Research Guides: HIST 300 Historical Methods: Primary Resources

Primary vs. Secondary Resources

A primary source is a document or physical object written/created during the moment in time you are interested in researching. A primary source provides information directly from the source (a book written by Adolf Hitler). A secondary source provides information indirectly (a historian's recounting of research done on Hitler).

American University has helpful guide explaining the differences between primary and secondary sources here.

Tips for Finding Primary Resources

Citation mining: use secondary sources to help lead you to primary sources. Look at the bibliography/references section of your source for leads. Also look for published bibliographies on a particular topic. Many of these are available online--Wikipedia can sometimes be a helpful for finding these!
When using the search box on the Fintel Library homepage, try adding terms such as these along with your topic keywords: personal narrative, interview, journal, diary, correspondence, pamphlet, sources, speeches, manuscripts, documents, documentary etc.
Limit your searches by date depending on the time period of your topic/event.
Use the advanced Google search and include terms like "digital collection," "digital archive," etc. Also try limiting the site to .edu to because many digital collections are created by colleges and universities.

Primary Source Collections

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History.
A large and growing directory of links to historical documents on the web, organized chronologically. Maintained by by George Laughead Jr., manager of the World Wide Web Virtual Library for United States History. (NOTE: It appears that this resource is not actively updated.)

Avalon Project This link opens in a new window
The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government from ancient to modern times. (Yale Law School)
Duke University Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
Digitized historic photographs, advertisements, texts & more from Duke's unique library collections.
Hathitrust This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts for educational use
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Digital collections from the LOC covering a range of American history topics.
National Archives & Records Administration (NARA)
"NARA is an independent Federal agency that helps preserve U.S. history by overseeing the management of all Federal records." NARA is currently undertaking a number of major digitization projects, including the Archival Research Catalog (ARC), an online searchable database containing information about some of NARA's holdings across the country. NARA has already digitized copies of its most popular and significant manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, maps, drawings and other documents. Approximately 124,000 digital copies are available for researchers to view online through ARC, and the items can be searched by title, subject, or other keywords.

New York Public Library's Digital Collection This link opens in a new window
Explore 914,267 items digitized from The New York Public Library's collections. This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.

UPenn's Online Serials Directory
A list of freely accessible archives of serials (such as magazines, journals, newspapers, and other periodicals). List compiled by UPenn.

19th Century US Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Provides access to primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S.
Accessible Archives (History Commons) This link opens in a new window
As a module within the History Commons Platform, Accessible Archives includes: African American Newspapers, African American Newspapers in the South, American County Histories, American Inventor, Anatomy of Protest in America, Colonial Newspapers, Frank Leslie’s Weekly, Godey’s Lady’s Book, and more.
American Historical Periodicals This link opens in a new window
" ... offers a documentary history of the Colonial Americans in the twentieth century, presenting North American thought, culture, and society through a variety of perspectives. Focused on American concerns, they were predominantly published in the U.S., Canada, and by Americans living abroad. From long-running publications to ephemeral titles, each periodical offers a cross-section of the developing United States."
American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside This link opens in a new window
"bring together hundreds of these periodicals from across the country into one collection that will represent penal institutions of all kinds, with special attention paid to women-only institutions.

With the United States incarcerating more individuals than any other nation–over 2 million as of 2019–these publications represent a vast dimension of media history. These publications depict and report on all manner of life within the walls of prisons, from the quotidian to the upsetting. Incarcerated journalists walk a tightrope between oversight by administration–even censorship–and seeking to report accurately on their experiences inside. Some publications were produced with the sanction of institutional authorities; others were produced underground."

Catholic News Archive
This site has thousands of newspaper pages, from different cities, over multiple years. The Archive is a project of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA), a non-profit alliance of archives and libraries collaborating in support of the mission to provide enduring global access to Catholic research resources.
Chronicling America
A project of the Library of Congress, Chronicling America contains many newspapers printed from 1789-1925 in digital format for online viewing.

Harper's Weekly This link opens in a new window
America's leading 19th century illustrated newspaper from 1857 to 1912, full text.

