New eresource : Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876

The Readex Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 database has been  acquired from the legacy of Dr. Mark Kaplanoff, Fellow of Pembroke College, who endowed the University Library with funds to support the study of the history of the United States in the University of Cambridge.

Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876—the largest online collection of 18th- and 19th-century newspapers published in this region—will provide a comprehensive primary resource for studying the development of Western society and international relations within this important group of islands.  This unique resource will prove essential for researching colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, international commerce, New World slavery and U.S. relations with the region as far back as the early 18th century.

Created in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society—one of the world’s largest and most important newspaper repositories—this collection will provide students and scholars with easy access to more than 150 years of Caribbean and Atlantic history, cultures and daily life. Featuring more than 140 newspapers from 22 islands, this resource will chronicle the region’s evolution across two centuries through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative information, letters, poetry, advertisements, obituaries and other news items.

Most of these newspapers were published in the English language, but a number of Spanish-, French-, and Danish-language titles are also provided.  Countries represented include Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guadaloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Nevis, Puerto Rico, St. Bartholomew, St. Christopher, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad, and the Virgin Islands. Also found within this resource are newspapers from Bermuda, an island not technically part of the Caribbean, but situated on shipping routes between Europe and this region and integrally related to this region.

Records will be made available in iDiscover for titles in this collection.

Text taken from the Readex platform

New eresource: American Sermons (Series 1 & 2, 1652-1819)

The Readex American Sermons databases have been acquired from the legacy of Dr. Mark Kaplanoff, Fellow of Pembroke College, who endowed the University Library with funds to support the study of the history of the United States in the University of Cambridge.

In the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, ministers and preachers delivered powerful weekly sermons that were often printed and distributed across the burgeoning colonies and towns of early America. In many communities, these sermons were the cornerstone of civic and political discourse, and played a pivotal role in shaping the culture, morals and politics of the British Colonies and the United States of America. American Sermons, 1652-1819, is the most comprehensive digital collection of these publications, providing more than 8,000 sermons printed between 1652 and 1819. Available in two series (1652-1795 and 1796-1819), this product offers text analysis tools, author biographies, and suggested search paths for easy browsing and discovery

A unique window into the American past
“The sermon has a range of eloquence that no other literary form can rival, though novelists, poets, playwrights, and secular orators have never stopped trying,” writes Yale professor Michael Warner. Indeed, sermons are widely regarded as the earliest and most enduring literary form in America—passionately delivered, keenly argued and concerned with both spiritual questions and reflections on civic duty. Almost any topic was fair game, from local gossip to slavery to witchcraft. As such, the sermons offer intriguing research opportunities for not only religious scholars and historians, but anyone interested in the daily life, politics, society, child-rearing and educational systems of early America. Additionally, these sermons provide contemporary cultural commentary on a range of important historical events, from the American Revolution to the abolition movement to immigration debates.

Records will be made available in iDiscover for titles in this collections.

New eresource: Foreign Broadcast Information Service

The University of Cambridge continues to build on its worldwide reputation for the study of American history by supporting researchers with an ever expanding collection of online resources.  In February 2021 the University Library Syndicate approved the acquisition of the Readex company’s two Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports databases with combined coverage from 1941 to 1996. FBIS has been  acquired from the legacy of Dr. Mark Kaplanoff, Fellow of Pembroke College, who endowed the University Library with funds to support the study of the history of the United States in the University.

FBIS Daily Reports, 1941-1974 and FBIS Daily Reports, 1974-1996

As the United States’ principal historical record of political open source intelligence for more than half a century, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report is an indispensable source for insights into decades of turbulent world history. The original mission of the FBIS was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Accordingly, it provides a wealth of information from all countries outside of the U.S.—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

FBIS Daily Report Annexes, 1974-1996

Like the Reports themselves, FBIS Daily Report Annexes, 1974-1996 offers international views and perspectives on historical events from thousands of monitored broadcasts and publications. Created by the U.S. intelligence community to benefit analysts and policy makers, Annexes were “For Official Use Only.” Although a very small number of copies may have found their way into the Government Documents collections of some libraries, no institution outside of the Central Intelligence Agency holds all of the records. Full-text searchable for the first time, FBIS Daily Report Annexes features individual citations for each item as well as highlighted events to assist student researchers.

Records will be made available in iDiscover for titles in this collections.

New eresources: Early American Imprints – Evans

Three Readex Early American Imprints databases have been acquired from the legacy of Dr. Mark Kaplanoff, Fellow of Pembroke College, who endowed the University Library with funds to support the study of the history of the United States in the University of Cambridge.

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800, has been hailed as the definitive resource for teaching and researching nearly every aspect of 17th- and 18th-century America. This incomparable digital collection contains virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America over a 160-year period. Providing complete digital editions of nearly 38,000 printed works, Series I covers subjects ranging from history, literature and culture to politics, government and society.

