duPont Library: Primary Historical Sources: Africa

Africa - 1700's and Before

Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1492-2007
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. It is organized into the following five thematic sections:I) Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; II) Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; III) The Visible Empire; IV) Religion & Empire; and V) Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007. Each section features essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the resource, with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.
Making of the modern world, Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1945
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa
Provides digital facsimile images of books, serials, pamphlets, essays and other unique primary sources that track the development of the modern western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Has full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the period 1450-1850. Provides material for research in the areas of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more.
Part I is based on Gale's microfilm collection: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. It combines the strengths of two pre-eminent collections--the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration--along with supplementary materials from the Seligman Collection in the Butler Library at Columbia University and from the libraries of Yale University.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1797-1947
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late 18th century to the era of suffrage in the early 20th century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions. Includes serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals.

Africa - 1800's

African Newspapers, Series 1, 1800-1922 This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1800-1922
Location: Africa
Provides more than 60 searchable African newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Includes English and foreign-language titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
African Newspapers, Series 1, offers unparalleled coverage of the issues and events that shaped the continent and its peoples between 1800 and 1922. From repercussions of the Atlantic slave trade, life under colonial rule and the results of the Berlin Conference to the emergence of Black journalism, the Zulu Wars and the rejection of Western imperialism, these newspapers provide a wide range of viewpoints on diverse cultures.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1827-1975
Location: North America, Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania
Essays, primary sources, biographies, timelines, and other materials including documents from historic newspapers and magazines for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases.. Includes Black Studies Periodicals database and Black Literature Index 1827-1940. Supports Black Studies, History, Literature, Women's Studies and Religion. Time period: 1827-1975.
Includes Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience-- cross-disciplinary essays by today's leading scholars in Black Studies; backfiles of leading African-American newspaper, The Chicago Defender, 1910-1975;journals from Africa, the U.S., and the Caribbean; 110 black periodicals and newspapers between 1827-1940.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1804-2009
Location: South America, Europe, Africa, Asia
This resource provides digital access to two hundred years of serial publications from the British-based Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society. The collection consists of two modules. Module 1 features publications from the CMS and the South American Missionary Society between 1804 and 2009. The focus of Module 2 is on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1492-2007
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. It is organized into the following five thematic sections:I) Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; II) Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; III) The Visible Empire; IV) Religion & Empire; and V) Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007. Each section features essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the resource, with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.
Making of the modern world, Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1945
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa
Provides digital facsimile images of books, serials, pamphlets, essays and other unique primary sources that track the development of the modern western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Has full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the period 1450-1850. Provides material for research in the areas of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more.
Part I is based on Gale's microfilm collection: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. It combines the strengths of two pre-eminent collections--the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration--along with supplementary materials from the Seligman Collection in the Butler Library at Columbia University and from the libraries of Yale University.
Medical Services and Warfare: 1850-1927 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1850-1949
Location: Europe, North America, Africa, Oceania
Medical Services and Warfare tells the story of medical advances during warfare from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927. The wealth of documents cover multiple conflicts as well as interwar developments from a range of perspectives. Material has been sourced from across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to enable comparisons on key areas of systematic reform, improvements to sanitation and the treatment of disease, rehabilitation, nursing care, surgical techniques and wound treatment. The three conflicts robustly represented are the Crimean War, the American Civil War and the First World War.
Note: this database was sold in two parts: Module 1: 1850-1927, and Module 2: 1928-1949. The library only purchased Module 1.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1797-1947
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late 18th century to the era of suffrage in the early 20th century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions. Includes serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals.
Women and Social Movements, International -- 1840 to present This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1840-2011
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Online archive of published and manuscript primary sources focusing on women's international activism since the mid-nineteenth century. The archive includes proceedings of women's international conferences, books, pamphlets, articles from newspapers and journals, as well as correspondence, diary entries, and memoirs. It is also rich in online publications of contemporary Non-Governmental Organizations. Covered topics include war and peace, poverty, child labor, literacy, disease prevention, women's rights and gender inequality.

