LibGuides: 21F.027J/21H.250J: Asia in the Modern World: Images and Representations: Find Historical Primary Sources

Books

To find book primary sources, use library catalogs like Barton and WorldCat.

Do subject searches for topic + genre:
- Subheadings such as "correspondence," "sources," "personal narratives," "biography," and "speeches" can point to primary sources.
- Pair these subheadings with keywords or topical subject headings in Barton to identify relevant sources in the MIT Libraries.
- See this table for other possible subheadings.
- For example, do this advanced search to get first-hand accounts of the Hiroshima bombing:
  - Keyword = Hiroshima
  - Subject words = "Personal narratives"

Do advanced searches in Barton for relevant subjects and keywords with publication date limits.
- For example, do this advanced search to find books about the 1904 World's Fair that were published at that time:
  - Subject keywords = "Louisiana Purchase Exposition" [you can figure out that subject phrase by first doing a keyword search]
  - Year from = 1904
  - Year to = 1905

Primary Sources at MIT

China Academic Journals
Indexing and fulltext content of articles in scholarly Chinese-language journals in political science, military affairs, law, economics, and management. 1994-present.
China Data Online
Statistics and reports on China's population, economy, and industries at the county or city level. Some data go back to the 1980s and earlier.
Digital National Security Archive (1945-present)
A collection of primary documents central to US foreign and military policy since 1945. More than 35,000 declassified documents - totalling more than 200,000 pages - have been gathered through use of the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Includes following collections: China and the U.S., 1960-1998; Japan and the U.S., 1960-1976; Japan and the U.S., 1977-1992; The Philippines: U.S. Policy During the Marcos Years, 1965–1986; The United States and the Two Koreas (1969-2000).
Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003
Digital archive of the world's first pictorial newspaper. Covers British and world events. Full-color facsimile and searchable text. 1842-2003.
JSTOR
A full-text scholarly journal archive, back to vol. 1, issue 1, in many fields.
NewspaperArchive.com
Thousands of newspapers, available in full-page facsimile, with searchable full text. Most are U.S. titles, with some international coverage, and most are fairly small-circulation newspapers. 1759-present.
[Includes North China Herald, 1850-1926; Japan Advertiser, 1920-1922; Pacific Stars and Stripes, 1947-1999.]
North China Herald, 1850-1940
English-language newspaper, based in Shanghai.
NOTE: This is a trial, available through May 4. To access from off campus, first connect through VPN.
Polling The Nations
Database of questions from public opinion polls around the world. Search question text and get poll results. 1986 - present.
Please click on 'logout' when finished to release access to another user, as only one user is allowed access at a time.
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1902)
A print index that covers general periodical literature.
Humanities Reference AI3.P822 1893.
Print periodicals: Harper’s Monthly Magazine
Hayden Library has 1901-Feb. 1913 (Humanities Journals AP.H295).
Print periodicals: Life
MIT has Life in print from 1936, vol. 1 to 1972 (Hayden Library Humanities Journals AP.L723).
Print periodicals: Punch
MIT has an incomplete run of this influential British illustrated magazine. We have 1841-1895 (Library Storage Annex - Journal Collection AP.P984) and 1966-1992 (Humanities Journals AP.P984).
Print periodicals: Time
Hayden Library has 1925-1977 in print (Humanities Journals AP.T583) and 1977-present in microfiche (Humanities Microforms AP.T583).
Proquest Historical Newspapers: Atlanta Constitution
1868-1942
Proquest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune
1849-1986
Proquest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
1881-1986
Proquest Historical Newspapers: New York Times
1851-2006
Proquest Historical Newspapers: Wall Street Journal
1889-1992
Proquest Historical Newspapers: Washington Post
1877-1993
Reader's Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
Indexing and abstracting for many general interest magazines. Great source for historical material on the 20th-century.
World News Connection
Full text and summaries of foreign newspaper and periodical articles and radio and television broadcasts in English translation. 1995 - present.

