Research Guides: Black Art: Primary Sources & Databases

Article databases

One can begin a search for full-text article content using Articles+ (see previous tab in this guide). Limit a broad search to something more specific by choosing among the facets listed on the left-hand side. The SUBJECT TERMS section allows you to select specific subjects you wish to include and exclude in a search.

There may be content that is NOT available online, and in order to locate scholarly journal articles on a topic, you will need to use one or more of the following databases (all available via DATABASES on the library homepage, or else link is supplied below):

AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE (covers all aspects of North American history)

AVERY INDEX TO ARCHITECTURAL PERIODICALS (produced at Columbia University's Avery Library, one of the foremost architecture libraries in the world, covers architecture, landscape design, and related topics)

ART INDEX (all art-related subjects; covers 1929-present)

ARTS AND HUMANITIES CITATION INDEX (citation tracking database)

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HISTORY OF ART (1970s-2007)

HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS (world history, minus North America)

INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ART (successor to BHA)

JSTOR: important scholarly journals in full. Often, there is an embargo by the publisher so that the current 2-3 years are not available, but Princeton may have those issues in print form.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES databases

AFRICAN STUDIES databases

ART databases (NOTE: many databases can be searched simultaneously - can choose multiple databases via the EBSCO and ProQuest interfaces, respectively)

Primary source materials & Encyclopedias

Africa and the Americas by Richard M. Juang (Editor); Noelle Morrissette (Editor)
Call Number: FIrestone DT31 .A43 2008
ISBN: 9781851094417
Publication Date: 2008-03-12
This encyclopedia explores the many long-standing influences of Africa and people of African descent on the culture of the Americas, while tracing the many ways in which the Americas remain closely interconnected with Africa.
Caribbean Women and Their Art: An Encyclopedia by Mary Elle SNODGRASS
Call Number: Firestone NX523 .S66 2020
ISBN: 1538117193
Publication Date: 2019
Overlooked in the history of artistic endeavors are the contributions of female writers, painters, and crafters of the Caribbean. The creative works by women from the Caribbean proves to be as remarkable as the women themselves. In Caribbean Women and Their Art: An Encyclopedia, Mary Ellen Snodgrass explores the rich history of women's creative expression by examining the crafts and skill of over 70 female originators in the West Indies, from the familiar islands--Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico--to the obscurity of Roatan, Cura ao, Guanaja, and Indian Key.
Documents of the Harlem Renaissance by Thomas J. Davis (Editor); Brenda M. Brock (Editor)
Call Number: E185.61 .D646 2021
ISBN: 9781440855566
Publication Date: 2021-01-13
This book explores the transformative energy and excitement that African Americans expressed in aesthetic and civic currents that percolated during the opening of the 20th century and proved to be a force in the modernization of America. Collects more than 100 primary source documents, excerpting literature and commentary on arts and activities that produced illustrative images
Encyclopedia of African American Artists by dele jegede
Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture
Publication Date: 2009
Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora
Call Number: Firestone AAS RR: DT16.5 .E53 2008
Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement by Davis MITCHELL
Call Number: AAS Reading Room-NX512.3.A35 E53 2019
ISBN: 9781538101452
Publication Date: 2019-05-15
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) encompassed a group of artists, musicians, novelists, and playwrights whose work combined innovative approaches to literature, film, music, visual arts, and theatre. With a heightened consciousness of black agency and autonomy-along with the radical politics of the civil rights movement, the Black Muslims, and the Black Panthers-these figures represented a collective effort to defy the status quo of American life and culture.

American History & Culture Online This link opens in a new window
Digital library of works written or published in the United States, as well as items printed elsewhere, that document the history of the Americas from 1492 to the mid-1800s. Based on Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana.
British Online Archives This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to several collections on the history of the Atlantic world, from British archives.
Nineteenth Century U. S. Newspaper Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Digital archive of U.S. newspapers from the 19th century.

Primary Sources

Identifying & Utilizing Historical Primary Sources
Helpful guide from Steve Knowlton, History librarian

To identify primary source materials in the library catalog, look for the word sources within a subject term: e.g. perform a Subject (keyword) search: e.g. cultural sources; or, sources food, etc.

Additional Subject (keywords) or (regular) Keywords to bring up primary sources or books with primary source content include the following: (these are several examples of words that would identify a source as primary)

* charters
* correspondence
* diaries
* documents
* early works
* interviews
* letters
* manuscripts
* oral history
* oratory
* pamphlets
* personal narratives
* sources
* speeches
* transcripts

Firestone and Mudd Libraries comprise the Special Collections Department, which includes collections of unique or rare items like author manuscripts and other (unpublished) materials, letters, rare books, music manuscripts, works on paper (prints), coins, death masks, etc. There are great opportunities for you to work with original materials, some of which may never have been investigated or worked on before.

Check out the Guide to Topics ; and the Finding Aid search (archival collections). While you can find many of these collections in the library catalog, you can search by keyword here across collections within the guides that exist to help you navigate what’s contained in collections of papers for an important author, company, statesman, woman, etc.

PUL Digital Library: The old site is here, while the new digital platform is here. Take some time to browse for the unique and interesting content from Special Collections that has been digitized.