Resource Guide:
America and the Enlightenment
Websites and Digital Archives
The following websites are librarian-evaluated to provide trustworthy information for your topic. They include digitized collections connected to your topic.
- American Constitutional Law (access through Credo Reference Database)
- Constitutional Amendments
- Alexander Hamilton Papers (Library of Congress)
- American Enlightenment Thought (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Crash Course U.S. History
- The Enlightenment (Khan Academy)
- Founders Online (The National Archives)
- The Franklin Institute
- Jefferson Library Collections
- Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives American History
- The Thomas Jefferson Papers (The Library of Congress)
Subject Headings
Subject headings are selected terms to represent a topic. Searching subject headings in the library catalog will bring the most complete list of results. Below are some example subject headings. More subject headings can be located in the red books at the reference desk.
- Enlightenment -- United States
- Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
- Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
- National characteristics, American
- United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
- United States -- Intellectual life -- 18th century
- United States -- Social conditions
- United States -- Religion
- Women -- United States -- History
- Science -- Moral and ethical aspects -- History
Research Databases
The following databases are specifically useful for your topic. You can search them individually on the databases page.
Online Journals
The following journals supply articles to the library’s databases. You can see if a specific journal supplies articles to our databases by searching the journal title on the library journal page.
- The Divided Heart: Essays on Protestantism and the Enlightenment in America
- Benjamin Franklin
- Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson and Executive Power
Print Materials at the Von Canon Library
Below are some selected materials in the library with their shelving locations. Browsing in the listed areas of the library will help you find more materials for your topic.
| Title | Call Number |
|---|---|
| American Revolution: the definitive encyclopedia and document collection | E 208 .A44 2018 |
| The American Revolution: writings from the War of Independence | E 203 .A579 2001 |
| Becoming Benjamin Franklin: the autobiography and the life | E 302.6 .F7 A23 |
| Founding Mothers & Fathers: gendered power and the forming of American society | HQ 1075 .5 .U6 N67 1996 |
| Revolutionary Characters: what made the founders different | E 302.5 .W82 2006 |
| The Enlightenment in America | E 162 .C34 |
| Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution: soldiers, sailors, marines, 1775-1783 | E 263 .V8 |