Research Guides: 19th Century Theatre History: #3 Finding Articles/Databases

Historical and subject specific electronic databases

American Periodicals Series Online
provides the full text of articles, advertisements, illustrations, editiorial cartoons, obituaries, letters to the editor, etc., from more than 1,100 American magazines and journals that began publication between 1741, when Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine first appeared, and 1900. Popular, special interest and general magazines; literary and professional journals; children's and women's magazines; and many other historically significant periodicals are included.

Early American Imprints, Series II: 1801-1819 (Shaw-Shoemaker Digital Collection)
The continuation of Readex's Early American Imprints: Series I, Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819) provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century.

Black Studies Center
Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, the Schomburg Studies, and much more. It combines several resources for research and teaching in Black Studies: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), historical black newspapers, and the Black Literature Index.
Black Thought and Culture
Covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans.
Gerritsen Collection--Women's History Online, 1543-1945
In the late 1800's, Dutch physician Aletta Jacobs and her husband C.V. Gerritsen began collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. The Gerritsen Collection has since become the greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world.
Project Muse
Full text of selected humanities, social science and physical science journals.
Theatre in Context Collection
O’Dell’s Annals of the New York Stage, the Oxford University Press Companion series, and Greenwood’s American Theatre Companies series are just a few of the many in-copyright sources included in the Theatre in Context Collection. Placed alongside thousands of playbills, posters, photographs, and related theatrical ephemera, users will be able to paint a more comprehensive picture of the life and evolution of dramatic works.
Eight Centuries
Searches numerous indexes and web-based resources from 1106 until 1930 CE. It provides references and links out to periodicals, books, artworks, and government documents (US and UK). These cover all subject areas.
Some resources identified in this database may not be available directly but we could have access through another vendor. Please contact the library in those cases.
JSTOR
JSTOR provides access to scholarly journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In addition to journal articles, users can access book chapters, ebooks, and primary source documents.
International Bibliography of Theater & Dance with Full Text
The International Index to Performing Arts Indexes journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, and monographs in theatre and the performing arts and covers 1984 to present.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database
Performing Arts Periodicals Database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 210 international journals in the performing arts dating from 1864 to the near present.
American Broadsides and Ephemera
Based on the American Antiquarian Society's landmark collection - the most extensive in existence - American Broadsides and Ephemera offers fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. The remarkably diverse subjects of these broadsides range from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, bill heads, theater and music programs, stock certificates, menus and invitations documenting civic, political and private celebrations. American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I consists of more than 29,000 broadsides and pieces of ephemera.
London Low Life
London Low Life is a full-text searchable resource, containing colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London.In addition to the digital documents, London Low Life contains a wealth of secondary resources, including a chronology, interactive maps, essays, online galleries and links to other useful websites.
Victorian Popular Culture
Victorian Popular Culture is an essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The resource is divided into four self-contained sections: Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale)
Nineteenth Century Collections Online is a multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century, with archives releasing incrementally. ** The database includes the collections Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange; British Politics & Society; British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture; Children's Literature and Childhood; Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest; European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection; Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature; Photography: The World Through the Lens; Religion, Society, Spirituality, and Reform; Science, Technology, and Medicine: 1780-1925, Parts I and II; And Women: Transnational Networks. **
America: History and Life with Full Text
Indexes literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes 1,700 journals and also includes citations and links to book and media reviews. Strong English-language journal coverage is balanced by an international perspective on topics and events, including abstracts in English of articles published in more than 40 languages. Publication dates of coverage: 1964 to present.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text (EBSCO)
Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. Indexes more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages. Publication dates of coverage: 1955 to present.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI)
This database indexes about 1,700 arts and humanities journals. Dates of coverage: 1975 to present.
Adjust settings to expand your searching to include the Social Sciences Citation Index, the Science Citation Index, the Book Citation Index, and others.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a central search for scholarly literature. It covers disciplines and sources, peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
Humanities Source
Humanities Source includes full text access to journals. It combines various Humanities related databases, including the American Humanities Index.
Literature Online (LION)
Literature Online includes full text of literary works in English from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is the single most extensive and wide-ranging online collection of English and American literature. Resources included in this database are: Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story, Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism, Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Encyclopedia of African Literature, Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003, Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2 vols.), Encyclopedia of the Novel, Handbook of African American Literature, New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, Penguin Classics Introductions, Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2nd Edition), Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
History Commons
History Commons is a platform that indexes, contextualizes, and enriches primary sources, makes them discoverable, and that facilitates contributions from scholars and archives. It includes the following collections:

