What Primary Sources Do You Need?
First, consider what kinds of primary sources you might need.
| Personal journals, letters, memoirs |
Libraries (Books) Archives (Personal papers) |
| Newspapers, magazines |
Libraries (Indexes and archives) Archives (Individual articles) Newspaper web sites |
| Films |
Libraries Film archives Web sites |
| Census data |
Libraries Historical societies |
From there, plan your approach. Many library catalogs list archival materials, but others include archival materials in a separate area of their web sites. Browse library home pages for links to their "Archives" or "Special Collections" pages.
If you're using a catalog, play around with your search terms. Many tools use a standardized vocabulary to describe items. For example, the URI Libraries Search uses the Subject subheadings "Personal narratives," "Correspondence," and "Diaries" to classify certain types of information. Look at likely results to form further searches. WorldCat uses the same naming conventions, but other sources may use different terms.
Newspaper & Popular Magazine Articles
- British Periodicals (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times with Index (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Page image and full-text index to The New York Times. Additional year of content added annually.
- What dates are covered? 1851 - 2018.
- Times Digital Archive (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? An online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times (of London). Includes every complete page of every issue.
- What dates are covered? 1785 - 2019.
- American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Full-text of historical magazines and periodicals digitized from the collection of the American Antiquarian Society. Includes Series 1-6.
- What dates are covered? 1693-1923
- Readers’ Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Access almost 100 years of cultural history with citations to over 3 million articles that appeared in 373 leading U.S. magazines.
- What dates are covered? 1890 - Present.
Archival Material Databases
- Africa and the New Imperialism: European Borders on the African Continent, 1870-1914 (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Primary source documents related to European colonial expansion in Africa. Sources include diaries, journals, letters, maps, photographs, and film footage.
- What dates are covered? 1870-1914
- African American Newspapers Series 1 and 2, 1827-1998 (America's Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? More than 350 U.S. newspapers covering a century and a half of the African American experience. Includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states and features many rare 19th-century titles.
- What dates are covered? 1827-1998
- African History and Culture, 1540-1921 : Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia (Newsbank) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Primary sources. More than 1,300 books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera that cover the history, peoples, and social and economic development of the African continent from the 16th century to the early 20th century. All areas of Africa and important adjacent regions are covered. Most of the works are in English and were published in the 19th century.
- What dates are covered? 1540-1921
- Colonial America (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Files from the National Archives, UK's CO 5 file class. Consists of the original correspondence and entry books of the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, together holding responsibility for the British possessions in mainland North America and the Caribbean. Made up of letters, charters and commissions, instructions to officials, military documents (including war diaries), newspapers, printed pamphlets, public notices, maps and many other material types, the documents shed light on all aspects of life in colonial America – political, economic, military, cultural and social.
- What dates are covered? 1606-1822
- Colonial Caribbean (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Primary sources covering British governance of 25 islands in the Caribbean, drawn from the Colonial Office Files from the National Archives of the UK. Includes administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, and details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern of absentee landlords.
- What dates are covered? 1624-1870
- Empire Online (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Primary source collection that charts the rise and fall of empires around the world and explores colonial history, politics, culture, and society. Includes maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, paintings, drawings and rare books sourced from multiple archives.
- What dates are covered? Covers the late 15th to the early 21st century.
- Indigenous Peoples of North America (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? political, social, and cultural history of native peoples from the sixteenth century well into the twentieth century. Sourced from both American and Canadian institutions, as well as direct-from-source from newspapers from various tribes and Indian-related organizations, the collection covers the history of American Indian tribes and supporting organizations. It also features indigenous-language materials, including dictionaries, bibles, and primers. Access to Parts 1 and 2.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Unites multiple, distinct archives into a single resource of primary source documents covering the long nineteenth century and beyond. Sourced from libraries and archives around the world, NCCO consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages.
- What else should I know? URI has five NCCO collections: Asia and the West; British Politics and Society; British Theatre, Music, and Literature; Europe and Africa, Colonialism and Culture; and Women and Transnational Networks.
- Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900 (AM) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Research the history of ‘popular’ medicine in America during the nineteenth century, featuring a wide variety of material that was aimed at the general public rather than medical professionals, and which enabled ordinary people to treat themselves and their families at home using an array of inventive methods and fashionable techniques. Materials from the Library Company of Philadelphia’s collection.
- What dates are covered? 19th Century.
Additional Web Resources
- Wellcome Library Medical History Digital Collections
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Primary source materials including images, documents, videos, and more, related to the history of medicine. Predominately from the UK, but includes international materials. - Europeana
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Digital archive of over two million images, texts, sounds, and videos from libraries, museums, and archives across Europe.
- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
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- What's included? Contains nearly a million archival collection descriptions.
- What else should I know? To use the items described, or order copies, contact the archiving institution directly.