asylums from the 19th -early 20th Century, including correspondence, diaries, speeches, and involvement in key legal cases.
  • Case records, patient histories and correspondence of a 19th-early 20th Century nurologist.
  • Douglas C. McMurtrie Cripples Collection – 300 bound volumes containing approximately 3,500 separate books, pamphlets, reports, and articles on disability and the disabled (particuarly children) from the early 20th Century. This collection was established by McMurtrie, who was Directory of the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men. 
  • over 3,000 pamphlets from the 19th/20th Century and historical books from the Library covering disabilities, diagnosis, treatment, memoirs, reports, policy documents, advertisements and more.

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century

The Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century is a collection like no other. It is made up of more than five thousand rare and unique books covering sex, sexuality, and gender issues across the sciences and humanities and throughout history. This compliments our existing collections: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Parts I and II.

Two of the three libraries which make up the collections are US-based. They are:

  • New York Academy of Medicine Library – more than 1,500 books covering topics in sex, sexuality, and gender, some dating from the 16th century. Also includes records related to the court case of Mary Ware Dennett, an early 20th Century birth control and sex education advocate.
  • The Kinsey Institute for Sex Research – a collection of materials from 1700 to 1860. This is a portion of Dr. Kinsey’s original library which he used to study human sexual behavior from a variety of academic and literary viewpoints.

New: Women’s Studies Archive: Issues and Identities

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[Partially re-blogged from the History Faculty Library blog]

As we continue to grow our eresources collections on women’s history, we are pleased to announce that Oxford researchers now have access to Women’s Studies Archive: Issues and Identities.

Home page of the resource showing a search box and an image of a line of suffragettes holding a poster which reads "Mr Presidents, how long must women wait for liberty".

National Woman’s Party members picket outside the White House in 1917 with the message, “Mr. President, How long must women wait for Liberty” Source: Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 12 © Gale Cengage

This collection traces the path of women’s issues in the 19th and 20th centuries, drawing on primary sources from manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, and more. It captures the foundation of women’s movements, struggles and triumphs, and provides researchers with valuable insights. It focusses on the social, political, and professional achievements of women, the pioneers of women’s movements, and is useful to understand the issues that have affected women and the many contributions they have made to society.

It is, however, more generally also a useful resource to research WWI, WWII, social and economic conditions, and world events in the 20th century, as described and seen from women’s perspectives and revealed in periodicals, correspondence and papers.

Individual source collections of particular interest to US historians are:

  • Periodicals and newsletters from the Herstory Collection, tracing the women’s rights movement in the US and abroad; alongside primary source collections focused on women’s health/mental health and the law.
  • Manuscript records of key women involved in political movements, missionary work or American pioneer activities.
  • Records of the Committee of Fifteen (1900-1901), a private group based in New York who collected evidence of “vice” – prostitution and gambling- to spur local authorities into action and promote anti-vice legislation.
  • Records of the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) and its founders.
  • Records of political anti-war movements, such as the Woman’s Peace Party (1914-1920), the Women’s Peace Union (1921-1940) and the United States section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) (1919-1959).
  • Files from two key grassroots feminist organisations based in Boston and San Francisco, which were part of the second-wave feminist movement.
  • Records from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, including records from it’s predecessors (American Birth Control League and the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau). Documents include minutes of meetings, conferences, subject files, correspondence and personal papers of key founders.

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

New Databases from Archives Unbound!

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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.

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.

You can access this database directly here.

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.

You can access this database directly here.

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.

You can access this database directly here.

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.

You can access this database directly here.

 

New online resources: Jet Magazine Archive and more!

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I am pleased to report that the Vere Harmsworth Library has used funds to purchase the Jet Magazine Archive for Bodleian Readers.

Jet Magazine Archive covers the civil rights movement, politics, education, and other social topics with an African American focus. When completed, it will include over 3,000 issues providing a broad view of news, culture, and entertainment from its first issue in 1951 through 2014.

Users can search across the articles using full-text search, or select specific issues, years or themes. Each article is indexed with relevant keywords. Researchers can also view images and advertisements within each issue.