African American Newspapers
African American Newspapers in the South
American Inventor
American County Histories
The Civil War Collection
Colonial Newspapers
Frank Leslie’s Weekly
Women's Magazines and Newspapers
World War I: Military Camp Newspapers

Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War
Cold War Eastern Europe (1947-1987)
British Society, 1939-1951
Weimar and Nazi Germany

LGBTQ+ Social Justice and Culture
Indigenous Peoples Social Justice and Culture
Refugees, Migration, and Borders Social Justice and Culture
Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library
Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library, showcases rare and unique prompt books from the Folger Shakespeare Library. These prompt books tell the story of Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theaters throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.

British Periodicals

Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film
The journal Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film considers narrative or variety entertainments from all countries and regions. Its scope embraces not only drama but dance, opera, music hall, circus, etc.

C19: The 19th Century Index
the most comprehensive and dynamic source for discovering nineteenth-century books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers and archives. Includes Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index, Poole's Index and Periodicals Index Online to create integrated bibliographic coverage of over 1.5 million books and official publications, 71,000 archival collections and 18.9 million articles published in over 2,500 journals, magazines and newspapers.

19th Century U.K. Periodicals
contains 1.2 million pages of periodicals published in Great Britain from 1800-1900. It includes publications on women, children, leisure and sport, and humor. the most comprehensive and dynamic source for discovering nineteenth-century books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers and archives. Includes Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index, Poole's Index and Periodicals Index Online to create integrated bibliographic coverage of over 1.5 million books and official publications, 71,000 archival collections and 18.9 million articles published in over 2,500 journals, magazines and newspapers.

British Periodicals
races the development and growth of the periodical press in Britain from its origins in the seventeenth century through to the Victorian 'age of periodicals' and beyond. On completion this unique digital archive will consist of almost 500 periodical runs published from the 1680s to the 1930s.

Microsets

Microform Sets

To find periodicals in the Microform Center check the library catalog first. Periodicals in the Microform Center are generally listed in the catalog and filed alphabetically by title, either as microfilm, microfiche or microcard. For a complete listing of all microform sets available see the binder at the first floor reference desk marked LL2 Periodicals, Newspapers, Scripts, Microforms.

The following list is of microform sets that may be of interest for researchers of both American and British plays.

Drama on the World Stage: Prompt Books and Performance Records
Call No: Film 2614
Prompt books for non-Shakespearean plays, from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Items date from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. Plays are mainly British, with some exceptions, notably work of Ibsen. Around 800 in all.
Access: Publisher's guide: Drama on the World Stage. PN2570.D7 1989, in the first floor Reference Room.
English and American Drama of the Nineteenth Century
Call No: MP7 (microprint) and MF326 (microfiche)
Varied dramatic works from nineteenth century England and America, including plays, opera libretti, etc. American and British productions of works from other countries and of pre-1800 plays are included.
Access: Nineteenth-Century American Drama: a finding guide, in the first floor Reference Room at Ref1 PS632.H57 & English Drama of the Nineteenth Century: an index and finding guide, at Z2014.D7 E42 1985 on the 10th floor.
Popular Stage: Drama in the Nineteenth Century England
Call No:Film 2615
A collection formed by the actor Frank Pettingell. Series One covers 1000 manuscripts by the most popular dramatists of the Victorian era. Series Two covers 300 pantomime libretti, reflecting the tremendous popularity of the form and Series Three covers the collection of printed plays over 5000 in all. On reel one there is a complete listing which gives an alphabetical index of authors and details of the plays.
Access: The Popular Stage guides to all three series can be found in the first floor reference area at Ref1 PN2594.P6.
Three Centuries of English and American Plays
Call No: MP13 (microprint)
Comprehensive collection of English plays, published 1515-1800, and American plays, published 1714-1830. Includes translations of foreign plays and multiple editions of many titles. Around 5600 plays in all.
Access: Three Centuries of English and American Plays: a checklist. Z2014.D7 B45, in the first floor Reference Room and the Microform Center.
*Collection divided into segments: American 1714-1830; British 1515-1641, 1642-1700, 1701-1750, 1751-1800. Plays arranged by author or title for anonymous works.