Subject Guide
Finding digital versions of 19th c. texts
- U.Va. Library Digital CollectionsAvailable through Virgo, the library's digital collections include many 19th-century works of poetry and fiction. Some additional texts are available through the Wayback Machine.
- Literature OnlineIncludes the full text of many works of pre-20th century British and American literature. The poetry content is particularly extensive. See this guide for more information.
- Victorian Women Writers ProjectContains poetry and prose from lesser-known British women writers of the 19th century.
- Project GutenbergContains plain-text versions of tens of thousands of out-of-copyright works, transcribed by volunteers. The provenance of the digitized text can be hard to determine.
Finding 19th c. art and music
- ARTStor This link opens in a new windowImages of world art from all periods, including paintings, drawings, prints, historic photographs, architecture and design. Tips on using ArtStor. ARTStor also includes special collections such as Asian and American art, Buddhist paintings and sculpture and historic photographs (women, Native American culture).
For additional information about finding and using images, please refer to the Images guide, and particularly the Using and Citing Images tab.
- Flickr CommonsA sub-site of Flickr, the Commons is a collection of images from cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, and more. Many of these images are in the public domain. See the "Using and Citing Images" tab for more info.
- Google ImagesProvides access to millions of images on the web. See the Google Images Help guide for tips.
- Classical Music LibraryOver 50,000 recordings of classical music. Search or browse by composer, performer, instrument, period, etc. Included with more classical, jazz and world music in Music Online.
- Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new windowLarge collection of classical and world music from the Naxos and Marco Polo labels. Recordings plus descriptive information.
Finding 19th c. periodicals and newspapers
- Gale Newsvault This link opens in a new windowSearch together 5 historical collections of British and American newspapers: Burney Collection (17th and 18th C.), 19th century British and US newspapers, the Times (London), and the Economist.
- Nineteenth-Century Serials EditionThe Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition is a free online edition of six nineteenth-century periodicals and newspapers. The materials can be searched, browsed as facsimiles, or downloaded as PDFs.
- Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowSearch the full text of nearly 400 international humanities and social sciences journals published from 1770 to the 1990s.
- Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals This link opens in a new windowIndexes articles from 43 important British periodicals. Includes author attributions for articles that were originally published anonymously or pseudonomously.
Finding journal articles/secondary sources
- MLA Bibliographyindexes the broadest range of resources about literature in all languages, including over 4,000 journals as well as books and dissertations. It is not a full-text resource, meaning that you can only search the description of an article, rather than the text of the article. To get the full text of an article, click on “Find article @ UVa Libraries”, or look up the journal title in VIRGO.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text searching of recent articles from major scholarly journals, including about 120 journals about literature. Not as comprehensive as MLAIB, but the full-text search will do a better job of picking up matches for specific themes or subjects. Articles are immediately available as PDFs.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowContains back issues (usually 3-5 years old or older) of significant scholarly journals in many subjects, including language and literature. Like Project Muse, JSTOR is not as comprehensive as the MLAIB, but offers the advantages of full-text searching and instant access to PDFs.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowFind articles about the history of the world from 1450 to the present, published in over 2,000 journals from many countries. Includes book reviews. Does not include articles about the U.S. or Canada. For these see "America: History & Life."
Other resources
Use Virgo to find rare and archival materials, including letters and manuscripts related to the authors or places you're interested in, a wide range of print editions of famous works, travel narratives, and more.
The Dictionary of Literary Biography (searchable through Literature Resource Center) contains short scholarly biographies of literary figures, including descriptions of major works and their reception.