Understanding primary sources
If you are seeking to learn about the past, primary sources of information are those that provide first-hand accounts of the events, practices, or conditions you are researching. In general, these are documents that were created by the witnesses or first recorders of these events at about the time they occurred, and include diaries, letters, reports, photographs, creative works, financial records, memos, and newspaper articles (to name just a few types).
Also because primary sources are interdisciplinary it may be helpful to check out the Primary Source section of the History Subject Guide.
Primary sources also include first-hand accounts that were documented later, such as autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories. However, the most useful primary sources are usually considered to be those that were created closest to the time period you’re researching.
Determining which kinds of documents constitute primary sources depends upon the topic you’re researching. (For example, sometimes the same book or article could be considered a primary source for one research topic and a secondary source for a different topic.)
For Example: The painting of Washington Crossing The Delaware, by Emanuel Leutze was painted in 1851.
This painting is both a primary and secondary source depending on what you are researching.
Primary
It is a primary source if you are studying the painter Emanuel Leutze or art and paintings from the late 19th century.
Secondary
It is a secondary source if you are studying the American Revolution or the actual event of Washington crossing the Delaware, this is because the events depicted in the painting took place in 1776, over 50 years before the painting was painted. Emanuel Leutze was not present for the events he is depicting so it cannot be a primary source for those events.
Falvey Library Distinctive Collections: Women's Suffrage
In celebration of Women’s History Month and the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Falvey Library's Distinctive Collections created a digital exhibit which can be viewed Here.
Historical Newspapers
When using newspaper databases: 1)Look carefully at their descriptions to help you identify coverage date ranges. 2) When searching in the databases it helps to specify date ranges, especially if you are searching a historical newspaper. 3) When searching historical newspapers be aware of the language you are using. The algorithms search for words in the newspaper so using modern terminology for something from the 1800s may not work.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century (Accessible Archives)Provides access to the major 19th century African American newspapers including The Christian Recorder (1861-1902), Freedom's Journal (1827-1829), The North Star (1847-1851), and Frederick Douglass' Paper (1851-1863).
America's Historical Newspapers (Readex)Includes full text of selected early American newspapers published between 1690 and 1922. Villanova University has access to series 1 through 5 and 7.
American Periodicals (ProQuest)Provides access to the full text of American magazines and journals published from the colonial period to the early 20th century.
Black Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)Offers access to the major African American newspapers of the 20th century: the Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), the Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), the Cleveland Call & Post (1934-1991), the Chicago Defender (1910-1975), the Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), the New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), the Norfolk Journal & Guide (1921-2003), the Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), and the Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002).
British Library Newspapers (Gale)Includes over 240 newspaper titles from the United Kingdom and Ireland, and spans the years of 1732 to 1950 over six distinct collections. Illuminating diverse and distinct regional attitudes, cultures, and vernaculars, providing an alternative viewpoint to the London-centric national press.
British Periodicals (ProQuest)Provides access to British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th century with the majority of content from the 19th century. Covers a broad range of topics.
Digital Transgender Archive (College of the Holy Cross)Features direct access and links to primary source materials from over thirty institutions including the GLBT Historical Society, the NYC Trans Oral History Project, and numerous university archives.
Irish Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Presents a complete archive of the Irish Times back to 1859 (except for the most recent two years) and the Weekly Irish Times (1876-1958).
LGBT Magazine Archive (ProQuest)Provides full text access to the most influential LGBT+ news resources including The Advocate (full coverage from its inception in 1967), The Pink Paper, Just for Us, The Albatross, and the notable UK publications Gay News and Gay Times.
LGBT Thought and Culture (Alexander Street Press)Provides coverage of the essential works and archival documents of the global LGBTQ+ movement. Coverage is from the late 19th century to the present and includes archival content in the form of text, letters, speeches, interviews, and ephemera.
New York Times: 1851- (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Provides full text access to the complete New York Times archive except for the most recent five years. Use NYTimes.com, Nexis Uni, or ABI/INFORM for access to current content.
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals (Gale)Features digital access to a selection of 19th century British magazines on women, children, leisure and sport, humor, anthropology, travel, missionaries, and colonies.
The Come Out ArchiveThe first periodical published by the gay and lesbian community after the Stonewall riots in June, 1969. This archive contains firsthand accounts and photographs of marches and rallies, interviews with prominent members of the community, articles related to other international struggles, and even poems. The publication also includes transsexual and transvestite liberation issues.
Times (London) Digital Archive, 1785-2019 (Gale)Provides a fully searchable facsimile of the Times of London. The Times is the world's oldest daily newspaper in continuous publication.
