The following post was prepared by Dr Benjamin Bankhurst of the Institute of Historical Research for students in the King’s course, ‘The American Revolution and the Creation of the United States, 1760-1815′. (6AAH3039/40)
Welcome to the Senate House Library research guide for the King’s College London module ‘The American Revolution and the Creation of the United States, 1760-1815 (6AAH3039/40)’
Senate House library holds a range of sources – both physical and digital – relevant to the study of Colonial, Revolutionary and Early National America. A subject search in the Senate House Library catalogue is a good place to start your research and to get a better understanding of the large historiography of the American Revolution.
US Subject searches: Here are a few of the larger subject heading fields that you might want to use in your preliminary searches:
American loyalists.
Constitutional History United States Sources.
Indians of North America — Government relations — To 1789.
Indians of North America — History — Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
Slavery — United States — History — 18th century.
United States — History — Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
United States — History — Revolution, 1775-1783 — Causes.
United States — History — Revolution, 1775-1783.
United States — Politics and government — 1775-1783.
United States Politics and Government 1783 1789.
United States Politics and Government 1783 1809.
United States — Intellectual life — 18th century.
Classmark searches: The US collections, including SHL’s American literature, art and history holdings, can be found on the 6th floor of the Senate House building. As you embark on your thesis research you may want to browse the shelves of our American collections for ideas. Here are a few relevant shelfmark ranges to get you started:
NDA-Z (American Revolution)
NDAQ (Native Americans)
NE (American Reference)
NEC (American Constitutionalism)
NEQ (Slavery in the US)
NFF (Jeffersonian America)
NFK (War of 1812)
Historic Collections: There are many items of interest to students of early American history in the Special Collections held in Senate House Library. These items range from manuscript letters written by Caribbean planters on early US politics to pamphlets on the imperial crisis published both in the American colonies and Britain. Here are a few collections that you might consult:
Taylor Family Papers (ICS120): The Simon Taylor/Taylor family papers are held in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Special Collections. They are a collection of letters written by a prominent Caribbean planter family from the 1780s to the 1820s. The Simon Taylor correspondence often references political developments in the USA, including the rise of the Jeffersonian Republicans in the years leading to the ‘Revolution of 1800’. See the collection guide.
Goldsmiths Library of Economic Literature: This collection of 70,000 books covers economic and social history from the fifteenth century to present day. It includes many pamphlets published during the imperial crisis of the 1770s and 1780s, as well as many works published by noted American politicians including Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin.
Academic Journals: A few specialist academic journals regularly contain articles on the cultural, social and political history of eighteenth-century North America. These include:
The William and Mary Quarterly (hard copies available in the library and online via JSTOR).
The Journal of the Early Republic (online access via JSTOR).
The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society.
The Winterthur Portfolio often publishes articles on the material culture of early America.
Eastern state historical societies routinely publish articles on early American history. See The Pennsylvania Magazine for History and Biography, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, North Carolina Historical Review, and the Massachusetts Historical Review.
Databases:
Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO): contains many of the British pamphlets on the imperial crisis of the 1760s and 1770s as well as many works on the US society and politics post-independence.
Much recent work has been done unearthing and publicizing sources relating to the Atlantic slave trade and history of slavery in the Americas. In the last decade several large public databases have emerged that bring together a wealth of sources online. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database is a public database containing fully searchable information on 35,000 slave voyages. Similarly, the Legacies of British Slave Ownership project contains useful information on the British dimension and ramifications of slave ownership in the late eighteenth century.
The US National Archives have made several collections of early presidential papers available online as part of the Rotunda Project. This resource is free to the public and is searchable. The site contains the papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.
Resources in other Institutions: The Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 database of early American printed material are an invaluable resource for students of the late colonial and revolutionary periods. The British Library has recently bought a subscription to the Evans database and students with a BL membership can access the database onsite (for more on information on how to become a member see the British Library’s website). Similarly, British Library Readers can access Early American Newspapers, Series I (1690-1876). Both sites can be accessed at terminals in the reading rooms.
If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.