Research Guides: History: Primary Sources

What Are Primary Sources?

Primary sources differ from discipline to discipline. In general, they contain or illustrate original or first-hand information, created at the time of the event, or later by someone who witnessed or experienced the event.

History:

Letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, personal narratives, oral histories

Newspaper coverage at time of event, speeches, interviews, photographs, recordings

Artifacts such as period clothing, furnishings, tools, weapons

Science:

Original scientific research studies, laboratory notes, proceedings of conferences, and dissertations

Literature/The Arts:

The original work – books, stories, poems, plays, music manuscripts, works of art

Secondary sources interpret, analyze, discuss, or comment on primary sources. They are at least one step removed from the event, study, or work. Examples of these include scholarly articles, reviews, reference works, and textbooks.

Searching for Primary Sources

To search for primary sources in the online catalog, do a subject search, using your topic or a name. Add words describing the types of sources or documents you want to find, such as diaries, journals, personal narratives, etc. Adding the word “sources” will also locate collections of primary documents.

For example:

United States history--diaries

United States history--personal narratives

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--correspondence

United States history - sources

Useful Links

Digital Collections at the Library of Congress
A collection of written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, and more that chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas of the American experience, from the Library of Congress
Black Abolitionist Archive
The Black Abolitionist Digital Archive is a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period. These important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement.
Civil Rights Digital Library
Includes a video archive of events surrounding the American civil rights movement, links to other virtual resources, and secondary sources as well, compiled by the University of Georgia libraries
Cold War International History Project
The Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. It seeks to integrate new sources, materials and perspectives from the former "Communist bloc" with the historiography of the Cold War which has been written largely by Western scholars reliant on Western archival sources.
Documenting the American South
A collection of texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture, including diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and more, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

English Historical Documents
English Historical Documents is the most comprehensive, annotated collection of documents on British (not in reality just English) history ever compiled and contains over 5,500 expertly indexed and fully searchable primary documents from 500-1914.

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
A collection of transcriptions, facsimiles and translations, organized both chronologically and by country, from Brigham Young University
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
A collection of over 4,400 videotaped interviews, in 22 languages, with witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust

History Vault: Black History 1 & 2
Documenting one of the most inspiring social movements in American history. The first premier modules of the ProQuest History Vault offer all levels of researchers the opportunity to study the most well-known and also unheralded events from the perspective of the men, women, and sometimes even children. The collection spans from the founding of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in the last decade of the 19th Century to the riots that followed the verdict in the Rodney King police brutality case in the last decade of the 20th century.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute
Building upon the achievements of Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, the King Institute supports a broad range of educational activities illuminating Dr. King's life and the movements he inspired.
Digital Public Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America, a non-profit organization, brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science.
National Archives and Records Administration
This collection documents the history of the United States as a nation and provides access to this essential documentation of the rights of American citizens and the actions of their Government. Examples of items in the collection include military records, naturalization records of immigrants, journals, diaries, treaties, war records, and much more!
Papers of Abraham Lincoln
The Papers of Abraham Lincoln is a long-term project dedicated to identifying, imaging, transcribing, annotating, and publishing all documents written by or to Abraham Lincoln during his entire lifetime (1809-1865).
State Digital Resources
Memory projects, online encyclopedias, and historical and cultural materials collections from across the United States.
Using Primary Sources on the Web
Valuable information from the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association

Featured Resource

History Vault is a collection of primary source documents covering the struggle for black freedom in the twentieth century. Included are federal government records, organizational records and personal papers. The collection offers the opportunity to study well-known and also unheralded events from the perspectives of the men, women, and even children who experienced the events first-hand. It spans the period from the founding of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in the last decade of the 19th Century to the riots that followed the verdict in the Rodney King police brutality case in the last decade of the 20th century. Create your own search, use one of the suggested searches, or simply browse the collection.

History Vault: Black History 1 & 2
Documenting one of the most inspiring social movements in American history. The first premier modules of the ProQuest History Vault offer all levels of researchers the opportunity to study the most well-known and also unheralded events from the perspective of the men, women, and sometimes even children. The collection spans from the founding of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in the last decade of the 19th Century to the riots that followed the verdict in the Rodney King police brutality case in the last decade of the 20th century.