Early American Imprints, Series I, is comprised of a vast range of publication types. Among the genres included are advertisements, allegories, almanacs, autobiographies, ballads, bibles, captivity narratives, cookbooks, diaries, elegies, eulogies, hymns, imaginary voyages, narratives, novels, operas, plays, poems, primers, sermons, songs, speeches, textbooks, tracts, travel literature and many others.

Early American Imprints, Series I: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800

Fully integrated with Early American Imprints: Evans, this Supplement includes items that are relevant to a host of humanities topics and are representative of numerous genres of colonial print, many emanating from the middle and lower orders of society. The fragile bound books, as a result of their popularity, are generally unknown today because they were read repeatedly until they disintegrated. Among these are guide books to the perplexities of life, which served to shape individual and community identities. The pamphlets, often containing writing of considerable significance, present sermons, religious tracts, political arguments, reports of organized bodies and other influential items. The broadsides—which capture a slice of life, unedited for posterity— include doggerel ballads, advertisements, official decrees, news extras, amateur elegies and more.

Early American Imprints, Series I: Supplement from the American Antiquarian Society, 1652-1800

This extensive collection is comprised entirely of works that fall into the scope of the original Evans and Bristol bibliographies (which formed the basis of Early American Imprints, Series 1: Evans, 1639-1800) but were either missed by Evans and Bristol, or were listed by Evans and Bristol but could not be found until now. For today’s students and scholars of early America, no other collection offers the opportunity to view previously unknown publications from the first 150 years of American history. Broad subject areas covered by these works include the Atlantic World, Cartography, Colonial History, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, Literature, Music, Revolutionary War and Sociology. The materials cover a wide range of important document types: histories, personal narratives, military records, government acts, expedition logs, treaties, maps, almanacs, children’s primers, criminal confessions, recipe books, poems, songs and speeches.

Records will be made available in iDiscover for titles in this collections.

Image credit Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

 

New eresource: Native American Indians, 1645-1819

The Readex Native American Indians, 1645-1819 database has been acquired from the legacy of Dr. Mark Kaplanoff, Fellow of Pembroke College, who endowed the University Library with funds to support the study of the history of the United States in the University of Cambridge.

By the late 17th century, Britain had established colonies along the New England coast and Chesapeake Bay, alongside small groups of Dutch and Swedish settlers. Many of the region’s Indigenous inhabitants were pushed West, where they joined hundreds of other tribes whose lives were irrevocably changed by the arrival of Europeans. Likewise, the presence of Native Americans influenced almost every element of early American settler life, and an enormous number of books were printed about this relationship over the next century and a half. Every major book about Native Peoples from this period is included in Native American Indians, 1645-1819. This product also offers text analysis tools, author biographies, and suggested search paths for easy browsing and discovery.

A comprehensive record of Native America
The documents in Native American Indians, 1645-1819, include treaties, transcribed letters from Native American leaders, the minutes of tribal meetings, histories of numerous tribes, missionary reports, captivity narratives, firsthand accounts of battles, trading records, military rosters, expedition logs and maps, trial records, legislative bills, books on Native American languages and grammar, military rosters, governors’ and legislators’ reports, ballads, songs, plays and more. While such documents are invaluable for scholars and students of Native American studies and early American history, they also offer insight into numerous other fields, including natural history, border studies, military history, political science and linguistics. Additionally, a suite of tools aimed specifically at the Digital Humanities provides word frequencies, keywords in context and other functions that bring this unique content to life in ways never before possible.

Foundational works for understanding Native history
The documents in Native American Indians, 1645-1819, are derived from the holdings of the American Antiquarian Society, Library Company of Philadelphia and many other institutions. Among the seminal works included in this collection are “The Conference with the Eastern Indians, at the ratification of the peace…in July and August 1726,” “A Bill to Authorize the President of the United States to select such tribes of Indians as he may think best prepared for the change, and to adopt such means as he may judge expedient in order to civilize the same,” “Travels and adventures in Canada and the Indian territories between the years 1760 and 1776…” “A Treaty with the Shawanese and Delaware Indians…,” “A history of the voyages and adventures of John Van Delure. Giving an account of his being left on the N.W. coast of America…where he lived almost seven years and married the daughter of an Indian chief,” and more than 1,500 others.

Records will be made available in iDiscover for titles in this collection.

New eresources: African newspapers collections

Access to four Readex newspaper archives are now available to members of the University of Cambridge. Acquisition of the archives has been made possible thanks to funding from the University to support teaching, learning, and research in African Studies.

The new archives available from Readex are:

African Newspapers 1, 1800-1922

This groundbreaking online collection provides more than 60 searchable African newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring English- and foreign-language titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, African Newspapers offers unparalleled coverage of the issues and events that shaped the continent and its peoples between 1800 and 1922.

African Newspapers 2, 1835-1925

Expanding the coverage found in the inaugural edition of African Newspapers, this second series delivers 40 additional African newspapers published between 1835 and 1925. Featuring English- and foreign-language titles from Algeria, Angola, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda, African Newspapers, Series 2, offers deep and unique coverage of the issues and events that shaped the continent and its peoples during this period of major change.

