Detail of a lithographed bird's-eye view of the city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, 1870.
Catalog record
Researchers can find a variety of primary and secondary sources for rural and urban studies through 1900 in North America. The following research guide is intended to serve as a starting point for your research.
Finding Primary Sources
The General Catalog uses genre/form terms to make findable thousands of works for rural and urban studies through approximately 1900. Researchers can use the following terms:
- Aerial views
- Agricultural newspapers
- Agricultural periodicals
- Bird's-eye views
- Charitable institution periodicals
- City directories
Only directories before 1840 are fully cataloged. A checklist of all pre-1876 directories, arranged alphabetically, by the name of the town or city, is available in the reading room. - Cityscape prints
- Exterior views
- Interior views
- Maps
Only maps before 1820 and pocket maps are fully cataloged. - Panoramic views
- Racy newspapers
- Site plans
Library of Congress subject headings used by AAS include:
- Agriculture
- Census
- Cities and towns
- City and town life
- City planning
- Farms
- Farmers
- Land grants
- Population
- Ranchers
- Transportation
- Urbanization
- Utopias
The following collections contain important primary sources for the study of rural and urban studies.
- Governmental Publications (federal, state, and local)
Federal, state, and local governmental publications provide an excellent body of material for urban and rural research. - Maps and Atlases
The subheading "maps" has been appended to many Library of Congress subject headings such as New London County (Conn.)--Maps. - Newspapers
Small-town newspapers from all over the United States are a prominent feature of the AAS collection. Local news might even be included in amateur newspapers. Big-city newspapers are also well represented. These include a unique group of papers with sensationalized coverage targeted at urban audiences called "racy papers" or "the flash press".- Paper: Use the Clarence database to determine which issues are available to be consulted in paper format at AAS, such as those from specific towns or cities.
- Digital: AAS newspapers are available digitally in America's Historical Newspapers (Readex), Amateur Newspapers from the American Antiquarian Society (Gale), American Underworld: The Flash Press (Readex), all available at AAS.
If you don't find what you are looking for please email our staff at reference [at] mwa.org (reference[at]mwa[dot]org).
Digital Collections and Projects
The following AAS digital collections and project websites are freely available from anywhere.
- American Revolutionary Geographies Online
- Beauties of America: The Staffordshire Pottery of John and William Ridgway
- Digital Commonwealth
- Images of Worcester
- Mill Girls in Nineteenth-Century Print
- Photographs of Massachusetts Structures by Harriette Merrifield Forbes
- Reclaiming Heritage: Digitizing Early Nipmuc Histories from Colonial Documents
The following digital collections are available to researchers who are present at AAS and signed on to AAS networks. Publishers provide separate tools for searching their collections. Some feature materials not held at AAS.
- Amateur Newspapers from the American Antiquarian Society (Gale)
- American Underworld: The Flash Press (Readex)
- America's Historical Newspapers (Readex)
- Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture (Gale)
- Sabin Americana (Gale)
- Gale Primary Sources
Includes all Gale products available at AAS - Readex AllSearch
Includes all Readex products available at AAS
Fellowship Opportunities
The American Antiquarian Society awards over forty fellowships annually. Fellowships are offered for postdoctoral academics, advanced graduate students, independent scholars, as well as for creative and performing artists and writers.
Recorded Programs
Watch past rural and urban studies programs most of which resulted from research completed in the AAS collection.