Last revised: July 2009

American and British Primary Source Material in Major Microform and Digital Collections

Scope: This is a guide to American and British primary source material from ca. 1500 to ca. 1900 available on microform in the University of Maryland Libraries. Some of the material is manuscript but most is printed and includes books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers and periodicals. Some of these collections are also available in digital form. The collections are described and their locations and call numbers are given. Included also are links to the electronic catalogs and references to the print guides that lead you to individual titles in the collections. For fuller descriptions of these microform collections, as well as references to additional sets not included in this guide, consult the Microforms Collection Descriptions. All of these microform collections are located in the Periodicals/Microform Room in McKeldin Library (MCKPER) in one of the following microform formats: microcard (MCARD), microfiche (MFICHE), microfilm (MFILM), or microprint (MPRINT).

Great Britain

British Biographical Archive. New York: K.G. Saur, 1984.
Location: Mckeldin Periodicals Room Microfiche
Call Number: CT103.B74 1984 (1200 microfiche)
Print Guides: British Biographical Index (McKeldin Reference Stacks CT773.B75 1990; 4 volumes) and British Biographical Archive (McKeldin Reference Stacks CT103.B74 1984 Guide).
Scope: This collection contains 324 English-language biographical reference books originally published between 1601 and 1929, covering 200,000 individuals from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and all British colonies to the date of their independence or home rule, as well as persons generally associated with Britain.

Early English Books, 1475-1640. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International,
1937?- .
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: PR1101.E5 (2034 reels)

Early English Books, 1641-1700. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1966- . (In Progress)
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: PR1101.E51
Electronic Full Text: The full text of many items in the Early English Books collections are available through the Early English Books Online (EEBO) database.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) is an electronic database with a record for everything in the Early English Books collections. It also contains records for items that have not been microfilmed. To restrict a search in the ESTC to titles contained in these collections type in your search terms and add the words early english books. The results will give you references to items in the collections, providing reel and position numbers.
Scope: The Early English Books collections reproduce most surviving books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the British Isles from 1473 through 1700, along with English-language publications produced elsewhere during that time.

The Eighteenth Century. Woodbridge, Conn.: Research Publications, 1982- . (In progress) (Library owns reels 1 - 5355. Later reels available through Interlibrary Loan.)
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: PR1134.E3
Electronic Full Text: The full text of many items in this collection are available through the Eighteenth Century Collections Online database.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) is an electronic database with a record for everything in this collection. It also contains records for items that have not been microfilmed. To restrict a search in the ESTC to titles contained in this collection choose type in your search terms and add the words the eighteenth century. The results will give you references to items in this collection, providing reel and position numbers.
Scope: This collection will eventually reproduce approximately 200,000 books, pamphlets, and broadsides selected from the 500,000 titles printed in Great Britain and its colonies or printed in English anywhere from 1701 through 1799.

Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. New Haven, Conn.: Research Publications, 1974.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: HB161.G64 (3380 reels), HB161.G64 Suppl. (Supplement, 426 reels) and HB161.G642 (Serials, 453 reels)
Electronic Guide to the Collection: An Online Guide to the microfilm set has been produced by the publisher, Primary Source Microfilm.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The Libraries' Catalog can be used to identify items in this collection. Choose the advanced search feature in the Catalog. On one line type in your keywords and on another line type goldsmiths'-kress. The results will give you references to items in the collection, providing reel and position numbers.
Print Guides: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature: A Consolidated Guide to Segment I-II of the Microfilm Collection (McKeldin Reference Stacks HB161.G64 Index; 7 volumes); Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic literature: Segments III, Serials: Guide to the Microfilm Collection (McKeldin Reference Stacks HB161.G642 Index).
Scope: This collection reproduces the pre-1850 monographic and pre-1906 serial holdings of the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Boston. These have been supplemented by material from the Seligman Collection at the Butler Library at Columbia University and the Sterling Library at Yale University.

