ENG 485/585: Gotham: Literature & Visual Arts

• Peter Betjemann
• Office:
  Moreland 320
• Contact:
  
  Instructor's Website

This wiki is a place for you to share ideas, sources, suggestions and comments. 

http://gothamliteraturearts.pbwiki.com/

OSU Libraries Catalog Books in Valley Library & OSU branch libraries.  If a book isn't available from OSU, use "Try Summit Libraries" to borrow it from another library.

Summit/WorldCat Catalog  Request books not at OSU and have them sent to Valley Library, usually within 3-4 working days.  If you start your search in the Summit catalog, check to see if OSU has it.

Show me how to get books from Summit/WorldCat

Tips for searching:

• Use quotation marks for phrases, e.g., "triangle shirt factory"
• Look at standardized subjects assigned to books and use them to find more books on the same subject. 
• The more words you use, the fewer results  you'll get.
• Some useful keywords to add to searches:
  • history, biography, letters, correspondence, diaries, journals, personal narratives, interviews, pictorial works, portraits

Assignment: A) Catalog of at least 20 images relevant to your topic. B) Description of patterns discovered in your iconography.

• Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan (Archives, 3rd floor Valley Library) About
  New York Public Library Picture Collection  Over 30,000 digitized images from books, magazines and newspapers; original photographs, prints and post cards.
• American Memory (Library of Congress) A digital record of American history and creativity, including sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music. Includes "The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906"
• Flickr Commons.  A collection of photographs from participating institutions, including Library of Congress, Smithsonian, Brooklyn Museum, and OSU.
• American Periodicals Series, 1740-1900   OSU Libraries' database. Scanned pages from over 1100 periodicals.  Includes illustrations and photographs but image quality of photos is poor.  Searching tips

Labeling and citing images

Even when the images you use are copyright free, you should acknowledge the creator and indicate the source. 

• See the photograph on this page for an example of acknowledgement.
• For examples of using MLA style to fully cite images you use in a research paper, click here: citing images 

Please be aware of legal restrictions on the use of images.  Boston University has a useful webpage on Image Copyright .

Assignment: A) Summary of major historical themes for your topic.  B) Timeline of historical themes and topics

Primary sources:

• Stokes, Icononography of Manhattan  About
• American Periodicals Series,  1740-1900.  About
• American's Historical Newspapers (inlcuding Early American Newspaper Series 1, 1690-1876) 

• Making of America  Digitized primary sources in American social history, including 10,000 books and 50,000  journals articles.  The collection includes 99 books focusing on New York. Search by keyword or browse by subject ("New York" is a subject)
  

• New York Times

• Click here to search the1851-1980 archives.  Select "Advanced" to specify date range: see screenshot

• 100 Years of New York City, 1898-1998 (NY Times on the Web).  Timelines, photograpshs and  headlines from the NY Times Archive.
• Charles Helmstreet, The Story of Manhattan(1901) on Project Gutenberg

Secondary Sources

• America History & Life  Books and journals about American history
  

Create your own timeline on the web: Xtimeline  Add images, text; share with others.

Assignment: A) A bibliography of at least 10 critical/historical/scholarly works relevant to your topic.  B) A paragraph about 3 sources in which you summarize the main argument and respond to it.  Also name 2 others that seem potentially relevant to your argument.

Assignment:  A) Provide a document naming 10 specific literary sources relevant to your topic. B)Anaylze one of these works.

Resources for identifying literary sources:

Books

• Your textbook:  Writing New York: A Literary Anthology
• Antebellum Writers in New York  PS253.N7A58 2002 (4th floor) Volume 250, Dictionary of Literary Biography.  Lengthy, scholarly essays on 38 writers and their works; excellent overview of the period on pages xvii - xxv; includes references
• Antebellum Writers in New York and the South  (1979) PS128.A5  Volume 3, Dictionary of Literary Biography.  Same format and content as vol 250, but without the overview
• Literature and Its Times.  5 vols. Reference PN50 .L574 1997(main floor)  Profiles of literary works and the historical events that influenced them.  Look for "New York City" in the index at the back of each volume.

Databases & Full Text Journal Collections

• MLA International Bibliography The major database for identifying secondary sources in literary studies.  You can sometimes tease out titles of literary works by searching for your topic.  Show me how
  
• Project Muse  Scholarly, peer reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences.  Simultaneously search JSTOR archival collection by selecting "Include JSTOR back issues."  Show me.
• JSTOR An archival collection of journal articles in in the humanities, social sciences and sciences.  It does not provide access to the most current issues.

Websites

• NYPL African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
• Making of America (Univ of Michigan)
• American Memory (Library of Congress)
• American Literature Resources   (Masterpiece Theatre's American Collection).  An educators site developed for K-12.  Includes a literary map, a timeline and an American writers gateway.