Our previous trial only provided access to the issues released from 1980-1989. Our access now includes issues published from 1970-2014, the bulk of the archive. Issues published from 1951-1969 will become available in the coming weeks.

Currently the database has only released the issues from the 1980-1989, which are the issues available during our Trial.

You can access Jet Magazine Archive using your Single Sign On here.

The Bodleian Libraries have also purchased new resources which you may find of interest. You can find out more about them via the History Faculty Library blogpost, but two resources of particular interest to Americanists include:

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Part 1

These diverse collections will be of interest to those studying modern American history, society and culture. Key coverage includes:

  • Records and papers of key organisations: ACT UP, Gay Activists Alliance, Daughters of Bilitis and the Mattachine Society of New York.
  • Government records and official papers for the National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, 1983-1994, and on the Bush Administration and the AIDS Crisis.
  • American newsletters and periodicals from key archival collections, such as: the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Historical Society and the Lesbian Herstory Archives, including some of the oldest LGBTQ periodicals published in America.
  • The Lesbian Herstory Archives subject files, which provides the most a hugely detailed information bank on lesbians throughout history, and the Herstory Feminist Newspapers collection, which is composed of US Newspapers written by, about and for women from the 20th Century, at a national and regional level.
  • Personal papers of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin (both as part of the Daughters of Bilitis and their wider involvement with the women’s rights movement and other social movements).
  • Personal papers of Donald Steward Lucas, (both as part of the Mattachine Society, and the wider homophile movement.)

This is alongside coverage from British and International organisations, governments and newspapers/periodicals. Access here (note that you will need to use your Single Sign on to access).

Kanopy

We now have access to videos in the Kanopy Film Archive, a huge collection of documentaries, classic films and original creations. Collections include those focused on diversity, current events and “Campus Collections”. Films can be saved as favourites, and the majority include closed captions and transcripts. This great resource is a real treasure trove!

Access here (note that you will need to use your Single Sign on to access. You will be asked to create your own personal account, but you don’t need to create one in order to view the films.)

 

 

Requesting US Elections Campaigns Archive material via the Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts catalogue

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You may have seen the recent news regarding the new online request service for Bodleian Archives and Manuscripts. 

However, not all archival material can be requested using this service, and this includes the Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive, which is housed in the Vere Harmsworth Library. However, you can still use the Bodleian Archives and Manuscripts catalogue to view the catalogue records of the wonderful collection, and send email requests for individual items of interest.

When visiting the catalogue page for the US Elections Campaigns Archive, use the blue box on the right hand side of the page to Navigate across the Collection. The Archive is ordered via election type (Presidential/Congressional/State and Local), and by Party and Interest Groups. You can then use the Navigate tool to narrow down the items to material format (e.g. posters/buttons) and years.

A blue box showing the search option, which is at the top, and navigation tool for the US Elections Archive on the Bodleian Archives and Manuscripts webpage. The navigation tool has been used to narrow results to literature materials for the Presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive) in the 1912 election.

Use the Search tool (near the top) or the Navigation tool to search through the archive.

Alternatively you can use the Search function to search across the collections for individual names or policies.

Search results for "Prohibition."

This is an example search of the Archive. You can use the filters on the left side to search within your results or narrow them down to specific years.

When viewing an individual item that you would live to view, click the blue Request This button at the top left of the page. This will bring up a similar message to the one below, which advises you that the material can be viewed at the Vere Harmsworth Library and noting the item shelfmark (please make a note of this when putting through your requests, as this is essential for locating the material you wish to view).

An example message which will appear when you Request an item from the US Elections Campaigns Archive. In the right hand corner of the message is a blue Send Email button.

An example message which will appear when you request an item from the Archive.

Click Send Email and an automatic email form will appear, with the Bodleian Special Collections email address already included. Special Collections will then triage any requests to the relevant team, which for the US Elections Campaigns Archive, would be the VHL Librarian.