Africa - 1900's

African Newspapers, Series 1, 1800-1922 This link opens in a new window
Time period: 1800-1922
Location: Africa
Provides more than 60 searchable African newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Includes English and foreign-language titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
African Newspapers, Series 1, offers unparalleled coverage of the issues and events that shaped the continent and its peoples between 1800 and 1922. From repercussions of the Atlantic slave trade, life under colonial rule and the results of the Berlin Conference to the emergence of Black journalism, the Zulu Wars and the rejection of Western imperialism, these newspapers provide a wide range of viewpoints on diverse cultures.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1827-1975
Location: North America, Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania
Essays, primary sources, biographies, timelines, and other materials including documents from historic newspapers and magazines for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases.. Includes Black Studies Periodicals database and Black Literature Index 1827-1940. Supports Black Studies, History, Literature, Women's Studies and Religion. Time period: 1827-1975.
Includes Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience-- cross-disciplinary essays by today's leading scholars in Black Studies; backfiles of leading African-American newspaper, The Chicago Defender, 1910-1975;journals from Africa, the U.S., and the Caribbean; 110 black periodicals and newspapers between 1827-1940.
Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1804-2009
Location: South America, Europe, Africa, Asia
This resource provides digital access to two hundred years of serial publications from the British-based Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society. The collection consists of two modules. Module 1 features publications from the CMS and the South American Missionary Society between 1804 and 2009. The focus of Module 2 is on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1492-2007
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. It is organized into the following five thematic sections:I) Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; II) Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; III) The Visible Empire; IV) Religion & Empire; and V) Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007. Each section features essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the resource, with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.
Immigrations, migrations and refugees: global perspectives, 1941-1996. This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1941-1996
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
A searchable digital archive that covers all aspects of 20th-century human migration. The news and analysis comes from reports gathered every day between the early 1940s and 1996 by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a U.S. government organization that became part of the CIA . These include translated and English-language radio and television broadcasts (transcripts), newspapers, periodicals and government documents.
Making of the modern world, Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1450-1945
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa
Provides digital facsimile images of books, serials, pamphlets, essays and other unique primary sources that track the development of the modern western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Has full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the period 1450-1850. Provides material for research in the areas of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more.
Part I is based on Gale's microfilm collection: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. It combines the strengths of two pre-eminent collections--the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration--along with supplementary materials from the Seligman Collection in the Butler Library at Columbia University and from the libraries of Yale University.
Medical Services and Warfare: 1850-1927 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1850-1949
Location: Europe, North America, Africa, Oceania
Medical Services and Warfare tells the story of medical advances during warfare from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927. The wealth of documents cover multiple conflicts as well as interwar developments from a range of perspectives. Material has been sourced from across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to enable comparisons on key areas of systematic reform, improvements to sanitation and the treatment of disease, rehabilitation, nursing care, surgical techniques and wound treatment. The three conflicts robustly represented are the Crimean War, the American Civil War and the First World War.
Note: this database was sold in two parts: Module 1: 1850-1927, and Module 2: 1928-1949. The library only purchased Module 1.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1797-1947
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late 18th century to the era of suffrage in the early 20th century, all through a transnational perspective. The collection contains deep information on European and North American movements, but also expands its scope to include collections from other regions. Includes serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals.
Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945-1950 This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1945-1950
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Includes primary sources for the study and understanding of the challenges facing the European peoples in the aftermath of World War II. Covers the politics and administration of the refugee crisis in Europe after World War II as well as the day-to-day survival of the refugees themselves.
Rand Daily Mail (1902-1985) This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1902-1985
Location: Africa
Searchable edition of one of South Africa's most important newspapers, with deep coverage of the country during the Apartheid Era. The Rand Daily Mail, published daily in Johannesburg, is renowned today for being the first newspaper to openly oppose apartheid and contribute to its downfall. This searchable online resource contains every article, advertisement, editorial, cartoon, and photograph.
Women and Social Movements, International -- 1840 to present This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1840-2011
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Online archive of published and manuscript primary sources focusing on women's international activism since the mid-nineteenth century. The archive includes proceedings of women's international conferences, books, pamphlets, articles from newspapers and journals, as well as correspondence, diary entries, and memoirs. It is also rich in online publications of contemporary Non-Governmental Organizations. Covered topics include war and peace, poverty, child labor, literacy, disease prevention, women's rights and gender inequality.

Africa - 2000's

Church Missionary Society Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1804-2009
Location: South America, Europe, Africa, Asia
This resource provides digital access to two hundred years of serial publications from the British-based Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society. The collection consists of two modules. Module 1 features publications from the CMS and the South American Missionary Society between 1804 and 2009. The focus of Module 2 is on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1492-2007
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of "Empire" and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. It is organized into the following five thematic sections:I) Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; II) Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; III) The Visible Empire; IV) Religion & Empire; and V) Race, Class, Imperialism and Colonialism, c1607-2007. Each section features essays by leading scholars in the field. The essays relate directly to the source material covered by the resource, with 30-50 links per essay to documentary evidence.
Women and Social Movements, International -- 1840 to present This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1840-2011
Location: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania
Online archive of published and manuscript primary sources focusing on women's international activism since the mid-nineteenth century. The archive includes proceedings of women's international conferences, books, pamphlets, articles from newspapers and journals, as well as correspondence, diary entries, and memoirs. It is also rich in online publications of contemporary Non-Governmental Organizations. Covered topics include war and peace, poverty, child labor, literacy, disease prevention, women's rights and gender inequality.

Jessie Ball duPont Library

Primary Historical Sources

Africa - 1700's and Before

Africa - 1800's

Africa - 1900's

Africa - 2000's