Creative Writing
Names
- Behind the NameEtymology (history/meaning) of first names.
- Popular Baby NamesProduced by the United States Social Security Administration. Information on popular baby names by state, top 5 names over the last 100 years, top 1,000 names by decade, etc.
Work
If writing about a specific trade or profession, finding a handbook or guide about it is helpful. For example, a catalog search on the terms "physicians guide" returns books like The Yale Guide to Careers in Medicine & the Health Professions : Pathways to Medicine in the Twenty-first Century published in 2003 as well as A Guide to the Practical Physician published in 1684.
Working Americans, 1880-1999 by Call Number: Main Library Reference HD8066 .D47 2000ISBN: 1891482815Publication Date: 2000-03-01
- ClimbtheladderFree database of thousands of career profiles created by experienced recruiters and industry leaders.
- O*NET OnlineSearchable database of occupational information developed for the U.S. Department of Labor.
- Princeton Review Careers SearchSearchable/browsable database of careers. Career profile info includes "day in the life of" section.
Genealogy
Some useful guides that discuss the process of researching family history as well as sources:
- Family History and GenealogyGuide from Duke University Libraries.
- Electronic Genealogy: Finding Your Ancestors in CyberspaceGuide from Cornell University Libraries.
Many of the databases mentioned in the above guides may be subscription-based, but here are some that MHC students can access via local Five College libraries or the South Hadley Public Library:
Ancestry.com - UMass, Smith, and Amherst subscribe. Visit their campuses and look up ancestry.com in the Five College Library Catalog.
Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest - the South Hadley Public Library has subscriptions to each of these. You can visit and use them on site, or, if you get a SHPL library card, you can access Heritage Quest from anywhere using your barcode number.
- Ellis Island FoundationFree, though they do like you to create an account.
Dress
Books
Note: When searching for works on dress in the library catalog, the subject terms often used are "costume" or "fashion."
Common Threads by Call Number: Main Stacks Folio GT605 .H35 1992ISBN: 0821219006Publication Date: 1992-11-01- Costume of the Western World by Call Number: Main Library Reference GT510 .L3 v.3
Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion by Call Number: Main Library Reference GT507 .E53 2005ISBN: 0684313944Publication Date: 2004-09-22- Historic Dress in America, 1607-1800 by Call Number: Main Stacks GT607 .M2 1904Publication Date: 1904
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Costume and Fashion by Call Number: Main Library Reference GT730 .C37 1994ISBN: 0289800935Publication Date: 1994-12-31
Men's Fashion by Call Number: Main Library Reference GT1710 .P43 1996ISBN: 0500017255Publication Date: 1996-11-01
The Worldwide History of Dress by Call Number: Main Library Reference GT511 .A63 2007ISBN: 9780500513637Publication Date: 2007-11-30
Databases and web sites
- Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtSearch or browse the collection by Artist/Culture, Object Type/Material, Geographic Location, Date/Era, or Department.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, still images, moving images, audio, and primary sources. It now includes the contents of ArtStor, an image collection that contains some images pertaining to fashion, costume, and jewelry.
Etiquette
Etiquette, manners, proper behavior - whatever name you choose, these vary across cultures and time. For best results finding books on this topic, when searching Discover try a Subject terms search on the term "etiquette" modified by geographic area (e.g., "united states") and/or time (e.g., "19th century"). A couple of sample works on etiquette:
Multicultural Manners by Call Number: Main Library Reference BJ1854 .D75 2005ISBN: 0471684287Publication Date: 2005-07-12- Sensible Etiquette of the Best Society, Customs, Manners, Morals, and Home Culture by Call Number: Mount Holyoke Cutter Collection BQQ B62Publication Date: 1878
Mindset
For a more in-depth look into the mind of a person from a particular time, place, or background, try searching Discover for autobiographies, memoirs, journals, diaries, correspondence, or narratives (narrow by time – e.g., 19th century – place – e.g., United States - or something descriptive of the person - e.g., Native American). If you have the name of a specific person, do an author search on that person’s name.
You may also find the following biographical databases useful:
- Biography in Context (aka Biography Resource Center) This link opens in a new window
Biography in Context delivers outstanding research support with 600,000+ biographical entries — on more than 528,000 individuals — spanning history and geography.
- Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography This link opens in a new window
Contains narrative biographies of scientists from around the world and across history.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete This link opens in a new window
Biographical dictionary with essays on the lives, works, and careers of literary figures from all eras and genres.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographies of people who shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century.
- North American Immigrant Letters This link opens in a new window
Primary source collection of letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives of immigrants to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
- North American Women's Diaries and Letters This link opens in a new window
The collection includes some 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from U.S. and Canadian individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950. Also includes journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous. It also includes some 300 biographies on contributors.
Speech - slang dictionaries
- A new dictionary of Americanisms: being a glossary of words supposed to be peculiar to the United States and the dominion of Canada by Call Number: Main Stacks PE2835 .C6Publication Date: 1902
Dictionary of American Slang by Call Number: Main Library Reference PE2846 .D457 2007ISBN: 9780061176463Publication Date: 2007-09-04
Historical Dictionary of American Slang by Call Number: Main Library Reference PE2846 .H57 1994ISBN: 067943464XPublication Date: 1997-09-02
Speech - sound recordings
- American English Dialect RecordingsThe Library of Congress Center for Applied Linguistics Collection contains "118 hours of recordings documenting North American English dialects."
- International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA)A "free, online archive of primary source dialect and accent recordings for the performing arts."
- Speech Accent ArchiveA database of recordings of native and non-native speakers of English from around the world. Produced by the Linguistics Department at George Mason University.
- Survey of English DialectsA database of "288 extracts from the Survey of English Dialects, a groundbreaking nationwide survey of the vernacular speech of England, undertaken by researchers at the University of Leeds." The oldest recordings are from the 1950s and some of the individuals recorded were born during the 1800s.