LibGuides: English Guide: Primary Resources

Primary vs. Secondary sources

Sometimes it is important to differentiate between Primary and Secondary Sources; since the the difference is often contextual, it can be hard to tell. Check the link below from the Bowling Green State University Libraries below for some clarification and examples.

Library Basics: Primary and Secondary Sources
Bowling Green State University Libraries' guide on primary and secondary sources.

English & Literature Related Primary Resource Databases

African American Poetry 1760-1900 (via American & English Literature) This link opens in a new window
Full text poems and prose by African-American poets.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your last name and all the numbers on the back of your ID (or your D Number, with the D.)

Subject Areas: Black Studies, English

African-American Poetry 1760-1900, a collection within American and English Literature, includes the full text of almost 3000 poems written by African-American poets in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. African-American Poetry is a resource for literary scholars and for researchers in black studies, linguistics, women's studies, black literary heritage, and comparative studies.

The poetry explores a multitude of topics, including abolition, children, civil rights, dreams, education, fugitive slave law, Indian raids, liberty, political issues, prejudice, and slavery. The variety of poem types is equally broad. The database includes allegories, broadsides, children's poems, elegiac poems, epics, hymns, odes, patriotic poems, and sonnets.

The poets are among those included in the William French et al. bibliography, Afro-American Poetry and Drama, 1760-1975. The full-text of the poems is included and is fully searchable.

Format: Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 1760-1900
Database Producer: BiblioLabs, provided by OhioLINK
Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922 This link opens in a new window
Online archive of Afro-Americana, covering the early 16th to 20th centuries.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: U.S. History, Black studies, Literature, Sociology / Anthropology

Afro-Americana Imprints, 1535-1922, covers almost 400 years of African American history, literature, and culture.

Subjects include:
- discovery and exploitation of Africa
- slavery in the New World
- growth and success of Abolitionist movements
- development of racial thought, including politics, protest, and resistance
- descriptions of African American life, including both slave and free accounts
- slavery and race in literature

Format: Full Text
Dates of Coverage: 1535-1922
Database Producer: Readex
Collection: Part of "America's Historical Imprints"
American Broadsides and Ephemera, 1760-1900 This link opens in a new window
Online archive of 30,000+ searchable images of printed items that were never intended to last (broadsides and ephemera).
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: History

American Broadsides and Ephemera offers fully searchable facsimile images of 30,000+ broadsides and 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.

Format: Full Text and Images
Dates of Coverage: 1760-1900
Database Distributor: Readex
Collection: Part of "America's Historical Imprints"
American Fiction (1774-1920) This link opens in a new window
Prose fiction from colonial times to the early 20th century.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, Creative Writing

American Fiction, 1774-1920, encompasses prose fiction written by Americans from colonial times to the early twentieth century.

The titles to the year 1900 include nearly all of the works found in Lyle H. Wright's three-volume American Fiction: A Contribution Toward a Bibliography, which is widely considered the most comprehensive bibliography of American adult prose fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The collection includes novels, short stories, romances, fictitious biographies, travel accounts and sketches, allegories, and tract-like tales typifying the development of American literature in a changing culture.

Books published in the years 1901-1910 are sourced from the Library of Congress Shelf List of American Adult Fiction.

The period 1911-1920 is built on the Geoffrey D. Smith bibliography, which is sourced from the William Charvat Collection of American Fiction at The Ohio State University Libraries.

When completed, the entire archive will consist of about 17,750 titles, or 4.7 million fully searchable pages.

Format: Archival Resources
Dates of Coverage: 1774-1920
Database Producer: Gale / Cengage
American Film Scripts Online This link opens in a new window
Full-text database of 1,000 scripts and over 100,000 scenes.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

American Film Scripts Online is an ongoing full-text project. The collection of feature films, when completed, will hold 1,000 scripts and over 100,000 scenes. Many of the scripts have never been published.

The database is full-text searchable and includes detailed indexing on scenes, characters, and people. Supplemental information includes short biographies on the writers and awards given to individual films have been noted.

Format: Archival Resource
Database Producer: Alexander Street Press
American Poetry 1600-1900 (via American and English Literature) This link opens in a new window
Collection of 1,200 books and anthologies of early American poetry, including Dickinson, Longfellow, and Whitman.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English

American Poetry 1600-1900, a collection within American and English Literature, is a collection of 1,200 books and anthologies of early American poetry.

