Posted on May 12, 2016
By Kelly Torpey
“…when I was a children’s librarian, that was about 1940, boys particularly asked where were the books about kids like us, and there weren’t any at that time. So when I finally told myself if I was going to write I should sit down and start writing, well, I expected to write about the maturing of a sensitive girl but I found I didn’t have anything to say on the subject, and so I thought about those boys who wanted books about kids like us….”
Posted on May 10, 2016
By: Jen Manion
The changing meanings and usages of terms related to gender and sexuality can be charted in the American Antiquarian Society Collection on Literature, Reports, and True Crime in Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920, which features a diverse range of true crime tales, dime store novels, formal state reports, and longer accounts, factual and fictitious. The term “gay” appears in over one thousand monographs over a one-hundred-year period from 1820–1930, peaking in the 1860s with 318 documents describing spirits, songs, companions, groups, conventions, deportment, and art. The term “unsex” appears a scant nine times. One such usage appeared in a trial testimony implicating a woman as an accessory to a crime for which her husband was charged:
But if you dare to raise your arm, to unsex yourself and engage in a conspiracy against the nation’s life and the nation’s honor, to make a widow of one of your own sex, to strike down the father and husband in the presence of his wife and child, I call upon this honest jury of my countrymen to spurn that spirit of mawkish sentimentality.[i]
Posted on May 4, 2016
The titles below have been recently added and can be located in the product using Basic or Advanced Search forms. Titles can be found via Browse Publications within two weeks. For complete coverage information please see the product title lists.
Academic OneFile
Read moreProduct Update: New Titles Added to the InfoTrac Collections in April 2016
Posted on May 4, 2016
By: Daniel Pullian
‘The compartment was much bespattered with blood’: the Brighton Railway Murder
Barely a week went by in the nineteenth-century press without a sensational crime story appearing. Whether it was the gory prospect of blood and dismembered bodies, or simply the thrill of a classic ‘whodunit’, there can be little doubt that crime reporting made compelling copy. This was certainly the case with the ‘Brighton Railway Murder’ which took place in the summer of 1881. From beginning to end, the case captivated the imagination of the British people, eager to discover who had murdered wealthy tradesman Frederick Gold, and what would become of the culprit. A search of Gale Artemis: Primary Sources highlights the case’s notoriety, giving me the perfect opportunity to trace its development.
Read moreA Captivating Crime Story: the Brighton Railway Murder
Posted on May 2, 2016
By Kristina Massari
Advocacy on behalf of libraries is at the core of everything we do at Gale – from our My Library Story website and our support for Library of the Year, to making sure the buses are running at ALA meetings and beyond.
We’re proud to support libraries and the ALA by participating in this year’s National Library Legislative Day (May 2-3). Our representatives are meeting with legislators and staff on Capitol Hill to discuss the important issues affecting local libraries and to rally for federal support. We’re also proud to sponsor two first time National Library Legislative Day attendees from our home state of Michigan.
Read moreGale Supports Libraries During National Library Legislative Day
Posted on May 2, 2016
By: Jen Manion
Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920 is a trove of material for scholars and students interested in the history of gender, gender expression, and sexuality. Criminal accounts provide an illustrative window into the culture of the time by highlighting the lives, actions, and motives of those who crossed the line of so-called acceptable behavior. Women’s participation in illicit activities such as theft, robbery, assault, or murder were generally sensationalized in both trial and newspaper records, giving such accounts a sexual tinge no matter how seemingly mundane. The range of source material—from newspaper accounts to trial manuscripts to organizational records to sensational dime novels—allows readers to approach a singular topic from different perspectives. Historians can examine the treatment of people along lines of race, class, and gender, or chart changes in such regulations over time.
Billings, Hammatt, and Gridley James Fox Bryant. View of the New Jail for Suffolk County, in the State of Massachusetts, Erecting by the City of Boston upon Charles & North Grove Sts: 1848 Josiah Quincy Jr. Mayor: G.J.F. Bryant Architect; H. Billings Del. [1848]. MS Nineteenth Century Crime: Literature, Reports, and True Crime from the American Antiquarian Society 152081. American Antiquarian Society. Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture 1790-1920.
Scholars are increasingly viewing the carceral state as an extensive network of institutions—from policing authorities, holding pens, and county jails to almshouses, hospitals, asylums, and houses of refuge—with deep roots throughout the country. There are many important inquiries in this area for historians of gender and sexuality working at the intersection of race and slavery. One story points to the unusual acquittal of an enslaved man for murder. Titled “Trial of a Slaver for Murder,” the article describes a slave named Richard who killed an enslaved woman named Maria under the orders of his mistress. The court ruled, “Whenever a slave, in the presence and command of his owners, committed an unlawful act, as murder or other crime, he was the mere instrument of his owner’s cruelty, and having no will of his own, could not be amenable to the punishment of the law.” This short account invites far more questions than it answers and is a starting point for exploration of criminal justice in slave holding Charleston, especially given the concluding sentence of the article: “The mistress is, therefore to be tried for killing Maria.”[i]
Posted on April 27, 2016
By: Elinor Hawkes
Tracing the exchange of ideas between East and West in the new Sciences, History and Geography module.
Posted on April, 22 2016
By: Reggie Brown
Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, launched Archives of Human Sexuality and Identity in February 2016. Since its debut, this historical, groundbreaking archive has graced many headlines and been featured in various publications geared toward the LGBTQ community. We’ve highlighted some snippets for you to get a feel for the impact the collection has made so far!
Bryan Lowder, an associate editor at Slate Magazine, attended the archive’s launch event in New York then wrote about the “Powerful new digital LGBTQ history archive.” He describes importance of individuals having access to this content through local and university library subscriptions—recollecting his own, less-than-favorable experience doing research without the online archive at a library.
Read moreArchives of Human Sexuality and Identity…In The News!
Posted on April 22, 2016
By Traci Cothran
Have you heard of it? It’s Autism Awareness Month – the Cairo Tower in Egypt, the Empire State Building in the US, City Hall in Tel Aviv, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and many other buildings around the world were bathed in the color blue on April 2 to raise global awareness of Autism.
So what do you know about this disorder? Are you up on the latest medical developments? No? Then grab that mouse and start looking in our Gale products for the answers!
Here are a few bits to pique your interest:
Posted on April 21, 2016
Guided by a five-person advisory board of distinguished scholars, examine what life was like during the twentieth century under totalitarian rule with Histories of Everyday Life in Totalitarian Regimes, 1st Ed. This set spans multiple disciplines and holds a wealth of information for various college courses as well as high school teachers encouraging the analysis of primary and secondary sources.
This title review was recently published by Choice Reviews Online. Read what they had to say!