Research Guides: Race, American Medicine, and Public Health: African American Experiences: Archival Collections and Institutions

Primary Source Databases @GW

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century This link opens in a new window
This database provides full-text access to articles from a number of historic African American newspapers, beginning in 1827 with Freedom's Journal. The collection contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and offers first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day.
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
This collection features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
American Periodicals Series (1741-1940) This link opens in a new window
Page-images from more than 1,100 historic American magazines, journals, and newspapers illuminating the development of American culture, politics, and society across 150 years. Articles can be searched by author, source, or words in the complete text.
Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new window
The largest and broadest online collection of genealogical records. Each record collection includes detailed information about the source, and many collections include images of primary source documents and/or transcriptions, in addition to unique name indexes. New content and updates are added weekly.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender. LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 This link opens in a new window
Includes Parts l & ll. Part I brings together primary source content on the social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world. Includes the gay rights movement, activism, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and more. Part ll highlights marginalized groups—even within the LGBTQ community—and enables users to draw new connections across the development of LGBTQ culture and activism through access to key publications.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century (History Vault) This link opens in a new window
The link goes to the History Vault main page; then look for Black Freedom Struggle under Browse Collections. This database gives allows researchers to study both well-known and unheralded events in the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century from the perspective of men and women who waged it. Consists of two modules: "Federal Government Records," and "Organizational Records and Personal Papers."
Daily Worker Online This link opens in a new window
Full-text archive of the Daily Worker, official organ of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), published from 1924 to 1958.
HarpWeek (Harper's Weekly: 1857-1877) This link opens in a new window
Searchable page images from Harper's Weekly magazine for 1857-1877, the Civil War era through Reconstruction.
Washington Post (Historical,1877-2008) This link opens in a new window
Online archival access to The Washington Post. Includes page images from every issuecover to coverin downloadable PDF files. Fully searchable.
Women's Magazine Archive (I & II) This link opens in a new window
Contains retrospective coverage of 19th and 20th-century consumer magazines aimed at a female readership: Better Homes and Gardens, Chatelaine, Cosmopolitan, Essence, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents, Redbook, Seventeen, Town & Country, WIN News, and Woman's Day.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
A collection of full-text primary materials documenting various movements and events in the history of women's social reform activities. Sources include documents, images, and books, and are organized around topical document projects.
Washington Evening Star This link opens in a new window
This database provides a searchable facsimile of every page of every issue of the Washington Evening Star from its founding on December 16, 1852 to the day it ceased publishing on August 7, 1981. Considered the “paper of record” for national political coverage, the Star was one of the highest profile publications in the nation. The paper covers nearly 130 years of American history, offering significant new research opportunities from the Antebellum Period to World War I to the Post-Vietnam Era.

National Library of Medicine

National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD
Located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, the National Library of Medicine is the world’s largest biomedical library. It maintains and makes available a vast print collection and produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics.
NLM - Digitial Collections
The NLM has digitized and made searchable over 90,000 items within their collection, including books, photographs, videos, and maps.
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The collections include:
• Images from the History of Medicine
• Medicine in the Americas, 1610-1920
• World War I, 1914-1918
• World War II, 1939-1949
• Health Policy and Services Research
• NLM Publications and Productions
• The Public Health Film Goes to War
Guide to Library and Archival Collections of African Americans in Medicine and Biomedical Research
The purpose of this guide is to identify repositories containing medical history collections useful for researchers and scholars interested in African Americans in Medicine and Biomedical Research.

The following is a description of the National Library of Medicine's holdings on this topic:
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"The National Library of Medicine has an extensive collection of research materials on Africans American in Science, Medicine, and the Health Professions. This material includes a comprehensive list of books with autobiographies and biographies of leading African American physicians, scientists, and nurses. There are also historical studies on black professional organizations, medical schools, hospitals, and the delivery of care to African Americans from the antebellum period through to the present. The NLM's extensive on-line collection of prints and photographs includes images of African American doctors, dentists, nurses, and nurse-midwives. These on-line images also document African Americans' contributions to public health and to scientific research."

Other collections available in the Washington, D.C. area

African-American Research, The National Archives
This page provides an introduction to research on African-American topics in the federal records holdings of The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
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A portion of NARA's holding's may be searched online in the Archival Research Catalog (ARC), http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/.
DC Public Library, Washingtoniana Collection
A special collection that houses an array of resources and materials from the late 18th Century to the present, with a primary focus on local D.C. history. Note: Access is limited during a three-year modernization of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Check the website for details.
Howard University, The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center
A research center at Howard University, Washington, D.C., this facility is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world.
National Museum of African American History and Culture: The Collection
Search the collection online for objects held by this Smithsonian museum.
Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room, Library of Congress
The holdings of the Serial & Government Publications Division are very strong in US newspapers, with 9,000 titles covering the past three centuries. The complete suite of the Proquest Black Newspapers (historical), e.g., New York Amsterdam News, is included. The Division's Reading Room is open to the public.