InfoGuides: ENGL 6300 (Dr. Tyrer): Intro to English Graduate Studies: Digital Collections

Digital Collections

A vast amount of information is freely available on the Internet; however, some websites are more reputable than others. Whether the information you use is from a free website or from a library database, be sure to evaluate your sources carefully. The sites listed below include freely accessible primary and secondary sources pertaining to 19th Century American literature.

American Authors
Provides biographical information on American authors as well as links to select full-text resources. Includes a literary timeline, a guide to American literary movements, and links to American literature sites.
American Memory
Created by the Library of Congress, American Memory contains digitized print materials as well as audio and visual resources on American history, literature, government, and culture.
American Verse Project
An electronic archive of poetry published prior to 1920. Includes canonical and noncanonical authors.
Digital Schomburg African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
Digitized collection of writings by African American women writers. Texts were sourced from the Schomburg Center at the New York Public Library.
Documenting the American South
A full-text database of primary resources on Southern history, literature, and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Includes 3 digitization projects: slave narratives, first-person narratives, and Southern literature.
Early American Fiction Collection, 1789-1875
Early American Fiction 1789–1875 offers the full text of 875 first editions of American novels and short stories by such authors as Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain, as well as a host of minor writers of the period.
Early Americas Digital Archive
Text of documents written in and about the Americas between 1492 until the 1800s. Maintained by Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland. Advanced Search via the "Archive" button.
Emily Dickinson Electronic Archive
A scholarly website devoted to the study of Emily Dickinson, her writing practices, writings directly influencing her work, and critical and creative writings generated by her work.
Emory Women Writers Resource Project
A collection of edited and unedited texts by women writing from the seventeenth century through the early twentieth century.
Library of Southern Literature
The "Library of Southern Literature" includes a wide range of literary works of the American South published before 1924.
Making of America (Cornell)
A digital library of American social history from the antebellum period through the reconstruction with strengths in education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, science, and technology. Collection is divided between the University of Michigan and Cornell University.
Making of America (Michigan)
A digital library of American social history from the antebellum period through the reconstruction with strengths in education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, science, and technology. Collection is divided between the University of Michigan and Cornell University.
Modern American Poetry
An online journal and companion to the Anthology of Modern American Poetry (Oxford UP, 2000).
NINES: Nineteenth-century scholarship online
Provides peer-reviewed digitized materials from the 19th century.
PAL: Perspectives in American Literature
A research and reference guide for studies in American literature. Site contents are organized according to period and topic.
Society for the Study of American Women Writers
A collection of online editions of texts by authors such as Lydia Marie Child, Hannah F. Gould, Harriet Beecher Stow, and Constance Fenimore Woolson.
Voices from the Gaps
Celebrates and documents the creativity of Asian, Black, Latina, and Native women.
The Walt Whitman Archive
The Walt Whitman Archive is an electronic research and teaching tool that sets out to make Whitman's vast work, for the first time, easily and conveniently accessible to scholars, students, and general readers.
Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875
Provides electronic access to over 2,800 volumes of 19th century American fiction. Works may be viewed as either text or page images.