History of Women. New Haven, Conn.: Research Publications, 1975-1979.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: HQ1121.H5 (1248 reels)
Electronic Guide to the Collection: An Online Guide to the microfilm set has been produced by the publisher, Primary Source Microfilm.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The Libraries' Catalog can be used to identify items in this collection. Choose the advanced search feature in the Catalog. On one line type in your keywords and on another line type history of women microfilm. The results will give you references to items in the collection, providing reel and position numbers.
Print Guide: History of Women: guide to the Microfilm Collection (McKeldin Reference Stacks HQ1121.H53).
Scope: This collection of printed books, pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts and photographs is a selection of holdings from the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College; the Sophia Smith Collection (Women's History Archive) at Smith College; the Jane Addams Memorial Collection of the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Campus; the Galatea Collection of the Boston Public Library; the Miriam Y. Holden Collection, the Ida Rust Macpherson Collection at Scripps College; and materials from the New York Public Library, Widener Library at Harvard University, and the Yale University Libraries. The collection includes approximately 12,000 printed volumes, over 2,000 pamphlets, 1,000 photographs, approximately 117 periodicals, and 100,000 pages of manuscript material.

The Nineteenth Century: General Collection. Cambridge, England: Chadwyck-Healey, 1986- . (In progress) (Library owns microfiches 1.1.1 through 1.1.5236. Later microfiches available through Interlibrary Loan.)
Location:: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfiche
Call Number:: D351.N56 1986
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The Nineteenth Century
Scope: This collection reproduces on microfiche a broad range of 19th century English language books and pamphlets published in all parts of the world except North America, between 1801 and 1900. Titles have been obtained primarily from the holdings of the British Library. Not every title published in the 19th century will be included in the collection. The aim of the project is to produce a collection that will illustrate the institutional, intellectual, and social evolution of 19th century Britain. Materials included in the collection cover politics, economics, geography, agriculture, history, archaeology, jurisprudence, philosophy, psychology, education, recreation, science, medicine, technology, family life, and religion. Most works of fiction and poetry are excluded.

The Nineteenth Century. Women Writers: Specialist Collection. Cambridge, England: Chadwyck-Healey, 1988.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfiche
Call Number: PR1143.W65 1988 (microfiche 5.1.1 through 5.1.1663)
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The Nineteenth Century
Print Guide: The Nineteenth Century: Women Writers: Specialist Collection: Guide to Contents. McKeldin Reference Stacks PR1143.W651 1988.
Scope: This collection reproduces novels, poems, short stories, songs and plays by 19th century women writers.

Women Advising Women. Marlborough, Wiltshire, England: Adam Mathew Publications, 1992 - 2006.
Part 1: Early Women's Journals, c1700-1832, from the Bodleian Library, Oxford
Part 2: Advice books, Manuals, Almanacs, and Journals, c1625-1837 from the Bodleian Library, Oxford
Part 3: Lady's Magazine, 1770-1800
Part 4: Lady's Magazine, 1801-1832
Part 5: Women's Writing and Advice, 1450-1710, from the Bodleian Library, Oxford
Part 6: Works on Household Management and Domestic Economy, c.1600-1800 Sources from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
Part 7: Advice Books, Manuals and Journals for Women, 1450-1837, Sources from The Women's Library at London Metropolitan University.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: PN5124.W6W65 (Part 1, 17 reels; Part 2, 20 reels; Part 3, 15 reels; Part 4, 17 reels; Part 5, 22 reels; Part 6, 25 reels; Part 7, 20 reels)
Electronic Guide to the Collection: The publisher, Matthew Adams Publications has produced the following guides to the microfilm: Online Guide to Part 1, Online Guide to Parts 2-4, Online Guide to Parts 5, 6, and 7.
Print Guide: Women Advising Women: A Listing and Guide to the Microform Collection (McKeldin Reference Stacks PN5124.W6W66 guide).
Scope: This is a collection of English women's periodicals, essays, practical manuals, broadsides, ballads, and other materials published from the late 16th century to the start of the Victorian era, with particular emphasis on women's periodicals of the 18th century. The aim of the project is to provide source materials for the study of the social history of women, particularly in the 18th century, which is not so well-documented as the 19th century. Included are prescriptive literature giving the qualities of an ideal woman; practical manuals; advice literature; literary journals; tattlers, giving society news and gossip; fashion journals; general instructional journals; and political literature.