This database contains the works of all major American poets, including Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Phillis Wheatley, Walt Whitman, and John Greenleaf Whittier. It also covers many less familiar names.

An eminent editorial advisory board selected the authors and editions for inclusion in American Poetry. It used as its principal bibliographic source, the Bibliography of American Literature, Yale University Press, 1955-1991, and supplemented this with additional poets to provide a more thorough and rounded collection.

The complete text of each poem is included. Any accompanying text written by the original author and forming an integral part of the work, such as notes, dedications, and prefaces to individual poems, is also generally included.

Format: Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 1600-1900
Database Producer: ProQuest / Chadwyck-Healey
Black Authors, 1556-1922 This link opens in a new window
This online archive looks at the creative efforts of black authors over three centuries, and includes works by authors of African or African-American descent.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: History, U.S. History

Black Authors, 1556-1922 is a collection highlighting works by authors of African or African-American descent. This online archive from the Library Company of Philadelphia provides a fascinating look at the creative efforts of black authors.

Compiled by the curators of the acclaimed Afro-Americana Imprints collection, this collection may be cross-searched alongside documents from and about the African-American experience across three centuries.

Format: Full Text
Date range: 1556-1922
Database Producer: Readex
Collection: Part of "America's Historical Imprints"
Black Drama, Second Edition This link opens in a new window
Full text of 1,310 plays, by more than 200 playwrights from North America, Africa, and the Caribbean, mid-1800s to the present.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Black Studies; Literature; Sociology and Anthropology; Theatre.

Black Drama Second Edition contains the full text of 1,310 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.

Many of the works are rare, hard-to-find, or out of print. Once complete, more than a quarter of the collection will consists of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Alice Childress, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.

The database covers key writings of the Harlem Renaissance, works performed for the Federal Theatre Project, and plays by critically acclaimed dramatists of the 1940s.

The collection includes musical comedies, domestic dramas, folk dramas, history plays, anti-slavery plays, one-act plays, and other works. The plays explore themes including civil rights, desegregation, and a wide range of ideologies - integrationist and separatist, revolutionary and nationalist.

Format: Full Text; Archival Resources
Coverage: 1850's to present
Update Schedule: Ongoing
Database Producer: Alexander Street Press
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Contains over 1000 sources and authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Black Studies, Sociology & Anthropology, U.S. History

Black Thought and Culture contains over 1000 sources and authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans.

Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.

Format: Full Text Books, Archival Resources
Dates of Coverage: Varies
Update Schedule: Completed Archive
Database Producer: University of Chicago and Alexander Street Press.
Digital Theatre + This link opens in a new window
A digital streaming video collection of unique films including current, leading British theatre productions and behind-the-scenes documentaries.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: Theatre, Dance, Drama, Performing Arts.

Digital Theatre Plus is a streaming video platform of current British theatre productions as well as behind-the-scenes commentaries. This platform is one way to immerse researchers in performance while also helping to ready performing arts students for employment.

This database is comprised of 4 main parts:

(1) Plays & Productions: with 361 "filmed and audio" productions. These recordings include performances from Shakespeare's Globe theatre, the Broadway Digital Archive, the Royal Opera House, and the BBC.

(2) Practice & Practitioners: 397 interviews and documentaries with cast members, directors, and backstage crews are found in Digital Theatre Plus.

(3) Theory & Criticism: Digital Theatre Plus includes 284 written resources (6,975 pages) written by both academics and practitioners. These materials explore theatre history, theory, and technique.

(4) Teaching with DT: These resources have been commissioned, created and curated by Creative Content Producer Fiona Lindsay and Editorial Director (Higher Education) Talia Rodgers to support the teaching of English, Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, and Performing Arts subjects from secondary to higher education. We provide resources which bridge the gap between school and university. Many of the resources below can be used across all levels from the UK to the US and beyond.

Format: Streaming Media, Full Text
Dates of Coverage: Varies by production, from the 1960's through present
Update Schedule: Quarterly
Database Distributor: Digital Theatre Plus
Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Digital facsimile images of virtually every work printed in Great Britian and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, History

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700, from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.

