LibGuides: American History: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

What are primary sources? Primary sources provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic or question under investigation.

They are usually created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later.

Source: Primary Sources at Yale

Primary Sources

Library Databases

Library databases to consider searching for Primary Sources, such as speeches, letters, government documents, press releases, etc.:

Academic Search Ultimate

America: History and Life with Full Text

LitFinder

U.S. History (GALE IN CONTEXT)

World History (GALE IN CONTEXT)

Primary Sources: American History I & II

Here are some external resources to explore for primary resources:

The American Civil War: A collection of free online primary sources
Newspapers; maps and photographs; diaries and letters; dispatches and battles; slavery and abolitionism; and confederacy
The Avalon Project
Primary sources in law, history, and diplomacy.
The Bill of Rights
Information about and transcript of the Bill of Rights from the National Archives
The Constitution of the United States
Information about and transcript of the Constitution of the United States from the National Archives
Declaration of Independence
Information about and transcript of the Declaration of Independence from the National Archives
Digital Public Library of America
Photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States.
Historical Government Publications from World War II
SMU-Central University Libraries collection on historical governmental publications from World War II.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Primary sources from modern history.
Library of Congress Newspaper Collection
Library of Congress' newspaper collection spanning 1900-1999
Life Magazine
Historical issues of Life Magazine.
Our Documents
Collection of 100 "milestone documents of American history", an initiative by the National History Day, The National Archives and Records Administration, and USA Freedom Corps.
Propaganda Posters
Historical propaganda posters from 1919-1996.
Virtual Jamestown
Primary documents on the first English settlement in the New World.
World Digital Library
Primary sources from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world.

From the Library of Congress

American Memory
The Library of Congress - American Memory features historical resources including primary sources
American Memory: Photos from the Great Depression to WWII
Presented by the Library of Congress, photographs taken during the 1930s and 1940s
Library of Congress Digital Collections
A full list of all digitized collections at the Library of Congress
Chronicling America
Library of Congress collection of newspaper pages from 1880-1922 and American newspapers published between 1690-present

Image Searching in the Library

In the America: History and Life with Full Text and the Academic Search Ultimate databases, you can tailor your search specifically for images.

Steps:

Select Databases on the library homepage
Navigate to either America: History and Life with Full Text or Academic Search Ultimate in the list
Inside the database in the blue bar at the top, click "More", which should present a dropdown menu.
From that menu select "Images".
In the new search screen that comes up, search for images by using keywords.
- Be sure to search for phrases in quotation marks, such as: "great depression"

Note: If you select an image to view, there is additional information including the permissions.