Library of Virginia - Virginia Newspaper Project
A part of the United States Newspaper Project and sponsored by the Library of Virgina, this initiative seeks to catalog and preserve newspapers of Virginia. Contains a list of every known newspaper in Virginia organized by city.

Newspapers.com - Southeast Collection This link opens in a new window
The Newspapers.com -Southeast Collection archive offers historical coverage to full page newspaper images with searchable full-text for millions of pages of historical newspapers (1766 -2023) in the southeastern region of the United States.
New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers, 1851 - 2013) This link opens in a new window
The ProQuest Historical New York Times (1851 - 2013) w/ Index (1851-1993) historical newspaper collection provides search capability using subject terms and topics for focused and targeted results in combination with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images from the Historical New York Times.
Virginia Chronicle [ newspapers digitized by the Library of Virginia] This link opens in a new window
"The Virginia Chronicle is a historical archive of Virginia newspapers, providing free access to full text searching and digitized images of over 2.5 million newspaper pages. This collection contains 326,485 issues comprising 2,875,494 pages."
Washington Post (ProQuest Historical Newspapers, 1877 - 2004) This link opens in a new window
The ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (1877 - 2004) provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.

19th & 20th Century Periodicals - RC Archives & Special Collections
An index of 19th & 20th century periodicals located in the College Archives. Topics covered: Agriculture, American Civil War, American History, Ancient History, Architecture, Art, Black History, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Christianity, Civil Rights, Earth Science, Economics, Education History, Engineering, European History, Fashion, Food History, History, Horticulture, International Politics, Journalism, Literary Reviews, Literature, Math, Political Commentary, Politics, Religion, Roanoke College, Satire, Science, Technology, Theater and Drama, Theology, World History, Women’s History

The American Magazine
Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly began publishing in 1876. In 1904, it was renamed Leslie's Monthly Magazine, and then Leslie's Magazine in 1905. Later that year (in the middle of volume 60), it was renamed the American Illustrated Magazine, shortening to the American Magazine in 1906. It kept continuous volume numbering throughout its history. The magazine ceased publication in 1956. No issue copyright renewals were found for this serial. The first copyright-renewed contribution is from July 1924 (v. 98 no. 1
The Cosmopolitan (digitized issues)
Digitized issues from 1886-1925 available through Hathi Trust.
Good Housekeeping (free digitized issues)
(1885 - 1950) Women's magazine founded in 1885 by the Hearst Corporation. Digitized issues available through Cornell's HEARTH (Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition, History) **NOTE: An update to interface makes it much easier to navigate the issues online."

Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
"... an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century."

The Masses
From the collection site: "The Masses, a richly illustrated radical magazine, was published monthly in New York from 1911 until 1917, when it was suppressed by the government for its anti-war and anti-government perspective"
The Nation's Business
Nation's Business was a magazine published by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States in the 20th century.
1914-1999: The Hagley Digital Archives has many issues of the magazine in page image form.
1916-1918, 1922: HathiTrust has volumes 4-6 and volume 10 readable online
True Story
True Story was first published in 1919 as a confessions magazine. This link will take you to full-text issues at the Internet Archive. Great ads in the back!
Popular Mechanics
Google Books offers full-text of this magazine from 1900-2005
Printers' Ink
First national trade magazine for advertising.

Reader's Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
1890-1982 provides indexing of over three million articles from more than 550 leading magazines, including full coverage of the original print volumes of Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.

Unz
The Unz Review: An Alternative Media Selection A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media
Vanity Fair
1913-1923: HathiTrust has all issues through the end of 1923 in full view.
UPenn's Online Serials Directory
A list of freely accessible archives of serials (such as magazines, journals, newspapers, and other periodicals). List compiled by UPenn.