Format: Archival Resources, Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 1473-1700.
Database Producer: ProQuest
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare (via American and English Literature) This link opens in a new window
Complete text of eleven major editions of Shakespeare's works, from the First Folio (1623) to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, Theatre

Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare, a collection within American and English Literature, includes the complete text of eleven major editions of Shakespeare's works, from the First Folio (1623) to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6. It also includes twenty-four separate contemporary printings of individual plays, selected apocrypha and related works, and more than 100 adaptations, sequels, and burlesques from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

Format: Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 1623-1866
Database Producer: ProQuest / Chadwyck-Healey
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Digital images of every page of 180,000 titles published during the 18th Century, including books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: General, History

Eighteenth Century Collection Online consists of digital images of every page of 180,000 titles published during the 18th Century, including books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more. With full-text searching of over 30 million pages, the product allows researchers access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more.

Format: Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 1701-1800.
Database Producer: Gale Publishing.
Eighteenth Century Fiction (via American and English Literature) This link opens in a new window
Complete text of 96 works of English prose from 1700-1800, by writers from the British Isles.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English

Eighteenth Century Fiction, a collection within American and English Literature, contains the complete text of 96 works of English prose from the period 1700-1800, by writers from the British Isles. All of the most widely-studied texts are in the database, alongside others long neglected or unavailable. The complete text of each work is included. First editions have been used unless considered unreliable.

Some original images are included (title pages and illustrations), linked from the appropriate point in the text. Tristram Shandy has been scanned in its entirety, to capture all of its idiosyncrasies. The scanned version (of its first London edition) is linked to the keyed version.

Format: Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 1700-1780
Database Producer: ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey
English Poetry 600-1900 (via American and English Literature) This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 175,000 poems by over 1,400 poets from British Commonwealth and ex-colonial countries.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English

English Poetry 600-1900, a collection within American and English Literature, contains the full text of over 175,000 poems by over 1,400 poets from British Commonwealth and ex-colonial countries, between the years 600 and 1900. This database contains the full text of over 4400 poetry collections listed in the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Many of these collections are rare books, unavailable in print form.

The database includes the works of writers listed as poets, writers whose main entry appears under another genre but who are cross-referenced to poetry and a few additional writers of poetry not cross-referenced. Works in English of Welsh, Scottish, and Irish poets are included. The full-text and any relevant accompanying text written by the poet.

Format: Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 600-1900
Database Producer: BiblioLabs
JSTOR Lives of Literature This link opens in a new window
Collection of academic journals devoted to the study of writers and texts associated with core literary movements.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: English, literary studies, literary movements

Journal titles include: Angelicum, Carmina Philosophiae, Celestinesca, Le Cygne, Lectura Dantis, Petrarchesca, Bulletin d’informations proustiennes, Faulkner Journal, Langston Hughes Review, Thomas Mann Jahrbuch, Woolf Studies Annual, Yearbook of Conrad Studies. See the full journal title list here

Format: Full Text
Dates of Coverage: 1924-2017
Database Distributor: JSTOR
Literature, culture and society in Depression era America: archives of the Federal Writers' Projec This link opens in a new window
Presents the Federal Writers Project (FWP) publications of all 47 states involved in the project, which ran from 1933 to 1943.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: History, English

This collection presents the Federal Writers Project (FWP) publications of all 47 states involved in the project, which ran from 1933 to 1943. Forming the most complete collection of publications from all participating states, this archive contains more than 450 individual items, many of which are typed or mimeographed and received only limited circulation.

The FWP was a part of "Federal One," the arts project established by the WPA to cover music, theater, art and writers.
London Low Life This link opens in a new window
Online archive highlighting the "underworld" of Victorian London.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: History, Sociology/Anthropology

This collection brings to life the teeming streets of Victorian London. From salacious "swell's guides" to broadsides and subversive posters, this resource offers insight into the underworld of the city. Children's chapbooks, street cries, slang dictionaries, and ballads are part of this street literature.

Format: Full Text, Archival Materials
Dates of Coverage: 18th, 19th, & early 20th century
Database Producer: AM (Adam Matthew Digital)
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive collection of early English newspapers titles from London, British Isles, and colonies.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: History

The most comprehensive collection of early English newspapers, including 1 million full text images from newspapers, newsbooks, Acts of Parliament, addresses, broadsides, pamphlets, proclamations. Titles are included from London, British Isles, and colonies.

Format: Archival Materials, Full Text Journals
Dates of Coverage: 1604-1804
Database Producer: Gale Publishing.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Nichols Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
Newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets and broadsheets that form the Nichols newspaper collection held at the Bodleian library in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: History, English

This collection features London newspapers and pamphlets covering the period 1672-1737, gathered by antiquarian and printer John Nichols. All 296 volumes of bound material, from the Nichols Newspaper Collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, have been digitized.