Newspapers and Periodicals

Early British Periodicals. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1968-1979.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: AP4.E2 (902 reels)
Print Guide: A Guide to the Early British Periodicals Collection on Microfilm: with Title, Subject, Editor, and Reel Number Indexes (McKeldin Reference Stacks PN5124.P4U5).
Print Guide: Early British Periodicals: A Guide to Reels 1-902 of the Microfilm Collection. (McKeldin Reference Stacks PN5124.P4U52).
Print Guide: British Literary Magazines (Extensive descriptions of British literary magazines published from 1698 through 1984) (McKeldin Reference Stacks PN5124.L6B74 1983, 4 volumes.)
Scope: This collection comprises 168 British periodicals published in the 18th and 19th centuries. Titles were selected because of their importance as source materials and their lack of availability in American Libraries. Among the subjects included are literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts, and the social sciences.

Early English Newspapers. New Haven, Conn.: Research Publications, 1978- . (In Progress)
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: AN183.E3
Electronic Guide to the Collection: An Online Guide to the microfilm set has been produced by the publisher, Primary Source Microfilm.
Print Guide: Early English Newspapers: Bibliography and Guide to the Microfilm Collection (McKeldin Reference Stacks Z6956.G6E65 and G6E651).
Scope: This collection reproduces the Dr. Charles Burney and John Nichol collections of 17th, 18th, and 19th century English newspapers in the British Library and the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The collection sheds light on virtually every aspect of English life. It also provides information about other countries as reported by the English press.

English Literary Periodicals. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1951-1977.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: AP3.E5 (969 reels)
Print Guide: Accessing English Literary Periodicals: A Guide to the Microfilm Collection with Title, Subject, Editor and Reel Number Indexes (McKeldin Ready Reference Z692.S5U56 1981).
Print Guide: British Literary Magazines (Extensive descriptions of British literary magazines published from 1698 through 1984) (McKeldin Reference Stacks PN5124.L6B74 1983 4 volumes).
Scope: The series consists of 341 periodical titles on many different subjects published during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in England. They include publications by Defoe, Steele, Addison, Swift, Fielding, Johnson, Burke, Smollett, Coleridge, George Eliot, Dickens, Thackeray, the Rossettis, and others.

Additional Collections
The following microform collections (described in the Books, Pamphlets and Broadsides section) also include many periodicals:

The Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature
History of Women
Women Advising Women

United States

American Autobiographies. La Crosse, Wis.: Northern Micrographics, 1974.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfiche
Call Number: CT101.A43 1974
Print Guide: Index to Microfiche Edition of American Autobiographies: Series 1: 1676-1850 (McKeldin Reference Stacks CT101.A43 1974a index ser. 1) and Series 2-5: 1851-1900 (McKeldin Reference Stacks CT101.A43 1974a index ser.2-5).
Scope: This collection includes close to 800 autobiographies of Americans published before 1946. It is drawn from the over 6,000 entries included in Louis Kaplan's Bibliography of American Autobiographies (McKeldin Reference Stacks Z1224.K3).

Early American Imprints, Series One: Evans 1639-1800. Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1955-1968. (Also referred to as the Evans collection.)
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microprint (Microprint in 132 boxes)
Call Number: The titles from this microprint set may be requested directly from the McKeldin Reference Desk by Evans number.
Electronic Full Text: The full text of items in this collection are available through the Early American Imprints, Series One: Evans 1639-1800
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) is an electronic database with a record for everything in the Early American Imprints collections, also referred to as the Evans collection. It also contains records for items that have not been microfilmed. To restrict a search in the ESTC to titles contained in this collection type in your search terms and add the word evans. The results will give you references to items in the collections, providing reel and position numbers.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: Catalogue of Early American Imprints, 1640-1800, Including the Microform Series Early American imprints, First Series, 1639-1800 (Evans) (Ask for CD-ROM at McKeldin Reference Desk) Z1203.A64 1993) is a CD-ROM index that contains records for materials in this collections as well as some others. If an item has been reproduced on microprint the record so indicates, providing the number of the microprint EX: Early American Imprints, 1st Series, no 4321 (filmed).
Scope: This collection reproduces in full more than 42,000 titles published in the United States between 1639 and 1800.

