Course Guide ~ HIST 319 / Monuments & Myths: Civil War

Hamilton Library Catalog

General

• Use the right-hand column to limit searches by date range to either books that were published around the time your monument was planned and erected.

Some Useful Subject Headings

• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Monuments

Some Useful Keyword Searches

• keyword: "history of the united states"
• keyword: "lost cause" AND "civil war" AND "united states"
   

Hathi Trust

General

1. Change the default search from "Full Text & All Fields" to "All Fields." This will limit your search to the catalog entry for a book or journal. You can always search the full text of a title once you have located it.

Find published speeches, programs, etc.

1. Enter the words "monument* OR statue OR memorial" in parentheses, last name of the person being commemorated, and the name of the city in which it is located.
   For example: (monument* OR statue OR memorial) AND lee AND richmond)
2. Focus your search using the limiters in the left-hand column.

Find U.S. histories published around the time your monument was planned and erected.

1. Enter the phrase (in quotes): "history of the united states"
2. Focus your search using the date limiters in the left-hand column.
   
    

To search the full text of all Confederate Veteran magazines:

1. Select "Advanced Search."
2. Search for "this exact phrase" in the "Title field: "confederate veteran magazine"
3. Enter a second search terms in the top search box.
4. Click on the "Advanced Search" button.
5. Your results will be for each volume (year) of the magazine that include the search terms you entered in step 3. From here, click the "Full View" button for the year you want to search.
6. Click on the "Search in This Text" limiter and again enter your search terms from step 3.
7. Clicking on the magnifying glass will reveal the pages where your search term is present.
    

America's Historical Newspapers

General

• Use a proximity operator (i.e., NEARn) to keep keywords near one another. For example, "lee NEAR2 monument" finds articles with the words "lee" and "monument" within two words of one another.
• Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words. For example, "monu*" retrieves articles with the words monument, monuments, monumental, etc. This is particularly important in historical newspaper databases including a lot of hyphenated words. For example, a search for the word "monument" will not find the hyphenated "monu-ment"; a search for "monu*" will.

Step-by-Step

1. Select "Advanced Search."
2. In the top-most search box enter a query that combines the name of the person being commemorated with a truncated form of the word monument. For example: lee NEAR2 monu*.
3. In the next search box enter query that combines the monu* with the city where it is found. For example, monu* NEAR3 richmond.
4. Focus your search using the limiters in the left-hand column.
    

Nexis Uni

1. Select “News."
2. Select “Advanced Search.”
3. Select “Headlines and Lead Sections” from the dropdown menu located on the right side of the top search box.
4. Perform a boolean search connecting your keywords with “AND” (e.g., lee AND monument AND richmond).
5. Focus your search using the limiters in the left-hand column.