Primary Sources for Humanities and Social Sciences : Journals and Magazines
Guide to locating primary sources, with an emphasis on online sources, in the UW-Madison Libraries' collections for research in the humanities and social sciences.
Journals and Magazines Collections Online
These collections represent some major historical journal and magazine collections that can be found through the Database Library. See list of Databases with Pre-1970 Content for additional journal and magazine collections.
- African-American Periodicals, 1825–1995African-American Periodicals, 1825–1995, contains fully searchable content from 174 titles published by African-Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. These include academic titles, as well as commercial magazines, institutional bulletins, annual reports, and other genres, including many short-lived publications not found in any libraries beyond the Wisconsin Historical Society.
- American Periodicals Series OnlineIncludes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Coverage: 1741–1940.You can search individual journals or search across the entire database, or focus your search on certain kinds of articles or images.
- British PeriodicalsContains approximately 500 journals from the seventeenth century through to the Victorian 'age of periodicals' and beyond. Coverage: 1680–1930s.Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, fine arts, social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture. Content sources are the UMI microfilm collections Early British Periodicals, English Literary British Periodicals, and British Periodicals in the Creative Arts.
- Century Journals Project (Chinese Journals)More than 3,500 full-text Chinese journals content beginning as early as 1906. Many journals from the mid-twentieth century through 1993. Coverage: 1906–1993.Single largest retrospective digital collection of 20th Century Chinese Journals.
- Economist Historical ArchiveComplete, searchable copy of every issue of The Economist from 1843. Coverage: 1843–present minus 5 years. (Additional year added annually)New full-color images, multiple search indexes, exportable financial tables, and a gallery of front covers highlighting a key topic of each week all combine to offer a primary source of research covering the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Eight CenturiesEight Centuries (formerly 19th Century Masterfile, Series I) provides access to the periodical literature of the nineteenth century. Coverage: 1786–1907.Included is an online version of Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802–1907). Also included are: Index to Legal Periodical Literature (1786–1922), Index to Periodicals (1890–1902), and An Alphabetical Subject Index and Encyclopedia to Periodical Articles on Religion (1890–1899).
- Eighteenth Century Journals: A Portal to Newspapers and Periodicals, c1685–1815Selected English-language scholarly journals and newspapers from the years 1699–1812.At present these include the following: Eighteenth Century Journals, I (76 journals held at Oxford University's Bodleian Library) AND Eighteenth Century Journals, II (70 journals and newspapers held at the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center). (Updates unknown)
- Harper's Magazine ArchiveThe second oldest continuously-published monthly magazine in the United States, Harper's was launched in June 1850. This archive includes issues from 1850–present.Harper's Magazine (or simply Harper's) is a monthly general-interest magazine covering literature, politics, culture, and the arts. The second oldest continuously-published monthly magazine in the United States, Harper's was launched in June 1850. Its early issues included material that had already been published in England, but the publication soon began to print the work of American artists and writers. It subsequently published commentaries by prominent politicians from both sides of the Atlantic, such as Winston Churchill and Woodrow Wilson. Other notable contributors include Horatio Alger, Stephen A. Douglas, Robert Frost, Henry James, Jack London, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and John Updike. (Updated monthly)
- HarpWeek: the Civil War EraHarpWeek is the searchable electronic version of the Civil War years of Harper's Weekly, one of the most important American periodicals of the nineteenth century. Includes images of all the pages, both illustrations and text. 1857–1865
- Hein Online Law Journal LibraryHein Online contains full-text legal periodicals in PDF beginning with the earliest volumes. Covers all areas of United States law. Coverage: 1788–present.
- JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal ArchiveJSTOR is a full-text journal database which provides access to more than 1,200 titles in a variety of disciplines. Coverage begins with volume one of each title up to within 3 to 5 years.
- New Yorker ArchiveArchive of The New Yorker from 1925–present.The New Yorker is a weekly magazine, started in 1925, with a mix of reporting on national and international politics and culture, profiles of people, humor and cartoons, fiction and poetry, and reviews and criticism of books, movies, theatre, classical and popular music, television, art, and fashion.
- Periodicals Archive OnlineCoverage is international and includes a wide range of scholarly journal literature in the humanities and social sciences disciplines with date coverage ranging from 1802 to 2000.
- PIO: Periodicals Index OnlineMore than 3,500 social science and humanities journals published in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Germany. Late 18th Century–1996 (present minus 8 years).There are occasional abstracts, primarily consisting of contents notes.
- Readers’ Guide RetrospectiveIndexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States. Coverage: 1890–1983.
- Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals50,000 English newspaper and periodical titles covering all subject areas, 1800–1900.
- Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824–1900Identifies the authors of articles within major Victorian periodicals and provides a bibliography for each contributor. 45 important monthly and quarterly titles are included.