By Merrill Stein

Introduce yourself to new Gale Primary Sources additions. The Times (London) Digital Archive, 1785-2019 (Gale), the world’s oldest daily newspaper in continuous publication, was extended from 2012 to 2019. A complimentary acquisition expands the British Library Newspapers collection to include Part VI: Ireland, 1783–1950, adding titles published in Ireland in the late eighteenth, across the nineteenth and during the early twentieth centuries. A significant number of these are national publications but many are more regional from cities such as Dublin, Cork and Galway as well as more rural towns like Waterford, Tuam, Ballinasloe, and Birr. Key topics include nationalism and Irish independence; Fenianism; The Roman Catholic Church; Irish diaspora; establishment of the Land League; the Irish literary revival; and sport and leisure.

From the Gale Archives Unbound database, new collection material in British and European History, African American Studies and American Studies includes:

In the British and European History collection:

• European Colonialism in the Early 20th Century: Italian Colonies in North Africa and Aggression in East Africa, 1930-1939 (Gale) – Comprises correspondence, reports, cables, maps, and other kinds of documents related to U.S. consular activities in Italian colonies in the early twentieth century. U.S. Consulates were listening posts reporting on the activities of the Italian colonial governments and later the mandate authorities, and the activities of the local population. Highlights include the Italo-Ethiopian War and the activities of American expatriates in the conflict and conflicts between Italian, British, and French colonial governments in Northeast Africa. Sourced from originals in the U.S. National Archives.
• Dublin Castle Records, 1798-1926 (Gale) – Presents records of the British administration in Ireland prior to 1922. Most of these papers relate directly or indirectly to the methods adopted by the authorities, using civil and military forces, to combat the efforts of the Nationalist organizations to secure Irish independence. Sourced from the originals at The National Archives in Kew.
• Chamberlain Family Papers Gale) – Comprises the papers of Joseph (b.1836 – d.1914), Austen (b.1863 – d.1937), and half-brother Neville (b.1869 – d.1940). “For nearly three quarters of a century, one member or other of the Chamberlain family stood at the centre of affairs in Great Britain, …” holding what are referred to as the Great Offices: Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, and Home Secretary. Austen Chamberlain was the family historian and through his papers the Chamberlains can be traced from the 18th century. These papers are sourced from the University of Birmingham, UK. The documents can be related to peace and justice, history, British politics, Irish studies, and political science in general.

In the African American Studies collection:

• Transcripts of the Malcolm X Assassination Trial (Gale) – Features digital copies of the microfilmed transcripts of the Malcolm X assassination trial including witness testimonies, preliminary motions, summations, the court’s charge, the verdicts, and the sentences, as well as a confession made years after the trial by one of the convicted men. Sources from the records of the New York State Supreme Court.
• U.S. Military Activities and Civil Rights: The Little Rock Integration Crisis, 1957-1958 (Gale) – Documents President Eisenhower’s use of Federal troops and the Arkansas National Guard in the Little Rock integration crisis. The operation is detailed from the planning for intervention prior to deployment, up to the withdrawal of troops at the end of the school year. Records include a journal of events, an official summary of the operation, a historical report prepared by the Office of the Chief of Military History, documentation of Governor Faubus’ actions with regard to integration, press reports and observations on the community response, and congressional correspondence. Sourced from the U.S. National Archives.

In American Studies:

• Hindu Conspiracy Cases: Activities of the Indian Independence Movement in the U.S., 1908-1933 (Gale) – Offers documents covering the Hindu Conspiracy Case, a series of arrests and later trials against Indian Nationalists active in the United States and bankrolled by Germans interested in supporting the overthrow of British colonial rule in India. Sourced from originals archived in the Justice Department Library and the U.S. National Archives.
• Observer (The): News for the American Soldier in Vietnam, 1962-1973 (Gale) – Presents digital copies of The Observer, a weekly newspaper carrying official news about and for American troops in Vietnam. The paper was published by the Command Information Division of the U.S. Military Assistance Command’s Office of Information which distributed more than 80,000 copies per week among American troops in Vietnam. Sourced from the Library of Congress.
• Transcripts of the Malcolm X Assassination Trial (Gale) – Features digital copies of the microfilmed transcripts of the Malcolm X assassination trial including witness testimonies, preliminary motions, summations, the court’s charge, the verdicts, and the sentences, as well as a confession made years after the trial by one of the convicted men. Sources from the records of the New York State Supreme Court.

Want to examine these corpuses further? Acquaint yourself with the  Gale Digital Scholar Lab, offering a suite of text analysis and data visualization tools that can be used to build, clean, and analyze corpuses from the Gale resources generally and any of the twelve Gale’s Primary Sources – or any texts uploaded to the platform. The text analysis and data visualization tools cover document clustering, Named Entity Recognition, Ngrams, sentiment analysis, and topic modeling. Better yet, schedule a consultation about your digital project at digitalscholarship@villanova.edu or reach out to Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian at erica.hayes@villanova.edu.

For further information contact the appropriate Falvey subject librarian.

Merrill Stein is Political Science Librarian at Falvey Library.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online is broken into two parts and offers full text access to nearly every English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, alongside thousands of works published in the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. It consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, and ephemera. Multiple editions of individual works are offered where they add scholarly value or contain important differences.

Until recently Falvey Library only had access to Part I, this spring we were able to update our access to include Part II. Part II has an emphasis on literature, social science, and religion. Both Parts I & II are accessible through the same link in Databases A-Z and elsewhere on the library’s website and users accessing Eighteenth Century Collections Online do not need to do anything special to search either part as the two are now seamlessly integrated.

If you have any questions about using or accessing Eighteenth Century Collections Online please feel free to contact your subject librarian.

Image courtesy of Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources): The historian’s guide, or, Britains’s [sic] remembrancer. For the last century. Being a summary of all the principal actions, exploits, sieges, battels, designs, … from Anno Dom. 1600. to this present year, 1701.

Sarah Wingo, MA, MSI, is Liaison Librarian for English Lit, Theatre, & Romance Languages at Falvey Memorial Library.