Presents a combination of archival sources and essays on their interpretation. The collection covers major themes within the medieval, early modern, and modern periods. Subject experts contributed the essays with accompanying primary sources. This free and growing resource teaches students how to use primary sources. Individual essays and most sources can be downloaded as pdf files.
Use the Library's catalog and WorldCat to discover primary sources related to your topic. Scroll down for search tips. Contact your librarian for assistance.
AM Explorer (Adam Matthew Digital)Presents a wide range of primary sources spanning from the 15th to the 21st century. This collection gives access to over sixty unique digital collection produced by Adam Matthew.
American Decades: Primary Sources American History Collection (Rotunda - University of Virginia Press)Offers digital access to the authoritative print editions of the papers of major figures of the early republic ranging from John Adams to Woodrow Wilson. New content will be added as it becomes available.
American JourneysAmerican Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later.
Digital Collections (The Library of Congress)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.
American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920Travels in America, 1750-1920 comprises 253 published narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750 to 1920. Also included is the thirty-two-volume set of manuscript sources entitled Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, published between 1904 and 1907. Although many of the authors represented in American Notes are not widely known, the collection includes works by major figures such as Matthew Arnold, Fredrika Bremer, William Cullen Bryant, François-René de Chateaubriand, William Cobbett, James Fenimore Cooper, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Charles Dickens, Washington Irving, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Sir Charles Lyell, William Lyon Mackenzie, André Michaux, Thomas Nuttall, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The narratives in American Notes therefore range from the unjustly neglected to the justly famous, and from classics of the genre to undiscovered gems. Together, they build a mosaic portrait of a young nation.
American State Papers: 1789-1838 (Readex) AncestryLibrary (ProQuest)Provides access to a range of databases with biographical information. Includes census data, vital records, directories, voter lists, immigration records, images, and more.
Black Abolitionist Papers (ProQuest)Features newspapers articles, manuscripts, letters, pamphlets, proceedings, and books written by African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1938Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs Divisions of the Library of Congress. Born in Slavery was made possible by a major gift from the Citigroup Foundation.
Century of Lawmaking for a New NationBeginning with the Continental Congress in 1774, America's national legislative bodies have kept records of their proceedings. The records of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the United States Congress make up a rich documentary history of the construction of the nation and the development of the federal government and its role in the national life. These documents record American history in the words of those who built our government.
Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair 1886-1887This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair. The violent confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1886 proved to be a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights. These materials pertain to: the May 4, 1886 meeting and bombing; to the trial, conviction and subsequent appeals of those accused of inciting the bombing; and to the execution of four of the convicted and the later pardon of the remaining defendants.
Core Documents of U.S. DemocracyA core group of current and historical Government publications to provide American citizens direct online access to the basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society.
Doc Heritage (Pennsylvania State Archives)Doc Heritage includes images of historical documents, narratives placing them in a regional, state or national context, and, where appropriate, transcriptions of each record as well as helpful links for further research. The records featured in Doc Heritage bear witness to the unique role Pennsylvania and Pennsylvanians have played in the history of our nation.
Documenting the American SouthDocumenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to Southern history, literature, and culture.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 (Readex)Features most of the books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in America between 1639 and 1800. Titles were selected based on Charles Evans's American Bibliography.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 (Readex)Features most of the books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America from 1801 through 1819. Contains many state papers and government reports. Titles were selected based on Ralph Shaw's and Richard H. Shoemaker's American Bibliography.
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.
Eurodocs: Western European Primary Historical DocumentsThese links connect to Western European (mainly primary) historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. They shed light on key historical happenings within the respective countries (and within the broadest sense of political, economic, social and cultural history). The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.
FBI Case Files (Ancestry.com)Features case files from the agency formerly known as the United States Bureau of Investigation, including World War I espionage files, files on German aliens who were politically suspect, and records pertaining to Mexican neutrality. Covers 1908 through 1922.
