Subject Guides: Birds & Bees: Home

Sample primary sources

1950s sex education video
Abortion: A Documentary and Reference Guide
Abortion and Documents: A Reference Handbook
See data and documents section for primary documents.
Before Roe v. Wade: Documents Collection Center
Collection of documents related to abortion pre-Roe v. Wade.
Birth Control Review
1917-1919.
Changing Maternity and Newborn Care in the Hospital (1950)
Childbirth without Fear (1942)
Natural childbirth early text.
Controlling Reproduction: An American History
Print book in the library. Contains primary docs.
Criminal Abortion: Its Nature, Its Evidence, and Its Law (1868)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control
Published in 1917.
Fecundity, Fertility, Sterility, and Allied Topics (1871)
Female Masturbation (Medical Bulletin, 1884)
Female Masturbation (The Medical Advocate, 1885)
Fewer and Better Babies
Published in 1916.
In vitro fertilization: A conservative view (1982)
Laws concerning birth control in the United States
Published by a national committee headed by Margaret Sanger. Survey of the legal status of birth control in 1929.
A Manual of Midwifery (1878)
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
Many famous writings and speeches by Sanger.
A Mother's Manual on Breastfeeding (1966)
Natural childbirth (1933)
The Newborn, His Family, and the Modern Hospital (1946)
On the Causes and Treatment of Abortion and Sterility (1854)
On the Management of Women at, and after the Cessation of, Menstruation (1851)
On the Right Management of Women: At First Menstruation, and during the Persistence of That Function (1851)
Painless Childbirth in Twilight Sleep (1915)
Pregnancy, Labor and the Puerperal State (1895)
Pro-Life Newsletter Collection
From Georgia State University, bring together many regional and national pro-life documents.
The Recent Trend in Breastfeeding (1979)
Satan in Society (1890)
Female masturbation: see ch. IV.
Selected Texts on Birth Control, by Margaret Sanger
Sex Education in Schools (1957)
Sex Education Series (1955)
Twilight Sleep (1916)
The Unwelcome Child
Published in 1876.
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (1970)

Primary source databases and search engines

American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
"The AAS Historical Periodicals Collection contains more than 6,500 historical periodical titles dating from 1691 to 1877." Provides digital access to American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912. Thematic subsets include digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals not available from any other source and provide content detailing American history and culture from the mid-18th century through the late-19th century. These specialized collections cover advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry and professions, religious issues, culture and the arts, and more.
The collections of historical periodicals provide rich content detailing American history and culture from the mid-18th century through the late-19th century. The 17 initial collections cover the following areas: Advertising; Agriculture; Alternative Medicine and Health; The American West; Business, Industry and Professions; Canada; Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, and Episcopal Religions ; Current Events of the Period; Drama, Humor, and Fine Arts; Foreign Language Periodicals in America; Masons, Odd-Fellows and Other Societies; Military and Law Enforcement; Religious Issues Pertaining to Women, Children, and Families; Science; Slavery and Abolition; Women's Periodicals of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963.
Encompass Search.
Encompass Search searches for books and other resources, first in our own library, and then beyond, in other research libraries.
Google
Google Books
Google Books is a rich source of full-text documents (books and other materials) published prior to 1923 that are now in the public domain.
Hathi Trust
Thousands of older books, useful as primary documents, scanned by libraries throughout the U.S.

Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
"...a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century."
New York Times Digital Archive, 1851-4 years ago This link opens in a new window
Includes full text PDF images of the New York Daily Times (1851-1857) and the New York Times (1857- 4 years ago). Index searches within1851 to 1993 using The New York Times Index.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Colonial to 1950. Includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Includes full text of the following publications:
Chicago Defender (1909-1975)
The New York Times with Index (1851-2019)
The Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-2001)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1786-2003)
The Washington Post (1877-2006)
U.S. Northeast Collection (1785-2010) (includes Morning Call and other regional papers)
PubMed This link opens in a new window
A service of the National Library of Medicine, PubMed includes over 19 million citations for biomedical articles back to 1948 and links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.
Women's studies archive: Issues and Identities This link opens in a new window
The Issues and Identities module of the Women's Studies Archive gathers primary sources focused on the social, political, and professional achievements of women throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

What about secondary sources: journals and books that may contain, or reference, primary documents?

America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
The definitive database of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With selective indexing for 1,700 journals from 1964 to present, this database is without question the most important bibliographic reference tool for students and scholars of U.S. and Canadian history.
Full text journals include American Historical Review, American 19th Century History, American Studies, Early American Studies, Journal of American Culture, Journal of American History, Journal of Early American History, and Journal of Military History.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A database of both scholarly and popular publications in a wide variety of disciplines and subject areas, including psychology. Most full text is linked directly in the database; otherwise use the Check for Full Text buttons to check for full text online or in the library.

Encompass Search.
Encompass Search searches for books and other resources, first in our own library, and then beyond, in other research libraries.

SUBJECT search examples:
sex instruction united states history
birth control united states history
childbirth united states history
natural childbirth history
fathers childbirth
fertilization in vitro history
menstruation history
breastfeeding united states history
contraceptive devices

Sample titles:
Miscarriage in Nineteenth Century America
From home to hospital : the evolution of childbirth in the United States, 1927-1940
Contraception and Abortion in Nineteenth-century America
Riotous Flesh women physiology and the solitary vice
Revolutionary conceptions : women, fertility, and family limitation in America, 1760-1820

Google Scholar
May be used in conjunction with interlibrary loan. Access to full text is maximized by searching from the Muhlenberg network.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A substantive archive of about 3,000 full text scholarly journals plus scholarly books in the arts, humanities, social sciences and biological sciences. As an archive, there is typically a lag time of 3-5 years from publication until new issues appear in JSTOR. Journals include core titles from a variety of disciplines: history, economics, biology, and more.

Sample sources

Citing sources

For tips on citing print and electronic sources, visit Trexler Library's Citation Guides for Print and Electronic Resources.

Or visit the Online Writing Lab at Purdue.

For automated citation, try the shareware Zotero. Directions for installing Zotero here.

For help with annotated bibliographies, visit Purdue's Online Writing Lab for definitions and format of an annotation.

Articles and books via interlibrary loan

Articles and books not found in Trexler Library can be ordered on interlibrary loan.