Note:

Below you will find a few suggestions for searching this topic. These suggestions aren't the only way to find materials, but they may help to get you started.

Cholera

I. Find Background Information

  • The Cambridge World History of Human Disease  Use "Search within this book" to search for Cholera. Then click on "View PDF."
    Note the bibliography at the end of the article. (There may be some sources mentioned that you will want to try to find at the library. Ask us!)
  • History of Science, Technology & Medicine -- a search for Cholera brings up citations to many books and journal articles, including primary sources from the 19th century.

II. Search the library catalog

  1. Go to the library catalog directly (rather than searching from the home page)
  2. Search Cholera history and use the pull-down menu to select [Subject]
  3. You'll see quite a large number of results, in many different languages.
  4. On the left-hand side, under Limit Your Search, scroll down to select Language

III. Find scholarly journal articles

For history of the disease:

For scientific/medical articles:

  • Pubmed
    Note: A simple search for cholera will find way, way too many articles. Try adding terms to narrow it down. Recommended search: cholera and overview.

IV. Find articles in "popular" (written for general public) magazines and newspapers

  • Proquest Research Library
    Enter your search terms: cholera;
    From the list of results, filter to Magazines; and select a time period;
    Under Publication Titles, select "more" to select specific magazines, if you wish.
  • Access World News
    Select a geography, e.g. United States;
    Add your topic term:cholera
    You may wish to use the pull-down menu to limit your topic terms to the Lead/First Paragraph.

IV. Finding historical articles in popular magazines and newspapers

Note: Cholera is one of those diseases with a long history. You will have to find some way to focus your search. It's truly helpful to have first read the entry for cholera in the Cambridge World History of Human Disease (top). That will give you some ideas.

For example, in the entry it mentions that "On June 23 [1832], cholera invaded the United States, appearing in New York on that date and in Philadelphia on July 5. From these ports of entry, it marched westward across both North American countries."

Aha! That means that you are likely to find articles in the US press on this epidemic beginning in 1832. Unfortunately, the US newspapers in Proquest Historical Newspapers don't go back quite that far (although you will certainly find articles somewhat later). American Periodicals, on the other hand, goes back to 1790. See below:

  • American Periodicals
    This database contains periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals. Search tips:
    Enter your search terms: cholera
    From the list of results, filter to Magazines; and select a time period;
    Under Publication Titles, select "more" to select specific magazines.
  • Proquest Historical Newspapers 
    Boston Globe (1872-1983) Chicago Defender (1909-1975) Chicago Tribune (1849-1991) Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953) Los Angeles Times (1881-1991) New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993) New York Times (1851-2011) Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002) Times of India (1838-2005) Wall Street Journal (1889-1997) Washington Post (1877-1998). Search Tips:
    Select the Advanced Search;
    Add your search terms: cholera
    Scroll down to choose Document types.
    If you wish, use the date limits to restrict your results to a particular date range.