LibGuides: HIS 350R: Women, Gender &amp; Sexuality in Postwar America, Laurie Green: Resources for Media Essay Project

Resources for Media Essay Project

Below are instructions and links to library search tools to find historical magazines and newspapers for your media essay project. Gina will cover how to use these resources in class on Sept. 21.

To find secondary sources, including peer-reviewed/scholarly journal articles, see the next tab "Secondary Sources & Scholarly Articles".

Searching for Historical Magazines & Newspapers

Journals Search in the library catalog
If you want to search for a specific magazine or newspaper, use the Journals search. In your search results, you'll see the call number to find the print in the library and links to the library databases that hold the online backfile.
NOTE: Always check the years of access to make sure they cover 1945-1960! If you have questions, ask Gina.

Suggested magazines and newspapers for this assignment:

Vogue
Ladies' Home Journal
Seventeen
Ebony
Cosmopolitan
The Ladder
Time
Newsweek
Saturday Evening Post
Scientific American
The New York Times
The Los Angeles Times

Print Magazines at the PCL

Once you find a magazine you want to browse, note the Library of Congress call number. Use the PCL Stacks Guide & Floor Map to find the bound issues.

PCL Stacks Guide & Floor Plan
Maps of each floor of the PCL, along with a guide to call numbers to aid you in finding books and publications in the PCL.

Online Digitized Magazines

Find digitized historic backfiles and out-of-print magazines, newspapers, and other publications in the library search tools below. These are great if you want to search by topic, rather than by individual magazine title.

One thing to note about these digitized collections: It can be difficult to browse the entire issue, and the functionality and usability varies from platform to platform. Gina will show you some tricks in class on Sept. 21. You can email Gina with follow-up questions, too.

Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Full backfiles of leading mainstream women's magazines, going back to the late 19th century.
Publications: Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Essence, Redbook, Seventeen and Women's Day.
An archival research resource comprising the full backfiles of leading women’s interest consumer magazines. Titles are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.
MasterFILE Complete This link opens in a new window
A database of magazines on all sorts of subjects, including general news/current events, business, consumer health, and science.
Publications: Time, People, Saturday Evening Post and many others.
NOTE: Dates of full text vary. Some will not go back far enough for this assignment. Some will articles will be text-only, not PDF scans of the original magazine. Indexing for Ebony goes back to the 50s, but no full text.
Updated daily. Provides indexing and abstracts for over 2,780 periodicals and full text coverage for nearly 1,860 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural periodicals.
Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
A collection of general-interest magazines from United States in the 20th Century.
Publications: Newsweek, Look, Life, the New Yorker, The Atlantic
NOTE: Only four UT Austin users are allowed to access this database at a time. When you are finished, please close your browser window so your classmates can access it.
Contains comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. Covers more than 375 titles.
View the list of journals covered.
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
An historical backfile of The New York Times going back to 1852. Does not provide access to current, daily issues (coverage ends in 2017).
Updated annually. Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1851. Provides full text and full image articles with digital reproductions of every page, every article and every issue in PDF format. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
More recent years are also available in other full text resources.

The Ladder
Access to select issues of The Ladder, the newsletter of the Daughters of Bilitis, women's homophile/lesbian organization.
NOTE: Only covers the years 1956 and 1957.
Ebony - Google Magazines
Scans of Ebony, a major, national magazine for Black audiences, from 1959-2008. You can search within issues to find mention of specific topics.

Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
The full backfile of the U.S. edition of Vogue, the leading fashion magazine. Goes back to 1892.
The Vogue Archive contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition), from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. The Vogue Archive preserves the work of the world's greatest fashion designers, stylists and photographers and is a unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society from the dawn of the modern era to the present day.
The Vogue Archive also features specialist indexing of full-page images from photo features. This has been newly created by Condé Nast, with expert indexers using controlled lists to apply keywords to each separate image within a document. There are separate designated fields for Fashion Item (e.g. kimono, Breton jacket, scoop neckline), Person Pictured, Company/brand, Designer Name and Material (e.g. chiffon, wool).

Scientific American
The backfile of Scientific American from the 1840s to 2017. Note that access is provided through JSTOR.

Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
An excellent collection of alternative, underground, radical, and feminist press publications. Dates for some titles go back to the 1950s.
Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

Need Help?

Email Gina, if you run into issues finding primary sources, scholarly articles and books. Her email address is g.bastone@austin.utexas.edu
Schedule a research consult via Zoom – get one-on-one help from Gina, tailored to your chosen research topic.
Use the Ask A Librarian Chat Service, available until 6 pm, Sunday-Thursday.

Primary Sources Guide

Learn more about primary sources, what they are, and how to use them.

Primary Sources Library Guide