Popular Culture: A Research Guide: Primary Source Collections Online

The Cornell University Hip Hop Collection. Rare and Manuscript Collections. Cornell University Library.
"Compiled by Bill Adler, a noted journalist and founding VP of Publicity at Def Jam Recordings, the Adler archive contains thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, recording industry press releases and artist bios, correspondence, photographs, posters, flyers, advertising, and other documents." Quoted from the Archive home page.

Chester, VT: Readex.
"[F]ully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. The remarkably diverse subjects of these broadsides range from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, bill heads, theater and music programs, stock certificates, menus and invitations documenting civic, political and private celebrations.." [Database home page]

Adam Matthew Digital.
"[T]housands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes, emphasizing conduct of life and domestic management literature, the daily lives of women and men, and contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures." [home page]

Alexander Street Press.
"...over 1,500 hours of footage--the full surviving broadcast run from 1947 to present day--available online in one cross-searchable interface. Network television's longest running program--with its thousands of interviews, panels, and debates--is available via streaming online video." [home page]
For more streaming video of television news including the commercials, see Television News Archive, below.

Bowling Green State University Library.
BGSU is known as a center for the academic study of popular culture. The Special Collections section of this guide includes a list of the popular culture primary source materials held by the BGSU library.

Adam Matthew Digital.
"Topics include student protests, civil rights, consumerism, and the Vietnam War. The collection includes pamphlets, letters, government files, eye witness accounts, underground magazines, visual and video materials and ephemera and memorabilia. Part II contains additional material, such as music, press kits, mail order catalogues, advertising proofs, additional photos from the Mirrorpix archives, and documents on student unrest and the Troubles in Northern Ireland." [home page]

Alexander Street Press.
"[D]iaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. With 125,000 pages of text and 50 hours of video..." [home page]

Coverage: 1968 to date. Information about the Archive. More than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts from major U.S. national broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, and more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming including ABC's Nightline (since 1989). Includes commercials, searchable by brand name.

Adam Matthew Digital.
"Consists of four components: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; and Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments & the Advent of Cinema. Includes full-text, full-color reproductions of books, ephemera, handbills, pamphlets, photos, posters, programs, scripts, and other types of materials. Coverage is most extensive for Great Britain; but there is also a fair range of materials for the U.S.A." [home page]