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

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

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.