AMST 30143 – Fashioning Identities in Colonial America

This page offers resources and suggestions for finding primary sources--both manuscript and printed materials--on campus (rather than online).
Note that some materials mentioned on this page are available in the Library's Rare Book and Special Collection Department, the University's Archives, and some are found in the open stacks (the Library's tower). 

  Using Special Collections and archival manuscript materials and researching there places some extra responsibilities on users. Before visiting, please read: 

• Information for Researchers page at ND Archives, or
• take a look at this guide for using archives and special collections libraries.

To limit catalog searches to materials held in the Library's Rare Books and Special Collections Department, go to ND Catalog, click on Advanced Search; in the Search Scope drop down menu select Special Collections.

Search directly through the Rare Books and Special Collections Department page. Browse manuscript collections through the Finding Materials tab, then click on the link, List of Online Finding Aids.

The Hesburgh Libraries Rare Books and Special Collections Department (102 Hesburgh) holds original documents from the medieval period through the late twentieth century. Correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, newspapers, organizational papers, and other materials can be found in Special Collections. Some of the collections have been digitized and are available online. For material culture in colonial America, relevant collections could include:

Jonathan Mifflin Will and Codicil
The 1774 will and 1780 codicil of a wealthy Quaker merchant from Philadelphia.

Thomas Munk Will
Dated 1762; from Overwarten, Stafford County, Virginia.

​Sarah Burd Yeates Correspondence
Fourteen letters, seven from Yeates' mother and seven by Yeates to her husband, from 1768 - 1814. Content is personal and social.

RBSC holds the Joyce Sports Research Collection, an extraordinary resource on the history of sports in the United States and its antecedents abroad. Sporting Magazine, published in London beginning in 1792, is one example of early sports sources.

The University of Notre Dame Archives (607 Hesburgh) holds the official records of the University of Notre Dame as well as that of the Catholic Church in America. Some of the collections have been digitized and are available online. One notable ND collection from the colonial period includes the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas, 1576-1803.