The Nichols Newspapers collection charts the history and development of the press in England, and complements the titles and issues found in 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers.

Format: Full Text
Dates of Coverage: 1672 to 1737
Update Schedule: Complete Archive
Database Distributor: Gale / Cengage
Shakespeare's Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance This link opens in a new window
Documenting over 300 productions from 1997-2016, this digital collection provides resources for the study of Shakespeare, theatre, cultural history and early-modern literature.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: English, Theater

This collection of documents offers insights into the performance practice in the particular space of the reconstructed Globe Theatre.

Format: Full Text, image, videos
Dates of Coverage: 1997-2006
Database Producer: AM (Adam Matthew Digital)
Shakespeare Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to an extensive collection of authoritative materials supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, Theatre

The Shakespeare Collection provides access to an extensive collection of authoritative materials supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies. Resources include the most recent Arden Shakespeare editions of the complete works, as well as editions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works, other works published during Shakespeare's time, prompt books, the Gordon Crosse Theatrical Diaries, criticism, reviews, images, and reference.

Format: Full Text Books
Database Producer: Gale Publishing.
Shakespeare in Performance This link opens in a new window
Contains unique prompt books from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. These prompt books describe key performances in Great Britain and the United States, between the 17th and 20th centuries. This resource also contains curated case studies built around 17 selected performances with supplementary materials.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject: Theatre, History, Art History and Visual Culture

This collection belongs to AM Explorer.

Date range: 1660-1980
Format: Archival Resources, including text, image
Database Producer: AM (Adam Matthew Digital)
The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
This collection includes the complete run of The Times Literary Supplement.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Literary criticism, writing

Founded in 1902 as a supplement to The Times (London), for more than 100 years the Times Literary Supplement has forged a reputation for fine writing, literary discoveries and insightful debate. From Anglo-centric beginnings in 1902, by the mid-20th century the TLS had developed into a truly international publication, with contributors from every region of the world.

Until 1974, writings and influential criticism of hundreds of the twentieth century's most important writers and thinkers were kept anonymous to foster open discussion. The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive now discloses the identity of these contributors.

Format: Archival Materials, Full Text
Dates of Coverage: 1902-2019
Database Producer: Gale Publishing
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Focus is on English texts published during the "long" nineteenth century, from the beginnings of Mesmerism in 1779 through to the 1930s.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: History, English, Theatre

Victorian Popular Culture is an essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is concerned with primarily English texts published during the "long" nineteenth century, from the beginnings of Mesmerism in 1779 through to the 1930s. This innovative portal invites users into the darkened halls, small backrooms and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to the world of magic and spiritualist sances.

The resource is divided into four self contained sections: "Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic" explores the relationship between the popularity of Victorian magic shows and conjuring tricks and the emergence of seances and psychic phenomena in Britain and America. "Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks" focuses on the world of travelling entertainment in Britain, American and Europe in the 19th and early 20th century. From big tops to carnivals, fairgrounds and dime museums, it covers the history of popular shows and exhibitions from both an audience and professional perspective.

"Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment" covers the golden era for variety, vaudeville and theatre. The era played host to a vast range of other public entertainments and spectacles, from the educational to the decadent. This section features material on music halls, pleasure gardens, exhibitions, scientific institutions and many more. "Moving pictures, optical entertainments and the advent of cinema" explores the pivotal era in entertainment history when previously static images came to life and moved for the first time. Through the wealth of printed and visual material as well as artefacts (see our virtual exhibition and 360-viewer) in this resource, we are able to imagine the wide-eyed wonder of those early audiences, experiencing the magic of Victorian inventions and optical entertainments.

Format: Archival Materials
Dates of Coverage: 1779-1930
Database Producer: AM (Adam Matthew Digital)
Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new window
Includes anti-persecution writings, works by penologists, legal and church documents, exposs of persecutions, and philosophical writings and transcripts of trials and exorcisms.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Women's Studies, History

The earliest texts in this comprehensive collection on witchcraft date from the 15th century and the latest are from the early 20th century. The majority of the material concerns the 16th to 18th centuries, the so-called "classic period." In addition to these classic texts, the collection includes anti-persecution writings, works by penologists, legal and church documents, exposs of persecutions, and philosophical writings and transcripts of trials and exorcisms.

Includes 263,207 images from the collections of Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and others.

Format: Full Text
Date range: 1500-1930
Database Producer: Archives Unbound, Gale.