Early American Imprints, Second Series: 1801-1819. New York, Readex Microprint, 1964-. (Also referred to as the Shaw-Shoemaker collection.)
Location: McKeldin Periodicals/Microform Room on Microprint
Call Number: The titles from this microprint set may be requested directly from the McKeldin Reference Desk by Shaw-Shoemaker number.
Print Guides: American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801-1819 (McKeldin Reference Stacks Z1215.S48 23 volumes. Vols. 1-19 Items 1-50192; Vol. 20 Addenda, list of sources, library symbols; Vol 21 Title index; Vol 22 Corrections, author index; Vol 23 Printers, publishers, booksellers, geographical index.).
Scope:This collection provides a comprehensive set of American imprints published from 1801 through 1819.

Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. New Haven, Conn.: Research Publications, 1974.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: HB161.G64 (3380 reels), HB161.G64 Suppl. (Supplement, 426 reels) and HB161.G642 (Serials, 453 reels)
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The Libraries' Catalog can be used to identify items in this collection. Choose the advanced search feature in the Catalog. On one line type in your keywords and on another line type goldsmiths'-kress. The results will give you references to items in the collection, providing reel and position numbers.
Print Guides: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature: A Consolidated Guide to Segment I-II of the Microfilm Collection (McKeldin Reference Stacks HB161.G64 Index; 7 volumes); Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic literature: Segments III, Serials: Guide to the Microfilm Collection (McKeldin Reference Stacks HB161.G642 Index).
Scope: This collection reproduces the pre-1850 monographic and pre-1906 serial holdings of the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Boston. These have been supplemented by material from the Seligman Collection at the Butler Library at Columbia University and the Sterling Library at Yale University.

History of Women. New Haven, Conn.: Research Publications, 1975-1979.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: HQ1121.H5 (1248 reels)
Electronic Guide to the Collection: An Online Guide to the microfilm set has been produced by the publisher, Primary Source Microfilm.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The Libraries' Catalog can be used to identify items in this collection. Choose the advanced search feature in the Catalog. On one line type in your keywords, on another line type in history of women microfilm. The results will give you references to items in the collection, providing reel and position numbers.
Print Guide: History of Women: guide to the Microfilm Collection (McKeldin Reference Stacks HQ1121.H53).
Scope: This collection of printed books, pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts and photographs is a selection of holdings from the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College; the Sophia Smith Collection (Women's History Archive) at Smith College; the Jane Addams Memorial Collection of the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Campus; the Galatea Collection of the Boston Public Library; the Miriam Y. Holden Collection, the Ida Rust Macpherson Collection at Scripps College; and materials from the New York Public Library, Widener Library at Harvard University, and the Yale University Libraries. The collection includes approximately 12,000 printed volumes, over 2,000 pamphlets, 1,000 photographs, approximately 117 periodicals, and 100,000 pages of manuscript material.

Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of Books Relating to America From its Discovery to the Present Time. Louisville, KY: Lost Cause Press, 1965 - . (In Progress)
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room, Microcard and Microfiche
Call Number: E18.S46. Items from this collection are arranged in the McKeldin Periodicals/Microform Room in two ways: 1) microcards are interfiled by main entry in the microcard cabinets; and 2) microfiche are filed together in the microfiche cabinets under E18.S46 and then by their Sabin number.
Electronic Guide to the Collection: An Online Guide to the microfilm set has been produced by the publisher, Primary Source Microfilm.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The electronic database Worldcat can be used to identify items in this collection. In one of the boxes type in your keywords. In another box type the words selected americana in sabin's dictionary and in the box to the right choose the notes/comments option. The results will give you references to items in the collection and will often include the Sabin number.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The Sabin Collection Catalog (Ask for CD-ROM at McKeldin Reference Desk Z1201 .S23 1997) A CD-ROM index that accesses over 24,000 titles from the Sabin collection. Searchable by author, title, year of publication, subject, and fiche and Sabin numbers.
Scope: This continuing series reproduces works cited in Joseph Sabin's bibliography Bibliotheca Americana (McKeldin Reference Stacks Z1201.S2, 29 volumes), which was originally intended to include all published works concerning the political, governmental, military, economic, social, and religious history of the Western Hemisphere from the fifteenth century until the date of the bibliography's publication (1936).