First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920This compilation of printed texts from the libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill documents the culture of the nineteenth-century American South from the viewpoint of Southerners. It includes the diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives of not only prominent individuals, but also of relatively inaccessible populations: women, African Americans, enlisted men, laborers, and Native Americans. An award from the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition supported the digitization of 101 titles published during and after the Civil War.
From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection 1822-1909From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 presents 396 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and related topics. The materials range from personal accounts and public orations to organizational reports and legislative speeches.
The Geography of Slavery in VirginiaThe Geography of Slavery in Virginia is a digital collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers. Building on the rich descriptions of individual slaves and servants in the ads, the project offers a personal, geographical and documentary context for the study of slavery in Virginia, from colonial times to the Civil War.
Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest)Features digital copies of books, pamphlets and periodicals related to women's history in general and the movement for women's rights in particular. Coverage is international and extends from the middle of the 15th century to the middle of the 20th century.
History and Politics Out LoudHPOL is a searchable multimedia database documenting and delivering authoritative audio relevant to American history and politics.
Historic Documents (SAGE)Offers full text access to a compilation of excerpts from key historic documents. Documents selected range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions. Short introductions provide historical and intellectual context. Includes references to the full documents. Coverage extends back to 1972.
Historic Government Publications from World War II Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930, is a web-based collection of selected historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the US from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression.
Making of the Modern World, Part I, 1450-1850 (Gale)Provides access to digital copies of books, serials, and various other works of economic literature published between 1450 and 1850. Presents critical primary sources on European economic history including economic theory, imperialism, wealth creation, and trade. Most of the titles are in English but works in other European languages are also included.
National Security ArchiveThe National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCO)Provides indexing for articles from general interest and popular magazines. Covers 1890 through 1982. Covers a broad range of popular subjects.
Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 (Gale)Offers digital access to books, pamphlets, serials, and other sources published worldwide from 1500 to the early 20th century and documenting the history of the Americas. Titles were selected based on Joseph Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana.
Slaves and the Courts 1740-1860Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 contains just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States. The documents, most from the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, comprise an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, a letter, and other works of historical importance.
State Papers Online (Gale)Provides primary sources covering Britain's diplomatic relations and trade in Europe and with the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Villanova's access includes the following:
Part I: The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Domestic
Part II: The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign, Scotland, Borders, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council
Part III: The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I - Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic
Part IV: The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I - Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Foreign, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council
Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part 1: State Papers Domestic, Military, Naval and Registers of the Privy Council
U.K. Parliamentary Papers (ProQuest)Features U.K. parliamentary papers including public petitions, bills and acts, Command Papers, House of Lord Papers, Hansard, journals, and debates. Includes documents from the late 17th century to the end of the 20th century.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set: 1817–1994 (Readex)Provides full text of selected reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from 1817 through 1994 (15th through 103rd Congresses). Documents of the first 14 U.S. Congresses can be found in the American State Papers collection.
Veterans History ProjectThe primary focus is on first-hand accounts of U.S. Veterans from the following wars: World War I (1914-1920), World War II (1939-1946),Korean War (1950-1955), Vietnam War (1961-1975), Persian Gulf War (1990-1995), Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts (2001-present). The Veterans History Project relies on volunteers to collect and preserve stories of wartime service.
World History ArchivesDocuments to support the study of world history from a working-class and non-Eurocentric perspective.
World War I Document ArchiveThe archive is international in focus and intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War.
19th Century Documents Project (Furman University)When completed this collection will include accurate transcriptions of many important and representative primary texts from nineteenth century American history, with special emphasis on those sources that shed light on sectional conflict and transformations in regional identity. Because of our location in South Carolina and the salient role of its natives in the era's history there will also be a number of materials relevant to South Carolina or South Carolinians.
This is a list of common types of primary sources. Use these descriptors as a starting point to query the catalog for primary sources related to your topic.
Other subjects for primary sources in the Library of Congress subject thesaurus include interviews, suveys, maps, pamphlets and treaties.