Guides: Primary Sources at Baylor University Libraries: Primary Sources in Microform@Baylor

Scanning Microfilm

With the ScanPro 2000 you may now easily scan microfilm for either printing out in paper format or for capturing in digital copy - a great aid in researching. The ScanPro 2000 allows you to scan one frame or several frames to an entire reel of microfilm automatically. Sharp, clear images and the ability to magnify from7X to 105X with the click of a mouse. Reads positive and negative microfilm, microfiche, and ultrafiche.

You will need a USB drive to download your scanned copy to; if you don't have one of your own we loan USB drives at the Jones Information Desk.

The ScanPro is located in the Jones Reference Library.

Selected Specific Collections: Microforms

American Womens Diaries: Western Women
Sitting side by side on the wagon seat, men and women observed mutual experiences quite differently as they stared at the endless road that led to the West. There are 600 diaries in this collection and they include overland and settlement accounts of the westward movement, politics, daily life, the Civil War, relations with Native Americans, and Native American accounts and religious life.

The microforms can be found in the Jones Reference Library and are located using OneSearch.

Most microform collections also have a printed Guide to the collection which you will want to consult. First of all, it will tell you how they decided to organize the collection on the microfilm reels. Secondly, there is usually a scholarly introduction which will discuss the importance of the collection, person, event, items in the larger scope of history, and tell you where the original materials are located.

American Women's Diaries: New England
Through highly detailed autobiographic accounts, scholars can trace, over many decades, the lives of eight New England women. Topics addressed include: abolition, the Boxer Rebellion, the Civil War, the Constitution, the French Revolution, immigration, inventions, education, religion, and daily life as relayed by women in established cities and towns.
American Women's Diaries: Southern Women
These 32 diaries examine life in the South before, during, and after the Civil War, and leading up to World War I. Religion, education, careers, reactions to slavery, and the Abolitionists are all reported on by women who experienced them firsthand and kept detailed diaries. Life-styles, customs, and issues of the era are easily studied through these extensive autobiographical accounts.
Black Abolitionist Papers: 1830-1865
The collection, gathered from over 100 libraries, contains writings, speeches, correspondence, other manuscripts, and printed materials of African-Americans involved in the anti-slavery movement. Topics covered are: Northern/Southern separatism within the church; black colonization and emigration; black political action; church support of black educational institutions; and black intellectual and social life. It includes over 15,000 articles and documents of approximately 300 black abolitionists in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany, dating from 1830 to 1865.
Herstory
Berkeley, Calif.: The Women's History Research Center, 1972-- (Microfilm 909). An international collection of over three hundred periodicals, newspapers and newsletters published by feminists and women's organizations between 1956 and 1971. The collection is based on the holdings of the Women's History Periodical Archive, originally housed in the Women's History Library, Berkeley, California.
John F. Kennedy National Security Files
Latin America: National Security Files, 1961-1963 (Microfilm 895). The ten reels of microfilm from the National Security File, Country File, Latin America, focus on Brazil, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. Many topics are left uncovered among the available documents on Latin America, but the coverage gives clear indication of the administration's priorities and its major areas of concern.
John Foster Dulles Oral History Collection
Transcripts of tape recorded interviews with 271 people who knew and worked with John Foster Dulles, followed by John Foster Dulles and the Far East.
Landmarks of Science I
Scientific monographs and journals from the 15th to the early 20th centuries. Included are thousands of publications tracing the history of science and related fields, the history of technology, the history of western civilization, and the history of ideas. It is ideal for tracing the development of scientific principles. The collection facilitates multidisciplinary studies among fields such as history, languages, philosophy, astronomy, music, and science.
Landmarks II: Monographs
A microfiche collection encompassing five centuries of printed scientific literature,
Landmarks II: Scientific Journals
This part features material back to the 17th century.
Mary McLeod Bethune Papers
Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune-Cookman College Collection, 1922-1955
As a president of the National Association of Colored Women, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, a principal in the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, and a director of the National Youth Administration, Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) was among the most influential African Americans during the Depression and New Deal eras. Bethune began her career in public service as an educator, and this collection documents her crowning achievement on that front: the founding, development, and accreditation of Florida's Bethune-Cookman College.
Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: Bethune Foundation Collection, Part 2: Correspondence Files, 1914-1955
This collection documents Mary McLeod Bethune's political and social life--especially her work with the National Youth Administration, the national Democratic Party, Eleanor Roosevelt, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and the National Council of Negro Women.
Papers of the NAACP Part 21, Relations with the Modern Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1965
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the preeminent civil rights organization of the twentieth century. Reflecting this breadth and importance, the papers of the NAACP touch upon innumerable aspects of black social and political life, and American race relations from the first decade of the century, and at national and local levels. Among the many subject areas covered in the collection are labor conditions, residential segregation, educational discrimination, voting rights, local and youth organizing, the course of black nationalism, anti-lynching campaigns, blacks in the armed forces, and black anti-colonialism.
The Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Contains sources from 202 libraries and government agencies and 671 different periodicals. Series 1, in reels 1-3, includes all issues of the Revolution, the weekly newspaper published from 1868 to 1872. Series 2, in reels 4-5, contains the National Woman Suffrage Collection of the Chicago Historical Society--1,600 cards and letters written in 1880 by American women expressing why they wanted to vote. Series 3, reels 6-45, is a chronological series that interfiles the papers of Stanton and Anthony.
Papers of the Nixon White House
Part 1, Official inventories of papers and other historical materials of the Nixon White House; Part. 2, The President's meeting file, 1969-1974; Part 3, John Ehrlichman’s notes; Part 5, H.R. Haldeman’s notes.
Papers of the Republican Party
Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1987, c1986 (Microfilm 869). Part I: Meetings of the Republican National Committee, 1911–1980; Part II: Reports and Memoranda of the Research Division of the Headquarters of the RNC, 1938–1980.
Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War
A. Selections from the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina (2 pts.) -- ser. B. Selections from the South Carolina Historical Society (1 pt.) -- ser. C. Selections from holdings of the Library of Congress (2 pts.) -- ser. D. Selections from the Maryland Historical Society (1 pt.) -- ser. E. Selections from the University of Virginia Library (3 pts.) -- ser. F. Selections from Duke University (3 pts.) -- ser. G. Selections from the Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas.
Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th Century: Papers and Diaries. Series A, Holdings of the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Part 1, Mary Susan Ker papers, 1785-1923 (25 reels); Part 2, Roach and Eggleston family papers, 1830-1905 (18 reels); Part 3, Louisiana and Mississippi collections (6 reels); Part 4, The Nicholas Philip Trist papers (15 reels); Part 5, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida collections (24 reels); Part 6, Virginia collections (30 reels); Part 7, Philips and Spencer family collections (29 reels); Part 8, North Carolina (36 reels).
State Slavery Statutes
Frederick, Md.: UPA Academic Editions, c1989 (Microfiche 130). This master record of the laws governing American slavery, covering the years 1789 to 1865, assembles for the first time the texts of more than 7,000 slavery-related statutes and constitutional articles and amendments from the 11 slaveholding states that formed the Confederate States of America, plus four border states.
United States and Castro's Cuba, 1950s-1970s: the Paterson Collection
Series of microfilm on relations between the United States and Cuba from 1950 to 1970. Includes primary sources from both the United States and Cuban governments from as early as 1939.
Voices from Ellis Island, an Oral History of American Immigration: A Project of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation
Transcriptions of interviews with 185 individuals, the majority of whom were immigrants sometime between 1904 and 1929. Other interviewees include former Ellis Island employees. Major facets of the immigrant experience are described. They include life in the country of origin, travel conditions during the voyage, the immigration process upon arrival in the U.S., and settlement and assimilation in America.
Western Americana: Frontier History of the Trans-Mississippi West, 1550-1900
New Haven, Conn.: Research Publications, Inc. 1976-77 (Microfilm 651). Over 7,000 titles includes the basic printed sources for the history of the discovery, exploration, settlement, and development of the region stretching from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, west of the Mississippi Valley. The emphasis is on source materials published contemporaneously with the events they describe.
Women at Work Collection from the Imperical War Museum, Lambeth, London
Part 1--The army, Belgium, and benevolent organizations; Part 2--The British Red Cross, colonies, decorations and honours, and education; Part 3--Employment; Part 4--Food files, France, India, Italy, Rumania, Switzerland, and local records files; Part 5--Munitions I-VII files, prisoners I-IV, relief funds I-II, Russia files, Serbia files, suffrage & politics I-III, U.S.A. files, volunteer corps, welfare files, W.R.A.F. files, W.R.N.S. files.

