LibraryGuides: Finding Primary Sources: Topic-Specific Resources

By Region

China, America, and the Pacific
Archival database with materials mostly relating to the economic and cultural exchange between China and the United States.
Chinese Digital Archive 1966-1977
A University of Syndey project which hosts 200 key documents relating to the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Chinese Text Project
An online repository of pre-modern Chinese texts. Many are translated into English, but some are untranslated.
Digital South Asia Library
A project of the University of Chicago which hosts digitized books, newspapers, and political tracts, largely focused on India and Pakistan.
National Diet Library
National Library of Japan
National Digital Library of China
National Library of China
Silk Road Narratives
A collection of primary sources, arranged chronologically, which involve travel or settlement along the silk road.
Southeast Asia Digital Archive
A large online library of primary source documents relating to the history and culture of Southeast Asia.

Harvard Project on the Soviet Socialist System
Contains transcripts of more than 700 interviews conducted on refugees from the USSR in the early years of the Cold War.
Inventory of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Digital Projects
Web portal to numerous digital projects involving Slavic, East European, and Eurasian history. Some links do not work. Most links go to text-searchable sites.
The October Revolution
Collection of prominent eyewitness accounts of the Russian Revolution of 1917

Digital Library of the Caribbean
A cooperative online library of documents relating to Caribbean history, from the colonial period to the present day. Includes many full-text newspapers.
Historic Mexican and Mexican-American Press Collection
A searchable collection of Mexican and Mexican American newspapers, largely focused on the years 1850-1950. Made available by the University of Arizona.
Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection
An online database of scanned Latin American books and pamphlets published in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Islamic Heritage Project
A Harvard University project which has digitized and cataloged hundreds of Islamic manuscripts from the 10th to the 20th century. Most are not translated into English.
Qatar Digital Library
Multilingual collection of art and historical documents produced by many Persian gulf states.
Silk Road Narratives
A collection of primary sources, arranged chronologically, which involve travel or settlement along the silk road.
Travelers in the Middle East Archive
A collection of 19th and 20th century travel literature that documents East/West interactions. Mostly letters and diaries.

Gale Primary Sources
Primary source documents in seven topic areas, including 19th-century missions, westward expansion, the Federal Writer's Project, Native American issues, and the Vatican in World War II.

Chronicling America
"Chronicling America is a Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP)."
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
Documenting the American South
A digital publishing initiative sponsored by the University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/
Digital Schomburg
Digital projects of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, hosts numerous tools for researching African-American history, the African Diaspora, and African history.
Founders Online
more than 100,000 text-searchable documents produced by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.
Historical Statistics of the United States (HSUS)
Historical Statistics on a range of topics and locations. An essential source for statistical data before 1975.
National Archives
Access to federal records from the National Archives, available in archival databases, the archival catalog, and museum exhibits.
http://www.archives.gov/research/

19th Century British Periodicals
Available through Hathi Trust, a collection of some of the most prominent periodicals published in 19th century Britain, including Punch, The Spectator, The Westminster Review, and the Illustrated London News.
Avalon Project at Yale University
Documents in law, history and diplomacy for the 18th through 21st centuries.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp
EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe
Links to Western European historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.
Gallica - National Library of France (BNF)
Digitized primary source documents from the National Library of France.
National Archives (UK)

Other Topics

Antislavery Collection
An Amherst University project which hosts many antislavery pamphlets, political tracts, and books published between 1725 and 1911.
Black Abolitionist Archive
Online collection of black abolitionist speeches, pamphlets, and newspaper articles,
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
A sample of a collection of over 2300 interviews of former slaves conducted between 1936 and 1938 by the Works Progress Administration. Maintained by the American Memory Project
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html
Brown v. Board of Education Digital Archive
Hosted by the University of Michigan. Hosts images and documents relating to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.
Chronicling America-Historic Black Newspapers
The Library of Congress' collection of Historic Black Newspapers, many of which are digitized partially or in full.
Digital Harlem
A project of the University of Sydney. Large online compilation of newspaper articles and legal documents relating to Harlem between 1915 and 1930.
Digital Schomburg
Digital projects of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, hosts numerous tools for researching African-American history, the African Diaspora, and African history.

