Microforms are printed or graphic materials that have been photographed and reduced in size. Included in the microform collection are materials in microfilm, microfiche, microcard, and microprint (defined below).
All titles which are cataloged are filed by call number. Uncatalogued sets are filed alphabetically or by a special accession number. Descriptions, filing arrangements and availability of print and online indexes to are noted..
Microform readers are available for all formats. Print and multiple-format digital copies can be made at each station.
Where is the collection located?
The bulk of the collection is located on the first floor of McKeldin Library, in the Periodicals/Microforms Room. .
Microfilm is transparent film on a reel. It comes in various sizes measured in millimeters.
Microfiche is transparent 3x5 or 4 1/2 x 6 film on a flat card.
Microcards are 3x5 reduced print, non-transparent microforms.
Microprint are 5x8 reduced print, non-transparent microforms.
English and American Literature Microform Collections
This is a partial list of major literature collections in microfilm, microfiche, microcard and microprint format in the UMCP Libraries. All of these collections are held in McKeldin Library and can be found in McKeldin's Periodicals Room.
There are multiple ways to use this guide. The resources are listed alphabetically. Clicking on the call number will open a link to the full catalog record in Worldcat. Clicking on the 'Full Description' will expand the text for an overview of that collection. Print and online indexes and finding aids, as well as digitized versions of the collections, are listed when available. Some of these are outside links not maintained by the University.
Location & Call Number: Microfilm PR418.M34B7 (43 Reels)
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This collection includes a selection of original 16th and 17th century literary manuscripts from the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. Included are manuscripts from the Rawlinson collection, the English poetry class of manuscripts and other poetic, theological and literary works that are of significant historical interest. The collection is divided into three parts:
Part 1. Rawlinson Poetry Manuscripts
This part contains over 90 manuscripts from the Rawlinson poetry collection. Included are works by Elkannah Settle, Sir Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, William Killigrew, George Herbert, Ariosto, Philip Massinger, Beaumont and Fletecher and many others. There are also a number of miscellaneous and commonplace books. The selection criteria for literary material aims to be uncanonical, in representing the literature of a whole period rather than concentrating on major writers.
Part 2. English Poetry, English Miscellaneous and English Theology Manuscripts
This part contains many of the most famous manuscripts which are basic texts for the attribution of poems to the canons of John Donne, Thomas Traherne, Henry King and Robert Southwell. Included also are works by Beaumont, Browne, Drayton and others as well as dramatic texts by Jonson, Martson, Shakespeare and others. The selection criteria for literary material aims to be uncanonical, in representing the literature of a whole period rather than concentrating on major writers.
Part 3. Manuscripts from the Additional, Ashmole, Aubrey, Bodleian, Cherry, Clarendon, Don, Douce, Fairfax and Firth Collections
This part covers ten collections which are of great historical interest, but not exclusively literary in content. The collections include among other things, poems by Beaumont and Fletcher. Sir Thomas Browne, Davies, Donne, Ben Jonson and Sir Walter Raleigh. Included also are dramatic works by Ruggles and Wren, and a volume of Caroline music, containing secular and sacred songs with words by Beaumont and Fletcher, Breton, Campion, Donne, Jonson, Massinger, Releigh, Shakeseapeare and Sir Henry Wotton.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location & Call Number: McK Microfilm PR1120.B75 1984 (35 Reels)
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This collection of manuscripts from the English Renaissance from 1500-1700 includes verse, drama, creative prose, letters, sermons, and commonplace books. The aim of the collection is to represent the literature of the whole period rather than concentrating solely on major writers. Authors represented include, among others, Sir Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, Roger Ascham, John Milton, Samuel Pepys, Richard Crashaw, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir John Harington, William Dunbar, Richard Maitland, Francis Beaumont and Sir Philip Sydney.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
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This library has acquired only reels 3,4,9,10,14 and 21 of this collection of literary manuscripts. The full collection includes over 300 manuscripts from the Folger Shakespeare Library's collection of 16th and 17th century literary resource materials.
The guide includes a brief list of the contents within each reel as well as a detailed description of each manuscript. There is also an index of authors and short-titles of unattributed works at the end of the guide.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCR-PER M-CARD (523 Cards)
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The first series of this collection consists of different texts of Chaucer's works. The second series includes critical works as well as texts.
Items in both series are individually cataloged for the public catalog withoutt call numbers. Microcards are interfiled in the general microcard collection by main entry.
The Chaucer Society was founded in 1868 by Dr. E. L. Furnivall "to do honor to Chaucer and to let the lovers and students of him see how far the best unprinted manuscrips of his works differed from the unprinted texts."*
The Libraries hold many titles by Chaucer. Because there are so many, a card which explains the filing order of the entries precedes the Chaucer cards in the Author/Title section of the catalog.
