Research Guides: History: Primary Sources

Primary Source Research Guide

Below are key resources and search tips for finding historical primary sources. More in-depth guidance and more extensive resource lists are also in the following resources:

Database Finder: All historical primary source databases
Primary Source Research Guide: Introduction to what primary sources are and tips on finding, analyzing, and citing them
Primary Sources by Subject: Recommended library databases and Internet resources, organized by subject
Primary Source Databases: Subcollections: Lists the primary source collections contained within large primary source databases, so that users can locate specialized collections of documents

What is a Primary Source?

In history and the humanities a primary source is a item produced from the time you are researching. Examples include a photograph, a letter, a newspaper article, and government documents. Looking at actual sources from a specific time helps you get a firsthand account of what was happening then.

Primary sources provide first-hand information about an event or phenomenon. In contrast, secondary sources offer second-hand information and analysis; they offer draw from primary sources.

Video "Primary vs. Secondary Sources" from HistoryVideos100 (Minnesota Historical Society):

Research Starting Points for Primary Sources

Below are good starting points for finding primary sources on a wide range of topics.

Background Sources for Gaining Context

If you have a general topic and need background information, these reference databases have short articles that often include references to primary sources or to secondary sources that may lead to key primary sources.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive reference collection (dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographies etc.) for all academic disciplines.
Credo Reference provides a complete reference collection including encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, quotation books, bilingual dictionaries, measurement conversions, and more.
Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive college-level encyclopedia.

Online Research Tools for Primary Sources on Most Topics

If you have a specific topic in mind, you use a search engine like Google for primary sources or digital collections on the topic (search examples: "digital collections" "atomic bomb", "primary sources" "atomic bomb").

HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world and offered directly from the website.
Library of Congress Collections
National Archives
Library Search
On the search results page, you can limit the "Reource Type" or publication years, or include in the search terms the desired material type (e.g., diaries, correspondences, primary sources).
Primary Sources by Subject
Guide links to a large number of subject-specific resources for primary sources.
Archive Grid
Searches over 1000 archival institutions for primary source materials
Google Search
Search by topic and source type (e.g. "Civil War" pamphlets), or search for a specific document by placing quotation marks around the document name (e.g., "Emancipation Proclamation").

Primary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Search across multiple GALE databases of primary sources.

See the Research Tools page for a fuller list of recommended resources.

The Smithsonian
Collections from the world's largest museum

University Archives & Special Collections

University Archives & Special Collections (Campbell Library, 3rd floor) has primary sources related to the history of RU and the surrounding region. Learn more about their physical and online collections.

Primary Source Databases

Primary Sources Database Lists (Alphabetical/By Subject)

Note: Some primary source databases include a large number of subcollections. See Subcollections in Large Databases for details on the following databases: Accessible Archives, AM Explorer, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale Primary Sources, HIstory Vault, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, and ProQuest Primary Sources.

Primary Sources by Subject
Extensive list of primary source databases

General Primary Source Databases

(Cover a wide range of time periods and topics)

Primary Sources Collection (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary resources providing access to thousands of primary source documents, including archival collections, government documents, periodicals, newspapers, and video.
Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Archives of searchable historical primary source materials. Note: This content has moved to the History Commons platform, but still contains the Accessible Archives collections subscribed to by Rowan University.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Digital collection of historical documents from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.
Collections cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history.
Primary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Search across multiple GALE databases of primary sources.

Time/Topic Specific

Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from the Eighteenth Century.
Contains English and foreign language titles printed in the United Kingdom in the Eighteenth Century, including thousands of works from the Americas.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Primary source materials about the Nineteenth Century.
Includes books, newspapers, periodicals, diaries and personal letters, manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, maps and musical scores.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Online collection of early printed works from before 1700.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Primary source materials in world history.
This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.

American History Primary Sources

American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection 1684 - 1912 This link opens in a new window
Access to a set of historical periodicals published from 1684 through 1912.
Heritagequest This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive treasury of American genealogical sources—rich in unique primary sources, local and family histories, convenient research guides, interactive census maps.
HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
United States' largest African American video oral history collection, containing oral history interviews with historically significant African Americans.
Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954 This link opens in a new window
Archive of primary source manuscripts on Jewish life in America from 1654 to 1954.
History of Jewish communities in America from their first arrival in New York in 1654 to the integral part that they play today. The material is based on a rich variety of original manuscript collections from the unique holdings of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York.

National Museum of American History: Object Groups from Collections (Smithsonian)
Browse by object group or search tne entire collection

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A transitional archive This link opens in a new window
Collections on the history of the transatlantic slave trade from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.

National Museum of African American History & Culture: Collections (Smithsonian)
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture.

World, Government, and Law Primary Sources

Avalon Project
The Avalon Project, a resource of the Yale Law School, provides full text of documents, online, that are important to law, history and diplomacy online. Over the years the collection has grown extensively and has been organized into various topical areas. About forty documents related to Terrorism are included under this title.
Cold War International History Project
The Project disseminates new information and perspectives on the history of the Cold War, in particular new findings from previously inaccessible sources on "the other side" -- the former Communist world. This is an endeavor of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents for U.S. national security topics.
Contains a comprehensive collection of primary documents including declassified documents regarding critical U.S. policy decisions.
Global Commodities This link opens in a new window
Primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history.
Global Commodities brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. The commodities featured in this resource have been transported, exchanged and consumed around the world for hundreds of years. They helped transform societies, global trading operations, habits of consumption and social practices.
Historic Documents This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from 1972 forward in U.S. government and politics.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a broad range of previously classified U.S. federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Includes sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies.
Covers major international events from the Cold War to the Vietnam War and beyond.

ProQuest Congressional
The most comprehensive online resource for congressional publications and legislative research, dating back to the 1800s.

Newspaper Databases

Newspapers give insight into how an event or issue was reported on at a given historical moment.

Historical Newspapers

Historical Newspapers (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Newspaper digital archive of many significant U.S. and some international newspapers dating back to the 18th Century.
African American Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
African American newspapers published in the U.S. from 1827-1998.
Provides access to U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience.

Historical Newspaper Guide (additional newspaper sources)

Current Newspapers

NewsBank Access World News This link opens in a new window
Articles from a large collection of newspapers worldwide.
NewsBank provides full-text information and perspectives from U.S. and international sources, including The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, Trenton Times, USA Today, London Times, The Economist China Daily (Beijing).
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
News, magazine, and journal articles from the ethnic, minority and native press.
An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Coverage begins in 1990.
Regional Business News This link opens in a new window
News articles from regional business publications.
Daily updates provide comprehensive full text for regional business publications.
International Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Provides the most recent news content outside of the US and Canada, with archives stretching back decades featuring newspapers, newswires, and news sites in active full-text format.
Provides information from some of the world's top newspapers, including The Times (London), The Bangkok Post, El Norte, Financial Times, The Guardian, Jerusalem Post, South China Morning Post, The Daily Telegraph, Asian Wall Street Journal, and the BBC Monitoring series of publications.

More Current Newspaper Databases

Primary Source Search Tips

Primary sources are available through many library and online resources. These search tips are helpful for locating primary sources in various online resources:

Identify search terms for the general area of interest (e.g., Civil War, Civil Rights Movement).
Limit the search to content, format, or source type (e.g., pamphlets, images, maps, newspapers, etc.)
Limit the publication year to the relevant time period.
Consider what search terms would have been used at the time that the source was created. (Often terms that would used at that time are different from what is used today.)

For example, in RU Library's Library Search (on the Campbell Library homepage), enter your search terms. From the results page limit the "Content Type" and the "Publication Date."