Picture book Historia de la Gansa Amorosa, New York, not before 1870? Catalog record
Researchers can find a variety of primary and secondary sources documenting representations and lived experiences of American children and young adults through approximately 1900 in North America. The following guide is intended to serve as a starting point for your research.
Finding Primary Sources
The General Catalog uses genre/form terms to make findable thousands of works for childhood and youth studies through approximately 1900. Researchers can use the following terms:
- Juvenilia (works written by children and young people)
- Amateur books (often, but not always, produced by young people)
- Amateur newspapers (often, but not always, produced by young people)
Works written for children and young people
- Juvenile literature
Since this search term yields over 10,000 results, use in combination with other search terms. - Juvenile novels
- Children's newspapers
- Children's periodicals
- Children's sermons
- Board books
- Cautionary tales
- Fairy tales
The Illuminated American Primer, between 1844 and 1849? Catalog record
Works related to the education of children and young people
Objects created for children and young people
The General Catalog uses Library of Congress subject headings including:
- Adventure stories
- Children's stories
Since this search term yields over 10,000 results, use in combination with other search terms. - Picture books for children
- The subheading "Juvenile literature" has been appended to many Library of Congress subject headings such as Dreams--Juvenile literature.
Related collections
The following webpages explore specific parts of the AAS collection:
If you don't find what you are looking for please email the curator of children's literature, Laura E. Wasowicz, or our staff at reference [at] mwa.org (reference[at]mwa[dot]org).
Digital Collections, Research Tools and Projects
The following AAS digital collections and research tools are freely available from anywhere.
- Historic Children's Voices
- 19th Century American Children’s Book Trade Directory
- A Boy's Education Among the Reformers
- Clerk and the City
- A Day in the Life of a Schoolmarm
- Radiant with Color & Art
- Radiant with Color & Art exhibition catalog
- McLoughlin Bros Collection - 1997 Addition
- McLoughlin Bros. Catalogs, Price Lists, and Order Forms
- Student, Teacher, and Trustee Database Project, 1800-1900
The following digital collections are available to researchers who are present at AAS and signed on to AAS networks. Publishers provide separate tools for searching their collections. Some feature materials not held at AAS.
- Children's Literature and Childhood (Gale)
- Children's Literature and Culture (Adam Matthew)
- American Children's Books (Readex)
- Gale Primary Sources
Includes all Gale products available at AAS - Readex AllSearch
Includes all Readex products available at AAS
Fellowship Opportunities
The American Antiquarian Society awards over thirty-five fellowships annually. Fellowships are offered for postdoctoral academics, advanced graduate students, independent scholars, as well as for creative and performing artists and writers.
The Lapides Fellowship in Pre-1900 Juvenile Literature and Ephemera supports research on printed and manuscript material produced in America through 1900 for (or by) children and youth. This fellowship will support projects examining the creative, artistic, cultural, technological, or commercial aspects of American juvenile literature and ephemera. It is open to both postdoctoral scholars and graduate students at work on doctoral dissertations.
The Justin G. Schiller Fellowship supports research by both doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars from any disciplinary perspective on the production, distribution, literary content, or historical context of American children's books to 1900.
The Alstott Morgan Fellowship, funded by a generous gift from Richard Parker Morgan and Carolyn Alstott Morgan, supports research on the history of education in nineteenth-century America, drawing on AAS’s unmatched collection of early educational materials, including the Alstott Morgan School Catalogue Collection and the The Student, Teacher, and Trustee Database Project, 1800-1900. This fellowship is awarded to an individual engaged in scholarly research and writing--including doctoral dissertations--in any field of American history and culture through 1900.
Julian L. Lapides Lectures
The Julian L. Lapides Lecture, inaugurated in 2025, features a talk concerning pre-1900 children's literature in America.
Recorded Programs
Watch past childhood and youth studies programs most of which resulted from research completed in the AAS collection.