Washington Post Historical: 1877- (ProQuest)Contains the full text of the Washington Post and its title variations from 1877 until seventeen years ago.
Databases for Primary Sources
A Celebration of Women Writers (University of Pennsylvania)A long-term research project devoted to early modern women's writing and electronic text encoding. Our goal is to bring texts by pre-Victorian women writers out of the archive and make them accessible to a wide audience of teachers, students, scholars, and the general reader. We support research on women's writing, text encoding, and the role of electronic texts in teaching and scholarship.
African American HistoryAfrican American Studies Center (Oxford University Press)Contains a selection of information sources ranging from the authoritative
Encyclopedia of African American History to the
African American National Biography project. Selected primary sources, maps, images, charts, and tables round out the collection.
Black Women's Suffrage (Digital Public Library of America)Explores linkages between women’s suffrage and other social causes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - anti-slavery, anti-lynching, education reform and civil rights) as well as racism within the Suffrage Movement.
Digital Transgender Archive (College of the Holy Cross)Features direct access and links to primary source materials from over thirty institutions including the GLBT Historical Society, the NYC Trans Oral History Project, and numerous university archives.
Early English Books Online (ProQuest) Tutorial
Provides access to digital page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473 to 1700. Includes books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and newspapers. For searchable text of selected titles see
Early English Books Online -Text Creation Partnership.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online: Parts I&II (Gale)Offers full text access to nearly every English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, alongside thousands of works published in the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, and ephemera. Multiple editions of individual works are offered where they add scholarly value or contain important differences.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online: Text Creation Partnership Tutorial
Provides access to fully searchable texts of a subset of about 3,000 books from the
Eighteenth Century Collections Online collection. Text files are available for bulk download.
Eighteenth Century Journals (Adam Matthew Digital) Limitations on Use
Features journals and newspapers published between 1685 and 1815 in England, Scotland, Ireland, Jamaica, and British India. Topics covered are wide-ranging and include colonial life, provincial and rural affairs, the French and American revolutions, reviews of literature and fashion, political debates, and London coffee house gossip.
Limitations on Use:
This database and the information in it is protected by copyright. (1) Authorised Users must comply with all applicable laws in using the Licensed Materials; (2) the Licensed Materials being supplied are only for the Authorised User's personal use; (3) reproduction or distribution of Licensed Materials that violates applicable law is prohibited (4) all Intellectual Property and other rights in the Licensed Materials is retained by the licensor.
Provides full text access to the most influential LGBT+ news resources including
The Advocate (full coverage from its inception in 1967),
The Pink Paper,
Just for Us,
The Albatross, and the notable UK publications
Gay News and
Gay Times.
LGBT Thought and Culture (Alexander Street Press)Provides coverage of the essential works and archival documents of the global LGBTQ+ movement. Coverage is from the late 19th century to the present and includes archival content in the form of text, letters, speeches, interviews, and ephemera.
LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer HistoryThe LGBTQ Theme Study is a publication of the National Park Foundation for the National Park Service and funded by the Gill Foundation. Each chapter is written and peer-reviewed by experts in LGBTQ Studies.
Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present (Cambridge University Press)Provides biographical and critical accounts of the lives and works of women writers from the British Isles together with contextual materials, timelines, and bibliographies relevant to critical and historical readings. Also includes material on selected non-British and international women, and British and international men, whose writings are relevant to the historical context.
That's So Gay: Outing Early AmericaThis website was originally an exhibit through The Library Company of Philadelphia and has now become a website using materials from The Library Company of Philadelphia exploring the history of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in American society.Women Writers Online (Northeastern University - Women Writers Project)Offers a full text collection of works in English by pre-Victorian women writers. Covers a variety of genres and topics. All texts were originally published between 1526 and 1850.
Women in The National Archives (Adam Matthew Digital)Features a finding aid to women’s studies collections and resources at The National Archives and digital copies of documents related to the campaign for women’s suffrage in Britain (1903-1928), and the colonial territories (1930-1962).
Women's Studies QuarterlyWomen, Peace and Security Index (WPS) (Georgetown IWPS. & Peace Research Institute of Oslo) Tutorial
Measures women’s well-being in 167 countries around the world. It examines three dimensions of women’s lives: inclusion (political, social, economic); justice (formal laws and informal discrimination); and security (at the family, community, and societal levels). A score between 0 (worst possible) and 1 (best possible) is generated for each country, ultimately determining their rank. Begun in 2017/18, the index was created by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security in partnership with the Peace Research Institute Oslo.