Primary Sources on the Internet

Brooks in Hokkaido (UMass-Amherst)
Collection of more than 100 letters written by William Penn Brooks while teaching at Sapporo Agricultural College in the 1870s and 1880s.
Early U.S.-Korea Diplomatic Relations
Willard Dickerman Straight's photographs and letters documenting Korea between 1904 and 1905.
Expeditions and Discoveries: Sponsored Exploration and Scientific Discovery in the Modern Age (Harvard)
Field notes, letters, maps, photographs, and published materials relating to a range of worldwide expeditions from 1626 to 1953. Browse by region to find material documenting Asia.
Formosa Digital Library (Reed College)
Primarily European and American images of Taiwan (called "Formosa" by foreign visitors in the 19th century) and its peoples. Includes text, woodcuts, maps, and linguistic data originally published in European and North American books and journals in the 19th century. Texts include travelogues, reports, ethnographies, general surveys, and biographies of foreign visitors. Images include engravings, woodcuts, etchings and sketches of landscapes, people, architecture, boats and implements.
George Percival Scriven: An American in Bohol, The Philippines, 1899-1901 (Duke University)
Transcript of the journal kept by an American Army Signal Corps Officer during the period.
Hong Kong University Libraries Digital Initiatives
Numerous digitized collections of historical primary sources from the Hong Kong University Libraries.
Internet East Asian History Sourcebook
Collection of primary sources gathered by Paul Halsall, Fordham University.
Japanese Old Photographs in Bakumatsu-Meiji Period
Collection of more than 5000 digitized photographs from the collection of Nagasaki University.
National Geographic Magazine
Scattered volumes, 1896-1922, available online through Harvard Libraries.
The China Collection (Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room)
A collection of over seventy National Intelligence Estimates on China, "the most extensive single selection of intelligence analyses the United States Government ever has released." Hosted by the CIA. 1948-1976.
The Non-Christian Peoples of the Philippine Islands
Article with numerous photos. By Dean C. Worcester, National Geographic, November 1913, vol. 27, no. 11. From Google Books.
The United States and its Territories, 1870-1925 (University of Michigan)
The "full text of monographs and government documents published in the United States, Spain, and the Philippines between 1870 and 1925." Also includes the Philippine Photographs Digital Archive.
The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War: The Philippines
Includes a bibliography of first-hand accounts by Filipino nationalists and photos of insurgents as well as links to historical maps of the Philippines. From the Library of Congress.
Time Archive (1923-present)
Back issues of the popular news magazine. (Hint: you can use the free online search to identify articles and then copy from the print version in Hayden or request through ILB to see the original article in context.)
Virtual Shanghai
"Virtual Shanghai is a research and resource platform on the history of Shanghai from the mid-nineteenth century to nowadays. It incorporates four sets of documents: essays, original documents, photographs, and maps." It is a collaborative project between the Institut d’Asie Orientale (CNRS-Lyon 2-ENS-LSH) and the Center for Chinese Studies of the University of California, Berkeley.

Primary Sources at Nearby Libraries

Harvard Libraries E-Resources
Harvard has a trove of online databases of primary source material, including historical newspapers, government documents, letters and diaries, and much more. With your Harvard Special Borrower card, you can visit Harvard libraries and use these databases on the premises (sorry, you can't use them remotely). Take a look at the list of history databases for anything promising for your primary source research!
Harvard-Yenching Library
This is one of the top libraries in East Asian studies, and it's accessible to MIT students with a Harvard College Library Special Borrowers Card.
Boston Central Public Library - Copley Square
This page links to lists of BPL historical newspaper holdings on microfilm. Their holdings include papers from China and Hong Kong, but coverage is spotty.
Frank Leslie's Newspaper (1855-1892) [digitized]
This is available at Harvard through the "19th Century U.S. Newspapers" database.
Harper's Monthly Magazine
Widener Library has 1900-1976 in print (call number P 207.1).
Leslie's
Harvard has print and microfilm of the various incarnations of Frank Leslie's Newspaper, 1855-1922. Ask at the desk for help requesting it because they are kept in off-site storage.
National Geographic
Various runs, some going back to 1888, are available at different Harvard library locations, including Cabot, Lamont, Houghton, Tozzer, and Widener. See also National Geographic Index, 1888-1988 (Widener RR 4002.10)
Punch, 1841-2002 [digitized]
This is available at Harvard through the "19th Century U.K. Periodicals" database.
Smithsonian Global Sound
Musical recordings in a diverse range of styles from around the world. Search or browse by country of origin, cultural group, instrument, artist, language and more.
You'll need a BPL card or e-card to log in.
Time Magazine
Print issues going back to 1923 (vol. 1) are at Lamont and Widener Libraries.

Subject Guide

Kai Alexis Smith

She/ Her

Contact:

kaias@mit.edu
Room 7-238
617.258.5593

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