Subject Collections: What’s in the Museum?

If you’re interested in state-focused art and history, you might be interested in the Museum Collection Databases of the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project. This collection currently features museum databases from Alaska, Ohio and Pennsylvania. My favorite, naturally, is the Alaska one:

Alaska State Museum Collections – Searchable catalog of the Museum’s 32,000 cataloged objects including Alaska Native material, historic artifacts, works of art, and natural history specimens. Alaska Native material, amounting to more than 15,000 objects, is the most outstanding part of the collection. Database may be searched by subject, culture, description, object name, maker, location or history.

If you know of a museum collection database not found on Museum Collections Databases page, please let us know in comments.

Subject Collections: Historical Newspapers

Although some larger newspapers (Washington Post, New York Times) have online indexes going back decades, most newspapers have indexes going back to the 1990s, maybe the 1980s. In today’s stop on our tour of subject focused collections of state agency databases, we find a number of states have prepared indexes of local newspapers, magazines and newsletters:

Historical Newspaper and Magazine Indexes – Databases that index articles in older newspapers, journals and magazine that contain historical information. These databases will usually lead one to microfilmed items that may be obtainable through Interlibrary Loan.

In most cases, these indexes aren’t crawled by Google and other major search engines, so if you’re looking for local coverage of historic happenings in your state, one of these databases is a good bet. Some of the indexes include:

Alaska Newspapers Index – Indexing for a number of Fairbanks Newspapers from 1900-1975 and for the Juneau Empire for 1992-1999. Searchable by headline and year for all newspapers. Juneau Empire may also be searched by reporter or abstract.

Florida Biography & Citation Index contains references to biographical information on notable Floridians in the books, periodicals, vertical files, newspapers and maps of the State Library’s Florida Collection. Some of the resources indexed are rare, but many are current periodicals that might be found in local libraries. The records in this index are a subset of the State Library of Florida’s library catalog and are searched through the Library Online Catalog. To search for just the Florida Biography/Citation Index citations, click on the “Power Search” option (under the search box), and then on the search form, choose Florida Biography & Citation Index from the “Location” dropdown box. On the results of your search, you will see a list of the records with a call number in the format FLCITE(374332.1). Click on the “Details” button to see the record. On the detailed record click on the “Catalog Record” tab to see the list of citations for that record.

Oklahoma Periodicals Index – Oklahoma Periodicals Index is a searchable online index about people, places, history, culture, wildlife, and natural history in the state of Oklahoma. The index consists of four key periodicals: The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Today, Outdoor Oklahoma, and Persimmon Hill. Index is produced by Oklahoma State University.

Please check out the page and let us know if you’ve heard of a similar resource in another state.

Subject Collections: Historical Media

Our next stop on our tour of subject focused collections of state agency databases is:

Historical Media Databases – Databases that provide online access to photographs, video, or audio.

This collection of resources from nearly two dozen states includes resources like:

Wyoming Memory Portal – Wyoming Memory brings the histories of Wyoming to life through a virtual gateway to the state’s rich collections of manuscripts, books, photographs, government documents, newspapers, maps, audio, video, and other resources. These sources document Wyoming’s past from prehistory through the present.

Volunteer Voices – a state-wide digitization project that will provide access to primary sources that document Tennessee’s rich history and culture. Volunteer Voices combines the collaborative efforts to Tennessee archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, and schools.

Mel Michigania – Digitized historical resources from various collections around Michigan. The collections include photographs of people, places and objects; diaries of Civil War soldiers; unique local histories and much more.

Alaska’s Digital Archive – Multiagency database managed by the Alaska State Library. Rich collection of media including photographs, video, and audio.

Know of similar resources in other states? Please leave a comment or send an e-mail to Daniel Cornwall at dnlcornwall AT Alaska DOT net.

Subject Collections: Biographies

Continuing our tour of subject-focused collections of state agency databases, we come to:

Biographical Databases – Databases that provide biographical sketches of authors, state officials, famous state residents, etc.

This page is hosted on the wiki for State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States and contains links to databases in Colorado, Kentucky and Wyoming.  Please check them out. If you are aware of a similar resource in another state, please let us know in a comment. Or e-mail Daniel Cornwall at dnlcornwall AT Alaska DOT net.

WY: Archival Records

If you’re researching Wyoming history, save a trip to the WY State Archives by using today’s State Agency Database Highlight:

• Microfilm Archives Research and Security System (MARSS)

From the website, “MARSS is a database for accessing information about microfilmed records at the Wyoming State Archives. Since the 1950’s, the Wyoming State Archives has been microfilming records and receiving records on microfilm. Archives staff have compiled the index information in a Microfilm Database, allowing information about microfilmed records to be available through the Internet.

The microfilm collection includes records from state and local government agencies, private collections, and a few federal documents. We have almost all of the Wyoming newspapers on microfilm. Database searches can be conducted using the agency name, county office, or record title or description. Most of the microfilm is available for research, but if the research copy is with the agency of record, you will need to contact that agency regarding access to the film.”

The Wyoming page of State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States is maintained by Erin Kinney.

WA: Indiana Jones and the State Database

With the upcoming release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it seems appropriate that we should have a State Agency Database Highlight showing off archaelogical information:

• Washington Information System for Architectural and Archaeological Records Data – A searchable database of over 1800 registered historical sites including images, a summary of the significance, and a link to the nomination document. A search may be initiated via map or by text query for historic name, address, city, county, architectural style, built date, historic use, architect, and listing status. Information on archaeological sites is limited to prevent vandalism.

The Washington page of State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States is maintained by Marilyn Von Seggern.

LA: Plan a Historical Vacation

Want to mix some history with your upcoming visit to Louisiana? It’s a snap with today’s State Agency Database Highlight:

Louisiana National Register of Historic Places – Search for a historic site in Louisiana by city, parish (county), theme (African-American History, Rice Boom, Local History, etc), level and area of significance, style, architect and property type. Records include historic name, other names, city, parish, date registered, address, documents and pictures when available.

The Louisiana page of State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States is maintained by Rolanda L. Ridley.

WY: Digital Initiatives

A little of this and a little of that describes today’s State Agency Database Highlight from Wyoming:

University of Wyoming Digital Initiative – This website showcases the online multimedia collections of the University of Wyoming Libraries and the American Heritage Center. Specialized collections include geography, wildlife and living.

The Wyoming page of State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States is maintained by Erin Kinney.

UT: Mountain West Images and More

From the University of Utah, today’s State Agency Database Highlight embraces historical media from a number of different Western States:

Mountain West Digital Library – From the website, “The Mountain West Digital Library is an aggregation of digital collections from universities, colleges, public libraries, museums, and historical societies in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. Hosting institutions each run servers supporting their own digital collections and support partner institutions by providing scanning and hosting services. The Mountain West defines the region of contributors, but the content extends beyond the Mountain West and into different fields.” Portal page hosted by University of Utah.

TX: Texas Heritage

If you’re looking for the great memories of a great state, check out today’s State Agency Database Highlight:

Texas Heritage Online – Texas Heritage Online provides unified online access to Texas’ historical documents and images for use by teachers, students, historians, genealogists, and other researchers. It has been developed by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and the Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative, a cooperative project to identify, describe, digitize, preserve, and make broadly accessible special collections of history and culture held by libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other institutions in Texas.

The Texas Page of State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States has not yet been claimed by a volunteer. If you would like to maintain this page, please send an e-mail to dnlcornwall AT alaska DOT net.