Note that any consultation of the US Elections Campaigns Archive would need to be held at the Vere Harmsworth Library, and be supervised at all times by the VHL Librarian. Please allow at least two days (preferably longer) for the VHL Librarian to locate requested items and organise the materials for viewing.

Materials are being actively added to the Archive by the donor on a regular basis, and some materials have not yet been catalogued. A recent cataloguing project means that post-2010 material will be added soon to the Archives & Manuscripts Catalogue. However, if you would like to ask any questions about more recent material available in the Archive, or if you have any general questions about the Archive, please email the Vere Harmsworth Librarian (bethan.davies@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

New in Oxford: Time and The Atlantic magazine archive

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I am pleased to announce the the Vere Harmsworth Library has purchased the online archives for The Atlantic and Time magazines.

Both of these magazines greatly add to our 20th Century newspaper and magazine holdings, and provide fascinating primary resources for modern American history, politics and culture.

Time magazine archive (1923-2000)

Published weekly by Time Inc., Time Magazine has focused on conveying to a broad audience both domestic and international news and analysis on a spectrum of subjects.

Intended to be read in under an hour, each issue of Time contains reports of national and international current events, politics, sports, and entertainment. Capturing the relevant news for a given week, the magazine remains an important resource for researchers studying just about any aspect of 20th-Century history and life.

Four covers from Time Magazine's past editions.

An example of magazine covers from Time magazine. Top row, from left to right: Clarke Gable (August 31st, 1936); Jackie Robinson (September 22nd, 1947). Bottom row, from left to right: Richard Nixon (November 5th, 1973, “The Push to Impeach”); Ronald Regan (January 5th, 1981, “The Man of the Year”)

 

Articles and cover pages are fully indexed and advertisements are individually identified, ensuring researchers and readers can quickly and accurately locate the information they seek. The Time Magazine Archive is valuable to researchers of 20th-Century current events, politics and culture, as well as those interested in the history of business, advertising, and popular culture.

The archival collection compliments our current online access to Time magazine via EBSCO Business Source Complete (1990-current), alongside our physical collection held in the BSF.

The Atlantic magazine archive (1857-2014)

The Atlantic was originally created with a focus on publishing leading writers’ commentary on abolition, education and other major issues in contemporary political affairs at the time. Over its more than 150 years of publication. It has featured articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, science and more.

Some of the founding sponsors of the magazine include prominent writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Greenleaf Whittier.

Images of the front covers of the Atlantic Magazine.

Examples of front covers of The Atlantic Magazine. Top row, from left to right: November 1947 (90th Anniversary special); April 1956 (Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman). Bottom row, from left to right: September 2008 (Special Election issue); March 2012 (Special Commemorative Issue to mark 150th anniversary of the Civil War.)

 

The Atlantic Magazine Archive, covers events and political issues through literary and cultural commentary. It includes more than 1,800 issues providing a broad view of 19th, 20th and early 21st-Century American thought.

You may also be interested in our other periodical resources such as The National Review, The Nation, The New Republic and Vogue. For more information on our newspaper and periodicals, please visit our online guide.

New in Oxford: Black Thought and Culture

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Following a trial period, and positive feedback from readers, I am pleased to announce that the Vere Harmsworth Library has purchased access to the online resource, Black Thought and Culture.

This impressive database contains a collection of 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. In addition to the most familiar works, Black Thought and Culture presents a great deal of previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts.

The collection spans from the works of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells Barnett, to Zora Neal Hurston, Audra Lorde, and Jesse Jackson. Most notably, the collection includes items previously undigitized, and difficult to obtain, such as:

  • The transcript of the Muhammad Ali trial
  • A full run of The Black Panther newspaper, with full-colour images of every page as well as searchable text
  • 2,500 pages of exclusive Black Panther oral histories owned by the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation
  • Selected audio files, heard here for the first time
  • the full run of Artist and Influence journal, tracking African American cultural trends in the 20th Century.

This resource will be of interest to those interested in African American history, politics, literature and culture.

You may access the resource here.