American Literature Links

| Historical, General | Jamestown | Puritan Beliefs / Witches | Puritan Literature | Crèvecoeur | Colonial Period / Enlightenment | Ben Franklin | Royall Tyler | Susanna Rowson |  Ralph Waldo Emerson | Transcendentalism | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Henry David Thoreau | Harriet Jacobs | Harriet Beecher Stowe | Herman Melville | Walt Whitman | Emily Dickinson | The National Portrait Gallery | Sources for Texts | Composition & Citation Advice |

Historical, General:

Digital History Online American History Textbook

Early Americas Digital Archive 

PAL: Perspectives in American Literature (Paul Reuben)

American Authors (Donna Campbell, Washington State University)

American Literature Sites (Donna Campbell)

Religion and the Founding of the American Republic (Library of Congress)

History of American Thought (Links at pragmatism.org)

Bradstreet, The Tenth Muse (1650)
Title page to Anne Bradstreet, The Tenth Muse (1650)

Jamestown

The National Geographic on Jamestown  (Focuses on how the English settlers changed the environment)

Jamestown artifacts (National Geographic)

A downloadable map of Jamestown (National Geographic)

Early Images of Virginia Indians (Virginia Historical Society)

Theodore De Bry’s Engravings of Native Americans (1590) (Virginia Historical Society)

The Story of Virginia, an American Experience (Virginia Historical Society) [See especially Becoming a Homeplace and Contact and Conflict.]

Pocahontas: (University of Vienna)

Captain John Smith (University of Vienna)

Puritan Beliefs / Witches

The Puritans [Digital History Textbook]

The American Sense of Puritan (UVA) [See also "The Pilgrims" and "The Puritans"]

American Puritanism: A Brief Introduction (PAL) [See: Basic Puritan Beliefs - Tulip.]

The Puritan Idea of the Covenant [Digital History Textbook]

Puritanism in New England (Donna Campbell, Washington State University)

Puritan Beliefs [From a web site called "Believe"]

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive (UVA) [See: Overview of the Salem Witch Trials and the Further Overview.]

Salem Witch Trials (A short history with links)

Salem Witchcraft Trials, 1692 (Famous American Trials)

National Geographic Salem Interactive [Nice site that puts you in the place of an average Salem villager confronted with rumors of witches. Once you enter, it’s difficult to navigate away from this site—maybe intentional?]

The Witches Curse (PBS) [The site asks these questions about the causes of the witchcraft crisis: “Was it sexual repression, dietary deficiency, mass hysteria? Or, could a simple fungus have been to blame?”]

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 (Salem Witch Museum) [See also: Witches: Evolving Perceptions.]

Salem Witchcraft: The Events and Causes of the Salem Witch Trials (Tim Sutter)

17th Century Colonial New England (Margo Burns)

Puritan Literature:

Fire and Ice: Puritan and Reformed Writings (from www.puritansermons.com)

Samuel Willard, Some Miscellany Observations On our present Debates respecting Witchcrafts, in a Dialogue Between S. & B. (17th Century Colonial New England)

Text of Samuel Sewall's "The Selling of Joseph" (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Slavery and the Massachusetts Courts: (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Complete Text of Michael Wigglesworth’s Day of Doom (from The Poetry of Michael Wigglesworth): .

The Alphabet from The New England Primer 

Last page of the alphabet from The New England Primer 

Text of the entire New England Primer (1777 edition)

Selected Works of Anne Bradstreet (UVA)

Hector St. John Crèvecoeur (1735-1813)

Negotiating Nature/Wilderness: Crèvecoeur and American Identity in Letters From an American Farmer (Ann M. Woodlief, VCU)

Text of Crèvecoeur, Letters From An American Farmer (Project Gutenberg) 

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur (links)

D.H. Lawrence’s chapter on Crèvecoeur (from Studies in Classic American Literature) (UVA)

D.H. Lawrence on Franklin and Crèvecoeur (short excerpts)

The Colonial Period: 1700-1800 [The Enlightenment]

Colonial Period: 1700-1800 - A Brief Introduction  (PAL)

