HST 591: History of Economics & Business

A guide to places to look for historical economic and business information

Primary sources for business and economics

Directory of Corporate Archives in the United States and Canada
"This is the Directory of Corporate Archives in the United States and Canada. This includes companies that maintain their historical records themselves, as well as companies that contract with historical consulting firms to maintain their archives collections for them, and libraries that contain business records."
Fraser (Federal Reserve Archive)
The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER®) started in 2004 as a data preservation and accessibility project of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER’s mission is to safeguard and provide easy access to the nation’s economic history—particularly the history of the Federal Reserve System—through digitization of documents related to the U.S. financial system. A great resource for the economic history of the United States.
History of Economic Thought
A website dedicated to tracking economists, schools of economic thought and the history of economics. The major original works of each economist are listed.

Ad*Access

More than 7,000 digitized ads from U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines (1911-1955), focusing on beauty, radio, television, transportation, and World War II.
AdViews

Digital archive of vintage television commercials from the 1950s to the 1980s, created or collected by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles advertising agency, offering insights into historical advertising practices and consumer culture.
Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 (EAA)
Coverage: 1850-1920
Maximum Concurrent Users: Unlimited
The Emergence of Advertising in America (EAA) presents over 9,000 images that illustrate the rise of consumer culture, especially after the American Civil War, and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States after World War I.It covers images, broadsides, leaflets, post cards, cook books, flyers, ephemera.
Medicine and Madison Avenue

Digital collection features health-related advertisements from 1910 to 1960, highlighting the evolution of medical marketing in the U.S. and its impact on consumer culture.

Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (Gale Primary Sources)
Searchable database containing digital facsimile images of newspapers; presented as full page layout as well as single articles; advertisements and illustrations included. This collection includes numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S.; and it encompasses the entire 19th century.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspapers pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. States included in this essential and invaluable digital repository are: Alabama; Arizona; California; Colorado; District of Columbia; Florida; Hawaii; Illinois; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Minnesota; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; New Mexico; New York; Ohio; Oklahoma; Oregon; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Vermont; Virginia; Washington(state). For Further information concerning the history of American Newspapers, use the Library of Congress' US Newspaper Directory, 1690 - Present

Economist Historical Archive (Gale Primary Sources)
A searchable collection of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to present (with the exception of the last five years). Each weekly issue contains news reporting and analysis, commentary, editorials, statistics, demographics, letters to the editor, obituaries, and historical photographs.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: the library holds the following historical papers in this collection: