LibGuides: Finding Biographical Information (U.S.): Books, Journal Articles, Newspapers, and More

Interlibrary Loan

What if the library does not have a reference book, journal article, or book that you need? We can still get it for you via our interlibrary loan service. It's free! And articles often come electronically within a few days. For more information see the interlibrary loan page.

Tip: if you need a reference book entry put a note in the form saying that you just need the entry on X person. That way, the lending library can scan the entry and send just what you need, instead of the entire book. It will be faster and more efficient; plus, some libraries don't loan reference books.

Books

Search Discover Local, the library's catalog, for books about or by the person you are researching. Discover Local lists all materials owned or subscribed to by the OU library.

If the OU library doesn't have anything, try searching Worldcat. Worldcat is an international catalog of books and other materials owned by thousands of libraries. You may borrow (interlibrary loan) materials through the Worldcat database.

Newspapers

Search newspapers for articles about the person you are researching. You may find obituaries in newspapers. See a more complete list of digital newspapers here: http://guides.ou.edu/primarysources/newspapers

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
Includes titles such as Freedom's Journal, Frederick Douglass Paper, and The Christian Recorder.
America's Historical Newspapers
Titles from 1690-1922.
British Library Newspapers
On the search screen, scroll down and choose relevant papers from the Newspapers and Periodicals box. Type your search above.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Library of Congress site including some digitized newspapers and a directory of newspapers published 1690-present.
Gateway to Oklahoma History
The Gateway is an online repository of Oklahoma history. You may browse through hundreds of thousands of newspaper pages dating from the 1850s to the 1920s. Includes African American newspapers.
Hispanic American Newspapers
Provides access to Spanish-language and bilingual Spanish - English newspapers printed in the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Historically Black Newspapers (ProQuest)
Search and view the full text of the Atlanta Daily World 1931-2003, Chicago Defender 1910-1975, Los Angeles Sentinel 1934-2005, New York Amsterdam News 1922-1993, Norfolk Journal and Guide 1921-2003, Pittsburgh Courier 1911-2002
Historical US Newspapers (ProQuest)
Search and view the full text of all US papers from Proquest. (Chicago Tribune 1849-1997, Los Angeles Times 1881-1996, New York Times 1851-2016, Wall Street Journal 1889-2002, Washington Post 1877-2003.)
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
American newspapers from the 1800s.
Oklahoman Archives
The Oklahoman, formerly The Daily Oklahoman. Sept. 1901-present.
Times Digital Archive
London Times newspaper, 1785-1985.

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Does NOT include the Sunday edition.

Journal Articles

Search databases for articles about or by the person you're researching.

America: History and Life
Database covering the U.S. and Canada, prehistory to the present.

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NOTE: The library has licensed this database for 6 simultaneous users. Please close the tab or browser when you are finished searching.
Bibliography of Native North Americans (BNNA)
Database covering Native North American history, life, and culture.
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (1975- )
Database covering this history of science, technology, and medicine.

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The library has licensed this database for 5 simultaneous users. Please close the tab or browser when finished searching.
JSTOR
Full text and complete archives of core scholarly journals in many disciplines, some dating from the 1600s. Current issues may not be available.
Project Muse
This database contains the full text of scholarly journals in the humanities, including history.

Western History Collections

If you are interested in individuals from the American west, you may want to try researching at the Western History Collections (WHC). The WHC contains materials relating to the development of the Trans-Mississippi West and Native American cultures. It is located in Monnet Hall on the north oval.

WHC has three main divisions:

Manuscripts - materials such as diaries, journals, personal and office correspondence, literary manuscripts, business records, and scrapbooks. View the WHC manuscript collection finding aids.
Library - more than 80,000 volumes, including books, scholarly journals, Reports and Bulletins of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and a collection of contemporary Native American newspapers.
Photographic Archives - approximately 2 million images representing a wide variety of photographic processes and subject. See the online gallery for a selection of images.

Digital Collections from the WHC that might be of interest include:

Doris Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History - Typescripts of interviews (1967-1972) conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes.
Indian-Pioneer Papers Collection - Typescripts of interviews conducted during the 1930s regarding the settlement of Oklahoma and Indian territories.
Native American Manuscript Collections - WHC has more than 200 manuscript collections about Native Americans, most from the 19th and 20th centuries. Focus is on Indian history in Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and the southwestern United States.