HIST 121: Modern America with Prof. Rosswurm

The Woodrow Wilson Paper

Background Info

Room 002 (lower level) has the Woodrow Wilson papers, many bibliographies, and other books related to Wilson and the Wilsonian era for you to use.  The material must be used in 002 and may not be checked out.  Room 002 is reserved for HIST 121 students from February 13 - April 27, 2012 the following hours:

Tuesday: 8:00 am - 12 pm, 6 pm - 11:45 pm
Wednesday: 6:00 pm - 11:45 pm
Friday: 1:00 pm - 5:45 pm
Saturday: 12 noon - 5:45 pm
Sunday: 12 noon - 11:45 pm

To use Room 002, please visit the Circulation Desk on the main floor.

Characteristics of Primary Sources:
Primary sources are those created during that time that you are researching.  Generally, they provide unfiltered information, which you may then interpret and comment upon yourself. Primary sources are often found in books and newspaper articles; historians are often interested in material found in manuscript collections and archives.

Examples:
  • Original documents: letters, diaries, manuscripts, speeches, interviews, news photographs and footage, first-hand accounts, memoirs, official records, statistics, journal articles that present new research and idea
  • Creative works: art, poetry, fiction, music, dance
  • Relics or artifacts: furnishings, textiles, clothing, decorative arts, buildings, remains, jewelry
Characteristics of Secondary Sources:
Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources.  They act as a filter between you and the object of your study. Secondary sources often incorporate and present primary sources.

Examples:
  • Publications: biographies, criticism, commentary, literature reviews, interpretations of news events by non-contemporaries, encyclopedias, textbooks
  • Documentary films

A wrinkle and a caveat: A source that might normally be a primary source can be used as a secondary source, and vice versa.  It all depends on what the research question is.  For example: biographies offer insight into how people of a given generation viewed the actions and accomplishments of someone else … therefore, they can be used as primary sources.

We are indebted to Princeton University’s “What is a primary source?”

Journal & News Articles

Secondary source material and journal articles:

Looking for a particular newspaper or journal? Search for journals.

No full-text showing? Click the image or “Check Lake Forest”  links to locate or request it.

To find primary source material, look at newspapers and newsmagazines from the time period:

Source Availability & Coverage
New York Times Article Archive

Full-text: 1851-1980 username: libreference@lakeforest.edu;
password: lfc1857; LexisNexis for June 1981-present

The Chicago Tribune Full-text: 1849-present
Google News Archive    Searches historic newspapers

 

Books & Media

Use I-Share to find and request books on your topic. 

A number of books on Wilson have been placed “on reserve” in Room 002, including those listed below.   These books may only be used in Room 002, but you may request a copy of any Room 002 book through I-Share (subject to availability).

Bibliographies—lists of writings by and about Wilson:
  • Woodrow Wilson: A Bibliography     E766 .M85 1997
  • Woodrow Wilson: A Bibliography of His Times and Presidency      E766 .B83 1990
  • Woodrow Wilson: A Selected Bibliography of His Published Writings, Addresses, and Public Papers     E767 .T95 1948
Primary Sources—Books
Primary Source Material—letters, speeches, messages, and writings by Wilson:
  • Papers of Woodrow Wilson     E660 .W717

Volume 26 indexes Volumes 14-15 (1902-1912)
Volume 39 indexes Volumes 27-38 (1913-1916)
Volume 52 indexes Volumes 40-51 (19161918)
Volume 69 indexes Volumes 53-68 (1918-1924)

  • The Messages and Papers of Woodrow Wilson     E766 .U56
  • Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters     E767 .B16
  • The Political Thought of Woodrow Wilson, 1875-1910     E767.1. T47 1988
  • Woodrow Wilson:  Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-President     E660 .W712 2006
Primary Source Material—writings by Wilson’s contemporaries or others:
  • Axson, Stockton.  “Brother Woodrow”: A Memoir of Woodrow Wilson    E767 .A95 1993
  • Daniels, Josephus.  The Cabinet Diaries, 1913-1921     E766 .D29 1963
  • Daniels, Josephus.  The Wilson Era, Years of Peace, 1910-1917     E766 .D3
  • Daniels, Josephus.  The Wilson Era, Years of War and After, 1917-1923    E766 .D33
  • Grayson, Cary T.  Woodrow Wilson: An Intimate Memoir   E767 .G85
  • Hoover, Herbert.  The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson     E767 .H78 1958
  • Houston, David F.  Eight Years with Wilson’s Cabinet, 1913 to 1920 (2 volumes)   E766 .H86
  • Page, Walter H. The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page (3 volumes)     E664.P15 H4 1922
  • Seymour, Charles.  Letters from the Paris Peace Conference     D644 .S47
  • Tribble, Edward (ed.)  A President in Love: The Courtship Letters of Woodrow Wilson and Edith Boliing Galt    E767 .W837 1981
  • Tumulty, Joesph P.  Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him     E767 .T9
  • Wilson, Edith Bolling.  My Memoir     E767.3 .W55
  • Watson, James.  As I Knew Them: Memoirs     E748.W36 W3

Many other books contain a mix of primary and secondary source material.  Two important sets are:

  • Foreign Relations of the United States (selected years)    JX233 .A3
    Search FRUS digital copies through the University of Wisconsin
  • History of American Presidential Elections (see vol. 3) E 183 .S28

Secondary Sources—Books

To find secondary sources, use the bibliographies listed above (or other bibliographies).  Also search the I-Share catalog.  The following are approriate/relevant subject headings to search, although there are many others besides:

 
Complete list of books in Room 002

 

Citation Help

You are required to use Chicago Style for your paper, notes, and bibliography for this project.