Otis College LibGuides: Birth of the Modern: HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Getting Started with Historical Research

Start your research by looking through timelines and encyclopedias. Find out what was happening in the world from 1850-today

Art & Design Timelines

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History This link opens in a new window
Pairs essays and works of art with chronologies, telling the story of art and global culture. Produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fashion History Timeline
Evolving open-access resource for professional, emerging, and casual researchers. Created by faculty and students at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Khan Academy: Art History
Content provided by Smarthistory
Modern Art Movements: 1870s to 1980s
Displays major trends and movements in modern art.
Design Is History
Toolkit created to help students learn about the History of Graphic Design. (January 2020: no longer maintained.)
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Design Movements Timeline: 1850s-2000s

VOGUE Archive This link opens in a new window
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Entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition), from the first issue in 1892 to the current month with photos and ads. All searchable!

Encyclopedias

One very easy way to start your research is to look in an encyclopedia that will provide an overview of basic background information on a topic.

eLibrary This link opens in a new window
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Search by topic or time period. Also includes encyclopedias and dictionaries.
ProQuest Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
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Contains the Britannica Concise and Hutchinson Encyclopedias in addition to college textbooks.
Formerly known as "ebrary"

News and Events Year-by-Year, 1900-2022
Describes historic events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by year and by decade.
SAH Archipedia
Open-access edition of the peer-reviewed online encyclopedia that tells the history of the U.S. through its structures and places. Produced by the Society of Architecture Historians (SAH) and the University of Virginia Press.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an excellent place to get background information. Be sure to check the references for material that will be more appropriate for your projects.See the WIKIPEDIA guide for more help.

Remember: Start your research here. Wikipedia articles do not count as sources in your papers.

1850s	1860s
1870s	1880s
1890s	1900s
1910s	1920s
1930s	1940s

Timelines of Modern History
Wikipedia timeline from ca. 1500 - today, with links to movements and historical events
History of the World: Late Modern Period
Wikipedia article with links to movements and historical events

Books in the Otis College Library

There are books which you can browse which will be extremely helpful to you in learning about the cultural, social, and historical context of a particular time or period.

20th Century Day by Day by Clifton Daniel (Editor) Perfect for students, researchers, history buffs, and anyone curious about the people, places, and events of the last 100 years, 20th Century Day by Day is both the ultimate guide to humankind's most tragic and triumphant century and a perfect millennium gift and keepsake. Featuring thousands of great color and black-and-white illustrations and text written in a lively, journalistic "you are there" style, this special millennium edition of a classic reference work features coverage updated through 1999 and a dazzling new jacket.
Call Number: D422 C53 1999
ISBN: 0789446405
Publication Date: 1998
American Decades, 1900-, 1910-, 1920, 1930-. 1940-, 1950-, 1960-, 1970-, 1980- by Richard Layman (Editor) Books for each decade from 1900-1990. Intended as a reference source for American social history, each volume discusses the people, events and ideas of the period. After an introductory overview and chronology, subject chapters follow with subject-specific timelines and alphabetically arranged entries.
Call Number: REF E169.12 A419 (9 volumes)