Libraries: History: Primary Sources

Primary vs Secondary Sources

Primary sources provide direct or firsthand evidence about an event, person, or object. These sources are contemporary to the events and people described. In the context of historical research, primary sources are sources that were created during the specific time period being studied.

Identifying primary sources

Determining if a source is a primary sources depends on your topic, the time period, and the context. Think who, what, when, where, and why.

Try to think about what your research question is. Who or what are you investigating? What time period? What area?

If the sources is a first hand or direct account about your topic, then it is a primary source!

Common examples of primary sources include:

Newspaper articles
Interviews
Letters
Diaries
Memoirs and autobiographies
Speeches
Pictures
Official documentation

Secondary sources were produced after primary sources and provide a synthesis or analysis of the original event and original evidence.

Some examples of secondary sources:

Book reviews
Textbooks
General history books
Scholarly articles
Literature reviews
Biographies

This section adapted from Michigan State University LibGuide: Introduction to History Research at MSU: Primary vs. Secondary Sources.

Newspapers

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. Learn more

New York Times Digital Edition
Alfred University faculty, staff, and students have access to the digital edition of the New York Times through a service called "Academic Pass." For registration information, see: http://libguides.alfred.edu/nyt

ProQuest Research Library (through NYPL): You can access the ProQuest Research Library with a library card to the NYPL. If you are currently in New York you can get a library card number by following these directions. The Research Library database provides access to a variety of databases including historical newspapers that are full text searchable!

World History

Avalon Project at Yale
Primary source materials in the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government.
Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics A unique set of digital resources resources from Harvard’s libraries on the history of medicine. The collection provides general background information on diseases and epidemics worldwide, and is organized around significant “episodes” of contagious
EuroDocs: Western European Primary Documents This site compiles Western European primary documents that have been transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.
First World War Poetry Digital Archive The First World War Poetry Digital Archive is an online repository of over 7000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching, learning, and research. The heart of the archive consists of collections of highly valued primary material from major poets of the period.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. From Fordham University.

OAIster OAIster is a free archive of digital resources.

LGBTQIA+

Gay Rodeo Oral History Project Oral histories of LGBTQ+ rodeo communities.
Digital Transgender Archive The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world.

New York State History

Herrick Library Archives The website of Herrick Library's archives.
New York Heritage Digital Collections A research portal for students, educators, historians, genealogists, and others who are interested in the Empire State's history. Provides access to hundreds of digital collections from libraries, museums and archives from all over the state.

United States History

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938 This Library of Congress collection contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA).
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation Records of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the United States Congress from 1774-1875.

American Antiquarian Society Archives Contains approximately 7600 published between 1691 and 1877. The collection touches on a range of subject areas, including, science, technology, medicine, Native American and African American populations, law, politics, government, music, the arts, literature, language, publishing, agriculture, business and industry, advertising and marketing, religion, philosophy, social movements, military matters, and leisure activities.

American Folklife Center This site will be of particular value for anthropology, ethnomusicology, folklore, and folklife. Search the collections of the Center, including some collections which are available online.
American Memory A gateway to primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. Offers more than 5 million items (digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text) from more than 90 historical collections.
American Presidency Project The American Presidency Project was established in 1999 as a collaboration between John Woolley and Gerhard Peters at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The archives contain 86,737 documents related to the study of the Presidency.

ArchiveGrid An online service providing access to detailed archival collection descriptions. It includes nearly a million descriptions of archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies and archives worldwide.

Avalon Project at Yale Primary source materials in the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government.

Black Life in America Series I and II The experience and impact of African Americans as recorded by the news media, 1704 to 1975.

Black Workers in the Labor Movement Oral Histories This collection consists of transcripts of oral history interviews. The primary focus is on the experiences of African American men in the automobile industry in and around Detroit, from as early as the 1910s to the late 1960s. It has been digitized and made available by Wayne State
Civil Rights Movement Veterans Website
The Civil War: Women and the Homefront Primary Sources online from Duke University Libraries.
Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics A unique set of digital resources resources from Harvard’s libraries on the history of medicine. The collection provides general background information on diseases and epidemics worldwide, and is organized around significant “episodes” of contagious
Documenting the American South Documenting the American South (DocSouth) includes sixteen thematic collections of primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture. From the University of North Carolina.
Freedom on the Move Database of "runaway ads" from newspapers in the United States that document the actions of enslaved people and fugitives.

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era 1857-1865 Contains scanned pages from Harper's Weekly for the civil war period of 1857-1865.

Herrick Library Archives The website of Herrick Library's archives.
Home Economics Archive: Research Tradition and History (HEARTH) An electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines.
Library of Congress These pages link to selected collection content available online at the Library of Congress, arranged by broad categories, including American History, Government, Politics, and Law, among others.
Making of America A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
National Archives The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.

OAIster OAIster is a free archive of digital resources.

Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties Oklahoma State offers digitized text of Indian Affairs Laws and Treaties
United States Constitution The text of the U.S. Constitution. Includes annotations and the ability to search the text.
Women Working, 1800-1930 Digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University's library and museum collections that explore women's roles in the U.S. economy between the Civil War and the Great Depression.

Caribbean and Latin America

The Other Revolution: Haiti, 1789-1804 Brown University collection of primary sources related to the Haitian revolution. Mostly in French but with some English materials.
Mapping the Haitian Revolution Digital humanities project that maps the Haitian Revolution. The Resources page lists a number of repositories for primary sources.
Digital Library of the Caribbean This organization partners with other cultural heritage institutions to provide access to historical documents related to the Caribbean.
Bexar Archives (Mexico and Texas history) The Bexar Archives are the official Spanish documents that preserve the political, diplomatic, religious, military, economic, and social life of the Spanish province of Texas and the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas.
The Mexican Revolution on the Border: Primary Sources from El Paso Digitized books, postcards, and other material dating from 1910-1919, related to the Mexican Revolution. From The Portal to Texas History.
Mexican Revolution Photograph Collection - University Library UTEP A digital collection of photographs relating to the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920. Includes photographs of prominent figures of the period.
Mexico: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints This digital collection from Southern Methodist University (SMU)'s DeGolyer Library contains many items related to the Mexican Revolution.
Castro Speech Database This database includes speeches, interviews, etc., by Fidel Castro from 1959 to 1996. Database provided by LANI, the Latin American Network Information Center of the University of Texas.
Cuban Heritage Collection from University of Miami University of Miami has a Cuban Heritage Collection that focuses on primary source documents that record the cultural heritage of Cuba. Some materials from the archive and collection have been digitized.
Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera Princeton offers a collection of primary resources related to Latin America and the Caribbean, mostly consisting of flyers, leaflets, brochures, posters, stickers, and postcards.