Religion in 18th Century America (Library of Congress)

Religion and the American Revolution (Library of Congress)

Philosophy from Puritanism to Enlightenment (Rick Kennedy)
 
Virginia's Colonial Dynasties (Virginia Historical Society)

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Franklin's "The Way to Wealth" (with many aphorisms from Poor Richard’s Almanac)

The New England Courant (Franklin's first newspaper) 

Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words (Library of Congress) See especially:

Ben Franklin, Scientist and Inventor  

Ben Franklin & The New Republic 

Ben Franklin, Printer and Writer

Franklin & His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth Century America (Smithsonian Institution)

Views of Ben Franklin (American Philosophical Society)

D.H. Lawrence’s chapter on Franklin (from Studies in Classic American Literature)

Royall Tyler (1757-1826)

Royall Tyler and The Contrast

Text of The Contrast (Project Gutenberg)

Susanna Rowson (c.1762-1824)

The Early American Novel: Introductory Notes [Sentimentalism]

Domestic or Sentimental Fiction, 1820-1865 [An overview of sentimental fiction after Rowson] 

Susanna Rowson (links)

Background notes on Charlotte Temple (Donna Campbell, WSU)

Four American Critics on Charlotte Temple (UVA)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

RWE.org - The Internet's Complete Guide to the Life and Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson http://www.rwe.org/ (The Ralph Waldo Emerson Institute)

Emerson Biography at poets.org: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/201

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/emerson.htm

Paul Reuben’s Emerson Page: (PAL) http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/emerson.html

RWE Society: http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/emerson/ 

Text of Nature: http://www.rwe.org/pages/Nature_html.htm

Text of Nature with notes: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/nature.html

Text of Emerson's "Self-Reliance" 

Text of Emerson's "The Poet"

Emerson in Concord: an Exhibition in Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hudson River Valley Painters: http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/arttours.html

Church: Mount Ktaadn (1853): http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/americansublime/room3a.htm

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism: http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html

Transcendentalism Web: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/

American Transcendentalism: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/amtrans.htm

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Nathaniel Hawthorne (PAL): http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/hawthorne.html 

Nathaniel Hawthorne Bicentennial Exhibition (Peabody  Essex Museum): http://www.pem.org/library/hawthorne/

The Custom House (1878): http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/images/image.php?name=MMD1185

The Custom House today: http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/images/image.php?name=MMD330

Hawthorne Biographical Images (Hawthorne in Salem):

Photo of Hawthorne in 1848: http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/images/image.php?name=MMD365

Portrait of Hawthorne in 1840: http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/images/image.php?name=MMD115

Portrait of someone who may or may not be Sophia Peabody (Hawthorne’s wife)

Actual portrait of Sophia Peabody (Hawthorne’s wife)

Images: Ideas of Good and Evil

Hester on scaffold (1878): http://pearl.nscc.mass.edu/images/fullpageimage.php?name=MMD685 

Hester in town (1881): http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/images/image.php?name=MMD360

Melville and Hawthorne Images 

Texts by Nathaniel Hawthorne at Eldritch Press: http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/hawthorne.html

Text of “Young Goodman Brown”: http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/ygb.html

Text of The Scarlet Letter: http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/sl.html 

Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales: http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/ttt.html

Hawthorne’s Mosses from an Old Manse: http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/mosses.html

“The Old Manse”: http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/tom.html

Images of the Old Manse: http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Architecture/HousesinConcord/TheOldManse/Introduction.html

Miranda July, “Birthmark” (text): http://guccipiggy.objectis.net/prose/birthmark

Miranda July, “Birthmark” (reading--mp3 file): http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2007/12/14/segments/90305

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) 

The Thoreau Reader: http://thoreau.eserver.org/

Text of Walden at The Thoreau Reader: http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html

The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau/writings_main.html

Transcripts of Thoreau's Journal: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau/writings_journals.html

Thoreau's Journal as a blog: http://blogthoreau.blogspot.com/

Thoreau's 1846 survey of Walden Pond: http://thoreau.eserver.org/survey.html

Thoreau’s surveys: http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Thoreau_Surveys/Thoreau_Surveys.htm

