Research Guides: *History: Primary Sources

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are the "raw data" of your research, and involve direct evidence. They were created during the time period under consideration or by a person involved. Examples of historical primary sources include: diaries, letters, legal documents, maps, newspapers, images, and objects.

More information is available at our page on primary vs. secondary sources.

Primary Sources in Books

Published primary source collections in LibrarySearch can be found by adding the following subjects to your search: diaries OR correspondence OR narratives OR sources OR speeches OR interviews OR "personal narratives".

Digitized and Online Sources

Collection sets listed here are created by country, time period, or origin of the collection. They include digitized books and monographs, images, newspapers and periodicals, pamphlets, speeches, government documents, manuscripts, and letters and diaries.

HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Books, journals, newspapers, and other print materials scanned by many of the largest research libraries in the US.
Collection is full text searchable. Materials in the public domain are available for reading online. Copyrighted materials are not available in full text, but often indicate page numbers where words occur. Includes many US government documents. hathi trust

Digital Public Library
Search and limit to "image" to find digitized collections from across the U.S.
NYPL Digital Collections
Digitized material from the collections of the New York Public Library, including images, archival material, performances, and books.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Early printed books, English literature, fine arts, history, religion, etc. (includes listings in STCI, STCII and Thomason Tracts). Publication dates: 1473-1700
Provides partially searchable digital images of books printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as works in English printed elsewhere. Based on the Pollard and Redgrave Short Title Catalogue (1475-1640), the Wing Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources related to history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science, etc. of the eighteenth century.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources, including books and monographs, newspapers and periodicals, diaries and personal letters, manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, maps, and etc. Publication dates: 1780-1910
Includes Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange, British Politics and Society, British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture, Children's Literature and Childhood, Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest, European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection, Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature, Photography: The World through the Lens, Religion, Society, Spirituality, and Reform, Science, Technology, and Medicine: 1780-1925, and Women: Transnational Networks.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Primary source collections on crime, slavery, and Indigenous history, and historical British newspaper collections, Publication dates: 17th century-present.
Newspapers
17th and 18th Century Burney Collection, British Library Newspapers, The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, The Times Digital Archive, Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive, American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society
Other primary source collections
Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920, Indigenous Peoples of North America, Political Extremism and Radicalism, and Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive.
Historic Documents This link opens in a new window
Selected primary source documents, U.S. and international. Document types include speeches, interviews, State of the Union address (and opposition responses). Publication dates: 1972-2013

Nines
NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship) is a scholarly organization devoted to forging links between the material archive of the nineteenth century and the digital research environment of the twenty-first.
Digital Library of the Caribbean
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative of partners within the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean that provides users with access to Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
ARTFL Project
A portal that provides access to North America's largest collection of digitized French resources. Some content is freely available, some by subscription only.
Europeana
An online portal to digitized collections from across Europe. Includes curated collections based on location or event.
EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
Links connect to European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. Includes video or sound files, maps, photographs or other imagery, databases, and other documentation.
The European Library
An online portal offers quick and easy access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries.
Digital Bodleian
Digitized collections from the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.
Online Gallery of the British Library
Digitized collections and online exhibits from the British Library.
Gallica
Gallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and its partners, bringing together digitized material from across France.

Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920 This link opens in a new window
Primary source archival material related to crime, policing, and trials in the United States and Great Britain.
Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean.
Include U.S. diplomatic records.

RetroNews
Historical French newspapers

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
American and Canadian immigrant primary sources. Publication dates: Colonial to 1950
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. In selected cases, users will be able to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Primary sources with biographies and further reading. Time period: 18th - 20th centuries.

Epistolae: Medieval Women's Letters
Epistolae is a collection of letters to and from women dating from the 4th to the 13th century AD. These letters from the Middle Ages, written in Latin, are presented with English translations and are organized by the women participating.
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Biographical sketches of the women and descriptions of the subject matter or the historic context of the letter is included where available.

Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries from the American Antiquarian Society This link opens in a new window
Personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Publication dates: 1750-1950
Social and Cultural History: Letters and Diaries Online This link opens in a new window
Search tool for a number of personal narrative collections.
The index contains diary entries, letter entries, and oral history entries. It also contains pointers to audio and video files and bibliographic records. Approximately one quarter of the index points to materials that are in copyright.

Oxford Art Online: Images This link opens in a new window
Images and illustrations from Oxford dictionaries and encyclopedias of art.
Images on JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences.
Art Images for College Teaching (AICT) This link opens in a new window
Art images licensed for academic, non-profit uses. Collection is particularly rich in images of ancient art and architecture, and medieval architectural detail. Publication dates: Ancient to 20th Century
Strengths include ancient Greek and Roman archaeological sites and Islamic Spain including the Alhambra and the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

Digital Public Library
Search and limit to "image" to find digitized collections from across the U.S.
Cultural Japan
Images related to Japanese culture published in museums, libraries, etc. around the world

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Law reviews, U.S. and international law, treaties, Supreme Court documents, and other collections related to the law. hein online
Includes:
Law Journal Library (over 2300 law, political science, criminology, and other law related journals all back to inception)
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law (American Indian Law Collection)
World Constitutions (the constitutions of every single county plus much more)
Legal Classics
U.S. Presidential Library
Religion & the Law
Women & the Law
Federal Register/CFR
U.S. Statutes at Large
U.S. Federal Legislative History Library
United States Code
U.S. Presidential Library
U.S. Attorney General and Department of Justice Collection
Treaties and Agreements
History of International Law
Foreign Relations of the United States
U.S. Supreme Court Library
Brennan Center for Justice Publications from NYU School of Law

Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
A collection of legal documents from all regions and eras.

UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Law This link opens in a new window
Relevant Cultural Heritage laws by individual country or jurisdiction. Includes historical and current laws.

Hansard Parliament 1803–2005
Digitized editions of Commons and Lords Hansard, the Official Report of debates in the UK Parliament.

Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) This link opens in a new window
Declassified government documents on U.S. foreign and military policy. Publication dates: 1945 to the present.

Source Online, In Print, and Beyond

This guide suggests primary sources that can be found online or in the library. A greater variety of sources are not online but available only at archives and special libraries. Listed below are some tools for locating relevant collections beyond Ladd Library.

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
A union catalog of books and other materials in libraries in the U.S. and around the world. world cat oclc firstsearch first search
ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Search engine for collections in archives and special libraries.