American Studies Resource Guide: Primary Sources

What is a primary resource??

For a tutorial, click here.(Provided by the University of Washington)

Electronic Resources

• American Colonists' Library
  The American Colonists' Library contains primary source documents pertaining
  to early American history, and it is an invaluable collection of historical works
  which contributed to the formation of American politics, culture, and ideals.
• American Memory Project
  American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials
  relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers
  more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.
• Amistad Digital Archive (Columbia University)
  While the educational guides on the site are geared towards a middle and high school audience the primary resources, including: photographs, audio, video, and documents, are of use to all research levels.
• Civil Rights Digital Library (University of Georgia)
  "The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale"- Homepage.
• In the First Person
  • An index to letters, diaries, oral histories, and personal narratives.
• National Archives and Records Administration
  NARA makes available all types of historically valuable Federal electronic
  records. It is a vast resource of data and information, and reveals how Federal
  Government organizations have carried out their legislative mandates and missions.
  Most of the electronic records at NARA date from the 1960s, and number over
  30,000 files.
• National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)
  NUCMC provides free-of-charge cataloging of archives and manuscript material through
  the Library of Congress to repositories and provides information concerning access to all
  NUCMC cataloging since its beginnings in 1959.
• Presidential Libraries
  The Presidential Library system is made up of ten Presidential Libraries. These are not traditional
  libraries, but rather repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, and
  other historical materials of U.S. Presidents since Herbert Hoover.
• Sabin Americana, 1500-1926
  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.

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