Archives of Sexuality & Gender This link opens in a new window
Includes LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part I -II and Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century. "Illuminates the experiences not just of the LGBTQ community as a whole, but of individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations that constitute this community.” Includes historical records of political and social organizations founded by LGBTQ individuals, publications by and for lesbians and gays, and extensive coverage of governmental responses to the AIDS crisis. Contains personal correspondence and interviews with numerous LGBTQ individuals, among others and 5,000 monographs that provide context to the twentieth-century materials covered in Parts I and II. Sources include the British Library’s Private Case Collection, Special Subject Units from Sex Research: Early Literature from Statistics to Erotica, a collection from the Alfred C. Kinsey Institute for Sex Research dating from 1700 to 1860, and a collection of rare and unique books from the New York Academy of Medicine.
Discovering American Women's History Digital Collection This link opens in a new window
Created by Middle Tennessee State University, James E. Walker Library, this resources contains "digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States.

The database offers the following features:

--Detailed descriptions and links to more than 700 digital collections
--Quick access to basic and advanced searches on every page
--Options for browsing by subject (300+ entries), place, time period, and primary source type
--Options for narrowing search results by subject, time period, place, and primary source type."

Eugenics Archive
Items from the American Eugenics Movement from 1910-1940.
Alcohol, Temperance & Prohibition Collection
These digitized items are from the Alcoholism and Addiction Studies Collection, as well as from various collections in the Brown University Library — broadsides, sheet music, pamphlets and government publications.
American Presidency Project
Includes all of: Donald Trump's Twitter 2015-2021; The Messages and Papers of the Presidents: 1789-1929; The Public Papers of the Presidents: since 1929; The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents: 1977-2009; The Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents: post-2009; ... also contain data related to Midterm Elections, U.S. Party Platforms (from 1840), Statements of Administration Policy, White House Press Briefing Transcripts, Presidential Debate transcripts.
Hearth
From Cornell University, Hearth is a core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines. Titles published between 1850 and 1950 were selected and ranked by teams of scholars for their great historical importance.

African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest, 1883-1922 This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 1,000 fully searchable printed works from the beginning of Jim Crow to post-World War I. These works provide insights into African American culture and life during this period of segregation and disenfranchisement and include such topics as African American identity, relationships with peoples of other nations, and literature.
African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883 This link opens in a new window
Contains nearly 1,400 fully searchable printed works from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow. It includes documents related to African Americans and citizenship, voting rights, literacy, land rights, employment, and more, including the gaps between written law and practice.
Black Freedom Struggle This link opens in a new window
"The Black Freedom Struggle website will include more than 2,000 documents curated around six crucial phases of the U.S. Black freedom struggle:

Resistance to slavery by enslaved persons and the abolitionist movement of the 19th century
The end of slavery during the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era
The fight against Jim Crow segregation
The New Deal and World War II
The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement from 1946-1975
…and the contemporary Black experience since 1976."
Twentieth Century North American Drama This link opens in a new window
1,530 plays by 223 playwrights, with information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Also includes selected playbills, production photographs and ephemera related to the plays.
Asian American Drama This link opens in a new window
252 plays by 42 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more.
Latin American Drama This link opens in a new window
Latin American Drama is a one-of-a-kind database with plays written by Latin American playwrights in the 19th-21st centuries. Besides serving as a rich resource for literature scholars, the collection also supports the study of American history, ethnic diversity, immigrations issues, and political history.

Freedmen's Bureau Online
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, often referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of March 3, 1865. The Bureau supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory. The bureau records were created or maintained by bureau headquarters, the assistant commissioners and the state superintendents of education and included personnel records and a variety of standard reports concerning bureau programs and conditions in the states.

Slavery And Anti-Slavery Part 1 : Debates This link opens in a new window
Includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.
Slavery And Anti-Slavery Part 2: Slave Trade This link opens in a new window
Includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.
Slavery And Anti-Slavery Part 3: Institution This link opens in a new window
includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.
Slavery And Anti-Slavery Part 4: Emancipation This link opens in a new window
includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.

Instruction & Research Services Librarian

Sarah Beth White

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Subjects: History, Honors, INQ 100s, Library Instruction, Political Science, Primary Sources, Public Affairs