Resources Post

[thisbluespirit]

When you're researching for fic, art, or general curiosity, what are your go to online sources for your historical fandoms?

Does yours have a great wikia, are you a follower of fashion blogs, got treasures on your tumblr dash, buried in out of copyright Google books, or have a nifty Secret Site tucked away somewhere?


General
Internet Scout (Links to academic websites)

Ancient World
Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World (Calculate time & expense etc. of journeys in the Roman world.)

Middle Ages
Medieval Naming Resources - ursula

1901-1910
Paris Was A Woman (tumblr of socialites in the early 1900s)

World War II
World War II Archive collection (various period naterial, including magazines & army field manuals and more)


Themes etc.
Link to free Art History resources from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Food & Drink
Food History Jottings (Food Historian's blog, chief focus on UK, US & Europe)
New York Public Library's Menu Collection (1840s-present)

Language
Green's Dictionary of Slang
Beyond the Name - name meanings & history.
Medieval Naming Resources - ursula

LGBTQ+ History
Gay History & Literarture Essays by Rictor Norton

Military
Naval Social History - 1793-1920 (British Royal Navy)

Travel & Transport
Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World (Calculate time & expense etc. of journeys in the Roman world.)
Luxury Passenger Rail Travel before World War 2 by olivermoss (1880s-1930s)


UK
UK Weather in the Past (weather forum)
Naval Social History - 1793-1920 (Royal Navy)

London
London Medieval Murder Map (Map plotting known homicides in 14th C London.)
Society for Photographing Relics of Old London's 112 photos of "Old" London (taken 1875-1886).
London Lives 1690 to 1800 (free collection of searchable original London documents)


USA
AAGPBL Players Association (Baseball history)
New York Public Library's Menu Collection (1840s-present)

20th C
Internet Archive, including autobiogs eg.:
Jews Without Money by Michael Gold (1930)
Diana A Strange Autobiography by Diana Fredericks (1942, Lesbian memoir)
Writers Project Guide to New York + can find more for other cities (1980s)


Random Fun/Creative Stuff
Regency Explorer Story Generator
19th Century Character Trope Generator

Shakespeare Histories Fanfic Masterlist
Histories Index (@ LJ)



Share them here in the comments! (I will, hopefully, then edit them into a helpful topic list in the body of the post presently, and make this post a sticky, for the edification of all.)

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

One of the things I've found helpful are historical weather sites. One of my favourites has gone (although I saved the info first \o/), but there are still others around, like this UK & Ireland weather forum that includes weather in the past as a topic: http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?/forum/140-weather-in-the-past/

It may not be in depth but can at least make sure you avoid the 'glorious summer of 1816' syndrome.

*peers at completely random set of bookmarks under 'writing' and 'history'* I think i'll be back later with more, maybe...

[auroracloud]

Ooh, that's so cool! Got to keep that in mind for any stories set in the British Isles. My own country is harder to find those resources for...

It reminds me that I used to use this nifty Moon phases and rising & setting times calculator that let you do it for any point in time. It was super handy when I was writing a romantic scene in a garden for my historical novel and didn't want to do the usual thing of having the Moon always be full (or possibly a slim crescent) and up whenever I find it convenient, as fantasy and romance writers often do. I'm too fond of my astronomy to let those things slide. (I also remember reading in-depth discussions on Harry Potter forums about how it couldn't really be full moon on the night when full moon was Very Important For Plot in The Prisoner of Azkaban.)

But I haven't found the same calculator yet. When I find it, or something as useful, I'll post the link(s) here! Too many calculators only allow you to do it for 20th and 21st century dates, probably because people want them for their astrological readings or whatever. Keep your horoscopes, I need my moon phases for Scientific Accuracy Iin my Art!

[thisbluespirit]

I'd never thought about phases of the moon, but, yes, that could be very important! I'd certainly be interested to see the calculator if you can find it again.

[muccamukk]

I'm in Band of Brothers fandom, and before that I was in Captain America comics and Agent Carter, and boy there is A LOT of WWII stuff, especially American stuff out there.

I really love Archive.org's WWII collection which has period magazines, army field manuals, and all kinds of good stuff.

If you're doing someone's childhood, the WPA commissioned guidebooks to a lot of cities and states. Here's one to New York.

You can also get a lot of period novels that are still in copyright through the affiliated Open Library. Like this lesbian memoir, or this account of growing up poor and Jewish on the Lower East Side.

[thisbluespirit]

Internet Archive can be really useful! That's some amazing stuff on there, definitely.

[dickinsons]

This is a very interesting resource for Western LGBT historical stuff. There are many gay love letters, among other things http://rictornorton.co.uk/index.htm

I also love this Tumblr http://pariswasawoman.tumblr.com/

[thisbluespirit]

They both look excellent, thanks!

[maidenjedi]

I write in 'A League of Their Own' and have been working on an original novel about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. I use the Players' Association site for stats and to make sure I'm not stepping on actual biography: https://www.aagpbl.org/

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! I've added it to the list!

[duskpeterson]

I tend to depend heavily on primary sources, unless the topic I'm writing about is obscure. Internet Archive, Google Books, and HathiTrust are my main sources for primary texts. Open Library's ebook-lending program and Bookshare (an e-library for people who can't easily read print) are where I go for secondary sources. And I love Internet Scout; it has been tracking academic-related websites for decades and has them all carefully categorized by topic.

https://scout.wisc.edu

Other than that, I do a lot of keyword searching, centered on museums, historical societies, universities, etc. If I add site:.edu to a keyword search on Google, only the educational websites show up, so the results are more likely to be what I want.

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! I've added it to the list.

[donutsweeper]

The Society for Photographing Relics of Old London's 112 photos of "Old" London (taken 1875-1886) is an amazing resource: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/search/works-of-art?works_associated_with=C17010

There's also a huge resource compilation of information about Great Britain's Royal Navy from the 1790s to post WWI (including vessels, medicine, history, manning, leave, punishment, the slave trade, pay scales and much more) here: http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html

If you're interested in what people ate there's the New York Public Library's Menu Collection - 45k menus dating from the 1840s to the present, transcribed and searchable here: http://menus.nypl.org/

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, thanks! These look excellent! I've added them to the list. <3