Library Basics

Learn what the Libraries have, how to find something, and how to manage it.

Library Research Guide

Finding Primary Sources

A primary source is anything that has been created by a person who witnessed or experienced an event as a contemporary would be a primary source. Examples include letters, diaries, autobiographies, and contemporary documents such as newspaper articles, government documents, and oral histories.

We have several databases that contain primary sources. Be aware that some of these databases have both primary and secondary source material. You will need to evaluate the sources you find to ensure they fit the parameters of your assignment.

Our digital collections and our materials in our holdings in Special Collections and University Archives both include numerous primary source documents, many of which are unique.

Select Databases for Primary Sources

America's Historical Imprints
Pamphlets, books, broadsides, printed in the U.S. between 1639-1819.
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment
Personal accounts and unique perspectives from traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women. Includes narratives, diaries, journals, and letters and documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Covers history and geography, social sciences, religion and philosophy, fine arts, literature and language, law, medicine, science, and technology.
National Archives and Records Administration’s Online Public Access
Provides online access to millions of records, maps, photos, and documents held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the nation’s official record keeper. In additional to famous documents such as the Declaration of Independence, it includes individual military records and naturalization records, letters from public officials, treaties, charters, manifests, diary entries, and many other historical artifacts.

Note: This database is currently being developed by NARA. It will eventually replace NARA’s Archival Records Catalog and perhaps its Access to Archival Databases system. At present, it does not include all the content available through those systems. For more information about its scope, see NARA’s About Online Public Access page.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Primary materials from the 19th century on all kinds of topics. Fully searchable documents, books, images, maps, and other types of materials. Societies from around the world are profiled, as well as issues such as women’s rights, science, technology, politics, and business

American Periodical Series
Over 1,500 periodicals published in America between 1741 and 1941, covering specialized, literary, and general topics.
Historical New York Times
Going back to first issue in 1851
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Over 500 rural and urban newspapers throughout the U.S.

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
Collection of letters and diaries providing firsthand accounts from politicians, generals, soldiers, slaves, etc.; includes over 4,000 pages of facsimiles of previously unpublished manuscript material.
ProQuest Civil War Era
Pamphlets and complete runs of regional newspapers, 1840-1865. You may need to actually select History-ProQuest Civil War Era from the Databases option once you are in ProQuest

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998
Full text and images of over 270 newspapers published by and for African Americans.
North American Indian Thought and Culture
Historical resources on nearly 500 North American groups. Autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Letters and diaries detailing the personal lives and experiences of women spanning the last 300 years; includes over 1500 biographies
Women and Social Movements in the United States
Examines perspectives on women’s social movements from colonial times to the present by bringing together books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies, documenting the multiplicity of women’s activism in public life.