Wilson Center Digital Archive
Constructed and maintained by the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program, the Digital Archive contains newly declassified historical materials from archives around the world—much of it in translation and including diplomatic cables, high level correspondence, meeting minutes and more.
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/
World Digital Library
Significant primary materials that represent the culture of countries around the world. Sponsored by UNESCO and the Library of Congress.
http://www.wdl.org

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project
A Library of Congress project which allows users to search transcripts of the depression-era Federal Writer's Project. The collection includes more than 2,000 oral histories created between 1936 and 1940.

Alternative Press Index
Citations, indexing, and abstracts for more than 300 international journals, magazines, and newspapers offering an alternative, radical, or left perspective (1991-present). Some citations also include links to full text.

Early American Marxism
An online repository of Marxist documents produced in America from 1864-1946
Marxists Internet Archive Library
A large collection of documents written by prominent Marxists.
Women Working
A product of Harvard's Open Collections Program, hosts primary sources such as pamphlets, books, newspaper articles, journals, and institutional records relating to women and labor, mostly between 1800 and 1930.

Avalon Project at Yale University
Documents in law, history and diplomacy for the 18th through 21st centuries.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp

Nexis Uni
This resource has news from sources from the U.S. and around the world, as well as company profiles, financials, and legal source documents.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window HeinOnline is an online database containing more than 270,000 titles of historical and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. See the HeinOnline page for a listing of all databases available in HeinOnline: HeinOnline Databases
HeinOnline bridges an important research gap by providing comprehensive coverage from the inception of more than 2,700 law-related periodicals. In addition, HeinOnline contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, and entire databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, foreign relations, U.S. Presidents, and much more

Alternative Press Index
Citations, indexing, and abstracts for more than 300 international journals, magazines, and newspapers offering an alternative, radical, or left perspective (1991-present). Some citations also include links to full text.

The Empty Closet
One of the only long-running LGBT papers in the United States that has been fully digitized. Linked collection goes back to 1971.
Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England
A large text-searchable collection of primary sources from the 17th tot the 19th centuries.
OUThistory.org
An online collection of documents, visual material, and oral histories on LGBT history.

De Re Militari
A list of full-text primary sources on medieval military history.
World War I Document Archive
A project of Brigham Young University which hosts digitized letters, diaries, and government documents related to the first World War.

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: History, Culture & Law
With more than 3,000 titles unique to this collection and more than 1.3 million total pages dedicated to American Indian Law, this library includes an expansive archive of treaties, federal statutes and regulations, federal case law, tribal codes, constitutions, and jurisprudence. It also features rare compilations edited by Felix S. Cohen that have never before been accessible online.

Gale Primary Sources
Primary source documents in seven topic areas, including 19th-century missions, westward expansion, the Federal Writer's Project, Native American issues, and the Vatican in World War II.

The Indian Sentinel
Magazine focused on Catholic schools and missions in the U.S. (1902-1962).
Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Features the full text of this definitive edition.
http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu
Material Culture Collection Database
Searchable collection of Material Culture maintained by the California Academy of Sciences Department of Anthropology.

JSTOR
Archive of more than 2,4000 leading academic journals. In many cases, these journals have been published since the 19th century. Narrow by date to find old journal articles you can use as a primary source.

Proceedings of the Royal Society (London, England)
Scientific American (New York, United States)
1845-1909
Selected Classic Papers from the History of Chemistry
A full-text collection of influential letters, papers, treatises, and journal articles from the 17th to the 20th century, organized by topic.
Wikisource: Science
A collection of important primary sources in the history of science, organized by discipline.

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
A project of the New York Public Library. Digital collection of 52 19th-century works by African-American Women Writers.
Epistolae: Medieval Women's Letters
An online collection of letters written from the 7th to the 14th century, all by women.
Gifts of Speech: Women's Speeches from Around the World
Texts of speeches by famous women from the 1830s to the 1970s. No audio or video. Maintained by Sweet Briar College.
http://gos.sbc.edu
Women Working
A product of Harvard's Open Collections Program, hosts primary sources such as pamphlets, books, newspaper articles, journals, and institutional records relating to women and labor, mostly between 1800 and 1930.
Women Writers Online
A large database of documents written by female writers, most from the late 16th century to the early 19th century.

Available by subscription only from Northeastern University.