HIST 3900: Introduction to the Study of History Class Guide

Overview

The following handout includes suggestions on where to search for primary sources for your assignment. Also you may contact me directly by telephone
(269-387-8490) or via e-mail at sharon.carlson@wmich.edu.

Historical Sources

Several online sources provide excellent information about the corset industry and related topics of fashion and dress reform.

Historical Newspapers Search all of these newspapers at once or individually for full-text articles in this index:
Atlanta Constitution (1868 - 1939)
Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003)
The Chicago Defender (1905 - 1975)
Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1985)
Christian Science Monitor (1908 - 1993)
Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005)
Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1985)
New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)
The New York Times (1851 - 2003)
Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1989)
The Washington Post (1877 - 1990)

HarpWeek Full-text as well as images from the important American magazine Harper's Weekly. Coverage: 1857-1912.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Most of this rich collection of primary documents has been moved to the Alexander Street Press site. SUNY Binghamton compiled these documents relating to women and social movements in the United States between 1600 and 2000 and some collections are still available on the free Web.

Digital Sanborn Maps 1867-1970 Maps of 300 Michigan towns and cities drawn at a scale of 50 feet to the inch, including street blocks and building numbers.

Google Patent Search Debuting in December 2006, Google's new patent search engine is a painless way to search and view patents issued in the U.S. from 1790 to the present (excluding recent applications). You can search for patents by keyword, patent number, title, inventor, assignee, classification (both U.S. and international), issue date, and filing date.

Unlike the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's database, you can easily view the patents in Google's engine without having to download a special viewer. In addition, click the "Download PDF" button on the Google page to download the patent in PDF format to your computer.

Kalamazoo Gazette Index Only local news is indexed. The Kalamazoo Public Library has an online index for the Gazette as a part of its catalog. Indexed by subjects and personal names since 1972. A few things have been indexed from older issues. You may need to pull the drop-down menu to Local Indexes and Community Information before searching. The Kalamazoo Public Library continues to index certain items prior to the general indexing that began in 1972. Items held by the Local History Room are included as well.

Michigan County Histories
The Michigan County Histories collection is a collaborative effort of Michigan's Council of Library Directors. The collection is projected to provide access to 192 histories dating from 1866 to 1926. There are 195 volumes in 164 titles currently online.

19th Century Masterfile
This electronic index to the nineteenth century includes poole's Index to Periodical Literature, 4,000,000+ Citations from both popular and scholarly journals published from 1802 to 1906. WMU owns quite a few of these titles.

Popular Culture and the Corset Industry

Halcyon Days Music
The Kalamazoo Corset Company published several pieces of music to
promote the "American Beauty" corset line. This site includes the  music for the ballad, American Beauty Rose.
Details

Parlor Songs
The Kalamazoo Corset Company published several pieces of music to promote the "American Beauty" corset line. This site includes the music for the American Beauty March & Two Step.
Details

Manuscripts in the Archives and Regional History Collections

These sources may be valuable for your projects.



The Story of Kalamazoo, by Leonora O’Reilly, an organizer of the National Women’s Trade Union League of America. A photocopy of an article from Life and Labor, August, 1912, about the strike at the Kalamazoo Corset Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Collection: A-2268


Records of the Warren Featherbone Company, corset manufacturer, Three Oaks, Michigan, include daybooks; cash books; journals; and minutes of meetings. Collection: A-1572

Kalamazoo County Records. Annual Reports of incorporated companies. Collection: A-285

Kalamazoo Ladies' Library Association Records. Aspects of dress reform included in records. Collection: A-237

The Ross Coller Collection (file cards) provides citations to the Kalamazoo Gazette and brief citations about a variety of people and businesses in the Kalamazoo area up to the early 1940s. The cards are located in small drawers, between the New Books and Kalamazoo City Directories.

Published Governmental Documents and City Directories

The Michigan Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics includes the period spanning from 1897 through 1908. Individual reports
for the companies in Michigan include the corset manufacturing companies. The call number is HC107.M5 A2

City directories provide information on people and businesses and were published every one to two years in most instances. The Kalamazoo City Directories are located on the shelf directly to the right of the "Secretary" sign.

Popular Magazines and the Corset Industry

Several popular women's magazines from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century may be an excellent source of primary information about fashion and the related topic of clothing and health. Some are indexed in the Nineteenth Century Masterfile. Most are on microfilm in the lower level of Waldo Library.

Ladies Home Journal Waldo Library Lower Level, Microfilm AP 6, includes 1889-1974

Godey's Lady's Book Waldo Library Lower Level, Microfilm AP 1 ser.2 reels 876-1880A include the years 1887-1898

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Ask A Librarian

Sharon Carlson, E-mail: sharon.carlson@wmich.edu
Phone: 269-387-8496
Last updated: January 2006