Libraries Announce Acquisition of American Indian Histories and Cultures Database

Photo Submitted

American Indian Histories and Cultures

The University of Arkansas Libraries join organizations across the country, including the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institution, in paying tribute to the rich traditions and contributions of Native Americans and their culture during Native American Heritage Month in November.

The Libraries offer a number of resources for the study of Native Americans and are pleased to announce their latest acquisition in this area: American Indian Histories and Cultures.

This digital resource offers unique manuscripts and published material from the Newberry Library’s extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection, one of the strongest archival collections on American Indian history. The Ayer collection is truly vast, containing 130,000 volumes, more than one million manuscript pages, 2,000 maps, 500 atlases, 11,000 photographs, and 3,500 drawings and paintings.

Items selected from the Ayer collection for this database include an extensive collection of manuscripts ranging from the early 16th to the mid-20th centuries, rare American Indian ledger art, diaries, essays, travel journals and ledger books from early European expeditions, thousands of photographs, historic maps, and atlases, and much more.

These documents will be of interest to researchers of colonialism, territorial disputes and treaties, exploration of the American West, its battles and conflicts, the fur trade, early American education and boarding schools, and political movements of the 20th century.

This new acquisition also supports the growing University of Arkansas interdisciplinary course offerings for Indigenous Studies. Distinguished Professor of History Elliott West stated, "We believe that this program will be an important addition to the university, one that will represent the interests and needs of an important part of our region's people, our Native American neighbors, who have been regrettably under-represented in the past. American Indian Histories and Cultures would be of immeasurable benefit in this important project."

The Libraries have also purchased additional book titles in the field of American Indian Studies to support this expanding program, and November’s Multicultural Book Display at Mullins Library is focused on the culture of Native Americans. Chosen by Tess Gibson, the Native American Studies Subject Librarian, this display includes the title Voices from Four Directions, which gathers stories and songs from thirty-one Native groups in North America — including the Iñupiaqs in the North, the Lushootseeds along the coastline of the far West, the Catawbas in the South, and the Maliseets of the East.

Please stop by Mullins Library this month take a peek at this title, view others titles in the display, or to check out a book. And view our Database News for more information about American Indian Histories and Cultures.