Course Guides: ENG 207: Creative Histories: Finding Sources

Keywords

What makes a good historical keyword?

People, places, events, dates or time periods, themes or key terms. Examples below:

Piracy	Keywords: pirat*, privateer, buccaneer, indentured, maritime, law of the sea, corsair Include dates in searches (the Golden Age of Piracy was 1650 to 1726): 17th century, 18th century
Spanish Civil War	Spain, Civil War, 1936-1939, The Popular Front, Franco, Nationalists, fascis*
Vietnam War Protests	Vietnam War, anti-war protests, Kent State, Peace March (1976), Berkley teach-in, 1960s

Consider adding primary source keywords

letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, maps, speeches, interviews, documents, sources,
photographs, emails, memoirs, oral histories

Still Images (photos and art)

ARTstor - Art, Architecture and Design images
Grove-Art Image Collection (a subset of Oxford Art Online) - Art Images
Print resources: Search OneSearch for photo essays, books of photography and art, old magazines. The subject term sometimes used to describe these is “pictorial works.”
Google Image Search - search images online, use advance search to specify size, color, type, and license restrictions
Museum web sites are also a good source of images, not just for the images themselves but also because they're good about providing information about the image, too.

Film

Documentaries and period films: Search OneSearch for these, restricting your search by Material Type to "DVDs, Videos" You can also enter “documentary” to limit your results to non-fiction film.
Internet Movie Database This free database is good for identifying useful films (you can even search by plot - see Advanced search for even more search options) as well as getting additional information (director, producer, cast, release date, etc.) that may help you buy or borrow a copy.
Google Video Searches other web video sources like YouTube and Vimeo, too.