Research

The House Beautiful Archive comprises the digital backfile of the US edition of House Beautiful, from its first issue in 1896 to the present. The oldest still-published US shelter magazine, House Beautiful has been a leading voice of US domestic life for over 125 years, covering everything from interior design and homewares to family life and lifestyle. It not only provides an indispensable historical record of domestic architecture and design, but also captures how broader social and cultural trends e.g. women's roles, new technologies, and consumer behavior have manifested themselves in domestic settings during this period.

The Confidential U.S. State Department "Special" or "Lot" Files represent a rich source for students of American foreign policy. Focusing on political affairs, economic conditions, and policy positions, these documents complement the State Department Central Files and form a foundation for in-depth study of international affairs. Maintained by various State Department offices, bureaus, committees, and individuals, the Special Files hold a vast amount of unique material not preserved in the Central Files. The Special Files provide an especially valuable source for working papers, annotated memoranda, verbatim transcripts, drafts, and other informal material. Further, the Special Files often contain documents State Department officials considered too sensitive or important to forward to the general Central Files. The set of State Department and Diplomatic Post records covers the U.S. occupation of Japan following World War II, development of postwar Japan, the San Francisco Peace Conference of 1951, and economic conditions in Japan; the Korean War, peace negotiations, U.S.-Korea relations, and the rebuilding of South Korea after the end of fighting in the Korean War; military and economic relations between Japan, Korea, and the U.S. in the 1950s; ANZUS treaty talks with Australia and New Zealand; Nationalist and anti-colonial resistance movements in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaya; and efforts to establish a Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.

As the principal group of military advisers to the president of the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is arguably the most important body of military leaders in the world. Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Early Cold War contains the formerly classified and secret proposals that, when approved by the president, became the military and foreign policies of the United States. These records offer a behind-the-scenes view of the highest levels of U.S. military decision-making. The reports in this module were written by hundreds of JCS staff members-- experts in fields ranging from Chinese defense strategy to U.S. military counterintelligence. The records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for 1946-1960 cover the early years of the Cold War, focusing on the threat of Soviet expansion, Europe and NATO, the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War, the beginnings of the nuclear arms race, and the Arab-Israeli conflict and other developments in the Middle East, especially regarding Middle East oil and Iran.

This module documents the international and domestic traffic in slaves in Britain's New World colonies and the United States, providing important primary source material on the business aspect of the slave trade. Collections in this module on the slave trade are sourced by ProQuest from the Rhode Island Historical Society, Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the U.S. National Archives. In addition to records on the slave trade, this module also includes a series of letters received by the Attorney General on law and order in nineteenth century America. These letters cover the slave trade, general slavery matters including runaway slaves and rights of slaves, and other legal issues.

This module consists of collections selected from the holdings of the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These collections represent rice, cotton, and sugar plantations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Major collections include Cameron Family Papers, and Pettigrew Family Papers. This module includes several collections of cotton factors’ records, notably the records of Maunsell White from Louisiana, and the Gordon family from Savannah, Georgia.

This module focuses on plantations in North Carolina and Virginia while also covering Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. Major series of records in this module document tobacco and cotton plantations in the Tidewater, Coastal Plains, and Piedmont regions of North Carolina. Throughout these collections, the lives of enslaved people and the work performed by them is documented in extensive lists of enslaved people, purchase of and sale agreements for enslaved people, plantation diaries, account books, correspondence, and financial and legal papers. Many of the collections also include records of plantation overseers. One of the major collections in this module is the Papers of the Hairston and Wilson families, related families of tobacco planters and merchants from Southside Virginia and Piedmont North Carolina.

Seen through women's eyes, nineteenth century southern social history takes on new dimensions. Subjects that were of only passing interest when historians depended on documents created by men now move to center stage. Women's letters dwell heavily on illness, pregnancy, and childbirth. From them we can learn what it is like to live in a society in which very few diseases are well understood, in which death is common in all age groups, and where infant mortality is an accepted fact of life. The years of the Civil War are particularly well documented since many women were convinced that they were living through momentous historical events of which they should make a record.

Targeting Iraq, Part II: War and Occupation, 2004-2011 includes records from U.S. Central Command, the Army, State Department, Special Inspector General for Iraq, and other agencies covering the U.S. occupation of Iraq, 2004-2011. Topics addressed include military strategy; resistance and counter-resistance; al-Qaeda in Iraq; governance; negotiations of a constitution, oil law, and U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement; reconstruction; privatization; detention; prisoner abuse; ideological and sectarian conflict; contractors; corruption; intelligence failure; and information strategy.

Trade and Globalization Studies Online examines the history of trade, trade policies, financial crises, emerging markets and technological innovations that unite the world in an ever-changing system of trade. The collection gathers books, case studies, archival materials and documentaries to provide historical context and insights. Users can explore the societal impact of global trade by browsing on global themes, events and areas, subjects, and much more.

This database analyzes historical data and trends on 10,000+ companies. Contains transcripts back to 2002.