What Are Primary Sources?

• archives and manuscript material
• photographs, audio recordings, video recordings, films
• journals, letters and diaries
• speeches
• scrapbooks
• published books, newspapers and magazine clippings published at the time
• government publications
• oral histories
• records of organizations
• autobiographies and memoirs
• printed ephemera eg. show tickets, movie posters, ticket stubs, playing cards, postcards
• artifacts, e.g. clothing, costumes, furniture
• research data, e.g. public opinion polls

Subscription Databases: The Library's subscription databases contain primary sources. The databases allow you to limit your search to primary sources (sometimes referred to as "Documents"). It is a great place to start looking for primary sources. (Ask the library staff for the usernames and passwords - or find them by joining the Library's Google Classroom: xy6ncn7)

JSTOR - Left Menu - choose "Primary Source Content." Primary source collections currently available on JSTOR are multidisciplinary and discipline-specific and include select monographs, pamphlets, manuscripts, letters, oral histories, government documents, images, 3D models, spatial data, type specimens, drawings, paintings, and more. (Ask the library staff for username and password)

ABC-CLIO Databases- Left Menu - choose from Photos and Illustrations, Political Cartoons, Posters & Document Images, Maps, Speeches, Political, Government & Court Documents, Letters & Narratives, Quotes and more. 

ABC-CLIO AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

ABC-CLIO AMERICAN HISTORY

ABC-CLIO WORLD HISTORY ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ERAS

ABC-CLIO WORLD HISTORY THE MODERN ERA

Trusted websites: If you search for "primary sources" and a region or topic, look for government websites (.gov), museum websites, and college or university websites (.edu or .ac.uk). 

For more information about primary sources, click here: https://libguides.ithaca.edu/research101/primary

Free Primary Source Websites

Documents and more:

https://www.archives.gov/education/research/primary-sources - National Archives - US History

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?flash=false&page=milestone National Archives - 100 Milestone Documents US History

https://www.docsteach.org/documents  National Archives for teachers - Click on the topic to find hundreds of primary source documents. US History

https://www.loc.gov/collections/ - Library of Congress - US & World History 

https://blackfreedom.proquest.com/ - Proquest - Black Freedom Struggle in the United States  

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/modsbookfull.asp - Fordham University Sourcebook - World History (ancient times to post WWII)

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ - Yale University Avalon Project - US & World History - Historical law documents (ancient times-present)

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/search.php - George Mason University History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web

https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/ - Wilson Center Digital Archive - declassified international documents

https://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page -  Brigham Young University European History (ancient times to present)

https://www.wdl.org/en/- Library of Congress - US & World History (ancient times to present)

http://allegheny.libguides.com/c.php?g=656691&p=4610158 - Allegheny College has a list of primary source websites listed geographically. 

https://historyexplorer.si.edu/search-results/?r=5&g=12&e=&c= - Smithsonian's History Explorer - artifacts presented by the Smithsonian (World and US history)

https://spartacus-educational.com/ Spartacus Educational is a great resource for global history. It contains free encyclopedia entries that directly connect to primary source documents.

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ New York Public Library Digital Collection

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/ University of Houston Digital Collection - Resources column > Primary Sources

Newspapers/Magazines

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ - Library of Congress - America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 and the U.S. Newspaper Directory contains American newspapers published between 1690-present.

https://time.com/vault/  - Time Magazine "The Vault" - a collection of all historic Time Magazine issues dating back to 1923. 

Photographs/Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life - LIFE Magazine's photo archives (US and World History)

https://npg.si.edu/portraits - National Portrait Gallery (US History)