Databases

Provides indexing and abstracts for more than 190 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-specific core periodicals, with fulltext for 120  of the most important and historically significant journals, magazines and regional newspapers. In addition, it contains more than 330 LGBT-specific core books and reference works, grey literature, including newsletters, case studies, speeches, etc. and a specialized LGBT thesaurus containing over 6,400 terms. Disciplines covered by LGBT Life include civil liberties, culture, employment, family, history, politics, psychology, religion, sociology and more.

The Libris database provides word, title, author and subject access to material published in a number of Canadian periodicals of historical significance, including Maclean's Magazine, The Financial Post, The Monetary Times of Canada, Massey's Magazine, The Canadian Bookman, The Canadian Magazine, Saturday Night and The University Magazine.

A digital history project created by the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, based at Northern Illinois University. Collaborating institutions have contributed historical materials, including books, manuscripts, images, maps and other resources, to the Lincoln Project. Each text is reproduced in full, including all prefatory matter and annotation by the original author. Bibliographic details, illustrations, and errata lists are included from each of the editions used.

Hosted by the University of Calgary, the Local Histories collection features books describing the history of Canadian small towns, rural areas, and large cities.

Provides cover-to-cover online access to the prominent Canadian news magazine from its first issue in 1905 through 2015. Published weekly through much of its run, the magazine conveyed both domestic and international news and analysis on a spectrum of subjects of interest to Canadians.  Front and back covers are included, along with all advertisements, providing insight into 20th century social history.

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.

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.

Online collection of recorded sound, including folk, popular, classical and world music, speeches, and oral histories, delivered via streaming audio.

Browse by musical instrument, geographic area, or topic, e.g. American folk traditions, blues, bluegrass and old-time country, American Indian traditions, world traditions (by continent), jazz, classical, spoken word, sound effects.

Historical content includes: ballads from the American Revolution, War of 1812, or the American Civil War; freedom and protest songs from the Civil Rights era; songs from the Slave Coast; Canada's history in song. Spoken word content includes: speeches, biography, memoir, drama (e.g. ancient Greek tragedies), poetry, language instruction.

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.

A compilation of works of literary merit, and important and significant books on philosophy, Religious Studies, History and other aspects of the Humanities The Bibliography covers the period from 1901-1953.

Features streaming videos of films, clips and trailers from the National Film Board (NFB) collection, including NFB world-renowned documentaries, films that chronicle key moments in the lives of Canadians and works that take a stand on issues of global importance: the environment, human rights, international conflict and more. It also contains acclaimed Canadian dramatic features, documentaries, animated films, and experimental works.

National Geographic and Gale have partnered to bring vast resources to digital life with National Geographic Virtual Library. This collection bring together an archive of National Geographic magazine--every page of every issue--along with a cross-searchable collection of books, maps, images, and videos.

This encyclopedia of the ancient world is intended as an aid to the study of Greek and Roman culture and its multifaceted influence on European and world history.

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 

The Norman Bethune Papers document the life and legacy of Norman Bethune (白求恩; 1890–1939), a Canadian thoracic surgeon and internationally recognized figure, revered as a national hero in China. A committed Communist, Bethune provided medical aid during the Spanish Civil War and later served with the Chinese Eighth Route Army, where he died in 1939. His selfless dedication was later praised by Mao Zedong. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, pamphlets, and research materials selected from several sub-collections, including the Norman Bethune Collection, Bethune Foundation Fonds, Roderick Stewart Fonds, Louis and Irene Kon Fonds, and Maurice McGregor Fonds.

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.

OpenBook Publishers is a not-for-profit Social Enterprise run by academics who are committed to making high-quality research available to readers around the world. Monographs and textbooks in all subject areas are published and all books are available to read free online.

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.

Combining features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, the Bibliographies identify the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.  McMaster subscribes to the following subjects:  African American Studies (New), Anthropology, Atlantic History (New), Biblical Studies, Geography, International Relations, Jewish Studies, Literary & Cultural Theory, Philosophy, Political Science, Social Work, and Sociology.

A collection of 55,000 specially written biographies, which describe the lives of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond. The Oxford DNB replaces and extends the original Victorian DNB, and includes: re-written biographies of all subjects included in the Victorian DNB, reflecting new research, and providing an up-to-date assessment of their lives 16,500 biographies of new subjects from all periods. For checking facts, learning about people involved in a historical event or associated with a place, or undertaking new research into any aspect of the British past. Entries offer detailed and extensive biographical information drawn from primary and secondary sources and range from a few dozen to 35,000 words in length. With more than 10,000 illustrations, researched in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Oxford DNB is also the largest selection of national portraiture ever published.

Provides scholarly review articles summarizing current thinking and research in a range of subjects across the humanaities, social sciences, and sciences.  Each handbook offers in-depth introductions to topics and a critical survey of the current state of scholarship.  McMaster's access has expanded to include all 1200 Handbooks.

Covers issues in the public debate through selective coverage of a wide variety of international sources including journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, web content, and more. 

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.

The Palestine Statehood Committee Records, 1939-1949, "Concerning the campaigns for a Jewish Army; to save the Jewish people of Europe and the establishment of a Hebrew Republic in Palestine" consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, publications, advertisements, and clippings related to five committees active in the United States from 1939 to 1949: the American Friends of a Jewish Palestine, the Committee for an Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews, the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, the American League for a Free Palestine, and the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation. Among these papers are selected materials spanning the years 1939-1942 on the activities of similar groups in Great Britain and France: the British League for a Free Palestine, and the Ligue francaise pour une Palestine libre. The Committee's goals included the creation of an independent Jewish army to fight the Axis powers, the rescue and repatriation of European Jews in Palestine, and the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in an independent Palestine.

The collection is comprised of over 100 pamphlets and periodicals from the French Revolution of 1848 held by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL).