History Resource Guide: Finding Primary Materials

What is a primary resource?

• Using Primary Sources on the Web
  Online guide to using primary resources provided by the University of Washington. Includes information on defining, finding, and evaluating primary resources.
• Primary vs. Secondary Sources
  Defintions, Examples, and Specific Examples sections explain the difference between primary and secondary sources. Provided by the Borough of Manhattan Community College Library.

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

Electronic Resources (Finding Digital Primary Material)

General History

• Center for History and New Media (Projects section)
  Produced by George Mason University, this resource offers multiple search engine. "There are literally thousands of links to historic journals, to Web sites for departments of history throughout the world, and to other sites that offer digital historical information." -Choice Magazine
• Guide to Historical Newspapers, Library of Congress
  The Library of Congress has created a how-to guide for researching historic newspapers. Includes links to indexes and full-text, online, digitized historic newspaper collections across the US and beyond.
• Historical New York Times
  (scroll to Historic New York Times) Searchable online database which houses a digitized version of New York Times back to mid 1800's.
• History and Politics Out Loud
  A searchable archive of politically significant audio materials. Includes audio from Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Winston Churchill among others.
• In the First Person
  • An index to letters, diaries, oral histories and personal narratives.
• New York Public Library Digital Library Collection
  Gateway to the New York Public Library's (NYPL) "rare and unique" (from the website) online digital collections. Includes searchable databases, online exhibitions, and digital texts.
• Time Magazine Archive
  A selection of Time Magazine full-text articles from 1923-present. Considered a popular resource, not a scholarly resource.

World History

• Acta Sanctorum
  "The Acta Sanctorum Database is an electronic version of the complete printed text of Acta Sanctorum, from the edition published in sixty-eight volumes by the Société des Bollandistes in Antwerp and Brussels. It is a collection of documents examining the lives of saints, organised according to each saint's feast day, and runs from the two January volumes published in 1643 to the Propylaeum to December published in 1940. The Acta Sanctorum Database contains the entire Acta Sanctorum, including all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indices. Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina reference numbers, essential references for scholars, are also included"-database website.
• Avalon Project
  Launched by Yale University Law School, this site offers primary Anglo and American documents from the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. Allows user to browse by century and includes a search engine.
• Britannia-Documents
  Includes transcription of significant documents in British history including those created during the Middle Ages.
• British History Online
  British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Free registration is required for full-text access. Includes local, geography, urban, Parliamentary, and religious history of all areas of Great Britain including Wales, from 11th to 19th century.
• EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
  This website, housed by the Harold B. Lee Library of Brigham Young University, is essentially a bibliography of other websites that contain primary documents. This site will lead you to sites that contain selections of transcriptions, facsimiles, and translations. From this homepage you will find a listing of countries. Within each country is a listing of topics and/or time periods. Within each topic or time period you will find websites that link to primary documents.
• FirstWorldWar.com
  Sections include Vintage Audio, Vintage Video, Memoirs and Diaries, Propaganda Posters, and Primary Documents.
• H-Africa
  A consortium of scholarly lists discussing African history, culture, and studies. For primary resources go to RESOURCES, then COLLECTIONS. Also contains numerous secondary resources.
• History Resource Center- World
  Features over 500,000 pages of 1,500 primary documents, along with maps, images, and numerous secondary resources. "The primary purpose of the History Resource Center: World is to provide students, their teachers, and library patrons with a single place to begin researching the vast topic of world history from B.C.E. to the present." -History Resource Center website
• Holocaust History Project
  From the website, "The Holocaust History Project is a free archive of documents, photographs, recordings, and essays regarding the Holocaust, including direct refutation of Holocaust-denial." Majority of items are primary documents produced by German military, for example one doctor gives a witness account of gassings at Auschwitz.
• Internent Library of Early Journals: A digital library of 18th and 19th century journals
  A joint project by the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford. Inlcudes full-text PDF versions of articles from the following journals: Gentleman's Magazine, The Annual Register, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Notes andQueries, The Builder, and Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.
• Imperial War Museum collections on-line
  Searchable site that is a digital repository of over 160,000 items in the Imperial War Museum's collection. Mainly covers Great Britain's war role in the 20th century.
• Library of Congress Portals to the World
  Electronic resources from around the world, selected by subject experts at the Library of Congress, therefore the sites are known to be scholarly and contain quality sources. Begin browsing by country. You will find that most countries will contain links to digitized primary resources.
• Patrologia Latina
  "The Patrologia Latina Database is an electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published between 1862 and 1865. The Patrologia Latina comprises the works of the Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216. The database contains the complete Patrologia Latina, including all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indexes. Migne's column numbers, essential references for scholars, are included"-database website.
• The World War I Document Archive
  Documents pertaining to WWI. One particularly pertinent section on this website is Memorials, Personal Reminiscences.
• WWWVirtualLibrary-History Index-Medieval Europe
  Scroll down to ON-LINE MEDIEVAL TEXTS and you will find a list of links to various websites which house digital versions of primary documents.
  

American History

• AmDocs: Documents for the Study of American History
  A section of the WWW Virtual Library. A chronological listing of primary documents and maps related to American History.
• The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
  An excellent resource for the American Civil War contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs. Includes table of contents, as well as simple and advanced search options.
• American Memory Project-Library of Congress
  Housing more than 7 million digitized items, this collection contains items relating to U.S. history, people, politics, and culture. Items include photographs, maps, illustrations, manuscripts, diaries, sheet music, motion pictures, and sound recordings.
• American Memory Timeline (relates to American Memory Project)
  "This resource was developed to help teachers and students use the vast online collections of the Library of Congress. The links to the right will lead you to sets of selected primary sources on a variety of topics in United States History. The sets are arranged by chronological period." (from the website)
• American Women's History: A Research Guide
  Women's history research guide page from Middle Tennessee State University. Features digital collections of primary sources, as well as tools for finding primary resources.
• 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.
• Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (Library of Congress)
  "This site allows you to search and read newspaper pages from 1900-1910 and 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 as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP)" - Chronicling America Homepage.
• 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.
  
• Digital History A collaborative project hosted by the University of Houston's website.
• Documenting the American South
  "Documenting 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. Currently DocSouth includes ten thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs." (from website)
• Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800
  "Based on Charles Evans' American Bibliography this database lists books published in 17th- and 18th-century America and links to images of the books themselves." -University of Virginia Libraries
• Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment
  "This release of Early Encounters in North America contains 1,482 authors and over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters. Particular care has been taken to index the material so that it can be used in new ways." (from website)
• Historical Statistics of the United States
  "Contains quantitative historical information covering virtually every quantifiable dimension of American history: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations, all from the earliest times to the present. Users will be able to graph individual tables or to combine data from different tables into "custom tables" and to download tables for use in spreadsheets and other applications."--Cambridge University Press website
• History Resource Center - United States
  Features over 100,000,000 pages of more than 5,000 primary documents, along with maps, images, and numerous secondary resources. "The primary purpose of the History Resource Center: U.S. is to provide students, their teachers, and library patrons with a single place to begin researching the vast topic of U.S. history from the earliest days of discovery and exploration to the present." (from the website)
• Making of America by University of Michigan and Cornell University
  A digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. These collections are particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
  "Includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines." (from website)
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries
  "Includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before." (from website)
• 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.
• Women' Working, 1800-1930
  "Focuses on women's role in the United States economy and provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University's library and museum collections. The collection features approximately 500,000 digitized pages and images"-collection's website.

Cultural Institution Websites

Indiana

• Butler University Special Collections/Archives
  "Established in 1987, the archives preserve the institutional, physical, scholarly, and, to some extent, the personal history of the university, its programs, facilities, and people. Strengths of special collections cover such areas as Jean Sibelius, Abraham Lincoln, Kin Hubbard, Gaar Williams, 15th to 19th century botanical and zoological prints, early educational materials, 19th-century American sheet music, and African American poets." (from website)
• Historic Landmarks Foundation
  "Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana saves and restores irreplaceable architectural heritage, from outstanding national landmarks like West Baden Springs to modest historic houses, barns and bridges. If you're interested in the historic preservation and restoration of Indiana landmarks or heritage tours and visiting historic sites, you've come to the right place." (from website)
  
• Indiana Historical Society
  Since 1830, the Indiana Historical Society has been "collecting preserving, interpreting and disseminating Indiana history" and is "one of the largest archival repositories of material on the history of Indiana and the Old Northwest." Over 25,000 digital images are contained in the Collections section.. (from website)
  
• Indiana State Archives
  "The Indiana State Archives is the official repository of Indiana government records of permanent historical and legal significance. It principally contains records generated by state government and state agencies, but also holds a major collection of county and local government records." (from website)
• Indiana State Library
  "Through its history, the Indiana State Library has developed strong collections in the fields of Indiana history and culture, Indiana state government and United States government publications, Indiana newspapers, genealogy and family history resources on Indiana and the eastern United States, Braille, large print, and books on tape for the visually impaired, library science, and American history, politics, and economics." (from website)
• IMCPL (Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library)
  "IMCPL's collection of over 2.1 million items includes a variety of formats: books, books on tape, magazines, large print materials, audiocassettes, videocassettes, compact discs and DVD's. Foreign language materials are an integral part of the Library's collection." (from website)
• IUPUI Image Collection
  "This collection of digital images visually represents IUPUI's history and development as a teaching facility, an academic institution, a continually transforming campus, and a group of ever growing students, faculty, and staff." (from website)
• IUPUI Ruth Lilly Special Collections/Archives
  Contains significant primary sources for the study of:
  • Philanthropy (including the records of foundations, nonprofit organizations, fund raising firms, associations, and individuals)
  • German-Americana (including the records of national and local organizations)
  • Individuals and organizations with ties to the University and Indianapolis (General Collections)
  • History of IUPUI preserving the official records of IUPUI and its various predecessor institutions.
  • IUPUI University Archives

National

• Listing of State Archives + Historical Societies
  Provided by the Ohio Historical Society, contains some dead links, but overall useful site.
• National Archives The National Archives is responsible for permanently preserving important historical and legal documents that are created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government
  • National Archives Research Page
    Contains enormous amount of primary material including images, maps, movies, and electronic records.
• Smithsonian Institution
  Research and educational institution funded by the federal government and other endowments that is committed to promoting innovation, research and discovery in science.
  • Smithsonian Institution Research Page
    Primary material can be found in Online Collections & Datasets, Libraries, and Archives sections.

Census Information

Recent Census Websites

• 2000 Census
  Provided by the U.S. government, this website serves as a gateway to statistics from the 2000 U.S. Census that contains quick facts, figures, and multiple search options.
• 1990 Census
  Provided by the U.S. government, this website serves as a gateway to statistics from the 1990 U.S. Census that contains quick facts, figures, and multiple search options.

Older Census Figures

• Historical Census Browser
  Provided by the University of Virginia, "Allows you to manipulate population census data for any census year from 1790 to 1960. After selecting the year, choose from the lists of variables based on the questions asked in the census that year." -University of Virginia Libraries
• Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts
  Provided the U.S. Census Bureau, this page contains a variety of information on every census from 1790 through 2000. Contains numerous facts, figures, and statistical abstracts, along with questionnaires and instructions from each census. Includes historic census data from the Decennial Censuses from 1790-1860, 1990, 2000 (PDF). Contains comments and Table of Contents on 1870-1980 Censuses
• IUCAT
  Indiana and United States census information can be found in IUCAT using search terms such as the following: 1. United States Census, 20th, 1980 and 2. 1970 census of population.