Databases: Secondary Sources
- Academic Search Complete
This multidisciplinary database covers magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers and is a good place to start for any subject.
- Gale Literature Criticism
Criticism published from an author's own time to the present as well as biographical and bibliographical information. Browse by topic, author, and popular literature works.
- Gale Literature Resource CenterBiographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline.
- JSTOR
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Multidisciplinary collection of selected scholarly journals, books, images, and primary sources in humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
- Literature Online
A collection of English and American poetry, drama and prose. Plus, biographies, bibliographies and key secondary sources.
- MLA International Bibliography
Index of research in literature, language, and folklore. Also includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the MLA Thesaurus. Coverage from 1920 to present.
- Project Muse
Full-text of scholarly journals and books in the humanities and social sciences.
E-books
- Exiled Royalties: Melville and the Life We Imagine, Robert Milder (2006) A collection of essays that measure Melville's literary works against his career and inner life.
- A Historical Guide to Herman Melville, Giles B. Gunn (2005) A collection of critical essays about Melville's relation to class, ethnicity, religion, and the nineteenth century.
- Melville and the Idea of Blackness: Race and Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century America, Christopher Freeburg (2012) An examination of Melville's portrayal of race in Moby Dick, Pierre, Benito Cereno, and The Encantadas.
- A Political Companion to Herman Melville (2013) A collection of essays that explore Melville's politics by surveying the full range of his works from Typee (1846) to Billy Budd (1924).
- Preaching and the Rise of the American Novel, Dawn Coleman (2013) An exploration of the relationship between religious practices and literature in pre-Civil War America.
Historical Contexts
- America : History and Life with Full Text
Indexes scholarly literature on the history of the United States and Canada. Some access to full-text articles is available.
- Historical Abstracts with Full Text
Indexes scholarly literature on world history, excluding the United States and Canada. Covers the time period from 1450 to the present.
Online Access - 6 simultaneous users
- American Memory (Library of Congress)from the Library of Congress (Includes collections on: African American History; Native American History)
UT Special Collections
Unique materials related to the life and times of Herman Melville can be found in the Libraries' Special Collections, first floor Hodges Library. Here is a guide that will list some of the major collections. Additional items may be located by searching the Libraries' catalog. Researchers may be particularly interested in first editions of Melville's work including:
Researchers may also be interested in historical texts:
- The Whale and His Captors, Henry T. Cheever (1850) A personal account of a maritime experience.
- Whale Ships and Whaling: A Pictorial History, George Francis Dow (1925) A pictorial survey of whale ships, covering three centuries and including over 200 vintage engravings, drawings, and photographs.
Online Resources
- Melville's Marginalia OnlineAn electronic catalog of books owned or borrowed by Herman Melville with digital scans of Melville's personal markings and annotations.
- Melville Electronic LibraryAn in-progress digital archive that will include all versions of Herman Melville's published and unpublished works as well as materials related to Melville's life, travels, and writings.
- The Melville SocietyA society dedicated to the study of Herman Melville. Website resources include electronic access to "Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies" and conference recordings.
- Moby-Dick Big ReadA complete audio version of Moby Dick, retold by various artists.
- Mystic Seaport Museum: Charles W. MorganThe last wooden whale ship in the world; currently exhibited at the Mystic Seaport: The Museum of American and the Sea, the Charles W. Morgan made her 38th voyage in 2014 to raise awareness of American maritime history as well as the current issues of ocean sustainability and conservation.
- New Bedford Whaling MuseumA museum dedicated to the historic interactions between whales and humans, both local and worldwide. The digital library includes manuscripts, logbooks, maps and charts, various publications, and specialized bibliographies.
Mocha Dick: The Real White Whale of the Pacific and The Essex
From Mocha Dick: The Legend and the Fury, Brian Heinz and Randall Enos (2014)
- Mocha Dick: Or the White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript JournalExplorer Jeremiah N. Reynold's first-person account of his clash with Mocha Dick.
- Was There a Real Moby Dick?The New Bedford Whaling Museum documents reported sightings of Mocha Dick.
- The Whale that Inspired Moby Dick Swims AgainArtists and writers gather to show sympathy for the real-life, man-eating Mocha Dick.
19th Century Newspapers
Access to these databases, except when noted otherwise, is limited to UT users.
- American Periodicals
Contains full-text periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals.
- Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
A collection of 19th century newspapers, including U.S. political party newspapers and news dailies that shaped the nation.
- ProQuest Historical NewspapersCivil War and Reconstruction era titles include Boston Globe Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Hartford Courant, Baltimore Sun, NY Times, NY Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle. Dates vary. You can select newspapers to search from this page by clicking on change button at top of page. Link searches both newspapers and periodicals together.
- America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1993
Full-text collection of U.S. newspapers. See list of titles.
- Chronicling America : Historic American Newspapers
Digitized historical U.S. newspapers. The UT Libraries has added selected Tennessee newspapers to this cooperative venture.
- African American Newspapers. Series 1, 1827-1998
A NewsBank collection of over 200 full-text U.S. newspapers published by or for African Americans.
- African American Newspapers. (Legacy) 1827-1909
A collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century African American newspapers. In 2024, database moved from the Accessible Archives platform to History Commons platform.
UTK has access to parts 1-13 & part 12 supplement (1927-1909)..
