reference books for background information
The following works are examples of what you'll find in the reference section.

reference books on American culture and history

African American History in the Press 1851-1899. 2 vols. Detroit: Gale, 1996. (Ref E185.2.A25 1996)
Excerpts from 19th century newspapers concerning African Americans. Contains illustrations and political cartoons.

Ebony pictorial history of Black America. 4 vols. Chicago: Johnson Publishing, 1971. (Ref E185.E23)

Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. 3 vols. New York: Scribner's, 2001. (Ref E 169.1 .E624 2001)
Offers substantial overviews of periods and topics such as culture groups, regions and urban areas, approaches to the natural world, historical periods, education, political institutions, etc., all followed by selective bibliographies of primary and secondary sources.

Encyclopedia of American Social History. 3 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1993. (Ref HN 57 .E58 1993)
Filling in the holes left in conventional political/biographical history sources, this set covers topics such as religion, class, gender, race, popular culture, regionalism, and every day life from pre-Columbian to modern times in lengthy and well-documented articles.

Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. 3 vols. New York: Scribner's, 2001.(Ref E 169.1 .E626 2001)
Covers major ideas and issues in American social, political, and military history, with articles as specific as "The Chinese Exlusion Act" and as broad as "Domestic Life."

Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. (Ref PS 217 .T7 E53 1996)
Offers short essays on the major philosophical concepts, antecedents, genres, institutions, movements, periodicals, events, and places associated with Transcendentalism. Topics such as nature, orientalism, landscape aesthetics, and conversation are among the 145 topics covered.

reference books on American literature

American Literary Scholarship. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1963--  (Ref PS 3 .A47)
This annual publication surveys research in American literature and gives the reader a critical look at the trends in literary studies as well as citations to current research on writers and periods. There are sections specifically on some of the writers covered in this course.

American Nature Writers. 2 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1996. (Ref PS 163 .A6 1996)
Offers lengthy biocritical sketches on writers from Edward Abbey to Ann Zwinger.  The second volume also contains essays on topics such as African American nature writing, nature poetry, and the literature of mountaineering.  Lengthy selective bibliographies are included.

The American Renaissance in New England. Dictionary of Literary Biography, vols. 1, 223, and 235. Detroit: Gale, 1978, 2000, 2001
(Ref PS 221 .A5, vols. 1, 223, 235))
These three volumes of the DLB series focus on primarily New England writers, offering bio-critical sketches and bibliographies for further reading.

American Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1979-- (Ref PS 129 .A55)
This series gives lengthy analyses of the life and work of major American writers, arranged chronologically and with an alphabetical index. Kept up-to-date with supplements.

Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia UP, 1988. (Ref PS 92 .C64 1987)
The most recent in a series of standard literary histories, this work emphasizes contemporary approaches to literature and the rediscovery of literatures previously marginalized.  Arrangement is thematic and chronological.

reference books on Art

The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 1996. (Ref N 31 .D5 1996) An exhaustive encyclopedia of world art, containing articles written by scholars on artists, movements, works, and subjects, each followed by a selective bibliography.

Oxford Dictionary of Art. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Online. Covers Western art from ancient Greece to the present, with nearly 4,000 entries on artists, periods, movements, and styles.

MnPALS
Our library catalog.

MnLink
MnLink is a shared catalog for many Minnesota libraries and includes the University of Minnesota. To search just college and university libraries, select Libraries – Academic [shared] located underneath the Enter Keywords box. If you see a book you would like to order through interlibrary loan, click on Get It! located under the title of the item. Your user ID is your barcode number and your password is your last name.

MLA International Bibliography
The most complete index to journal articles, books, essays in books, and dissertations in the field of literature.

America History and Life
An index to articles and books in the field of American History.

AMICO
A database of digital art work reproductions for educational use and study, contributed by member institutions of a museum consortium.

JSTOR
An electronic archive of full-text articles in selected scholarly journals. The most recent issues of journals are not included. A number of core journals in American history and literature are included. Be aware that many of the articles you find in this database are quite old and may not reflect current critical theory.

finding journals

• Journal Locator : Searches for the full text of journals online, and for the library's active print journal subscriptions.
• MnPALS: Search for print journals (both current and inactive subscriptions).
• Interlibrary Loan: If the journal is not available in print or full text at Gustavus, you may request copies of articles through Interlibrary Loan.

websites

American Memory - digital collections from the Library of Congress.

American Women's History - A Research Guide - Use the Subject Index, located under Shortcuts to Popular Sources to find digital collections on a variety of subjects. This guide does not exclusively cover women's history - - it has links to digital collections on general subjects also.

using interlibrary loan
You are likely to need books and articles not available in this library. If you use MnLink, it's easy to use the "Get It!" feature to ask for books found in that catalog. For references found in other databases or bibliographies, first determine if it's in this library or not (by searching the title of the book or the journal in MnPals). If we don't have it, fill out an interlibrary loan form, using your barcode number and last name. You may opt for electronic delivery of articles, meaning you'll get an E-mail message with a URL where you can pick up a scanned-in copy of your requested article. Interlibrary loan takes time; plan ahead.