| 1. GUIDED TOUR
A basic 10 minute guided tour that shows the major features of the database is available. Please CLICK here for more. Early Encounters in North America provides sophisticated searching across large numbers of primary documents, as well as table of contents access to a wide array of primary sources. It also provides databases of encounters and images. For novices who wish to get quick access to key documents, we recommend using the Tables of Contents and the Simple Search tools. For scholars who wish to conduct in-depth searches we recommend using the Advanced Search and Find Sections Search. The search value of some of the fields in the database will not become apparent until more documents are added. There are three basic ways to use the database.
2.3 DATABASE STRUCTURE - SECTIONS AND SOURCES There are three types of documents in the database
Viewing Details: For Authors, Sources, Images, Encounters and Sections within sources you may view the full bibliographic details whenever you see links to 'details'. In the Author TOC simply click on the '1' to see the details associated with an author. The Search tools are divided into two separate categories, both of which search the texts in the database and return documents:
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| 2.5 BROWSE NAVIGATION BAR
Browse Navigation Bar lets you move around the Browse tools. It works in the same way as the Search Tool bar. When using these tools, the Browse options are expanded and the Searches are collapsed. You can toggle between the two by clicking Browse or Search. Browses are divided into eleven separate categories, all of which provide quick access to specific documents within the database.
The mustard color indicates which table of contents you are using. The mustard color moves as you move between categories. You may click on the mustard parts of the Navigation bar to move to the appropriate tool. 2.6 NOTES ON MARK-UP CONVENTIONS Materials in the database have been transcribed using original spellings and grammar. In some documents spelling is inconsistent, even within a sentence. For more information on mark-up conventions, contact the Editor. PhiloLogic, a suite of software developed by the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago in collaboration with The University of Chicago Library's electronic text services, provides sophisticated searching of large encoded databases on the World Wide Web. It is an easy to use yet powerful full-text search, retrieval, and reporting system for large multimedia databases (texts, images, sound) with the ability to handle complex text structures with extensive indexed metadata. PhiloLogic in its simplest form serves as a document retrieval or look up mechanism whereby users can search relational databases retrieve given documents and, in some implementations, portions of texts such as acts, scenes, articles, or head-words. This same document retrieval mechanism serves as the basis for defining a corpus in a full-text search. One can, for example, either retrieve all documents in a database written by women from 1935 through 1945 or one can search for words or phrases within database which fit those criteria. The typical PhiloLogic search is broken down into five distinct stages: 1) defining a corpus (i.e. limiting a search), 2) word expansion, 3) word index searching, 4) text extraction, and 5) link resolution and formatting (e.g., SGML to HTML conversion). In other words, after defining a corpus (or one may search an entire database), one can execute a single term, phrase or proximity search. By looking up indices of the word(s) in a relational database, PhiloLogic extracts blocks of text containing the search term(s) with links to larger blocks of text. These extracts are formatted to display on a Web browser and sometimes include links to images, sound recordings, other texts, or even other databases. In addition to simple word and phrase searches, users can perform more sophisticated searches by using extended UNIX-style regular expressions for complex wildcard searching and, in some implementations, morphological and orthographic expansion. All of these mechanisms to expand words can be combined using Boolean operators such as OR (the vertical bar "|") and AND (a space) within a variety of searching contexts. Its functions were originally designed for scholarly research in databases of literary, religious, philosophical, and historical collections of texts as well as important historical encyclopedias and dictionaries. PhiloLogic handles notes so as not to interfere with phrase searching. Users can easily search words with diacritics (either by specifying accents or ignoring them by typing in uppercase) and non-Romanized scripts. At present there are some fifty databases on the Web under PhiloLogic containing languages such as ancient Greek, Latin, Hindi, and Urdu as well as nearly all Western