Primary Sources

Presents selected primary sources that elucidate relationships between China, America, and the Pacific region from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Experts in the field contributed historical background through contextual essays. The collection includes rare books and newspapers, personal accounts, diaries, correspondence, shipping papers, travel posters, historic maps, artwork, and images of material objects among others. Sourced from historical societies, museums, and libraries.

Features selected primary sources on China’s relationship with the West dating back to the earliest English embassy and covering most of the 20th century. Essays by recognized scholars put the ensemble of primary sources in its historical context. The collection includes rare books, personal accounts, correspondence, maps, photographs, and illustrations among others. Sourced from the collections at the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library and seven other libraries and archives.

Provides a gateway to digital copies of the Library of Congress's vast resources of historical records. Examples include various presidential papers collections, photographs, baseball cards, scores and musical recordings, newspapers, magazines, and personal narratives such as those collected from former enslaved people through the Federal Writers' Project.

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.

Provides access to primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. Offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics.

Presents documents and digitized artifacts and art works related to the trade, use, prices and marketing of 15 commodities that have been transformative from ancient times to modern era such as tea, gold, opium, sugar and spices. The primary sources are enhanced by an interactive chronology, data tables, visualizations and maps. Sourced from over twenty libraries, museums and trade associations.

Features digital copies of family papers, personal collections, organizational records, and other unique sources that trace the history of Jewish life in America from early settlements in 17th century New York and Philadelphia to Jewish involvement in the 20th century civil rights movement. Highlights include the records of the Jewish Immigration Information Bureau and the Gratz family papers. Also included are historical photographs that illustrate Jewish life in America and selected American Jewish Year Book articles as well as an interactive map that visualizes Jewish population distributions over time. Companion essays provide historical context. Sourced from the collections of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York.

Presents guidebooks, brochures, leaflets, travel journals, images, maps, and promotional films documenting the development of the tourism industry between 1850 and the 1980s. Focus is on European and American working class tourism (both foreign and domestic) during this time period, providing insight into destinations and modes of travel. Also provides an interactive chronology, interactive map, and contextual essays. Sourced from the originals at archives, libraries, and historical societies in the UK and U.S.

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.

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.

Documents American and British popular culture with digital copies of advertisements, catalogs, clippings, fanzines, memorabilia, newspapers, pamphlets, photographs, posters, books, and video clips, to name just a few of the types of sources included in this collection. Sources are assigned to one or more of 21 thematic areas which cover all aspects of popular culture from 1950 to 1975 among them the Vietnam War, civil rights and race relations, student activism, mass media, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, ecology and the environment, music, and fashion. Essays by expert in the field provide context together with a dictionary which introduces people and concepts. Sourced from a wide range of US and UK libraries and archives, this visually rich collection can be explored by type, theme, and holding archive. Pdf files are available for all collection objects.

Presents documentaries, feature films, and newsreels produced by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, Eastern European, British, and Latin American filmmakers. Films in the collection range from the early twentieth century to the 1980s and examine all aspects of socialist life. Sourced from the archives of the British Film Institute, this collection features the films gathered by British communist Stanley Forman. All films were versioned into English for distribution in the West.

Documents the history of advertising, consumer culture, material culture, household economics, and fashion in the United States from 1850 to 1950 through digitized copies of trade catalogs, pamphlets, trade cards, and other marketing materials from the Lawrence B. Romaine Trade Catalog Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Winterthur Library, and the Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware. Contextual essays, business biographies and indexing by industry, company, brand, and place facilitate research.

Collects primary sources related to over two hundred international expositions held between the 19th and 21st centuries in 94 countries, gathered from 14 archives. Material formats include 360-degree images of objects, sound recordings, images, planning documents, first-person accounts, and more. The collection also includes a small collection of contextualizing scholarly essays, brief biographical notes on key figures, and interactive site maps for several expositions.