*Microcard Editions Catalog
Location Code & Call Number MCK-PER PR778.T72 1999 (25 Reels)
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The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCK-PER M-FILM AP4 .E2 (902 Reels)
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This collection is comprised of 168 British periodicals published in the 18th and l9th centuries. Titles were selected because of their importance as source materials and their lack of availability in American Libraries.
Some of the subjects included are literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts, and the social sciences.
The titles are arranged in units filmed sequentlally rather than chronologically. Each unit has its own index, and the periodicals within each unit are filmed alphabetically by title. Within each title, the volumes are arranged chronologically. At the end of each index, there is a cumulative alphabetical list of periodicals titles filmed up to that point in the series; therefore, the final cumulative index should be consulted first.
Each journal title can be accessed through the public catalog. There is also a list by reel number under Early British Periodicals. The collection does not include newspapers.
A checklist of the contents has been filmed at the beginning of each reel.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location & Call Number: McK Microfilm PS1541.A1 1844A (3 Reels)
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This collection of Emily Dickinson's manuscripts includes 850 of her poems, and her letters and drafts, together with transcripts made by Mabel Loomis Todd and others.
The collection consists of 3 reels of microfilm, each containing a series of individually numbered manuscripts:
The manuscripts are divided into 13 different sections:
There is no index (printed or on microfilm) to the collection. The guide, located at the beginning of Reel 1, should be consulted for more complete descriptions of what is contained in each of the 13 sections and for an explanation as to how the manuscripts in each section are arranged.
Call Number: DA745.L79 L33 1997 (5 Reels)
Known as the Hamwood Papers, formerly in the possession of the Hamilton family of Hamwood, Dunboyne, co Meath, they are extensive and valuable for anyone writing on Romantic Friendship, the Gothic Pastoral Ideal, 18th Century Literary Circles and the Romantic Movement.
reel 1. Account of a journey in Wales / Sarah Ponsonby (1778) ; Diary / Eleanor Butler (1784) ; Commonplace book / Sarah Ponsonby (1785-1789) ; Geometry / Sarah Ponsonby (1785) --
reel 2. Journal / Eleanor Butler (1788-1791) --
reel 3. Journal / Eleanor Butler (1791, 1799, 1802, 1807, 1821) ; Letters (1778-1831) ; Letters to Sarah Ponsonby (1798) ; Poetry ; Plasnewydd Library catalogue (1792) --
reel 4. Letters from a traveller (1804-1806) ; Album Camilla (1800-1835) ; Caroline Hamilton album (1803-1859) ; Psyche / Mary Tighe (1804) -- Disparition de Buonaparte (1814) --
Medical recipes (1790s) --
reel 5. Heraldry (1801) ; Histoire tragique d'un Père de la Trappe (1823) ; Executor's accounts (1832-1870s) ; Eva Mary Bell correspondence (1929-1947) ; Hamwood papers / Eva Mary Bell (1920s) ; Journal / Elinor Goddard (1774-1778, 1782-1788).
Each reel begins with Contents of reels and a Detailed list of each reel.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Call Number: HQ1143 .M42 2000 (26 Reels)
A collection of original source material relating to medieval and early modern women. Part 1 contains important texts by key women authors; manuscripts bearing illustrations of women; and sources describing the lives of women in this period.
pt. 1. Manuscripts from the British Library, London (reels 1-14) --
pt. 2. Household books, correspondence, and manuscripts owned by women, from the British Library, London (reels 15-26).
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Call Number: PR4699.F5 Z46 2003 (13 Reels)
Journals and correspondence of the aunt and niece who wrote together under the pseudonym of Michael Field.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCK-PER M-FICHE D351.N56 1986
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McKeldin Library owns microfiches 1.1.1 through 1.1.5236. Titles filmed in later releases may be borrowed from Johns Hopkins University through Interlibrary Loan.
This collection is part of a series which reproduces a broad range of 19th century English-language books and pamphlets published in all parts of the world except North America between 1801 and 1900. Titles have been obtained primarily from the holdings of the British Library.
Titles in this series are arranged in numerical order, according to a three part numbering scheme. The first number indicates which of the subsidiary Nineteenth Century series a title belongs to. For General Collection titles this number is always a 1. The next number after the decimal point designates the originating library. The last number is a number unique to the individual title.
The Nineteenth Century: General Collection is one series of a multipart microfilming project which is expected to take thirty years to complete. In addition to the General Collection, McKeldin also has the initial releases of another Nineteenth Century series, Women Writers and the Art Library has the initial releases of a specialist collection called The Visual Arts and Architecture. Titles reproduced by The Nineteenth Century are selected primarily, but not exclusively, from the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalog.
