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Historians use Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (currently in its sixth edition) or the Chicago Manual of Style (currently in its fifteenth edition), both of which provide guidelines for the format of the footnote/endnote and bibliographic citations.

See the excellent updated Chicago Manual of Style online guides (for print and electronic resources) prepared by the UMW Library staff by clicking here.

Or go directly to the PDF files by clicking on one of these:
Print Citation Guide -- Electronic Citation Guide

 

NOTE: IF YOU ARE USING TURABIAN, SOME PARTS HAVE CHANGED.

Changes from 1996 Turabian 6th edition to the 2003 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style

1. Use postal abbreviations for states in bibliography, not Turabian abbreviations on Turabian 2.13, p. 19

2. Do not use Turabian’s citation guide for online/electronic sources listed at 8.141 (p. 158) and 11.57 (p. 210) – Instead see Electronic Citation Guide link below.

3. Correct Turabian 8.104 (p. 144) and 11.41 (p. 203) on magazine dates.
-- Magazine dates now cited Month Day, Year [July 16, 1980]; [NOT 16 July 1980]

4. Correct Turabian 8.40 (p. 127), 11.26 & 11.27 (p. 196-197) for essays in edited books.
-- Bibliography for essays in an edited book 

OLD -- Turabian says to use “ed.”
NEW – New Chicago says to use “edited by”

OLD -- Turabian says to use “Chap. in [title of book]”
NEW – New Chicago says to note “Chap. 8 in [title of book]”

NOTE: Change four only applies to bibliographic citations, not footnotes or endnotes.