The MU Libraries collections include many 19th century periodicals in print format. We list here some of the major examples. If you need to request materials from the Depository, click on the title below to open the MERLIN catalog record, then click on "Request" next to the volume needed. You may request a pdf of a specific article, or have the entire volume delivered.
Most of these have also been digitized and are searchable in full text as part of the Hathi Trust Digital Library or may be available online in the British Periodicals database. To search within a specific journal in the Hathi Trust Digital Library, use the Advanced Catalog Search to locate the specific journal record, then view the catalog record to see the individual years. Click on a year to open the full text and search within that volume. Note that different catalog records come from different libraries and may contain different years. A volume that is not available in one place, may well be in another.
Online collections index early periodicals, and in some cases provide the full text of the periodicals.
If the full text is not available, FindIt@MU links will appear and link you to online, print copies, or our interlibrary loan service.
19th century indexes sometimes have errors that take a little untangling. For example the Poole's Index often seems to have a mismatch of journal volume number and year, so one may have to check both. If you find a reference to a review without a link--either in C19 or mentioned in a reference book or scholarly article--use our Find A Journal feature to find the journal, either in print or online. I recommend finding the journal, then browsing to the correct year or volume, then scanning the table of contents rather than putting in all the information in the search box.
The Hathi Trust Digital Library also contains the full text of many periodicals and books. Using the advanced full text search you can limit a full text search to serials or journals ("Limit to original format") or to a specific periodical.
All of the databases listed offer the option to limit your search to reviews only, but the tagging of reviews is not always thorough, so this may accidentally exclude some reviews.
One print index that may be of interest is in Room 202:
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974
Room 202 Z1035.A1 C639
For background information on the periodicals in which reviews appear, see the Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism and The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers & Periodicals: 1800-1900.
Need help? Librarians are available to give you a boost. Make an appointment with the subject specialist assigned to your class through MUConnect.