European languages. PhiloLogic can also be set up to recognize or ignore manuscript notations such as different brackets, which can indicate spurious text or editorial emendations. Because the software recognizes typical text structures as real data objects, it understands units, such as words, sentences, paragraphs, sections, and pages, permitting very flexible searching and retrieval of these textual objects. Other full-text engines on the market search for strings of characters. Rather than searching for two words within the same sentence or paragraph (intellectual units), other engines must search for two words within a certain number of characters regardless of sentence or paragraph. With PhiloLogic scholars always know where they are in a given text since pagination can be displayed along side other objects. Such a high degree of indexing can lead to decreases in speed, PhiloLogic indexing has been maximized such that it is still incredibly fast on the Web. For more information on PhiloLogic, contact Catherine Mardikes, ETS Coordinator, The University of Chicago Library. |
| 3. FINDING TOOLS
The Find Sources tool lets you find all the original works in the database that match your specific criteria. For example, you can find out all the sources published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society or see whether a particular edition is included. Practical Example:
Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Sources see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below.The Find Authors tool lets you find authors in the database that match your specific criteria. For example, you can find all the authors in the database that were born between 1620 and 1630. Practical Example:
Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find
Authors see the section on
Fields and their Descriptions below. |
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The Find Encounters tool lets you find encounters in the database that match your specific criteria. For example, you can find all encounters between Father Paul le Jeune and the Huron. Practical Example:
Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Encounters see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below. The Find Images tool lets you find images in the database that match your specific criteria. For example, you can find all images created by Theodor de Bry. Practical Example:
Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Images see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below. |
| 4.2 FULL-TEXT SEARCHING
Full-Text Searching is when you search for specific words or phrases that occur in the texts themselves. PhiloLogic supports wildcard characters and Boolean (logical) operators, which are modeled on UNIX regular expressions to perform "pattern matching" in full-text searching. Pattern matching allows identification of a large number of words corresponding to a defined pattern. Wildcard characters can be useful, for example, in identifying cognates made obscure by affixes and vowel weakening, inconsistencies due to irregular orthography, and variations on account of word inflection as well as for discovering potential emendations for uncertain readings. The most commonly used regular expression operators (wildcard and Boolean) are listed below. 4.2.2 Wildcard Characters in Full-Text Searching
Note: If you are using wildcard characters and would like to see a full list of the words matching your search-term, then run your search as a Frequency by Author search. The results page of a Frequency by Author search lists all the terms found in a database that match your search-term. 4.2.3 Wildcards and Boolean Operators in Full-Text Searching
4.2.4 Punctuation and Full-Text Searching
4.2.5 Selecting a Search Option PhiloLogic at this time offers two kinds of searches: "Single Term and Phrase Search," which is set up as the default, and "Proximity Searching in the Same Sentence or Paragraph." One may select and deselect a search option by clicking on the "radio" buttons. For a fuller discussion see the PhiloLogic User Manual |
| Search Texts | Find Tools | |||||||
| Simple Search | Advanced Search | Letters Only | Find Author | ind Sources | Find Encounters | Find Images | ||
| 1 | Age at Death | x | ||||||
| 2 | Artist | x | ||||||
| 3 | Author Name | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| 4 | Author of Source Work | x | ||||||
| 5 | Author's Gender | x | x | x | x | |||
| 6 | Cultural Affiliation | x | x | x | ||||
| 7 | Cultural Events | x | ||||||
| 8 | Cultural Groups | x | x | |||||
| 9 | Description [of Encounter] | x | ||||||
| 10 | Document Type | x | x | x | ||||
| 11 | Editor or Translator | x | ||||||
| 12 | Encounter Code | x | ||||||
| 13 | Encounter Name | x | x | x | x | |||
| 14 | Encounter Type | x | ||||||
| 15 | Estimated Number of People | x | ||||||
| 16 | Expedition | x | x | x | ||||
| 17 | Fatalities During Encounter | x | ||||||
| 18 | Fauna | x | ||||||
| 19 | Flora | x | ||||||
| 20 | Geophysical Features | x | ||||||
| 21 | Image Color | x | ||||||
| 22 | Image ID | x | ||||||
| 23 | Image Medium | x | ||||||
| 24 | Image Source | x | ||||||
| 25 | Image Subjects | x | ||||||
| 26 | Image Title | x | ||||||
| 27 | Image Type | |||||||
| 28 | Keyword in Caption | x | ||||||
| 29 | Keyword in Content Note | x | ||||||
| 30 | Keyword in Descriptive Note | x | ||||||
| 31 | Keyword in Titles | x | ||||||
| 32 | Language of Edition | x | ||||||
| 33 | Location | x | ||||||
| 34 | Month Written | x | x | |||||
| 35 | Nationality | x | x | x | x | |||
| 36 | Natural Phenomena | x | ||||||
| 37 | Note | x | ||||||
| 38 | Occupation | x | x | |||||
| 39 | Original Language | x | ||||||
| 40 | Participants | x | x | |||||
| 41 | Personal Events | x | ||||||
| 42 | Place of Birth | x | ||||||
| 43 | Place of Death | x | ||||||
| 44 | Place of Publication | x | x | |||||
| 45 | Places Discussed | x | x | |||||
| 46 | Previously Unpublished | x | ||||||
| 47 | Publication Year | x | ||||||
| 48 | Publisher | x | ||||||
| 49 | Race | x | x | x | x | |||
| 50 | Recipient | x | x | |||||
| 51 | Record Number | x | ||||||
| 52 | Religion | x | x | x | x | |||
| 53 | Search Texts | x | x | x | ||||
| 54 | Societal Role | x | x | |||||
| 55 | Start Day | x | ||||||
| 56 | Start Month | x | ||||||
| 57 | Start Year | x | ||||||
| 58 | Subject Headings | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| 59 | Title of Source Work | x | ||||||
| 60 | Where Sent (Geographical) | x | x | |||||
| 61 | Where Written (Geographical) | x | x | |||||
| 62 | Where Written (Setting) | x | x | |||||
| 63 | Year of Birth | x | ||||||
| 64 | Year of Death | x | ||||||
| 65 | Year Written | x | x | x | ||||
| Simple Search | Advanced Search | Letters Only | Find Author | ind Sources | Find Encounters | Find Images | ||
| Search Texts | Find Tools |
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5.2.2 Artist
Description: This is the name of the artist who created an artistic work. This will include all variant forms of the artists name including pseudonyms, pennames, nicknames or aliases. The same official form of the name is used regardless of the form used by the artist at the time of creation. It is required. How to use this field: Enter the name of the artist in the Artist field. This field can be searched using Find Images only. Practical Example: See Author. |
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5.2.4 Author of Source Work
Description: See Author 5.2.5 Author's GenderDescription: This field indicates gender of the author. How to use this field: Use this field to restrict your search to authors of one or the other gender. This option is available in Find Authors, Simple Search, Advanced Search, and Letters Only. Gender is indicated by an M or an F. Practical Example:Find all letters written by women authors.
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Description: This field is used to capture an author's cultural affiliation (i.e. English, American Indian). How to use this field: Use this field to find works by author's of a particular cultural affiliation. This can be searched in Simple Search, Advanced Search, Letters Only, and Find Authors. Practical Example: Find all texts by American Indian authors.
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Description: This field indicates that a cultural event is being discussed in the document. How to use this field: Use this field to find information about specific cultural events, such as feasts or gift-giving. Cultural events can be found through the Advanced Search. Practical Example:You are looking for documents that are about weddings.
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Description: This field contains the names of the cultural groups discussed in the documents. How to use this field: Use this field to find documents about specific cultural groups. This field is available in Advanced Search and Find Encounters. Practical Example: Find all documents about encounters with the Huron.
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Description: This field enables you to restrict the kinds of documents you search and retrieve. How to use this field: Use this field to find specific types (i.e. letters, diaries, narrative, etc.) of documents. This is available in Advanced Search and Find Sources. Practical Example: Find all speeches by American Indians.
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Description: This field enables you to find sources or documents edited or translated by a particular person. How to use this field: Use this field to find all sources edited or translated by a specific person. This search is available in Find Sources and Find Images. Practical Example: Find all sources edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites.
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Description: Enables you to search for encounters by a numeric code. How to use this field: Use this field to find a specific encounter. This is only available in Find Encounters. Practical Example: Find a specific encounter between the Spanish and American Indians.
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Description: This field enables you to search encounters by a specific name. How to use this field: Use this search to find a specific encounter. This is only available in Find Encounters. Practical Example: Find me all encounters involving the Spanish.
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Description: This field contains the type of encounter described in the text. How to use this field: Use this field to find specific kinds of encounters between cultural groups (i.e. kidnap, battle, trade, etc.). This field is only available in the Find Encounters Field. Practical Example: Find me all encounters that centered around trade.
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Description: This field contains names of recognized expeditions. Expeditions are named based on The Atlas of North American Exploration: From the Norse Voyages to the Race to the Pole by William H. Goetzman and Glyndwr Williams. How to use this field:Use this field to find documents about specific expeditions. Practical Example: Find all documents about the the Hernando de Soto expedition to Florida.
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Description: This field contains subject headings related to animal life in North America. How to use this field: Use this field to find documents discussing animal life. This field can only be searched from the Advanced Search screen. Practical Example: Find all documents that talk about beavers.
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Description: This field holds subject topics which describe plant life in North America. How to use this field: Use this field to find all documents in the database that discuss a specific plant. This field is available only in Advanced Search. Practical Example: Find all documents in the database that are about tobacco.
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Description: This field holds subject topics which describe North American geophysical feature, such as mountains, rivers, etc. How to use this field: Use this field to find documents that describe geophysical features found in North America. This field is only available in Advanced Search Practical Example: Find all documents in the database that describe mountains.
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Description: This field allows you to restrict to images with color, or that are black and white. This field does not search all images in the database. It is restricted to images that have value outside of the texts in which they were originally found. How to use this field: Select the option you want from the pick list. This field is only available in Find Images PracticalExample: Find black and white images in the database.
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Description: This field is intended for quick access to a particular image. How to use this field: Key in the exact Image ID number in the box. Image IDs always take the format Sxxxx-Ixx, where Sxxxx is the source from which the image came and Ixx is the image number within that source. This field is only available in Find Images Practical Example: Find image S2995-I03.
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Description: This field lets you restrict to woodcuts, drawings and other media. How to use this field: Key in the medium you are looking for into the Image Medium box. This field is only available in Find Images Practical Example: Restrict your search to Woodcuts.
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Description: This field lets you identify all images from a particular archive, or museum. This field is not mandatory and is populated only for manuscript material. How to use this field: Key in the source you are looking for into the Image Source box. This field is only available in Find Images Practical Example: Find all images from the University of California.
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Description: This field lets you find images of particular topical subjects. How to use this field: Key in the subject you are looking for into the Image Subject box. To find out what subjects are available, click the terms button to the right of the Image Subject box. This field is only available in Find Images Practical Example: Find all images of farming.
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Description: This field searches the titles of images in the database. How to use this field: Key in the title you are looking for into the Image Title box. To find out what titles are available, click the terms button to the right of the Image Title box. This field is only available in Find Images Practical Example: Find all images with Indian in the title.
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Description: This field contains captions taken directly from the originals. In cases where the images are referred to within texts, the referring text is included. How to use this field: Use this field to search for keywords in captions. This field is only available in the Find Images. Practical Example: Find all captions that contain the word dance.
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Description: This field is to allow you to search bibliographic notes about the source described. How to use this field: Use this field to search through notes on provenance, original editions and other miscellaneous information This field is only available in Find Sources. Practical Example: Find all notes that mention the word 'reprint'.
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See Titles |
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Description: This field provides the language of the edition of the source. How to use this field: Use this field to find sources written a specific language. This field is only available in Find Sources. Practical Example: Find all sources in French.
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Description: This field describes the location in which an encounter occurred. How to use this field: This field is used to search for encounters that took place in specific geographical locations. This search is only available in Find Encounters. Practical example: Find all encounters that took place in Florida.
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Description: This field holds the month a document was written. How to use this field: Use this field if you are interested in letters or diaries written in a specific month of a specific year. This field is available for searching in Letters Only and Advanced Search. Practical Example: Find all documents written in December of 1750.
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Description: This field describes the nationality of authors. How to use this field: Use this field to restrict searches to authors of a specific nationality. This field is available in Advanced Search, Simple Search, Letters Only, and Find Authors. Practical example: Find all Portuguese authors.
Note: This is a controlled field. Clicking on the Terms box will return a list of all nationalities currently indexed in the database. |
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Description: This field allows you to search for naturally occurring phenomena, such as storms or earthquakes. How to use this field: Use this field to search for documents that describe specific natural phenomena. This field is only available in Advanced Search. Practical Example: Find all documents that discuss nor'easters.
Note: This is a controlled field. Clicking on the Terms box will return a list of all natural phenomena currently indexed in the database. |
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Description: This field contains information about the publishing history of a source work. How to use this field: Use this field to find sources that have a specific publishing history. This field is available in Find Sources. Practical example: Find all sources that have also been published in Paris.
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Description: This field describes the author's occupation, if any. It is an Optional field. How to use this field: Use this field to find documents written by an author in a particular occupation - for example, all Teachers. Note: All occupations throughout an author's life are entered. This is not tied to when the author is writing. An individual may have several occupations through their life. Practical Example: Find me diaries written by diplomats.
Note: To see what Occupation terms are available click the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the box. Be careful to delete any extraneous spaces or semicolons and replace them with the appropriate Boolean operator. |
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Description: This field contains the language in which the source was originally written. How to use this field: Use this to find documents that were originally written in a certain language. This is only available in Find Sources. Practical Example: Find me all documents originally written in Latin.
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Description: This field holds names of people who participated in encounters. How to use this field: Use this field to find encounters in which a certain person participated. This field is searchable in Advanced Search, Letters Only, and Find Encounters. Practical Example: Find all encounters in which John Smith was a participant.
Note: Clicking on the Terms button will bring up a list of all names indexed as participants in the database. |
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Description: This field describes major life events that happen to the writer. How to use this field: Use this field to find documents that describe a major life event occurring in the author's life. This field is available in Advanced Search. Practical Example: Find all authors whose spouse has died.
Note: To see a controlled list of Personal Events, click on the Terms button. |
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Description: This field contains the name of an author's birthplace. How to use this field: Use this field to find authors from a particular area. This is available in Find Authors. Practical Example: Find all authors born in Madrid, Spain.
Note: To see a list of all availble birthplaces, click on the Terms button next to the search box. |
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Description: Describes the geographical location of an author's place of death. How to use this field: Use this field to find information about people who died in a certain place. Practical Example: Find me all authors who died in Florida.
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Description: This field holds information about where sources where published. How to use this field: Use this field to find sources published in a specific geographic location. This is available in Find Sources. Practical Example: Find all sources published in New York.
Note: Clicking on the Terms button will respond with a list of all geographical locations available in this field. |
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Description: This field holds information about geographical locations discussed in documents. How to use this field: Use this field to find documents that discuss a specific geographical location. This field is available in the Advanced Search and Letters Only screens. Practical Example: Find me all documents about the Great Lakes region.
Note: Clicking on the Terms button will respond with a list of all geographical locations available in this field. |
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Description: This field shows whether a source has never before been published. How to use this field: Use this field to search for manuscripts. This search is available in Find Sources. Practical Example: Find all manuscripts.
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Description: This field holds the year sources were published. How to use this field: Use this book to find sources by the year they were published. This is available in Find Sources. Practical Example: Find all sources published between 1700 and 1850.
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Description: This field indicates the publisher of a source. How to use this field: Use this field to find sources published by specific publishers. This is available in Find Sources. Practical Example: Find me all books published by Random House.
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Description: This field provides information about the author's race. How to use this field: Use this field to restrict searches to authors of a specific race. This search field is available in Simple Search, Advanced Search, Letters Only, and Find Authors. Practical Example: Find all American Indian authors.
Note: Clicking on the Terms button will return a list of the controlled vocabulary terms for Race in the database. |
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Description: This field indicates the name of the person to whom a letter is addressed. How to use this field: Use this field to search for letters sent to a specific person. This search is available in Letters Only and Advanced. Practical Example: Find all letters sent to Sir Walter Raleigh.
Note: Clicking on the Terms button returns a list of all people who are indexed as recipients in the database. |
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Description: This field holds the Alexander Street Press assigned record number for each document How to use this field: This field can be used to call up a specific record for which the searcher has the number. This field is available in Advanced Search. Practical Example: Get record number AC00043-FRE01-D0009.
Note: The record number must be made up ACXXXXX-Language AbbreviationXX-DXXXX. |
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Description: This field holds information about the religion of the author. How to use this field: Use this field to limit searches to authors of a specific religion. This field is available in Simple Search, Advanced Search, Letters Only, and Find Authors. Practical Example: Find me all letters by authors who were Catholic.
Note: Clicking on the Terms button will return a list of all religions indexed in the database. |
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Description: This field allows free-text searching in the database. How to use this field: Use this field to find examples of words in order to compare their usage across many sources. This is available in Simple Search, Advanced Search, and Letters Only. Practical example: Find all mentions of the word savage.
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Description: Use this field to find authors who fulfilled a specific societal role. Societal roles are defined as positions that serve more of a purpose within a community than an occupation would. How to use this field: Use this field to limit author searches to people who fulfilled certain societal roles. This field is available in Advanced Search and Find Authors. Practical Example: Find me all authors who were healers.
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Description: Contains information about the day an encounter took place. How to use this field: Use this field to find documents that began on certain day of the year. This field is only available in Find Encounters. Practical Example: Find all encounters that started on May 6, 1740.
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Description: Contains information about the month an encounter took place. How to use this field: Use this field to find encounters that began in a certain month. This field is only available in Find Encounters. Practical Example: Find all encounters that started in June, 1697.
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Description: This field contains information on the year an encounter took place. How to use this field: Use this field to find encounters that began in a particular year. This field is only available in Find Encounters. Practical Example: Find all encounters that took place in 1805.
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Description: This is a composite field consisting of all terms in the Subject field, Name Subject field, Organization Subject field, Historical Events subject field, Topical Subject field, Broad Subject field, the Geographic Subject field, the Fauna Subject field, the Flora Subject field, the Geophysical field, the Natural Phenomena field, the Cultural Groups field, and the Participants field. How to use this field: This field can be used to search a wide range of materials, including specific places, people, and environmental subjects. This field is available in Simple Search, Advanced Search, Letters Only, Find Sources, and Find Images. Practical example: Find all materials about New York.
Practical example: Find all letters written about religious conversions.
Practical example: Find all documents about tobacco.
Practical example: Find all sources about Hernando de Soto.
Practical Example: Find all documents about the Hudson Bay Company.
Note: Clicking on the Terms button beside the Subject Headings box will return a list of all subjects indexed for this field. |
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Description: This field contains the Title of a Source Work. A Source Work is defined as a book, website, or other collection of texts and or images. The Source Work should be used in any formal citations created for this database. How to use this field: Use this field to find particular sources. This field is available in the Find Sources and Find Images field. Practical Example: Find all sources that contain the word 'Western'
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Description: This field holds the year of the author's birth. How to use this field: Use this field to find authors born in a particular year or range of years. This field is available in Find Authors. Practical Examples: Find all authors born between 1650 and 1675.
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Description: This field contains the year of an author's death. How to use this field: Use this field to find authors who died in a specific year or range of years. This field is available in Find Authors. Practical Example: Find all authors in the database who died between 1800 and 1825.
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Send mail to Editor@AlexanderStreet.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2009 Alexander Street Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved. PhiloLogic Software, Copyright © 2009 The University of Chicago. |