Research Guides: Myths, Fairy Tales and Folklore: Digital Collections

Digital Collections

Twayne's Author Series This link opens in a new window
Twayne’s Authors Series offers in-depth introductions to the lives and works of writers, the history and influence of literary movements, and the development of literary genres. The online version of Twayne's Authors Series includes content from six print series, including U.S. Authors, English Writers, and World Authors.
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
Literature Online includes full text of literary works in English from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It also includes the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, together with biographic and bibliographic reference materials for each author.
A fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose. LION is the single most extensive and wide-ranging online collection of English and American literature.Resources included in this resource are: Bibliographies Biographies 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)
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online provides access to facsimile page images and full text of works published in the British Isles (plus some from North America) during the 18th century. The collection includes books, pamphlets, and broadsides. Users can search within texts keyword and download them as PDFs.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale) This link opens in a new window
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. **
Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Searchable full text is also available for a subset of the collection.
Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
Search or browse the books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the renowned bibliography by Charles Evans.
Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
Search or browse the books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the distinguished bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. 1801-1819
C19: The 19th Century Index This link opens in a new window
C19: The 19th Century Index provides bibliographic coverage of nineteenth-century books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers and archives from the English-speaking world. This database includes the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals (1824-1900), Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, Palmer's Index to The Times, the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, and more.
American Periodicals Series Online This link opens in a new window
Search a selection of periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
British Periodicals provides access to page images and searchable full text of periodicals from the British Isles, published from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth.
17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers contains the digitized materials (not just newspapers) collected by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) and held in the British Library. A useful source for find information about the United Kingdom and the wider world in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.The database's advanced search offers searching publications by title, place, language, section, and date. The Publications Search link includes searching by format, including (among others) books, broadsides, forms, newspapers, and pamphlets.
Children's Literature and Culture This link opens in a new window
The Children’s Literature and Culture database is a collection of rare books, games, ephemera, and artwork from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that reveals the socio-cultural history of these times. This resource examines the way in which new concepts were introduced to young readers, encouraging an engagement with the imagination which went on to fundamentally shape established notions of childhood.
Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) This link opens in a new window
The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) provides reviews and information for children's books, ranging from board books to YA novels and nonfiction. Find books based on genre, reading level, age range, awards won, and additional categories.
17th and 18th Century Nichols Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
17th and 18th Century Nichols Newspapers Collection features London newspapers and pamphlets gathered by antiquarian and printer John Nichols. This collection, sourced from the Bodleian Library, spans the years 1672 to 1737 and complements the titles and issues found in 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers.

Online Resources

International Children's Digital Library
The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature from the world community.
SurLaLune Fairy Tales
SurLaLune Fairy Tales features 49 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations. Also discover over 1,600 folktales & fairy tales from around the world in more than 40 full-text eBooks.
The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature
The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries contains more than 100,000 volumes published in Great Britain and the United States from the early 1600s through the current year. Its holdings of more than 800 early American imprints is the second largest such collection in the United States.
Folktexts: A Library of Folktales, Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Mythology
American Folklore Society
The American Folklore Society is an association of folklorists: people who study and communicate knowledge about folklore throughout the world.
Perseus Digital Library
Perseus Digital Library Project has explored what happens when libraries move online. Two decades later, as new forms of publication emerge and millions of books become digital, this question is more pressing than ever. Perseus is a practical experiment in which we explore possibilities and challenges of digital collections in a networked world.
New York Folklore Society
NYFS seeks to foster respect for, and interest in, folklore and to promote cross-cultural understanding.
Folklore Fellows
An international network of folklorists, which promotes scientific contacts between researchers, publication work and research training.
In Search of Myths and Heroes | PBS
Historian Michael Wood travels the globe seeking evidence of four of the world's most famous myths. He begins his quest in Jerusalem, traveling to Egypt and Africa as he hunts for evidence of the fabled Queen of Sheba. His search for the lost kingdom of Shangri-La takes him through India, Nepal and Tibet. He roams the Celtic world from Cornwall to Wales, Ireland and Scotland in search of the legendary King Arthur. And finally, he heads to Greece, Turkey and Georgia as he tracks the legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece.