Primary sources come in a wide variety of formats, but they all have one thing in common: they are original, unfiltered sources that describe people, places and events.
While museums and archives preserve primary sources in their original form, reproductions are available on a variety of platforms: print books, databases, journals, microform, etc.
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.
Ancestry Library Edition (ProQuest)A vast collection of genealogical data which traces the history of millions of individuals going in some cases as far back as 1300. The collection consists of census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more.
Early English Books Online (EEBO)Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. For searchable text of selected titles see Early English Books Online -Text Creation Partnership
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale)Access the digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century. With full-text searching of approximately 26 million pages, the product allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 (Readex)Consists of more than 37,000 books, pamphlets and broadsides. It includes information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, and just about any other topic imaginable.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 (Readex)Covering every aspect of American life during the early decades of the United States, Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819) provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century. Based on the authoritative bibliography by Ralph B. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker and supplemented by thousands of new items.
Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 (Gale)Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection is a cornerstone in the study of the western hemisphere.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set: 1817 – 1994 (Readex)Reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from the 15th Congress through the 103rd Congress. The collection covers a wide range of subjects ranging from the Lewis and Clarke Expedition to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and it includes approximately 56,000 maps. Documents of the first 14 U.S. Congresses can be found in the American State Papers collection.
American State Papers: 1789-1838 (Readex) American Decades: Primary Sources American Founding Era (Rotunda)A gateway to the digital editions of the papers of major figures of the early republic: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Dolley Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry.
Making of the Modern WorldThe Making of the Modern World: Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature, 1450-1850 provides digital facsimile images on every page of 61,000 works of literature on economic and business published from 1450 through 1850. Full-text searching on more than 12 million pages provides researchers unparalleled access to this vast collection of material on commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.
Historic Documents (SAGE)Contains 40 volumes of primary sources. Each volume includes approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of the year. These documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions.
Black Abolitionist Papers: 1830-1865 (ProQuest)This collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865. Approximately 15,000 articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of almost 300 Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany.
Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest)This database is the definitive cross-cultural resource for information on women's history; it spans more than four centuries (1543-1945) and 15 languages and includes over two million pages in full-image. Users can trace the evolution of feminism within a single country, as well as the impact of that country's feminist movement on other countries and their movements. The Gerritsen Collection also provides immediate access to many primary sources from around the world that were previously available only in a limited number of rare book rooms.
United States Bureau of Investigation Case Files (EBSCO)Case files from the U.S. government agency later known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) covering espionage during World War I, case files from German aliens who were politically suspect, and records pertaining to Mexican neutrality.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCO)Provides indexing of over three million articles from more than 550 leading magazines, including full coverage of the original print volumes of Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature™. Subject coverage includes arts, business, computers, crafts, dance, drama, education, entertainment, fashion, film & television, food, gardening, health and medicine, home improvement, literature, news and current events, photography, popular and classical music, politics, popular culture, religion, sports and fitness, technology, transportation, travel and more.
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.
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.
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.
Historic Government Publications from World War II 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).
History and Politics Out LoudHPOL is a searchable multimedia database documenting and delivering authoritative audio relevant to American history and politics.
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.
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.
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.
A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation: US Congressional Documents and DebatesBeginning 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. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation brings together online the records and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention through the 43rd Congress, including the first three volumes of the Congressional Record, 1873-75.
American Memory (The Library of Congress)American Memory is a gateway to the Library of Congress?s vast resources of digitized American historical materials. Comprising more than 9 million items that document U.S. history and culture, American Memory is organized into more than 100 thematic collections based on their original format, their subject matter, or who first created, assembled, or donated them to the Library.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Immigratiton 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Historical New York Times: 1851- (ProQuest)The New York Times is a unique full-image archive that brings you the entire historical run of The New York Times, in-depth coverage of science and politics. It offers complete coverage from 1851 to the present with the exception of the most current three years. Includes classified ads, comics and cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials and commentary.
Washington Post Historical: 1877- (ProQuest)The historical
Washington Post offers full-text searching of every available issue of the
Washington Post and
Washington Post/Times-Herald title variations, from 1877 to the present with the exception of the last seventeen years. For more recent
Washington Post articles, see
Lexis Nexis Academic coverage (1977 - Present).
A digital collection of early American newspapers from 1690 to 1922, that includes the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1860-1920.
Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersSearch America's historic newspapers pages from 1860-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
American Periodicals Series (ProQuest)Search a selection of periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically significant periodicals.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCO)Provides indexing of over three million articles from more than 550 leading magazines, including full coverage of the original print volumes of Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature™. Subject coverage includes arts, business, computers, crafts, dance, drama, education, entertainment, fashion, film & television, food, gardening, health and medicine, home improvement, literature, news and current events, photography, popular and classical music, politics, popular culture, religion, sports and fitness, technology, transportation, travel and more.