Theatre Related Primary Resource Databases

Digital Theatre + This link opens in a new window
A digital streaming video collection of unique films including current, leading British theatre productions and behind-the-scenes documentaries.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: Theatre, Dance, Drama, Performing Arts.

Digital Theatre Plus is a streaming video platform of current British theatre productions as well as behind-the-scenes commentaries. This platform is one way to immerse researchers in performance while also helping to ready performing arts students for employment.

This database is comprised of 4 main parts:

(1) Plays & Productions: with 361 "filmed and audio" productions. These recordings include performances from Shakespeare's Globe theatre, the Broadway Digital Archive, the Royal Opera House, and the BBC.

(2) Practice & Practitioners: 397 interviews and documentaries with cast members, directors, and backstage crews are found in Digital Theatre Plus.

(3) Theory & Criticism: Digital Theatre Plus includes 284 written resources (6,975 pages) written by both academics and practitioners. These materials explore theatre history, theory, and technique.

(4) Teaching with DT: These resources have been commissioned, created and curated by Creative Content Producer Fiona Lindsay and Editorial Director (Higher Education) Talia Rodgers to support the teaching of English, Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, and Performing Arts subjects from secondary to higher education. We provide resources which bridge the gap between school and university. Many of the resources below can be used across all levels from the UK to the US and beyond.

Format: Streaming Media, Full Text
Dates of Coverage: Varies by production, from the 1960's through present
Update Schedule: Quarterly
Database Distributor: Digital Theatre Plus
Shakespeare Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to an extensive collection of authoritative materials supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, Theatre

The Shakespeare Collection provides access to an extensive collection of authoritative materials supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies. Resources include the most recent Arden Shakespeare editions of the complete works, as well as editions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works, other works published during Shakespeare's time, prompt books, the Gordon Crosse Theatrical Diaries, criticism, reviews, images, and reference.

Format: Full Text Books
Database Producer: Gale Publishing.
Shakespeare in Performance This link opens in a new window
Contains unique prompt books from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. These prompt books describe key performances in Great Britain and the United States, between the 17th and 20th centuries. This resource also contains curated case studies built around 17 selected performances with supplementary materials.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject: Theatre, History, Art History and Visual Culture

This collection belongs to AM Explorer.

Date range: 1660-1980
Format: Archival Resources, including text, image
Database Producer: AM (Adam Matthew Digital)
Theatre in Video: Volume I This link opens in a new window
Performances of the world's leading plays and film documentaries on the subject of theater in streaming video.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Theatre

Theatre in Video contains performances of the world's leading plays and film documentaries on the subject of theater in streaming video. Some plays presented in multiple productions exemplifying various interpretations of the text, and technical and cultural differences among the presentations. Stage work of directors and actors are cross-searchable and available for side-by-side comparison. Interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances, provide illustration of the development of texts and the productions
Format: Digital Media
Update Schedule: Updated periodically by a new release
Dates of Coverage: 20th Century
Database Producer: Alexander Street Press
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Focus is on English texts published during the "long" nineteenth century, from the beginnings of Mesmerism in 1779 through to the 1930s.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: History, English, Theatre

Victorian Popular Culture is an essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is concerned with primarily English texts published during the "long" nineteenth century, from the beginnings of Mesmerism in 1779 through to the 1930s. This innovative portal invites users into the darkened halls, small backrooms and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to the world of magic and spiritualist sances.

The resource is divided into four self contained sections: "Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic" explores the relationship between the popularity of Victorian magic shows and conjuring tricks and the emergence of seances and psychic phenomena in Britain and America. "Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks" focuses on the world of travelling entertainment in Britain, American and Europe in the 19th and early 20th century. From big tops to carnivals, fairgrounds and dime museums, it covers the history of popular shows and exhibitions from both an audience and professional perspective.

"Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment" covers the golden era for variety, vaudeville and theatre. The era played host to a vast range of other public entertainments and spectacles, from the educational to the decadent. This section features material on music halls, pleasure gardens, exhibitions, scientific institutions and many more. "Moving pictures, optical entertainments and the advent of cinema" explores the pivotal era in entertainment history when previously static images came to life and moved for the first time. Through the wealth of printed and visual material as well as artefacts (see our virtual exhibition and 360-viewer) in this resource, we are able to imagine the wide-eyed wonder of those early audiences, experiencing the magic of Victorian inventions and optical entertainments.

Format: Archival Materials
Dates of Coverage: 1779-1930
Database Producer: AM (Adam Matthew Digital)