Significant Speeches - EN 1311 - Rhetoric and Composition - Blume Library at St. Mary's University

Sources for Key Speeches

American Rhetoric - Top 100 Speeches
Links to an mp3 (audio) file, as well as pdf and flash format transcripts of many of the most famous American speeches, including Barbara Jordan, Malcolm X, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Chase Smith, and more.
Nobel Lectures by Women Laureates
Hosted on the Gifts of Speech site. Includes the text of the Nobel Lectures by 21 female Nobel Laureates.
United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches: From Washington to George W. Bush
Project Gutenberg brings together the inaugural addresses from George Washington to George W. Bush.
Vital Speeches of the Day
Text of speeches on wide range of political topics.
The World's Famous Orations
Edited by William Jennings Bryan. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1906. 281 speeches by 213 orators spanning ancient Greece (432 BCE - 324 BCE), Rome (218 BCE - 84 CE), Great Britain (710 - 1906), Ireland (1775-1902), Continental Europe (380-1906), and America (1761-1905).

To locate significant texts within books, databases, articles through the library, try the following advanced searches using Discover:

Explore resources retrieved through the following Subject Searches:
- Speeches, Addresses, etc.
- American Speeches, Addresses, etc.

Search Discover by Author, Subject, or Keyword for the name of the person of interest, or broad topic.

To locate books our library has containing significant texts try the following searches using our library catalog:

Search our library catalog by Author, Subject, or Keyword for the name of the person of interest, or broad topic.

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
National Public Radio (NPR)
Public Broadcast Service (PBS - Public Television)
TEDTalks
TED started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from Technology, Entertainment, and Design. It has become a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. TEDTalks began in 2006. Influential people from many walks of life speak on stage. Includes interactive transcripts and captioning in 35 languages.

If you're looking for editorials and articles from newspapers, wire stories, or transcripts, search the Nexis Uni database:

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Includes local, regional, national, and international newspapers, as well as non-English language news; business information about US and international companies; federal, state, and international legal materials including case law, media transcripts, and more.

Nexis Uni features more than 17,000 news, business, and legal sources—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.