Databases

Provides comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide from 1900 to 2010. The collection includes primary and secondary materials across multiple media formats and content types for each selected event, including Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and more than thirty additional subjects.

This primary source database chronicles human migration in the latter half of the 20th-century. News and analysis comes from reports gathered daily between the early 1940s and 1996 by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a U.S. government organization that became part of the CIA.  These include translated and English-language radio and television broadcasts (transcripts), newspapers, periodicals and government documents.

Primary source database featuring fully searchable articles, advertisements, editorials, cartoons, and photographs from South African newspaper the Rand Daily Mail. Known today for being the first newspaper to openly oppose apartheid and contribute to its downfall, its archives provide insight into events related to South Africa’s struggle for freedom and democracy.

Provides original materials on the political, social, and cultural history of Native Peoples from the 16th century well into the 20th century, including rare books and monographs, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, census records, legal documents, maps, drawings and sketches, oral histories, photos, and videos from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Major contributors include the University of Alberta, U.S. National Archives, Library of Congress, Princeton University, Moravian Archives, and Gonzaga University.  Titles in this database are also listed in the library catalogue.

For over the past 200 years, the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, and deforestation, have caused the concentrations of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" to increase significantly in our atmosphere. This collection documents the U.S. response to the threat posed by climatic change and global warming. The research behind the studies, reports, and analyses represents an exhaustive review of the facts, causes, and economic and political implications of a phenomenon that threatens every region of the world.

Showcases popular and lesser-known periodicals published during the interwar period. With articles covering culture, entertainment, fashion, home and family life, world current affairs, class, social and welfare issues, these historically significant and highly visual magazines provide a rich insight into these dynamic yet turbulent decades, as well as allowing examination of a burgeoning media industry that both shaped and reflected society.

Collection contains digitized primary source material from the archives of the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT), one of the largest and oldest advertising agencies in the world. The documents reveal the history, operation, policies and achievements of the company and its role in shaping twentieth-century culture, society, business, marketing, consumer and economic history as well as human psychology.

A large number of brands, companies, and industries are covered from automobiles to travel and tourism. Nine major clients are featured in the collection: Kodak, Kellogg, Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Pan Am, R.T. French, Scott Paper Company, United States Marine Corps, and White Castle. Materials include market research reports, presentations, meeting minutes, scripts for advertisements, correspondence, proofs of advertisements, and more.

Digitized from originals held by the Library's Research Collections.  David Diamant is the pseudonym of David Erlich, a Jewish communist and committed member of the underground resistance during World War II. This collection consists of original documents collected by Diamant over a period of approximately 30 years dealing primarily with the Jewish segment of the French underground resistance; many of the documents originate with communist groups, and some deal with Polish groups. Most of the documents are in French, while some are in Yiddish.

Full page and article images with searchable full text back to 1944 of this French language newspaper from France covering leading issues and events, like World War II and the Fifth Republic, to French, European and international politics, society and business.

ProQuest Leftist Newspapers and periodicals is a collection of English-language publications spanning beyond the 20th century (1845-2015) covering Communist, Socialist and Marxist thought, theory and practice. Issues covered include workers’ rights, organized labor, labor strikes, Nazi atrocities, McCarthyism’s rise after WWII, Civil Rights, and modern-day class struggles which give rise to renewed interest in alternative social organizations. This collection includes 145 titles with over 150,000 digitized pages.

Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles – The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. In addition to LGBT/gender/sexuality studies, this material also serves related disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology, health, and the arts.Subject coverage includes gay rights, gay culture, gay literature/art, gay rights movement, gender identity, gender studies, lesbianism, LGBT activism, LGBT studies, social history and transgender community.

Includes materials ranging from texts, letters, periodicals, speeches, interviews, and ephemera covering LGBT political, social and cultural movements to memoirs, biographies, poetry, and works of fiction that provide insight into the lives of lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual individuals and the community. Content partners include the Kinsey Institute Archive and Library, Windy City Media Group, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archive, and notable LGBT publishers Alyson Books, Cleis Press, and Firebrand Books as well as mainstream trade and university publishers.

Provides insight into the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century through access to the market research reports and supporting documents of Ernest Dichter, the era’s foremost consumer analyst and market research pioneer.

Includes content on some of America’s best known brands, containing thousands of reports commissioned by advertising agencies and global businesses in a booming era for consumerism, ‘Madison Avenue’ advertising and global brands on consumer goods ranging from tobacco and broadcasting to cars and hotels.

The collection supports researchers of consumer culture, business, advertising, marketing and psychology.

The Mass Observation project collected information about everyday life in Britain during the mid-twentieth century, reflecting attitudes, behaviors, and public opinion. Created by three British researchers as a personal research project, its focus changed as it served the government during the Second World War and then emerged as a market research organization. The findings continue to be valued for their insight into British society, although sometimes criticized for the self-selecting methodology used to collect the data.

