For my research, I need ...
- Gale in Context: Biography This link opens in a new windowCourtesy of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System
Current and historic biographies with links to full-text articles from hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Search by name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender. Some obituaries. - HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowThis resource is made available to the Northeastern University community with support from alumni donors.
These video oral history interviews highlight the accomplishments of individual African Americans and African-American-led groups and movements. A resource for students and scholars exploring African American history and culture. Over 2700 individuals are profiled. Transcripts available. - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window58,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles, and who died in or before 2008. Authoritative in-depth articles include likenesses and detailed lists of additional sources.
The following link is an open resource at the Library of Congress.
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA).
- EIU Viewpoint and Country Reports (Economist Intelligence Unit) This link opens in a new windowContains Country Reports, Country Finance, and Country Commerce, plus special reports on current international issues. Updated continuously. Terms of service
- Europa World Plus This link opens in a new windowAn encyclopedia with detailed entries covering political and economic information in more than 250 countries and territories. Not limited to Europe! Frequently updated.
- Foreign Policy This link opens in a new windowGlobal news magazine providing insights and analysis as well as original reporting.
- Policy Commons This link opens in a new windowReports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 21,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowBrings together data and graphs on every imaginable topic from business to government, surveys, sports, and scientific topics. Under the Reports dropdown menu, there is a collection of reports on Countries & Regions.with demographic data.
- BBC News Country Profiles
Authoritative source for country information, reports, white papers and studies.
Library Media Collections
- Academic Video Online (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowAcademic Video Online Premium provides video content to a broad range of subject areas, including documentaries and journalistic content on topics in business, politics, history, music, public health, education and more. Training videos are also available.
- Docuseek This link opens in a new windowDocumentary films for higher education including the Good Docs Collection.
- JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new windowThis 30-volume video streaming series includes over 500 performances from 100 countries.
- Kanopy Streaming This link opens in a new windowA curated collection of films for the Northeastern community, including feature films as well as high-interest documentaries. You may use Scholar OneSearch to find out if Northeastern has a particular film. Closed captions and transcripts included. Films provided by HBO and Neon Films cannot be viewed outside of the U.S.
Open resource, or free, videos are online. Noteworthy collections include:
Sample TED Talk video
Podcasts
WHYY (not a typo) PBS radio presents “Real Black History,” a podcast looking at the struggle for equality.
Not just for Black History Month! Recommended list for listening.
Create an account to access current digital editions of these newspapers--
- Financial TimesLondon-based and international in scope, with extensive business, marketing, economic, political, news and trends worldwide. Also hosts subject-focused newsletters, podcasts, and live conferences. Access to the Financial Times requires registration with a Northeastern or NU Boston email address.
- New York Times via NYTimes.com This link opens in a new windowNortheastern offers current and archival access to the New York Times. Please use the link above to register with a Northeastern email address. Once registered, users can log in directly at https://www.nytimes.com or use the New York Times app on a smartphone or device.
- Wall Street Journal This link opens in a new windowLeading economic, business, finance, and political news, information, commentary and analysis. For historic WSJ content dating back to 1985, please use Factiva (Opens in new window). Individual registration using a Northeastern email address is required.
- Washington PostWashington D.C.'s newspaper, with coverage of the city and region, national events, and coverage of federal government "inside-the-beltway" news. For off-campus access, please create an account and then follow these instructions (Opens in new window) to link our university subscription. Once registered, users can log in directly at www.washingtonpost.com.
Historical Newspapers
- African Newspapers Series I (Readex/Newsbank) This link opens in a new windowCovers about 1800-1922. This collection of historical African newspapers provides coverage of the people, cultures, issues and events that shaped the continent. Themes include the first world war, Zulu Wars, settler colonialism and the rejection of Western imperialism.
- Atlanta Daily World 1931-2003 (Proquest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowNewspaper from Atlanta, GA, reflecting the voice of the Black American community.