OpinionArchivesProvides an accessible and invaluable source of information of electronic archives to leading journals of opinion. Search the full text of over 740 years of archives including Harpers Magazine, The New Republic, The Nation, Commentary, NACLA, Commonweal, American Spectator, National Review and The New York Review of Books. An invaluable resource, providing in-depth analysis of topics such as the cold war, the Arab-Israeli conflict, American foreign policy, defense, the Supreme Court, affirmative action, welfare, crime, immigration, religion, education, art, literature, militarism, human rights violations, environmental destruction, classical music, and much more.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century (Accessible Archives)Includes the complete text of major 19th century African American newspapers such as The Christian Recorder (1861-1902), Freedom's Journal (1827-1829), The North Star (1847-1851), and Frederick Douglass' Paper (1851-1863).
Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective (Accessible Archives)Contains full-text of more than 11,000 articles from over 2500 issues of both Northern and Southern newspapers published between Nov. 1, 1860 and Apr. 30, 1865. Contains news articles, eye-witness and official reports of battles, editorials, advertisements, biographies and over 700 images of battlefield maps and illustrations.
Pennsylvania Gazette: 1728-1800 (Accessible Archives)Full-text transcription and digitized image of the actual newspaper page as it originally appeared.
Virginia GazetteThe Virginia Gazette was published weekly in Williamsburg from 1736-1780. The news covered all Virginia and included some information for other colonies, Scotland, England etc. Not all the issues survived, and some have surfaced since they were first reproduced on microfilm in the mid-twentieth century that is the basis for the digital version.
Philadelphia Inquirer (1981- present)Contains the complete text of articles covered beginning with 1981. It DOES NOT include advertising, calendar listings, horoscopes, sports statistics, stock tables, weather, weddings, engagements and puzzles.
Lexis Nexis AcademicWill be replaced by Nexis Uni, Sept 30, 2017Provides full-text access to a wide range of news (national, international, regional, business, legal, and foreign language), business (company financial news and information, accounting, auditing & tax information, industry and market news), and legal (law reviews, federal case law, state legal research) sources. It also features news transcripts, the U.S. Code, Constitution & Court rules, state and country profiles, medical abstracts, and reference & directory sources.
"LexisNexis online services and the materials contained therein are under copyright by LexisNexis. All rights reserved. No part of these Services may be used except for research purposes, and the Services may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the LexisNexis Academic Library Solutions. Materials retrieved from the Services may not be duplicated in hard copy or machine-readable form without the prior written authorization of LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions, except that limited reproduction of output is permitted solely for individual use by the Authorized User or internal distribution within the Subscribing Institution in accordance with the terms of this Agreement unless further limited or prohibited by the Copyright Act of 1976. Under no circumstances may the Materials or any portion thereof be used to create derivative products or services."
The Times Digital Archive 1785-2010(Gale)The Times is the "world's newspaper of record" and covers all major international historical events from the French Revolution to the Falkland War. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching. It is a digital reproduction, cover to cover, of the paper in PDF files.
Burney Collection Newspapers: Seventeenth-Eighteenth Century (Gale)Explore the early history of the English newspaper. Learn about the English Civil War, the Restoration and 18th century political and cultural developments.“The newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) represent the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. The present digital collection, that helps chart the development of the concept of ‘news’ and ‘newspapers’ and the “free press,” totals almost 1 million pages and contains approximately 1,270 titles. Many of the Burney newspapers are well known, but many pamphlets and broadsides also included have remained largely hidden. Newly digitized, all Burney treasures are now fully text-searchable.
British Periodicals Collection I (ProQuest)The database consists of more than 160 journals spanning the late 17th through early 20th centuries, and covering a range of topics such as literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences. This resource has facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published.
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals (Gale)Access the enormous range of nineteenth-century periodical literature (1800-1900). Of interest to historians and students of nineteenth-century literature and culture, empire, feminism, the history of the book, the creative and performing arts, sport and leisure, science and medicine, the professions, in short, of all aspects of nineteenth-century life that the press encompassed.
Current Digest of the Russian PressEach week the Current Digest presents a selection of Russian-language press materials, carefully translated into English. The Current Digest is a comprehensive retrospective digest of the news presented to the Soviet and Russian public for more than a half-century, from the beginnings of the Cold War through the emergence of Russia in the new balance of power. Founded in 1949, the Current Digest was first published as The Current Digest of the Soviet Press (1949-1991), followed by The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press (1992-2010), and now The Current Digest of the Russian Press.
Pennsylvania Newspaper Record: Delaware County 1819-1870 (Accessible Archives)Full-text transcriptions from six (6) nineteenth-century Delaware County newspapers.
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.
Jutta Seibert
