Guide to Locating Speeches

iLink

iLink is the online catalog for Osterlin Library. The text of speeches in the Osterlin collection can be located the following ways:

• For speeches by a specific speaker (e.g. King, Martin Luther) do an Author search in iLink
  OR
• Perform a Subject search in WorldCat using the term speeches or addresses, etc.

Vital Speeches of the Day

This bimonthly magazine prints the full text of important speeches by leaders in economics, politics, education, sociology, business, and labor. Issues from 1960-1982 are indexed in the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature (located on the index tables in the Reference section.) Issues from 1983-1989 are indexed in Reader's Guide Abstracts, available by selecting the Complete Resource List on the library's home page. EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite (available under "Find Articles Online" on the library web page) provides full text issues of Vital Speeches from 1990 to the present.

Indexes of Speeches

• Speech Index: An Index to 259 Collections of World Famous Orations and Speeches for Various Occasions 4th ed. New York: Scarecrow Press, 1966.
  REF AI3 .S85 1966
  A dictionary catalog with entries for each oration under author, subject, and type of speech. Includes speakers from the earliest times to the present day.
• Speech index: an index to collections of world famous orations and speeches for various occasions. Fourth ed. supplement, 1966-1980. Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1982.
  REF AI3 .S85 Supp 1966-1980
  A supplement to the previous listing.
• We Shall Be Heard: An Index to Speeches by American Women, 1978 to 1985. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1988.
  REF Z 231.O7 M37 1988
  An author and a subject index to speeches by American women, with bibliographic information for published sources that include those speeches.

Database For Speeches

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
  Accessible through the Osterlin Web page. Select "Find Articles Online". Click to select News near the top of the screen, then select Transcripts from the Sources pulldown menu. You'll be able to view television, radio, and political transcripts.

Selected Texts of Speeches

• The Annenberg/Pew Archive of Presidential Campaign Discourse [electronic resource]. Philadelphia, Pa. : Annenberg School for Communication, c2000.
  E743 .A66 2000 [CD] [Software Stacks]
  Transcripts of speeches, television ads, and debates of the twelve U. S. general Presidential campaigns from 1952 through 1996. Includes all of the major party nominees work, except that of Barry Goldwater.
• Brewer, David J. The World's Best Orations from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. 10 vol. St. Louis: Ferd. P. Kaiser, 1901.
  PN 6121.lB85 1901A
  Alphabetical by speaker with biographical sketches and selected speeches.
• Capp, Glenn R. The Great Society: A Sourcebook of Speeches. Belmont, Calif.: Dickenson Publishing Co., 1967.
  PS662 .C3 1967
  Divided into sections on basic philosophy, civil rights, education and poverty, the speeches reflect varying points of view. Each speech is prefaced by an introduction which contains information about the speaker and the occasion, and a brief explanation of the speech.
• Hispanic American Voices. Detroit: UXL, 1997.
  REF E184 .S75 H564
  Alphabetically arranged by speaker, includes both excerpted and complete speeches by Hispanic Americans about social issues.
• Native North American Voices. Detroit: UXL, 1997.
  REF E98.O7 S77
  Examples of oratory from 20 Native Americans, ranging from historical speeches to contemporary addresses.
• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches and Statements of the President.
  J80 .A283 year
  Volumes available: Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Clinton.
• Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Speeches. New York: Penguin, 1992.
  PN6121 .P38 1992
  International in scope, volume includes the text of 141 speeches from 1899 (Teddy
  Roosevelt) to 1991 (Salman Rushdie).
• Representative American Speeches. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1937-
  PS668.B3 year
  Representative speeches of the year grouped under broad subject/issue categories. Osterlin owns volumes from 1954-1995.
• Safire, William. Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History. N.Y.: Norton, 1992.
  PN662 .H8
  Arranged by theme and occasion, a treasury of the greatest speeches in human history through contemporary times.
• A treasury of Great American Speeches: Our Country's Life and History in the Words of Its Great Men. N.Y.: Hawthorn, 1959.
  PS662 .H8
  American speeches from 1645 to 1959 arranged under five themes related to America's history.
• Vanderwerth, W.C. Indian Oratory: Famous Speeches by Noted Indian Chieftains. Norman, OK: Oklahoma University Press, 1971.
  E98 .O7 V33
  Speeches by noted Indian chiefs representing numerous tribes from 1758-1910.
• Voices of Crisis: Vital Speeches on Contemporary Issues. N.Y.: Odyssey Press, 1967.
  AC5 .M457
  Twenty seven speeches on issues of national and international concern, primarily delivered during the early 1960s.
• With Pen and Voice: A Critical Anthology of Nineteenth-Century African-American Women. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995.
  PS663 .N4 W5 1995
  19th century African American women spoke out on topics such as universal suffrage, mob violence, and social and education reform. This anthology introduces the rhetoric of seven women and provides historical background and biographical data for each.
• The World's Great Speeches. 4th ed. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1999.
  PN6121 .W66 1999
  Approximately three hundred great speeches from nearly every historical era and nation, covering ancient to modern times.

Useful Web Sites

• American Rhetoric
  http://www.americanrhetoric.com/
  Easy-to-use, searchable reference database of more than 5,000 full-text, audio, and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other recorded media events. Also includes index to and database of full-text transcriptions of the 100 most significant American political speeches of the Twentieth Century.
• Douglas: Archives of American Public Address
  http://douglassarchives.org/
  Hosted by Northwestern University, this site provides an archive of American speeches ranging from the classic to the obscure. Users may search the archive by time period, speaker, title, or issue. Site also features links for current debates and links to resources for those studying speeches and rhetorical history.
• Gifts of Speech: Women's Speeches from Around the World
  http://gos.sbc.edu/
  A collection of speeches made by contemporary women including Maya Angelou, Betty Shabazz, Tipper Gore, Ruth Bader Ginzberg, Andrea Dworkin, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, and Margaret Thatcher, arranged alphabetically by the speaker.
• Great Speeches
  http://www.chicago-law.net/speeches/speech.html#2c
  Clips of historically significant speeches from throughout the 20th century by people such as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gloria Steinem, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Great Speeches in History
  http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/previous.htm
  Full text of important speeches, weighted towards European and American history.
• History Channel.com Speeches
  http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/
  This site has 120 Real Audio complete speeches and audio clips. There is a speech for the day and an archive of the other speeches. African-American and women speakers are included. Each speech has an explanation of its place in history.
• New World's Home Page
  http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7202/
  Includes all types of speech links as well as reference links, designating which links have audio. Included are speakers such as Hillary Clinton. Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II, Jesse Jackson, and a broad range of international figures.
• Online Speech Bank
  http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm
  Index to and database of 5000+ full text, audio and video (streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events.
• Speech and Transcript Center
  http://www.freepint.com/gary/speechhistoric.htm
  The Chicago Law Network site contains "famous and infamous speeches of the twentieth century." The audio clips highlight speakers such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The speeches are arranged chronologically by decades of the twentieth century.