LibGuides: Making Invisible Histories Visible: Find Background Context

Places to Start

Find out more about the historical era you're researching so you can interpret your site and location.

Historic Omaha World Herald Archives from the Omaha Public Library
The Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Omaha World-Herald Digital Archive from 1867-1983. Use this link off campus or on the EduRoam wireless network on campus.

Access World News This link opens in a new window
Are you on campus? This link allows you to search for Nebraska newspapers, but only contains the Omaha World Herald Archives back to 1983 and the Lincoln Journal Star back to 1997.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998, provides online access to more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection, which includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states, features many rare 19th-century titles.
History Vault This link opens in a new window
Primary Source database. Includes the scanned and searchable archival records of several major civil rights organizations, including: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Congress of Racial Equality, National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides exact page images of archival scholarly journals in multiple subject areas. It provides full-text and full page images and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Census
Guide to finding census data.

Helpful Books

You may not find a specific book on your topic or building but you can search for Omaha history books that might have related or contextual information. Look for access to ebooks through Omaha Public Library by searching for the book title in their catalog.

Omaha Public Library Catalog
Search for books available to the greater Omaha community. To access ebooks or check out physical books, you must have an Omaha Public Library card.
Omaha History book search
Books about Omaha's history. Includes items located in special collections, archives, in the ebook collection, on the third floor, and more.
Historic Buildings in Omaha book search
A catalog search for books about historic buildings in Omaha, NE.
Architecture in Omaha book search
Books specifically about Omaha architecture. Some of these books are located in our special collections. Ebooks need to be accessed at the Omaha Public Library.

What Were They Reading?

The entire run of Life Magazine is available on Google Books. Access this anywhere.

The Saturday Evening Post is in the Criss Library Academic Search Complete database. Access this on UNO's campus.