History
Primary Sources in Books
Primary sources can be published in books. Use the main search in Library Search and include search terms personal narratives, sources, diaries, memoirs, papers, speeches, documents, or letters.
Personal narratives is a term assigned by librarians and is used for first person accounts.
Diaries and memoirs are terms used by writers and editors to describe their document. These are also normally in the first person.
Autobiography is often assigned to diaries and memoirs.
Letters and correspondence are published correspondence and occasionally include both outgoing and incoming letters.
Papers include correspondence, speeches and other previously unpublished items by the author.
Speeches were written to be spoken and have often been published.
Sources is another term assigned by librarians and often includes all of the types of documents listed above as well as government records.
Primary Sources on the Internet
- World Digital LibraryThe WDL makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.
Primary Sources for European History
- Gale Primary SourcesThis collection allows for searching across three primary source collections:
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Part I; Political Extremism and Radicalism in the Twentieth Century: Far-Right and Left Political Groups in the US, Europe, and Australia; and American Historical Periodicals (series 1-5).
Contents: Newsletters, papers, propaganda, government documents, manuscripts, pamphlets, periodicals, and other primary source materials. - HathiTrust Digital LibraryThis digital collection offers access to digitized resources from libraries around the world.
Contents: Full-text ebooks and articles.
- EurodocsConnect to European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.
- European History Primary SourcesThe purpose of EHPS is to provide an easily searchable index of scholarly digital repositories that contain primary sources for the history of Europe.
- The European LibraryFrozen at the end of 2016, this resource contains access to newspapers and other digital facsimiles.
- Europeana CollectionsEuropeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitized items – books, music, artworks and more.
Colonial and Revolutionary North American Primary Sources
- European Views of the Americas 1493 to 1750 (EBSCO)Archive of indexed publications on the Americas written in Europe before 1750. Includes primary source records covering the history of European exploration, portrayals of native American peoples, natural disasters, disease, slavery, pirates, commerce, religion, and more.
Contents: Index of primary source documents.
Books in the library:
- The papers of Benjamin FranklinThis 41 volume set contains Franklin's correspondence from 1706 until 1784.
- The papers of Alexander Hamilton.This 27 volume set covers the Revolution, the Confederation and early Republic periods.
- Unchained Voices: an anthology of Black authors in the English-speaking world of the eighteenth century by Vincent Carretta (Editor)ISBN: 9780813190761Publication Date: 2003-12-31Vincent Carretta has assembled the most comprehensive anthology ever published of writings by eighteenth-century people of African descent, capturing the surprisingly diverse experiences of blacks on both sides of the Atlantic--America, Britain, the West Indies, and Africa--between 1760 and 1798.
- The Revolutionary Era: primary documents on events from 1776 to 1800 by Carol Sue HumphreyISBN: 0313320837Publication Date: 2003-12-30From 1776 to 1800, the United States ceased to be a fantastic dream and became a stable reality. Newspapers were increasingly the public's major source of information about people and events outside of their community. This is a resource those interested in the Revolutionary War, the birth of the new nation, and the actual opinions and words of those involved.
- Interpreting a Continent: voices from colonial America by Kathleen DuVal (Editor); John DuVal (Editor)ISBN: 1282479423Publication Date: 2009-01-01This reader provides key documents from colonial American history, including new English translations of non-English documents.
United States 19th Century Primary Sources
- American State Papers, 1789-1838The American State Papers, comprising a total of thirty-eight physical volumes, contain the legislative and executive documents of Congress during the period 1789 to 1838.
Latin and South American History Primary Sources Online
- Latin American Pamphlet Digital CollectionScarce and unique pamphlets, primarily from Chile, Cuba, Bolivia and Mexico, published during the 19th and early 20th centuries.Most of these are not in English.
- Latin America and the Caribbean from the World Digital LibraryIncludes maps, photographs and illustrations.
- Latin American & Caribbean Digital Primary ResourcesA portal for digital collections. Use the Tableau window to search or browse for collections.
- Early Americas Digital ArchiveThe Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) is a collection of electronic texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.
- Latin American Network Information Center etext collectionThe LANIC Etext Collection is designed to facilitate access to the hundreds of thousands of pages of full-text resources that are hosted on LANIC servers. These resources include research papers written by Latin American studies scholars; theses and dissertations; etext versions of books; conference proceedings; speeches by Latin American leaders; periodical publications; and official documents. Some of the etexts are in Spanish, others are in English. In all cases, copyright resides with the respective authors.