GoWYLD Databases

Check out the GoWYLD databases to get topic ideas and to conduct research.  You can access these resources from school and your public library.  You may also use them from home. You just need your library card # and pin to log in remotely.  Check with your school or public library for assistance.

Start at GoWYLD.net

The Databases can be accessed alphabetically or by subject area.

Let’s look at a couple of examples:

Select Student Research from the subject list.

Select eLibrary. Search:  Navajo Code Talkers

Notice that there is some general background information at the top, followed by magazines, newspapers, reference items, websites, transcripts and pictures. 

Go back to the Student Research databases page.

Select U.S History in Context (note:  you will not need to use your library card to access this database from home).

Search:  cotton gin or Navajo Code Talkers

Your results will include reference items, primary source documents, images, magazines, and academic journals.  Be sure to click on the header (“Primary Sources,” for example) to see all the results.

**Note that you can search both the U.S. and World History in Context at the same time.  This will be useful when searching some of the History Day topics, such as Sputnik or Mahatma Gandhi.

Women and the Right to Vote

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation"

--Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 gave all American women the right to vote.  After decades of national efforts lead by prominent figures such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, women gained a voice in national affairs.  Yet in some areas, women already exercised this right and were even allowed to hold public office.  In 1869, the First Wyoming Territorial Legislature included a provision granting women suffrage and in the following year, Esther Hobart Morris of South Pass City became the first female appointed as a Justice of the Peace in the U.S.  Upon its admission to the Union in 1890, Wyoming included the amendment once more in its State Constitution.  The momentous rights afforded to women in Wyoming led to great renown and earned it the nickname of the "Equality State". Prior to the Constitutional Amendment, the neighboring states of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho followed Wyoming’s lead and gave women the right to vote by the end of the 19th century.

Women’s suffrage is a fascinating topic for this year’s NHD theme, "Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History".  The Wyoming State Library offers a wide range of resources on women’s suffrage and the efforts made by those in support of, and against, the cause.  To help you explore this topic at the national and state levels as well as the differing reactions it stirred, a few suggested reading materials are listed below.

History of Woman Suffrage
Call Number JK 1896 .S8 V. 1-6
**In Library Use Only
Written and edited by leading figures of the women’s suffrage movement, the six volume set traces the movement’s history and provides recollections from some of the earliest and most prominent advocates of the cause.

“Our Mothers Before Us: Women and Democracy, 1789-1920”
Federal Documents Collection, Call Number AE 1.102:W 84/2
Designed for educators, this toolkit looks at women's involvement in a variety of reform movements and provides document transcriptions of primary sources, such as the Declaration of Sentiments at Resolutions presented at the 1848 Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls and letters written to Congress, not only from women like Susan B. Anthony, but also everyday women.

CD-Roms
Woman Suffrage Documents from Historical Collections and Government Records WyDocs PC 6.2:5
Esther Hobart Morris Records WyDocs PC 6.2:6
If you’re looking for sources significant to women’s suffrage in the U.S. and Wyoming, take a look at 2 CDs of digitized historic documents from the Wyoming State Archives.  Here you will be able to view the 1869 law giving women the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory, documents appointing the first female Justice of the Peace, Esther Hobart Morris, and sources regarding passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

The Wyoming Newspaper Project is a great online resource for finding articles about women’s suffrage from the national and local levels.

As mentioned in the first blog, take a look at ProQuest’s Congressional Serial Set available through the WYLD databases.  You will find a wealth of resources on women's suffrage including Committee Hearings, House and Senate Reports, Documents, and Legislative Histories.

**and don’t forget to check with your local library for additional resources!

Looking for Primary Sources for Your NHD Topic?

Visit the Wyoming Newspaper Project!  This resource provides invaluable information about state and national events between 1849 and 1922. 

Discover the stories that formed Wyoming, through the Wyoming Newspaper Project. For the sheer volume of information they contain, newspapers are the single most important printed record of human activity. Historians, genealogists, and other scholars rely on them to provide a first-hand and sometimes the only account of local news.

Available through the website are all the newspapers printed in Wyoming between 1849 and 1922, in an easily searchable format.  More than 800,000 newspaper pages have been converted from microfilm to a digital format. Using the links on the left, you can browse the entire collection or search for newspapers from specified towns or counties, on certain dates, or by a specific title. The text is searchable, providing news articles, news briefs, obituaries and other items of interest.

For additional information about the Wyoming Newspaper Project, contact Erin Kinney at 275-0656.