Walden Pond photos: http://thoreau.eserver.org/pondpics.html

Photo tour of Walden Pond: http://thoreau.eserver.org/cliff.html

Ice melting on Walden in the spring: http://thoreau.eserver.org/spring.html

A 1920 photo of ice breaking up at Walden [Herbert Wendell Gleason]: http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Gleason/II_1920_34.html

"Earth's Eye": An Online Exhibition of Walden Pond Images: http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Walden/Walden.htm

Church: Mount Ktaadn (1853): http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/americansublime/room3a.htm

Teaming up with Thoreau (One hundred fifty years after the publication of Walden, Henry David Thoreau is helping scientists monitor global warming.)

Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) and Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)

Harriet Jacobs Incidents site (UVA) 

Harriet Jacobs Images (UVA)

Harriet Jacobs (PBS--don't miss the links at the bottom of the document)

Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture (UVA)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture (“Browse Mode”)

Compare 600 Uncle Tom’s Cabin Illustrations (UVA)

(Dis)obedience and Racial Order: How Illustrations in Uncle Tom’s Cabin Test the Boundaries of Slavery (UVA)

Anothe page organizing Illustrations for Uncle Tom’s Cabin (UVA)

Text of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (UVA)

Letter from Harriet Beecher StoweLetter to William Lloyd Garrison (PBS)

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

Africans in America: America's journey through slavery (PBS)

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

The Life and Works of Herman Melville: http://www.melville.org/melville.htm

Melville and Arrowhead (short biography, with an emphasis on Melville’s house, Arrowhead, where he lived from 1850-1862): http://www.mobydick.org/hm.html

An online Melville biography: http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/melvillebio.html

Herman Melville links: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/melville.htm

PAL Melville page: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/melville.html

Melville and Hawthorne Images

Walt Whitman  (1819-1892)

Whitman Song of Myself Study text  (American Transcendentalism Web)

Walt Whitman Archive: http://www.whitmanarchive.org/

Criticism at the Walt Whitman Archive: http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/index.html

One Life: Walt Whitman, a kosmos: http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/whitman/index.html

Revising Himself (LOC): http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/whitman-home.html

Whitman’s Notebooks (LOC): http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/whitman/index.html

Whitman and Transcendentalism (Thoreau visits Whitman in Brooklyn) (American Transcendentalism Web)

Gutenberg text of Leaves of Grass: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/lvgrs10.txt

PAL Walt Whitman page: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/whitman.html

Walt Whitman Links: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/whitman.htm 

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Emily Dickinson International Society: http://www.emilydickinson.org/edis/index.html

Dickinson’s herbarium: http://www.emilydickinson.org/edis/graphics/plate20.jpg

The Emily Dickinson Journal: (Project Muse: to access off-campus, go to the GVSU library catalog).

Dickinson Electronic Archive: http://www.emilydickinson.org/

Emily Dickinson Links: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/dickinson.htm

PAL Emily dickinson page: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/dickinson.html

Emily Dickinson Museum: http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/

A New Photo of Emily Dickinson? http://www.unc.edu/~gura/dickinson/index.html

How I Met and Dated Miss Emily Dickinson: An Adventure on eBay (Philip F. Gura): http://www.common-place.org/vol-04/no-02/gura/

The National Portrait Gallery

Past Exhibitions: http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/curex12.htm

Josephine Baker, Image and Icon: http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/baker/slideshow/slideshow.html

Celebrity Caricature in America: http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/caricatures/index.htm

Sally Rand and Martha Graham: http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/caricatures/rand.htm (Vanity Fair, 1934)

Rebels: Painters and Poets of the 1950s: http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/rebels/index.htm

Eddie Cantor: http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/caricatures/cantor.htm

Environmental Writers [Links from ASLE]

Sources for Electronic texts:
Composition & Citation Advice: | Diana Hacker's Research and Documentation Online | Diana Hacker on MLA Style | Paisley Currah's Writing Guide | The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing  | Citing Sources (GVSU Library) | Knight Cite |