StoryMap JS for the History Classroom

Primary Source Collections

Selecting Primary Sources

For this project, you want to select at least 10 objects--can be paintings or illustrations, letters and books--on your topic. To do so, lay out your what, where, when, and who you are looking at. Once you have those concepts mapped out, you can use them as keywords to search in the following databases.

Each of these databases of materials allow you to search for keywords, but whether they allow you to limit to date or place depend on the repository. Experiment and feel free to consult your librarian (Dr. Bee Lehman) with questions.

Broad Digital Collections

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
ARTstor is a database of more than 1.3 million digital images. It covers many time periods and cultures and represent architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, etc. Users are required to create a personal account to access this database off campus.

Europeana
Interface in English or other, major European languages. Content in multiple languages.
Europe-wide unified search of digitized collections. Images, audio, texts, and more. Funded by the EU. Covers more than 1,000 years of history. Strongest for 1500 to 2000.
Open Access.

Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to multiple primary source (particularly newspapers and periodicals; books and manuscripts; legal and government documents) collections focused on US and British History with some content from around the rest of the globe. Coverage spans the 17th to 21st centuries, depending on collection.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Interface in English. Content in English or other languages.
Digitized collections from the Library of Congress, includes manuscripts, books, photos, maps, audio recordings, and more. Strongest between the 17th and 21st centuries. Content dating back to B.C.E.
Open Access.
Smithsonian Institution's Digital Collections
Search over 16 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 5.1 million online images, audio & videos and blog posts.

World Digital Library This link opens in a new window
The World Digital Library is a Library of Congress project sponsored by UNESCO. Items in this digital library, including books, manuscripts, photographs, maps and sound recordings, are individually described and searchable in seven languages. Most countries and regions around the world are represented.

Jesuit Writings
Boston College's collection of books, letters, and broadsides written by Jesuits or about Jesuits. Includes political debates, travel accounts of missionaries, and texts debating the merits of Protestantism vs Catholicism
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Facet by subject and language to find relevant objects for your topic

Maps

David Rumsey Map Collection
Over 95,000 Collection Maps and related images with global coverage from the 13th to the 21st centuries with excellent search capacities. Focuses on 16th–21st century maps of North and and South America, as well as maps of the world, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, globes, school geographies, maritime charts, and a variety of separate maps including pocket, wall, children's and manuscript maps.
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Host: Stanford University
Maps and Geography - Europeana Collections
Explore more than 350,000 maps, globes, charts, and more (including ephemera such as compasses) with global coverage across multiple centuries from collections across Europe. Search capacity limited.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
Fantastic collection of U.S. and world maps from the University of Texas at Austin.

Books

Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Digital versions of key 15th through 17th century printed texts.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
A digital repository for the nation's research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text. Boston College's status as a partner makes it possible for members of the Boston College community to download any of the out-of-copyright items as PDFs.

Selected Highlights

Selected individual books and manuscripts from Burns Library, the special collections library at Boston College.

Arte, y vocabulario en la lengua general del Peru, llamada Quichua, y en la lengua Española. El mas copioso y elegante que hasta agora se ha impresso. En los Reyes. by Diego de Torres Rubio
Call Number: PM6306 .T67 1614
Publication Date: 1614
Notes on orthography, pronunciation, parts of speech, and usage followed by a Quechua-Spanish and Spanish-Quechua dictionary each listing approximately 2500 words or phrases in double columns. Click on "Full view" at the bottom of the page to read.
Boston College collection of Cotton Mather letters by Cotton Mather
Call Number: MS.1990.023
Publication Date: 1692
Three letters written by Cotton Mather to Chief Justice William Stoughton about the Salem witch trials. Handwritten, with typed transcripts. For each letter, click on the thumbnail than click on "BC Digitized Collections" to view.
China monumentis by Athansius Kircher, SJ
Call Number: DS708 .K58 1667
Publication Date: 1667
Kircher, a widely published Jesuit scholar, compiled this illustrated depiction of China based on Jesuit missionaries' and others' travel accounts. Click on "Full view" at the bottom of the page to read
Elizabeth Capell recipe book by Elizabeth Capell
Call Number: MS.2002.012
Publication Date: 1699-1715
Contains culinary recipes and recipes for medical remedies, in the handwriting of several different authors. In English. Click on "BC Digitized Collections" to view
Franciscan antiphoner by Catholic Church
Call Number: MS.1996.097
Publication Date: circa 1300-1350
Liturgical music book, handwritten on vellum. Likely from South Germany. Written in black ink in a gothic liturgical hand; initials in red, black and blue with penwork decoration. Click on "BC Digitized Collections" to view
The History of trauayle in the VVest and East Indies : and other countreys lying eyther way towardes the fruitfull and ryche Moluccaes... by Pietro Martire d'Anghiera
Call Number: E141 .A55 1577
Publication Date: 1577
English translation from 1577 of a series of letters and reports of the early explorations of Central and South America first published in 1511. Click on "Full view" at the bottom of the page to read.
[Connolly book of hours]
Call Number: MS.1986.097
Publication Date: 15th century
Illuminated French personal devotional book handwritten on vellum with 29 illustrations. Borders of flowers, fruit, animals (some mythic) and foliage in reds, browns, blues, greens and gold leaf, with pen and ink scrolls and dots. In Latin and French. Click on "BC Digitized Collections" to view.

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

StoryMap JS for the History Classroom

Primary Source Collections

Selecting Primary Sources

Broad Digital Collections

Maps

Books

Selected Highlights