8 Primary Source Documents to Read While Listening to “The Hamilton Mixtape”

Creator of Hamilton: An American Musical, Lin- Manuel Miranda is dropping “The Hamilton Mixtape” later this week featuring songs from the smash musical performed by pop artists. What better way to prepare than by immersing yourself in the world of the Founding Father himself through primary source documents.

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Smithsonian Primary Sources in U.S. History: “A Treasure Trove”

History is not just a list of dates and events. But history taught well is vibrant, relevant, and engaging. And nothing brings history to life like primary sources that give students a close-up look at history as it unfolded.

Gale and Smithsonian have partnered to deliver an online resource that includes unique and seminal primary sources, including documents, maps, historical objects, and other materials from the museums and archives from the collections of the Smithsonian and from Gale’s leading digital collections: Smithsonian Primary Sources in U.S. History.

Designed for use by both teachers and librarians, this resource from Gale supports core and Advanced Placement U.S. history programs. Primary source images are hand-curated by scholars at the Smithsonian – experts who have a unique knowledge of U.S. history as seen through the Smithsonian’s valuable collections and shaped for the school curriculum by an advisory board of teachers.

See how a reviewer feels about the collection of Primary Sources.

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The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2000: A “Must-have”

Provide multi-disciplinary research with a fully-searchable digital archive of what was once the world’s largest selling newspaper. The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2000 provides a fascinating picture of politics, society, and culture through approximately one million pages of the newspaper’s backfile. Offering a balance of personal interest stories alongside incisive analysis, The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2000 delivers a fascinating glimpse into daily life as it was experienced over the past 150 years.

Get more details with a review:

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China from Empire to Republic is a “Preferred Tool”

Provide researchers with unique, firsthand accounts of the cultural interactions and conflicts that gave rise to today’s modern China with China from Empire to Republic:  Missionary, Sinology and Literary Periodicals 1817-1949 Archive. These periodicals illuminate the thoughts of Chinese intellectuals and Westerners, mainly missionaries, about China – and, more importantly, their efforts to understand and study Chinese history, culture, language, and literature.

Read the very first review on this enticing archive:

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The “Excellent Content” of British Library Newspapers, Part V

Sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library, British Library Newspapers delivers a wide range of irreplaceable local and regional voices to reflect the social, political, and cultural events of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. These newspapers, emerging during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a crucial channel of information in towns and major cities, provide researchers with a unique, first-hand perspective on history. Support researchers with “excellent content” on United Kingdom history with more than 750,000 pages from 36 newspapers from 1746-1950.

See for yourself with a review:

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Gale Researcher: “A Strong Database” that helps “Minimize the Legwork”

Wondering how you can save time and see better results? The search stops here. Gale Researcher puts reliable, citable information all in one place—at students’ fingertips. Now, faculty and librarians can direct students to one encompassing source of information and save the time it takes to compile and map individual resources.

Curious? See what a librarian thinks:

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10 Primary Source Documents to Read Before Election Day

Disclaimer: The following is a curated list of primary source documents related to the presidential election throughout history and in no way are intended to reflect a political view or endorsement on the part of Gale or its blog contributors. 1. How Shall We Save Our Presidents? This article from Liberty Magazine published in 1924 features side … Read more

Advocating for study of the humanities

The STEM field, (science, technology, engineering, and math) has been promoted as the way to go for students seeking careers that are growing and in-demand. The value of humanities is often lost in that conversation. But in a recent trip to Seoul, South Korea,  William D. Adams, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities … Read more

How Digital Technology is Changing 21st Century Student Research

The college years are a transformative time marked by hours spent studying, researching, and collaborating with peers. Studies evaluating the research habits of academics reveal how students are researching and the impact technology has in satisfying the growing demand for high-quality digital content accessible anytime, anywhere, and from any device. In fact, 86% of students … Read more

Librarian on a Mission Increases Access and Awareness of Library Digital Resources

Mark Gottschalk is a librarian on a  mission. His mission is to increase the value that the library provides to the South Plains College campus, located in Levelland, Texas. “My personal mission is to find ways to make the library a more used and integrated part of the college community,” Gottschalk said. By increasing usage … Read more