November is Native American Heritage Month, a time to pay tribute to the rich and diverse ancestry and traditions of Native Americans.
The Libraries offer a number of resources for the study of Native Americans and are pleased to announce our latest acquisition in this area: American Indian Histories and Cultures.
This resource offers unique manuscripts and published material from the Newberry Library’s extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection; one of the strongest archival collections on American Indian history. The Ayer collection is truly vast, containing 130,000 volumes, over one million manuscript pages, 2,000 maps, 500 atlases, 11,000 photographs, and 3,500 drawings and paintings. Items selected from the Ayer collection for this database include:
- An extensive collection of manuscripts ranging from the early 16th to the mid-20th centuries
- A striking collection of artwork including rare American Indian ledger art
- Speeches and petitions written by American Indians
- Diaries, essays, travel journals and ledger books from early European expeditions
- Correspondence, notes and minutes relating to important treaties
- Early linguistic studies and ethnographic accounts of American Indian life
- Thousands of photographs
- Historic maps and atlases
- Rare printed books
- American Indian newspapers from the 1960s-1990s
The documents touch on important themes such as colonialism, territorial disputes and treaties, exploration of the American West and the fur trade, battles and conflicts, education and boarding schools, and political movements of the 20th century.
This new acquisition supports the growing course offerings on Indigenous Studies on the University campus. As Distinguished Professor of History Elliott West commented,
We believe that this [indigenous studies program] will be an important addition to the University, one that will represent the interests and needs of an important part of our region’s people, our Native American neighbors, who have been regrettably under-represented in the past. [This database] would be of immeasurable benefit in this important project.
The Libraries have also increased book purchasing in the field of American Indian Studies to support this expanding program.
Explore American Indian Histories and Cultures and other databases for Native American Studies today.