The online database provides over 2,000 File Reports (top-level summaries), Day Surveys from 1937-38, Diaries from 1939-67, and a range of Topic collections including: Household Matters and Household Budgeting, 1939-1950; Juvenile Delinquency; Korea, 1950; Radio Listening, 1939-1948; World Outlook, 1945-1950, Film; Reading Habits; Dreams; Religion; Victory Celebrations, and Capital Punishment.

Includes primary sources that can be used to explore the history of illness, treatment and disease on international front lines from 1850 to 1949. Chart scientific advances through hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts.

The four conflicts robustly represented are the Crimean War, the American Civil War, the First World War and the Second World War. Many other conflicts also have relevant documents and can be discovered via keyword searching, including the Boer Wars, Spanish-American War and the Spanish Civil War.

Documents are organized into the following themes to facilitate browsing. 

This primary sources database presents manuscripts of some of the most important works of European travel writing from the later medieval period. The chief focus is on journeys to central Asia and the Far East, including accounts of travel to Mongolia, Persia, India, China and South-East Asia; it also includes accounts of travel to and through the Holy Land.

The content in this database is sourced from newspapers, journals, and radio and television broadcasts from 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa as well as other nations with regional political, economic, and security interests. In addition to local and international news, it also includes government-level analysis and commentary. The database covers many topical categories, including the Israeli-Arab conflict, human and civil rights, international relations, terrorism, and others.

Search or browse issues (full page and article images in PDF) of the Montreal Gazette from 1867 to 2 weeks ago.

The most current issues of The Montreal Gazette are available online (plain-text) via Factiva and Nexis Uni.

The official archive of the UK government. Facilitates search across archive catalogues held throughout England and dating from the eighth century to the present day. Holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country.  Over 9 million records are available for download.

Search or browse issues (full page and article images in PDF) of the National Post from January 1, 2011 to 2 weeks ago.

The most current issues of the National Post are available online (plain-text) via Factiva, Nexis Uni and other databases.

Provides full page and article images (PDF) with searchable full-text back to the first issue. Includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

The most current issues of The New York Times are available online (plain-text) via  Factiva, Nexis Uni and other databases

Provides full page and article images (PDF) with searchable full-text of New York Tribune / Herald Tribune.  Useful for researching key events of the 19th and 20th centuries, from pre-Civil War tensions and U.S. internationalism to the fight for women’s rights and the completion of the Panama Canal. In addition to politics and reform, this newspaper also reports on the arts, New York society, sports, business, finance, and more.

An archival collection comprising the backfiles of 15 major magazines (including Newsweek), spanning areas such as current events, international relations, and public policy. The titles offer multiple perspectives on the contemporary contexts of the major events, trends, and interests in these fields throughout the twentieth century.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online provides full-text, fully searchable content from a wide range of primary sources. Archives published in the program include works in Western as well as non-Western languages and are sourced from rare collections at libraries and other venerable institutions from around the globe. McMaster currently has access to these collections: Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange; British Politics and Society; British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection and Europe and Africa, Colonialism and Culture 

Contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives provide a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, and in selected cases, the actual audio voices of the immigrants.

Includes biographies, auto-biographies, personal narratives, speeches, diaries, letters, and oral histories, with over 119,000 pages of text and images. Full-length reference works also are included to give background and context to the narratives.

The largest collection of women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled, spanning more than 300 years, and bringing the personal experiences of some 1,325 women to researchers, students, and general readers.

Subjects include what women wore, the conditions under which they worked, what they ate, what they read, and how they amused themselves; how frequently they attended church, how they viewed their connection to God, and how they prayed; their relationships with lovers, family and friends.

Contains 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, more than 6,000 pages of previously unpublished materials, drawn from more than 600 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, and 300 biographies. All age groups, life stages, and ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous are represented.

Oral History Online is a landmark database of English language oral histories. It contains at present more than 30,000 pages of full-text content that is available nowhere else in electronic format, much of which is available nowhere else in any format. This full-text material includes Ellis Island oral history narratives, exclusive Black Panther Party interviews, and other oral histories. With each quarterly update of Oral History Online, the publisher will add more of such proprietary (in-copyright) full-text interviews.

Search or browse issues (full page and article images in PDF) of the Ottawa Citizen from 1845 to 2010.

The most current issues of Ottawa Citizen are available online (plain-text) via Factiva

The documents in this collection on Palestine and Israel are sourced from the Central Files of the General Records of the Department of State. The records are under the jurisdiction of the Legislative and Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. This archive traces the vitally important period that saw the end of the British mandate in Palestine. Documents address the role of the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations and that of the United States in the creation of the state of Israel. Included here are the Palestine Reference files of Dean Rusk and Robert McClintock, as well as documents from the Mission of the United States in Tel-Aviv. The years 1955-1959 contain instructions and correspondences of the U.S. Department of State. Most of the State Department's internal documentation as well as correspondence between the State Department and other federal departments and agencies, in addition to documents from private individuals and organizations, are included in the central files.