The websites in this article offer free online primary source documents, which historical novelists may find useful for their research and for generating story ideas.
With the growing amount of digital material available on the internet, I had to find some way of narrowing down the offerings for this article. I’ve limited the selections to university special collections websites that are associated with the letter “T”: Tasmania, Tennessee, Texas, and Trinity. Apologies for the non-inclusion of Canada and Great Britain this time; I could not find “T” institutions in those countries which offered substantial digital collections.
TEXAS
Red peppers, from an 1800s watercolor; Image credit: Library of Congress Control Number 2009630032
MEXICAN FOOD:
Mexican Cookbook Collection
If your novel is set in the U.S. Southwest or in Mexico, and you want to be accurate when describing a scene that involves period Mexican food, this would be a good resource. It provides digital access to a selection of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s 1500 Mexican cuisine cookbooks, one dating as far back as 1796.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL LIFE:
Helen Cloud Austin Papers
What was it like for an African American professional working in the Civil Rights era? This collection of the Helen Cloud Austin papers, also offered by the University of Texas at San Antonio, can provide a good picture. Austin was a social worker who could not find a job in 1962 Texas with a state agency, because of a policy barring the hiring of Black professionals. With the help of her local Congressman, the policy was changed and she became the first African-American professional hired at the San Antonio State Hospital. The collection includes photos, awards she received, and other documents related to her career. If you are planning a novel about an African-American professional’s life in the 1960s, this collection can provide valuable material.
Private scrip issued by Texas Powder Company, 1863; image credit: DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Rowe-Barr Collection of Texas Currency
HISTORICAL MONEY:
Rowe-Barr Collection of Texas Currency
This collection is offered on the Southern Methodist University in Texas’s website, and provides images of currency, scrip, bonds, and other financial documents issued in Texas between the 1820s and 1935. If you’re writing a novel set in Texas’s past, this collection would help you accurately describe the appearance of period money.
Buying meat with ration stamps during WWII; image credit: Library of Congress
Reproduction Number LC-USW3-058365-C
WORLD WAR II:
Historic Government Publications from World War II
Authors setting novels during World War II, especially on the American home front, will find useful material in this collection, another offered by Southern Methodist University. You’ll find government publications on coping with meat rationing, how to organize “emergency mortuary services” in the event of an air raid, how to heat your home while using less fuel, and a call for women to join the Land Army to work on farms in place of the men who are away at war.
TENNESSEE
The Step Pyramid, around 1913, by G. Lékégian & Co.; image credit: Courtesy McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
EARLY 20TH CENTURY EGYPT:
Early Images of Egypt
This collection at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was begun by Louis Bailey Audigier, who collected albumen prints of major archaeological sites in Egypt, circa 1913. The collection was later enlarged by further purchase and donations, and over 200 are now available for viewing on this site. Anyone writing a novel set in early 20th-century Egypt will be able to see what the ancient monuments looked like in that era, and get an idea of what a 1910s tourist would do on a trip to that country.
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS IMAGES:
Albert “Dutch” Roth Digital Photograph Collection
Another collection offered by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville: Roth, an amateur photographer, lived in Knoxville and in 1913, began hiking and taking photographs of the surrounding area. The collection includes structures, fire towers, waterfalls, hotels, flora and fauna, and people of Tennessee before the area was designated a National Park. I came across a reference to a mountain “bald” in a book about hiking once; now thanks to the photos on this page, I know what a bald looks like.
EARLY FAST FOOD HISTORY:
Krystal Gazer Newsletters
Krystal Restaurants, an early fast food chain, was founded in 1932. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has digitized the company’s newsletter from 1944-2002, which provides insight into early fast food culture and business practices in America. If the story you are researching involves people working in the diner or fast food industry in the mid-20th century, this newsletter archive will provide primary source material.
TASMANIA
Bridgewater, Tasmania, late 1830s? image credit:
Lithograph by Leon Jean Baptiste Sabatier
Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office: W.L. Crowther Library
TASMANIAN HISTORY:
Two Letters Describing the Voyage of the May Family to South Australia in 1839
The University of Tasmania has digitized documents available on its website, including these letters written about the May family’s voyage in 1839 to settle near Mount Barker. Novelists writing about Australia’s early history will get story ideas from these documents.
TASMANIAN HISTORY:
Reminiscences of the Life of Sarah Benson Walker, 1812-1893
This is a handwritten manuscript of Sarah Benson Walker’s life in Hobart, Tasmania during the area’s early settlement period. Again, a useful primary source for researchers setting a story in Tasmania. The University also offers many other digitized documents in its Quaker Collection.
TRINITY COLLEGE (DUBLIN)
Trinity College (Dublin) Digital Collections
Trinity College in Dublin (Ireland) offers an extensive collection of digitized documents on its website. Images from what is probably its best-known manuscript, the Book of Kells, are available here, so if you are researching medieval history, those will be useful.
Unfortunately, there is currently no way to browse their collections. Trinity’s library staff are still working on the website, and that feature is not yet in place. The site does allow keyword searching, which can be a sort of lucky dip game; authors looking for story ideas in Irish history might think playing on this site rather fun. If you search on “caricature” you’ll retrieve over 2000 images of period caricatures. Searching on the name of an Irish town like “Wexford” or “Killarney” will bring up images and documents associated with those places. “Hingston” will retrieve documents associated with the naturalist and explorer R.W.G. Hingston, who was a member of the 1924 Mt. Everest expedition. Keep an eye on this site in the future—once it offers a browsing option, there will likely be more digital treasures to discover.
About the contributor: B.J. Sedlock is Metadata and Archives Librarian at Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio. She writes book reviews and articles for The Historical Novels Review, and has contributed to The Sondheim Review.