- Baltimore Afro-American 1893-1988 (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowA newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland that reflects the voice of its Black community.
- Chicago Defender: 1910 - 1975 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowFully digitized African American newspaper Chicago Defender from 1910 to 1975.
- Cleveland Call and Post 1934-1991 (Proquest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowThis historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable news from the Cleveland Black community.
- Los Angeles Sentinel 1934-2005 (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowA newspaper published in Los Angeles, CA, that reflects the voice of its Black community.
- New York Amsterdam News: 1922-1993 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowA weekly newspaper published in New York that reflects the voice of its Black community.
- Norfolk Journal and Guide: 1916-2003 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowThis historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the timeThe weekly focuses on local and national African-American news, sports, and issues and has been in circulation since 1900.
- Philadelphia Tribune 1912-2001 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowThe historical Philadelphia Tribune collection offers both full page and article digital images in PDF format with searchable full text. The Philadelphia Tribune is the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States
- Pittsburgh Courier: 1911-2002 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowA primary goal of the Courier was to empower blacks both economically and politically. Articles and editorials encouraged the black community's support of organizations such as The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and The National Urban League
Selected Open Resource Newspapers
What are primary sources?
Some examples of Primary Sources:
- Audio recordings of a speech or oral history
- Autobiographies, diaries, or letters
- Certain government documents, such as congressional hearings or agency reports
- Interviews
- Journal articles which report first hand observations
- Newspaper accounts of events
- Photographs or moving images of an event
- Records of an organization, often kept in Archives
Primary Source Collections include:
- Afro-Americana Imprints (Readex/Newsbank) 1535-1922 This link opens in a new windowCreated from the Library Companys Afro-Americana Collectionwhich began with Benjamin Franklinthis online resource provides more than 12,000 printed books, pamphlets and broadsides, about the African American experience, Africa and the Caribbean, and including works by African American authors.
- Boston Public Schools Desegregation Collection (Northeastern University) This link opens in a new windowThis project was partially funded by the Boston Library Consortium.
Reports, correspondence, memorandum, newsletters, flyers, posters, legal proceedings, newspaper clippings, and photographs documenting the desegregation of the Boston Public Schools and its effect on students, parents, and communities. - Early Caribbean Digital Archive (Northeastern University) This link opens in a new windowA digital archive of early colonial Caribbean texts, to uncover and make accessible a literary history of the Caribbean written or related by black, enslaved, Creole, indigenous, and/or colonized people.
- Empire Online (Adam Matthew Digital) This link opens in a new windowOriginal primary source documents relating to Empire Studies, including decolonization, from libraries and archives around the world. Diaries, images, letters, records.
- Lower Roxbury Black History Project (Northeastern University)From 2007-2009, with the assistance of her son, London Parker-McWhorter, photographer and documentary filmmaker Lolita Parker Jr spoke with over 40 residents of Roxbury to collect the audio, video, interviews and oral histories, scans, and photographs documenting the rich history of Boston’s Lower Roxbury community.
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Papers This link opens in a new windowCourtesy of the Northeastern School of Law Library
Parts 1-10, 13-17 and 20-23 of the NAACP Papers, divided into topical modules. - Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, Law This link opens in a new windowThis collection brings together all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.
- National Archives -- African American Heritage
This page highlights the Black experience with resources online, in programs, and through traditional and social media..
Here is a sampling of open resource special collections.
Google Cultural Institute -- Black History and Culture is a treasure trove on online Black history and culture, including the Museum of UnCut Funk, dedicated to celebrating Black Culture of the 1970s.
King Encyclopedia is a searchable database at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University. Both are excellent for finding primary sources.
Library of Congress includes
Slave Voyages --Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
UMass Amherst Guide of Reparations in the United States--Historical Timeline of Reparations Payments Made From 1783 through 2022 by the United States Government, States, Cities, Religious Institutions, Universities, Corporations, and Communities