U.S. History

Religious History

This is a guide to scholarly research and primary source collections related to United States history. Subpages include Boston history, Indigenous people's histories, Caribbean history, as well as African American History.

Page under Construction

This page is currently under construction and far from complete. If you notice broken links or have suggestions, please write the subject liaison e-mail.

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

Theology Research Guides

Jesuit History Resources at BC
Boston College's collection of material related to the Jesuits is enormous and varied and spans all of the university's libraries. This list is designed to suggest some starting places.

Board Digital Collections

Digital Public Library of America
Aggregates digital collections from around the U.S. and offers excellent tools to discover and explore them. Focuses on 17th to 21st centuries.

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.

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.

Catholic Newspapers and Other Periodicals

The Catholic News Archive
The Archive is a project of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA), a non-profit alliance of archives and libraries collaborating in support of the mission to provide enduring global access to Catholic research resources. Includes a dozen titles from publications across the United States printed in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Chronicling America (Library of Congress)
Digitized newspapers from 1789-1963 from numerous states. Includes multiple local Catholic papers. Can limit to publications with "Catholic" in the title, but researchers should note that many relevant titles do not include that wording.

Individual Titles

Boston Pilot
Publication Date: 1938+
Many years are available online via newspapers.bc.edu. Additionally, CRL has digitized 1838–1857 and 1858–1865. Microfilm and print are available for other years.
The Catholic record
Call Number: Canadiana
Publication Date: 1878-1925
Serial out of London, Ontario first published in 1878.
Catholic Telegraph
Publication Date: 1831-1930
Digitized issues of the Catholic Telegraph, which began publication in Cincinnati in 1831.
Jesuit or Catholic sentinel
Call Number: Boston College Newspapers
Publication Date: 1829-1831
Sacred Heart Review
Call Number: Boston College Newspapers
Publication Date: 1888–1918

Catholic Publications

Catholica Collection [Villanova]
This collection makes available digital content of Catholic materials including books, journals, papers, and manuscripts dealing with the Roman Catholic Church in general, and in particular works created or published in the Americas. Much of the digitalized content will come from physical works made available from our Digital Partners.
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Contains about 1,000 of the most important public-domain works for theological study.
Corpus Thomisticum
The project to digitize the entire corpus of St. Thomas Aquinas' work by Roberto Busa is often cited as the beginning of digital humanities.

Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation This link opens in a new window
Transcriptions and facsimiles of documents, including papal and synodal decrees, catechisms and inquisitorial manuals, biblical commentaries, theological treatises and systems, liturgical writings, saints' lives, and devotional works by Catholic authors of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Internet Sacred Text Archive
Primary texts for world religions, including Christianity and Hinduism
Jesuit Online Bibliography
A free, collaborative, multilingual, and fully searchable database of bibliographic records for scholarship in Jesuit Studies produced in the 21st century. This project provides the citations, abstracts, subject categories, and direct links for books, book chapters, journal articles, book reviews, dissertations, conference papers, and other scholarly works related to the study of Jesuits and the Society of Jesus.

Jewish Newspapers

Historical Jewish Press (National Library of Israel)
A collection of digitized Jewish newspapers published in various countries, languages, and time periods. Full-text search is also available. Includes significant North American content.
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project is more than 100 years of Jewish newspapers published in Pittsburgh. Digitized page images capture daily life in Pittsburgh from the 1890s to today.

Individual Titles

The Atlanta Jewish times
Call Number: Newsbank
Publication Date: 2006 until 2009
The Jewish chronicle
Call Number: Factiva
Publication Date: 2007 until 2012
Jewish Star
Call Number: Newsbank
Publication Date: 2008+
Jewish times
Call Number: Newsbank
Publication Date: 1997+
The Jewish advocate
Call Number: General OneFile
Publication Date: 1991+
Print copy has additional coverage.
Washington Jewish week
Call Number: Newsbank
Publication Date: 2005+

Indices and Union Lists

Union List of Digitized Jewish Historic Newspapers, Periodicals and e-Journals (Ohio State)
Comprehensive list in numerous languages including English, German, French, Hebrew, Yiddish and more.

Protestant Newspapers and Other Periodicals

The Christian examiner
Call Number: American Periodical Series
Publication Date: 1857-1869
The Congregationalist and Christian world
Call Number: American Periodical Series
Publication Date: Available from 1901 until 1906

Relevant Digital Collections

ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials PLUS This link opens in a new window
An index for finding essays, book reviews, and journal articles in all disciplines related to theological and religious studies. Coverage is international in scope and now includes access to over 50 full text journals via linked citations. Includes the contents of the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index published after 1980.

Burns Box

In our very own special collections library (Burns), you'll find a selection of material on your topic. Consider visiting the library and seeing history in your hands. To do so, you should start by searching for material through BC Libraries' catalog and then ordering it (if you haven't registered, you'll be prompted). For a guide on the process, check out the "Finding Burns Material" page. You might also check out the following recommendations:

David Goldstein and Martha Moore Avery papers
Call Number: Burns Library
Publication Date: 1870-1958, bulk 1917-1940
Relate mainly to their association with and disavowal of the Socialist Party, their conversion to Catholicism, and their subsequent lecture tours. The bulk of the material consists of Goldstein's professional papers, with a smaller amount of his personal papers and of Avery's papers. The collection includes artifacts, correspondence, financial records, pamphlets and clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, subject files, and writings.
Elizabeth Hayward collection of Ursuline Academy materials, circa 1830-1985
Call Number: Burns Library
Publication Date: 1830-1985 (bulk 1878)
This collection was compiled by Elizabeth W. Hayward, a former Ursuline Academy student. It contains correspondence, notes, clippings, and printed material relating to the Ursuline Academy convent fire in 1834 and a reunion of Ursuline Academy graduates in 1878. The correspondence series is the largest and includes unpublished firsthand accounts of the convent fire and riots.
Liturgy and life collection
Call Number: Burns Library
Publication Date: 1870-1975, bulk 1925-1975
This collection documents the liturgical movement in the American Catholic Church from 1925 to the introduction of the Second Vatican Council's reforms. It contains religious pamphlets and artifacts in many forms, including artwork, relics, medals, rosaries, crucifixes, vestments and other textiles, sick call sets, and other items.

For more information on Burn's Library's expansive Jesuit & Catholic holdings, visit this informational page.

Anti-Catholic

Anti-Catholic Rhetoric in Burns
Search for material at Burns related to anti-Catholic sentiments.

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

U.S. History

Religious History

Page under Construction

What's on This Page

Theology Research Guides

Board Digital Collections

Catholic Newspapers and Other Periodicals

Catholic Publications

Jewish Newspapers

Individual Titles

Indices and Union Lists

Protestant Newspapers and Other Periodicals

Relevant Digital Collections

Burns Box

Anti-Catholic