A. For background information on your topic, to begin a bibliography and to find experts in the field, consult:
ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND HANDBOOKS
National Party Conventions, 1831-2004 [Ref. Room JK2255.N373 2005]
Presidential Elections, 1789-2000 [Ref. Room JK524.P68 2000]
U.S. Presidential Candidates and the Elections: A Biographical and Historical Guide [Ref. Room JK 528.H38 1996]
Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the Presidency [Ref. Room JK516.C57 1996] includes material on early press coverage, etc.
Historical Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, 1788-2004 [Ref. Room G 1201 .F9 H5 2006]
Vital Statistics on the Presidency
[Ref. Room JK518.R34]
Historical Statistics of the United States [Ref. Room HA202 .H57 2006]
B. To identify books, videos, journals, etc. owned by St. Olaf and Carleton, consult:
BRIDGE
BRIDGE will offer subject access to materials on your topic (but not individual journal articles -- see below for that). Try beginning with a keyword search, finding a good item, and then using the Library of Congress Subject Headings at the bottom of the record to link to more materials on those topics. Specific headings include:
| Elections -- United States |
| Presidents -- United States -- Election -- [put year here] |
| Contested elections -- United States -- History -- 19th century |
| Presidential candidates -- United States -- Biography |
| Elections -- United States -- Songs and Music |
| [Your candidate's name here as a subject] -- Biography |
A few specific titles of interest found using the above:
Presidential campaigns : from George Washington to George W. Bush
Running for president : the candidates and their images (inc. style, tactics and techniques)
Tippecanoe and trinkets too : the material culture of American presidential campaigns, 1828-1984
Presidential also-rans and running mates, 1788-1980
Convention decisions and voting records
Selecting the President: From 1789 to 1996 inc. detailed historical summaries of each election
The American party battle : election campaign pamphlets, 1828-1876 [Carleton]
Essays on American Antebellum politics, 1840-1860
Fraud of the century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden and the stolen election of 1876
Tippecanoe and Tyler too! American political songs and marches [sound recording]
Oratory and Rhetoric in the Nineteenth-Century South (inlcudes campaign speeches) on order; you'll have to borrow this on interlibrary loan until it arrives.
C. For subject access to scholarly analysis of your topic in current journals, consult:
INDEXES AND ABSTRACTS
Indexes to Scholarly Journals in Specific Disciplines
America: History and Life The main starting point for historical research for America and Canada. Don't skip this source. Use the Subject Heading list to focus your search and keywords to refine.
Multidisciplinary Index to Scholarly Publications
Academic Search Premier Indexes articles in both popular magazines and academic journals, although you can limit to one or the other. Covers 1500 core titles, many back to the mid to late 1980s. Full text of articles often an option.
E. Want to read materials from the actual times?
A creative imagination is your best resource for finding them -- think about what you 'd like to find and then decide how to go about getting it. Remember to watch prefaces, footnotes, and bibliographies of secondary works and watch for references to primary sources in journal indexes. But you can also find primary sources in collections or published separately. Listed below are several categories of documents, with examples to whet your appetite, and suggested strategies for finding them. Remember to discuss your needs/ desires with a reference librarian.
PRIMARY SOURCES IN PRINT AT ST. OLAF AND CARLETON
Sourcebooks/Collected Editions
My fellow Americans : the most important speeches of America's presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush
National sermons [microform] : sermons, speeches and letters on slavery and its war, from the passage of the Fugitive slave bill to the election of President Grant
More of these collections may be found by searching Bridge:
By subject: "Subject Heading" SOURCES
By title keyword: DOCUMENT* or READINGS or SOURCE* or SPEECH*
Published Memoirs/Journals/Letters/Personal Accounts/Autobiographies/Collected Papers
Andrew Jackson : his contribution to the American tradition [
Includes letters , Presidental messages, and addresses of Jackson]
Speeches and writings 1859-1865 : speeches , letters, and miscellaneous writings : presidential messages and proclamations / Abraham Lincoln .
For other sources of this type, search Bridge:
By subject: Subject Heading CORRESPONDENCE
PERSONAL NARRATIVES
REMINISCENCES
INTERVIEWS
By title keyword: MEMOIR*
AUTOBIOGRAPHY*
DIARY or DIARIES
LETTERS or CORRESPONDENCE
SPEECHES
SERMONS
By author (if the name is known)
Newspapers and Magazines of the Times
New York Times Historical Index, 1851-2004
American Periodical Series Online, 1740-1900
HarpWeek [Harper's Weekly, 1857-1865
Civil War Era Newspapers, Pennsylvania
"Gems of the Times"
Letters on slavery from the Old World: written during the canvass for the presidency of the United States in 1860.
Official proceedings of the National Republican conventions of 1868, 1872, 1876, and 1880.
Presidential election, 1868 : proceedings of the National Union Republican Convention, held at Chicago, May 20 and 21, 1868
For other sources of this type, search Bridge using:
Appropriate subject headings and then limit your search to the appropriate years of publication
D. Primary sources may be available on the web :
WEBSITES FOR PRIMARY MATERIALS
There are many ways now to access the web. You have all done Google searches by now but the results are often overwhelming or unsatisfying. There's a better way to start -- by following time honored routes applied to new technologies:
Librarians' catalogs of websites:
Infomine Websites "collected" by academic librarians -- full descriptions and subject headings
Librarians' Index to the Internet Aimed more at public library patrons but still useful for many topics
Gateways to Digital Collections
OAIster is an catalog of digital collections. You can choose text or image and search by keyword. It will tell you about the responsible party (authority).
Best of the History Websites
Google -- Search google with your keywords AND add "digital collections" (with quotation marks) to your search. This phrase is used by authoritative sites so it will bring up useful items. This is a better strategy than using google images.
As always, you must take care to evaluate your material . Who wrote/posted it? What are their credentials? Is the material from an academic source (scholarly publisher or .edu site on the web) or proprietary source (commercial publisher or .com site)? Is the material current for the topic? If a website, when was it last updated? Is that important? Etc. For more suggestions for evaluating websites, consult the list on the libraries' page: Evaluating Web Sites