African Newspapers: The British Library Collection

African Newspapers: The British Library Collection features nearly 60 newspapers from across the African continent, all published before 1900. Originally archived by the British Library these rare historical documents are now available for the first time in a fully searchable online collection. From culture to history to geopolitics, the pages of these newspapers offer fresh research opportunities for students and scholars interested in topics related to Africa.

Among the many rare and essential in this series are the Egyptian Gazette (Cairo), Journal Franco-Ethiopien (Djibouti); Central African Times (Blantyre, Malawi), Commercial Gazette (Port Louis, Mauritius), Times of Marocco (Morocco), St. Helena Guardian (Jamestown, St. Helena) and Express en Oranjevrijstaatsch Advertentieblad (Bloemfontein, South Africa).

Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg, SA (1902-1985)

The Rand Daily Mail, published daily in Johannesburg, is a critically important title that pioneered popular journalism in South Africa.

The Rand Daily Mail is of great value to students and scholars, opening exciting new pathways to research a turbulent period in history. Its archives are rich with insight into events related to South Africa’s struggle for freedom and democracy, covered in fascinating detail by a group of daring and talented journalists. Examples include Benjamin Pogrund’s extraordinary coverage of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960; Helen Zille’s uncovering of Steve Biko’s murder at the hands of police in 1977 investigative reporting by Mervyn Rees and Chris Day about the Department of Information’s effort to influence opinion, an exposé that sparked the scandal known as “Muldergate”; and many others. Rand Daily Mailcontinued to be popular among progressive readers until—after adopting an outspoken anti-apartheid stance amid a massive clampdown by security forces—it was controversially closed in 1985.

Records will be made available in iDiscover for titles in this collections.

Text taken from the Readex platform.

Image credit Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

New eresource: South Asian Newspapers, 1864-1922

Access to the Readex South Asian Newspapers, 1864-1922 archive is now available to members of the University of Cambridge. Acquiring the archives has been made possible thanks to funding from the University to support teaching, learning, and research in Asian studies.

This one-of-a-kind collection provides online access to a select group of South Asian newspapers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring English-, Gujarati- and Bengali-language papers published in India, in the regions of the Subcontinent that now comprise Pakistan, and in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), South Asian Newspapers offers extensive coverage of the people, issues and events that shaped the Indian Subcontinent between 1864 and 1922.

Views of South Asian history, politics, culture and daily life
South Asian Newspapers, 1864-1922, covers the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion; construction of railroads; effects of British Colonial rule; Hindu-Muslim conflicts; life on coffee, tea and rubber plantations; Morely-Minto Reforms; formation of the Indian National Congress; start of Mahatma Gandhi’s independence movement; economics, politics, the arts; and much more. Offering a variety of perspectives, the important newspapers in this collection are ideal for comparing and contrasting views on both local and global issues.

South Asian Newspapers includes such titles as Amrita Bazar Patrika (Calcutta), Bankura Darpana (Bankura, India), Madras Mail (Madras), Kayasare Hinda (Bombay), Pioneer(Allahabad, India), Tribune (Lahore, Pakistan) and the Ceylon Observer (Sri Lanka). Through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative updates, letters, poetry, advertisements, matrimony and death notices, this collection chronicles the evolution of cultures and communities across South Asia during a time of intense change.

Records will be made available in iDiscover for titles in this collection.

Image credits: Photo by Mohammed Suhail from Pexels

New eresource: Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007

Access to the Adam Matthew Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 database is now available to members of the University of Cambridge. The acquisition of the database has been made possible thanks to funding from the University to support teaching, learning, and research in African Studies.

An essential resource for the study of slavery, the African American experience and world history spanning over five centuries.

Designed for teaching and research, this resource brings together documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world, covering an extensive time period from 1490. Topics covered include the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.

The resource offers in-depth case studies in America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba along with important material examining European, Islamic and African involvement in the slave trade.

Highlights

• African forts and the Gold Coast
• Brazil
• Education and Social Justice
• The Day Law in Kentucky
• Family Papers, Correspondence, Bills and Plantation Journals from the Louisianna State University
• Local court records relating to slavery for both Georgia and North Carolina
• Resistance and Revolts
• Slave cases decided in the Supreme Courts of Georgia and North Carolina
• Slave testimony
• Slavery in the Early Americas
• Songs that recall the Transatlantic Slave Experience
• Urban Slavery in New York and Philadelphia
• The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvannia
• Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean Slave Trade

Taiyo (The Sun) 太陽 : access until 30 June 2021

University of Cambridge members now have trial access to the complete set of ‘Taiyo (The Sun) 太陽 ’, a Japanese literary and general interest magazine published between 1895 and 1928.

Access Taiyo (The Sun) 太陽 via JapanKnowledge (trial ends 30 June 2021):

https://ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/login?url=https://japanknowledge.com/lib/en/shelf/taiyo/

Please note there is a limit of 4 simultaneous users.

More information here in English and Japanese.

Please send your feedback on this trial using the online form.

Taiyo (The Sun) 太陽 is also available to access via the Databases A-Z.