[Wright] American Fiction. Woodbridge, Conn.: Research Publications, 1969 - 1984.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: PS536.A37 (1774-1850, 183 reels), PS536 .A37 SUPPL (1774-1850, Vol 1 Supplement, 10 reels), PS536.A38 (1851-1875, Vol. II, 403 reels), PS536.A39 (1876-1900, Vol. III, 806 reels), PS536.A4 (1901-1905, Vol IV, 260 reels), PS536.A4 SUPPL (1901-1905, Vol IV Supplement 7 reels) PS536.A5 (1906-1910,Vol. V, 185 reels)
Electronic Full Text: The full text of items listed in volume 2 (1851-1875) of the bibliography: American Prose Fiction 1774-1900 (McKeldin Reference Stacks PS536.A37) is available through the Wright American Fiction 1851-1875 database.
Electronic Catalog to the Collection: The Libraries' Catalog can be used to identify items in this collection. Choose the advanced search feature in the Catalog. On one line type in your keywords and on another line type Wright American Fiction. The results will give you references to items in the collection, providing reel and position numbers.
Print Guides: American Prose Fiction 1774-1900. Cumulative Author Index. Index to parts I-III (McKeldin Reference Stacks PS536.A37). American Fiction 1900-1910. Cumulative Author Index to the microfilm Collection. Index to parts IV and V (McKeldin Reference Stacks PS536.A4 Index).
Scope: This microfilm collection contains all of the obtainable titles (over 11,000) from the following bibliographies: Parts I-III from Lyle H. Wright's 3 bibliographies entitled: American Fiction (McKeldin Reference Stacks PS536.A37; .A38; .A39 Index and Parts IV-V from R. Glenn Wright's Title Bibliography of English Language Fiction in the Library of Congress through 1950. Among the prose forms represented in this series are novels, romances, short stories, fictitious biographies, and travels & sketches. Among the famous writers whose fiction appears in this collection are Poe, Hawthorne, Twain, Melville, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Henry James.

Newspapers and Periodicals

New York Times. New York: H.J. Raymond & Co. 1857-present.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: AN53.N4 T5
Electronic Full Text: A digital and searchable version of the New York Times is available through the New York Times Historical.
Print Guide: New York Times Index Index (McKeldin Reference Stacks AI21 .N44 ).
Paper index to the New York Times from 1851-present.
Scope: Largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, founded in 1851 and published in New York City.

American Periodical Series. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1942-1976.
Location: McKeldin Periodicals Room Microfilm
Call Number: CAM35APS (Series I, 18th Century, 33 reels), CAM35APS2 (Series 2, 1800-1850, 1966 reels), CAM35APS3 (Series 3, 1850-1900, 771 reels)
Electronic Full Text: A digital and searchable version of this microfilm set is available through the American Periodical Series Online 1740-1900. Over 1,100 titles have been digitized and are available in the database.
Print Guide: American Periodicals 1741-1900: An Index to the Microfilm Collections: American Periodicals 18th Century, American Periodicals 1800-1850, American Periodicals 1850-1900, Civil War and Reconstruction (McKeldin Reference Stacks PN4877.H6).
Scope: Series 1: 18th Century includes all issues of American periodicals (91 titles) which could be located for the years 1741-1800. Series 2: 1800-1850 includes approximately 900 titles published in America between 1800 and 1850. The subjects include literature, the arts, agriculture, science, technology, and medicine. Series 3: 1850-1900 includes approximately 120 selected American periodicals dealing with literature, the arts, and sciences.

Additional Collections
The following microform collections (described in the Books, Pamphlets and Broadsides section) also include many periodicals:

The Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature
History of Women

return to top