The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collections include digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals from the American Antiquarian Society, the premier library documenting the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. This content is not available for acquisition in digital form from any source other than EBSCO Publishing, and keyword searching is available on all titles.
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collections exists as a series of five databases created from a comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1876. These databases include 6,500 titles featuring more than 10 million pages of content from the seventeenth century through the late nineteenth century. The collection also contains titles in more than two dozen languages including French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, and more. The series is broken down as follows:
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1 (1684-1820) presents more than 500 titles dating from 1684 through 1820. The collection represents almost two centuries of print culture, ranging from early works imported by colonists to later titles published on American soil on the eve of the Revolution and during the early republic. Consisting of more than 850,000 pages, the database’s holdings are broad and deep in scope. Almost every seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American title is represented. Subject strengths include but are not limited to Afro-Americana, agriculture, children's literature, education, eighteenth-century imprints, leisure and hobbies, Masonic works, medicine, religion, science and technology, the trades, and women's literature. Long runs of popular magazines as well as unusual and short-lived titles can be found. The collection includes an early millennial publication, satirical serials, music journals, and titles printed and edited by women.
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 2 (1821-1837) presents more than 1,100 titles dating from 1821 through 1837 and documents the growth and expansion of the new nation during the Jacksonian era, from the aftermath of the Panic of 1819 through the Panic of 1837. The variety of topics these periodicals cover – agriculture, entertainment, literary criticism, domestic arts, technology, medicine (both traditional and alternative), and politics – provide students of history with a rich understanding of the material, intellectual, and social lives of people living during this time period. The collection includes long-running titles, such as New England Magazine, as well as early publications geared toward female readers, such as Godey’s Ladies Book with its detailed fashion plates, easily viewed in full color on the EBSCOhost Digital Archives Viewer. The periodicals in this database reflect the important beginnings of the social movements and economic trends that set the stage for events that would come to define America in the nineteenth century.
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 3 (1838-1852) presents more than 1,700 titles that reveal a rapidly growing young nation where industrialization, the railroads, regional political differences, and life on the western frontier were daily realities. Subjects covered in the collection reach into every facet of American life, including science, literature, medicine, agriculture, women’s fashion, family life, and religion. The holdings are expansive, and many titles, both prominent and lesser-known, can be found. The collection includes long runs of influential titles such as The Boston Medical & Surgical Journal, as well as unusual and short-lived titles. Subjects include, but are not limited to, slavery, agriculture, children's literature, education, leisure and hobbies, medicine, religion, science and technology, the trades, and women's literature. The collection covers a broad range of geography (from Bangor, ME, to Madison, WI) as well as a diversity of languages (French, German, and Welsh), reflecting the rapid westward expansion that characterized the time period.
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 4 (1852-1865) presents more than 1,400 titles dating from 1853 through 1865. While the Civil War is a focal point, the collection also offers a diverse record of the continuance of daily life for many Americans—both leading up to and during the war. The collection includes long runs of influential titles such as Godey’s Lady’s Book, as well as short-lived titles like The Regenerator, an anti-slavery periodical. More detailed subject matter includes psychiatry, gardening, freed African Americans, temperance, the Irish question, Freemasonry, the U.S. Postal Service, and dentistry. The breadth of subject matter represented in the collection reveals the increasing diversity and affluence of the American population coupled with all of the political difficulties and the rising tensions that led to the Civil War.
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 5 presents more than 2,000 titles dating from 1866 through 1912. The themes presented in this database reflect a nation that persevered through a most difficult set of circumstances: a bloody civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, the incorporation of the recently freed African Americans into American life, and a population that rapidly expanded into the Western territories. Broad subject areas covered in the collection reach into every facet of American life, including science, literature, medicine, agriculture, women’s fashion, family life, and religion. Long-running titles such as The Friend are found, as well as more obscure titles like The Nebraska Journal of Commerce.