Microfiche

Nineteenth Century. General Collection.
A microfiche library of historical sources in English for the study of the period 1801-1900. This collection is part of a series, which reproduces a broad range of 19th century English-language books and pamphlets published in all parts of the world except North America between 1801 and 1900. Titles have been obtained primarily from the holdings of the British Library.
The Nineteenth Century. Specialist Collection. Children's Literature
A microfiche library of historical sources in English for the study of the period 1801-1900. This collection is part of a series, which reproduces a broad range of 19th century English-language books and pamphlets published in all parts of the world except North America between 1801 and 1900. Titles have been obtained primarily from the holdings of the British Library.
The Nineteenth Century. Specialist Collection. Publishing, the booktrade, and the diffusion of knowledge.
A microfiche library of historical sources in English for the study of the period 1801-1900. This collection is part of a series, which reproduces a broad range of 19th century English-language books and pamphlets published in all parts of the world except North America between 1801 and 1900. Titles have been obtained primarily from the holdings of the British Library.
Nineteenth Century Online (Chadwyck-Healey Ltd.)
Presents an online catalog of English-language 19th-century works available on microfiche from various British institutions. Provides access to book reviews.
The Microbook Library of American Civilization (LAC)
Chicago, Ill.: Library Resources, Inc., 1971-1972 (Microfiche 102). LAC is a collection of materials relating to all aspects of American history and literature from their beginnings to the outbreak of World War I. Included are pamphlets, periodicals, documents, biographies and autobiographies, fictional works, poetry, collections of various kinds, materials of foreign origin relating to America, and many rare books not generally available. Some of the LAC titles are available free on the Web with links at http://invictus.quinnipiac.edu/lac.html.
The Microbook Library of English Literature (LEL)
LEL is a collection on microfiche containing 750,000 pages of material relating to all aspects of English literature from its beginning to the Restoration in 1660. Included are Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, Tudor, Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline materials of all types: poetry, drama, essays, prose fiction, and religious, philosophical, and critical works both contemporary with the period covered and modern. All of the works of major writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton are included along with sufficient materials for textual study. Secondary materials are included if they are of undoubted importance or have become English classics (e.g. Chapman's Homer).