Lincoln Research Guide
Using the new Library Gateway
The Easy Search box provides powerful one-stop searching across dozens of Library digital and print resources, including journal databases, newspapers, books, media. Type "open content alliance" lincoln and click on the matches in the Books, etc. in the UIUC Library Catalog to view both online and print resources. By typing "open content alliance" you are specifying that you want to retrieve digitized material. The advantage to using this instead of Illinois Harvest is that you can also see if we have the print version of whatever it is you're searching for (in case you really don't want to read 200 pages online). Replace lincoln with your own search terms to narrow the results.
Library Books
Books on Lincoln can be found in the 973.7s.
Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
This library in room 422 of the Main Library is a great resource for materials on Lincoln. The collection is non-circulating.
Digital Collections
Illinois Harvest
Digitized works in the public domain to do with Illinois history, culture, and natural resources. Use the "Search for Digital Content about Illinois" box to search by keyword or title/subject word. If you type Lincoln in the title/search word box, and click search, you should get over 400 results, including images, websites, and text.
To narrow your search, click on a link in the "Relevant Collections" left toolbar. This will take you either to the Illinois Digital Archives where you can view digitized texts, or the Open Content Alliance where you can view UIUC Library holdings and view digitized works as PDFs, text, DjVu or flip books. We recommend using the flip book to view text, as it loads the quickest and allows you to search within the book. *This is only one way to search Illinois Harvest; try using both the keyword and title search with different terms (depending on what you're researching) for different results.
Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library (from the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress)
Combines two searchable databases. "Abraham Lincoln Papers" contains 20,000 documents from Lincoln's personal writings and correspondence with the greatest concentration of works from the 1850s until his assassination. "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!" is a collection of more than 200 compositions about Lincoln, emancipation, and the Civil War. Both databases allow viewing images of the original documents, with typed transcriptions available for most items.
Lincoln/Net (Northern Illinois University Library)
Searchable database of primary and secondary source materials covering Lincoln's pre-presidential years (1830-1861). Select a media format from the top tool bar to browse or search (you will need to click on your choice twice to get to the search page) or use one of the links below:
Search Lincoln's Writings
Search the Document Archive
Search the Image Archive
Search the Video Archive
Search the Sound Archive
Search Interactive Resources
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln from the Abraham Lincoln Association
Search the full-text of the 8-volume set of Lincoln's collected correspondence, writings, and speeches along with other 19th and early 20th century works examining everything from Lincoln's family life to his finances.
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association Online Archive
Full-text articles analyzing the life and works of Lincoln and those associated with him.