Primary Research Takes a Lot of Time
Please remember to allow a lot of time -- way more than you think you'll need -- to do primary research, especially research involving working in the Archives.
It just plain takes TIME!
Search Tip
Put "double quotes" around the title of the play you're researching. The quotes tell the database to keep those words together. This works in almost every database.
Ex. "uncle tom's cabin"
Don't worry about capitalization!
Primary Sources
Primary Sources for getting close to your topic
These databases are linked from the Ball State University Libraries' Databases page.
- America's Historical Newspapers-Indiana State Collection and African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Cross search or browse the content of nearly 300 Indiana and U.S. historical newspapers. You will find articles, eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries, and more.
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
The American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection database provides full text access to thousands of historical periodical publications. This database, which is made up of 50 collections, contains scans of each page of all publications, including illustrations. The results list takes you to the article level and allows you to browse the entire issue of the publication.
- Digital Media Repository This link opens in a new window
The Digital Media Repository offers digitized versions of a wide range of items including photographs, letters, posters, artwork, books, newspapers, and motion pictures. It also contains the Ball State University Board of Trustees minutes, building plans, course catalogs, and many other collections of university related items.
- Hoosier State Chronicles This link opens in a new window
Hoosier State Chronicles provides access to more than 260 digitized Indiana newspaper titles and is operated by the Indiana State Library in partnership with the Indiana Historical Society. The database contains high quality images of many of Indiana's historical newspapers with issues as early as 1804.
- New York Times All Access This link opens in a new window
Browse or search the New York Times from 1851 to the current issue. Includes full access to NYTimes.com back to 2002. Older issues (1851-2002) can be viewed with the TimesMachine and include PDF images of original articles with photographs and drawings, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, historical photos, stock photos, and advertisements. Users have unlimited viewing of the TimesMachine and can download up to 5 issues per day. Also included is exclusive content such as newsletters, podcasts and select NYT games such as Wordle, The Crossword, and Sudoku.
Note: All users must activate their New York Times account the first time they login. Follow the onscreen instructions or see this video demonstrating the account activation process. If you have difficulty cancelling your personal account contact edu@nytimes.com. - Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 This link opens in a new window
The Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 provides indexing to many popular publications of the 20th century, containing all of the content of the original paper volumes.
Tracking Productions
- Internet Broadway DatabaseThe official database for Broadway theatre information, providing records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre. Details include pertinent people as well as interesting facts and production statistics
The London Stage: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel [1900 - 1959] by Call Number: General Collection PN2596.L6 W384 1984ISBN: 0810817152Publication Date: variousThese highly praised day-by-day calendars of plays produced at the major London theaters cover major west-end theaters, thus dealing with all the big productions and names, revivals of the classics, and opera and ballet productions. The authors lists each production in chronological arrangement of playbills. With full production and contemporary review information for each play and comprehensive indexes.
Reprints of reviews
These are in the Oversize section, on the 4th floor west of Bracken Library.
New York Times Theater ReviewsCall Number: General Collection Oversize PN2266 .N48Publication Date: 1885 - 2000- New York Theatre Critics' ReviewsCall Number: General Collection Oversize PN2000 .N76Publication Date: 1943 - 1995 (a couple vols missing)
