Learning Resources Division: Beyond the Monuments: Washington DC Local History: Home

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Recommended Journals

Below is a short list of journals that cover the history and DC history. If there is an article you are interested in that is not freely available through UDC library resources, you can request it through Interlibrary Loan. If you have questions on how to do this, contact a librarian.

Recommended Web Resources

WRLC

UDC belongs to the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC).

The nine member libraries share circulating materials with each other and have a common library catalog.

You can use the catalog to look for materials in all of the libraries' collections at one time, or you can limit your search to any one of the libraries.

UDC Search
The "Search Everything" feature of UDC Search includes all print resources held by the libraries of the nine WRLC institutions as well as the electronic resources available to UDC students, faculty, and staff.

Something Missing?

Do you see something missing from this guide? Let us know!

The library is always open to adding missing content to our guides. We are happy to add new links, information, and resources you may be aware of. Please email us at ask@udc.libanswers.com to share any links or information you would like to see us include.

Recommended Databases

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1860-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
DC Archives
The District of Columbia Archives holds historical and permanently valuable records of the DC Government such as birth and death records, wills, land records, and marriage records.
Dig DC
Dig DC is your web portal for selected digitized and born-digital items from DC Public Library Special Collections, including the Washingtoniana collections and the Black Studies Center at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in downtown Washington, D.C. and the Peabody Room at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library.
Kiplinger Washington Collection
The Kiplinger Collection consists of 4,000 rare maps, prints, photographs and paintings of Washington. With the earliest pieces dating from the late 17th Century, The Kiplinger Collections is an important visual resource documenting the history of the capital city and its evolving cityscape.
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center
The MSRC is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world. Digital collections include documents on the history of Howard University, a selection of manuscripts collections, and prints and photographs.

The DC Public Library offers historical newspaper databases that include the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Blade, the Washington Post, the Washington Star, and other regional newspapers.

Recommended Books

And this is Washington! (And Arlington, Mount Vernon, Alexandria, and Georgetown besides) by Early, Eleanor
Call Number: F 199 .E17
Publication Date: 1934
Black Georgetown Remembered by Kathleen Menzie Lesko (Introduction by); Valerie Babb; Carroll R. Gibbs; Maurice Jackson (Foreword by)
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 2016-02-28
This text chronicles and celebrates the rich but little-known history of the Georgetown Black community from the colonial period to the present. Drawing on primary sources, including oral interviews with past and current residents and extensive research in church and historical society archives, the authors record the hopes, dreams, disappointments, and successes of a vibrant neighborhood as it persevered through slavery and segregation, war and peace, prosperity and depression.
Capital Speculations by Sarah Luria
Call Number: PS253.D6 L87 2006
ISBN: 9781584655022
Publication Date: 2005-11-04
Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital by Chris Myers Asch; George Derek Musgrove
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 2017-10-17
This book tells the tumultuous, four-century story of race and democracy in our nation's capital. Emblematic of the ongoing tensions between America's expansive democratic promises and its enduring racial realities, Washington often has served as a national battleground for contentious issues, including slavery, segregation, civil rights, the drug war, and gentrification. The authors highlight the city's rich history of local activism as Washingtonians of all races have struggled to make their voices heard in an undemocratic city where residents lack full political rights. Tracing D.C.'s massive transformations--from a sparsely inhabited plantation society into a diverse metropolis, from a center of the slave trade to the nation's first Black-majority city, from "Chocolate City" to "Latte City"--Asch and Musgrove offer an engaging narrative peppered with unforgettable characters, a history of deep racial division but also one of hope, resilience, and interracial cooperation.
City of Magnificent Intentions by Keith Melder; Melinda Y. Stuart (Editor)
Call Number: F194 .M45 1997
ISBN: 0913137014
Publication Date: 1997-09-01
DC Jazz: Stories of Jazz Music in Washington, D.C. by Maurice Jackson (Editor); Blair A. Ruble (Editor)
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 2018-06-01
Noted historians Maurice Jackson and Blair Ruble, editors of this book, present a collection of original and fascinating stories about the DC jazz scene throughout its history, including a portrait of the cultural hotbed of Seventh and U Streets, the role of jazz in desegregating the city, a portrait of the great Edward "Duke" Ellington's time in DC, notable women in DC jazz, and the seminal contributions of the University of District of Columbia and Howard University to the scene.
Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, DC by Harry Jaffe; Tom Sherwood
Call Number: E-book
Publication Date: 2014-04-22
With a new afterword covering the two decades since its first publication, two of Washington, D.C.'s most respected journalists expose one of America's most tragic ironies: how the nation's capital, often a gleaming symbol of peace and hope, is the setting for vicious contradictions and devastating conflicts over race, class, and power. Jaffe and Sherwood have chillingly chronicled the descent of the District of Columbia congressional hearings, gangland murders, the establishment of home rule and the inside story of Marion Barry's enigmatic dynasty and disgrace. Now their afterword narrates the District's transformation in the last twenty years.
Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City by Natalie Hopkinson
Call Number: ML3527.84 .H67 2012
Publication Date: 2012-05-22
Go-Go Live is a social history of Black Washington told through its go-go music and culture. Encompassing dance moves, nightclubs, and fashion, as well as the voices of artists, fans, business owners, and politicians, the narrative reflects the broader history of race in urban America in the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st. In the 1990s, the middle class that had left the city for the suburbs in the postwar years began to return. Gentrification drove up property values and pushed go-go into D.C.'s suburbs. The Chocolate City is in decline, but its heart, D.C.'s distinctive go-go musical culture, continues to beat.
A Queer Capital: A History of Gay Life in Washington, DC by Genny Beemyn
Call Number: HQ76.3.U52 W182 2015
Publication Date: 2014-07-23
Rooted in extensive archival research and personal interviews, A Queer Capital is the first history of LGBT life in the nation's capital. Revealing a vibrant past that dates back more than 125 years, the book explores how lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals established spaces of their own before and after World War II, survived some of the harshest anti-gay campaigns in the U.S., and organized to demand equal treatment. Telling the stories of black and white gay communities and individuals, Genny Beemyn shows how race, gender, and class shaped the construction of gay social worlds in a racially segregated city.
Tally's Corner by Elliot Liebow; Hylan Lewis (Foreword by)
Call Number: E185.93.D6 L5 1967
Publication Date: 1968-01-01
Sociological observations on the way of life of persons encountered by the author in a blighted section of Washington, D.C. during the early 1960's.
Washington's U Street by Blair A. Ruble
Call Number: F203.7.U2 R83 2010
Publication Date: 2010-10-20
This book traces the history of the U Street neighborhood in Washington, D.C., from its Civil War-era origins to its recent gentrification.

Browse the Stacks

If you want to browse the stacks for books related to DC history, you can find titles related to this topic in the call number section below. If you need assistance finding a topic or a specific title, just ask a reference librarian for help.

F 191-205 - United States Local History: District of Columbia

Beyond the Monuments: Washington DC Local History: Home

Introduction