It is not the intention of the editors of The Nineteenth Century to reproduce every title published in Britain and its colonies during the 19th century, but to make available a comprehensive selection of British works published during that period. The result, it is hoped, will be a collection which will illustrate the institutional, intellectual and social evolution of Britain in the years between 1801 and 1900. Most fiction and poetry are excluded from the scope of the General Collection. Also excluded are parliamentary papers, periodicals, editions of Greek or Roman writers, textbooks, sacred scriptures and works published in North America, including Canada. Additionally, works already included in other major microfilm collections and works easily available in reprint editions have not been included.
Materials in the General Collection cover politics, economics, geography and topography, agriculture, history and archaeology, jurisprudence, philosophy, psychology, education, recreation, science, medicine, family life and household management, technology and the useful arts, and religion.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCK-PER M-FICHE PR1143.W65 1988
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This collection is part of a series which reproduces a broad range of nineteenth century British books. Titles have been obtained primarily from the holdings of the British Library.
Titles in this series are arranged in numerical order, according to a three part numbering scheme. The first number indicates which of the subsidiary Nineteenth Century series a title belongs to. For Women Writers titles this number is always a 5. The next number follows a decimal point and is a numerical designation for the originating library. The last number is a number unique to the individual title. Thus, for example, Maria Benson's novel The Carriage is given the numerical designation, 5.1.815.
The Nineteenth Century: Women Writers: Specialist Collection is one series of a multipart microfilming project which is expected to take thirty years to complete. In addition to Women Writers, McKeldin also has obtained the initial releases of another Nineteenth Century series, the General Collection and the Art Library has obtained the initial releases of a specialist collection called The Visual Arts and Architecture. Titles included in The Nineteenth Century project are selected primarily, but not exclusively, from the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalog.
It is not the intention of The Nineteenth Century's editors to reproduce every single title published in Britain and its colonies during the 19th century. Rather, their goal is to make available a comprehensive selection of British works published during that period. The result, it is hoped, will be a collection which will illustrate the institutional, intellectual and social evolution of Britain in the years between 1800 and 1900.
For the most part, Women Writers is a collection of works of fiction, including novels, poems, short stories, songs and plays. Many of the works included are not otherwise widely available, though this is not true in all cases.
As initial batches of microfiches are released they are accompanied by a contents list which is in order by author's name. Periodically these lists are consolidated into a cumulative index.
The Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalog can be used to broaden the number of access points to this collection but using it for this purpose is a cumbersome process. The procedure for doing so is more fully explained in the section of this notebook which explains The Nineteenth Century: General Collection.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Nineteenth Century Literary Manuscripts Part 1
Call Number: PR1301.N56 1996 pt. 1 (20 Reels)
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The Browning, Eliot, Thackeray & Trollope manuscripts from the British Library, London.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Nineteenth Century Literary Manuscripts Part 2
Call Number: PR1301.N56 1996 pt.2 (7 Reels)
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The correspondence and records of Smith, Elder & Co. from the National Library of Scotland.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCK-PER M-FILM PR973.U55 1985 (16 Reels)
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A collection of over 1,500 British chapbooks printed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Chapbooks were the "tabloids" of their time, recounting news, entertainment and the sensational, ranging from murder to romance. Providing a rare insight into the reading matter of the lower classes, chapbooks are a useful resource for the study of the literature and culture of this period." Included in the collection are riddles and jests, tales for more instruction, fortune tellings, adaptations of popular ballads and songs, and other materials.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCR-PER M-FILM PN6245 .R462 2002 (15 Reels)
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The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCR-PER M-FILM PN6245 .R46 1994 (4 Reels)
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The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCR-PER M-FILM PN6244 .R46 2006 (21 Reels)
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The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location Code & Call Number: MCK-PER M-FILM PR2893.S35 1982 (8 Reels)
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This collection contains documents of Shakespeare's life; contemporary theatrical, literary, scientific and other printed sources; material upon which he based his own writings and original editions of this poetry and drama.
These source are grouped as follows:
Part A: Prologue: The Life
Part B: Shakespeare's Theatre
Part C: The Social and Intellectual Contexts
Part D: Shakespeare's Sources
Part E: The Text
Both parts of the index include the reel guide which must be used for access to the collection.
Part two of the index is comprised of a commentary with complementary marginal references to documents filmed for this collection.
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
Location & Call Number: Mck Microfilm PS2080.5.A6 1759a (4 Reels)
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This Washington Irving Papers is a collection of several previously separate collections acquired by the Manuscripts and Archives Section of the New York Public Library. Included are Irving's literary manuscripts, notebooks, diaries and correspondence, and other materials.
The collection is arranged as follows:
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
