Spalding University Library: How Do I Find...: Primary Sources

Recommended Databases

ArtSTOR Digital Library This link opens in a new window Database of more than 1.9 million high resolution images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences that are available for educational and research purposes. The collections in ARTstor have been contributed by several museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates. Note: ArtSTOR requires registering the first time using your Spalding e-mail address for full use both on and off campus.
Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1 (1684-1820) This link opens in a new window The AAS Historical Periodicals Collection: 1691-1820 presents over 500 titles from 1691 through 1820. Representing over two centuries of print culture from early colonial imports to titles published on American soil during the Revolution and early republic, Series 1 is first of the five series created from periodical holdings from one of the premier repositories in the United States, the American Antiquarian Society. The entire AAS collection features over 7500 titles from the seventeenth through the late nineteenth century. The subject matter covered in Series 1 is broad in scope and covers all aspects of American society during this time period.
Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 2 (1821-1837) This link opens in a new window The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection Series 2 presents over 1000 titles dating from 1821 through 1837. The series two is second of the five series created from serials holdings belonging to one of the premier repositories in the United States, the American Antiquarian Society and featuring about 6500 titles from the seventeenth through the late nineteenth century. The subject matter covered in Series 2 represents the Jacksonian Democracy era in history and is broad in scope and includes agriculture, entertainment, history, literary criticism, and politics.
Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 3 (1838-1852) This link opens in a new window The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 3 presents over 1,800 titles dating from 1838 through 1852. Series 3 is the third of five series created from serials holdings of one of the premier repositories in the United States, the American Antiquarian Society. The themes presented in Series 3 reveal a rapidly growing young nation, where industrialization, the railroads, regional political differences, and life on the western frontier were daily realities. Subjects covered in the collection reach into every facet of American life, including science, literature, medicine, agriculture, women’s fashion, family life, and religion.
Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 4 (1853-1865) This link opens in a new window The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection - Series 4 presents over 1,100 titles dating from 1853 through 1865. Series 4 is the fourth of five series created from serials holdings of one of the premier repositories in the United States, the American Antiquarian Society. While the Civil War is a focal point of the collection, we also find a diverse record of the continuance of daily life for many Americans—both leading up to and during the war. News from the battlefront can be found, in addition to the usual breadth of subject matter found in previous collections that include science, literature, medicine, agriculture, women’s fashion, family life, and religion.
Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 5 (1866-1912) This link opens in a new window The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 5 presents over 2,500 titles dating from 1866 through 1877. Series 5 is the fifth of five series created from serials holdings of one of the premier repositories in the United States, the American Antiquarian Society. The themes presented in Series 5 reflect a nation that persevered through a most difficult set of circumstances: a bloody civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives; the incorporation of the recently-freed African Americans into American life; a population that rapidly expanded into the Western territories. Broad subject areas covered in the collection reach into every facet of American life, including science, literature, medicine, agriculture, women’s fashion, family life, and religion.
Humanities International Index This link opens in a new window Humanities International Index contains bibliographic records from a multitude of U.S. and international publications. This includes citations and abstracts for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources on language and literature, music, film studies, folklore, performing arts, religion, and the study of art and architecture. Scholarly resources on JSTOR include Archival and Current Journals, Books, and Primary Sources.
LitFinder This link opens in a new window LitFinder is international in scope, covers all time periods, and contains literature content, including more than 140,000 full-text poems, 840,000 poem citations and excerpts, 7,100 full-text short stories and novels, 3,800 full-text essays published in the 16th-20th centuries, 2,400 full-text speeches, and 1,250 full-text plays. LitFinder also includes biographies, work summaries, photographs, and a glossary. Within LitFinder 's collection, patrons have access to works from over 80,000 authors from 660 nationalities. LitFinder 's easy-to-use search paths allow users to easily target the information they are looking for or to browse the database through various refine search and results limiter options.
For example, users can find everything from the sonnets of Shakespeare to the poetry of Maya Angelou, the love poetry of the 13th century to contemporary poems by African American women, the inaugural speeches of George Washington through George W. Bush, short stories by Edgar Allan Poe to stories by up-and-coming writer Elizabeth Weld, or essays on such subjects as the arts, science, and religion. Person search quickly retrieves a particular writer or identifies authors linked by such qualities as gender, nationality, century, and genre. A works search provides similar limiters and the ability to browse works by thousands of subjects, themes, genres, and movements. Basic and advanced search modes allow users to search by keyword, author, subject, work title, work date, nationality, gender, century, and more.
News (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window This innovative full-text newspaper resource allows users to search articles instantly by title, headline, date, author, newspaper section, or other fields. News (Gale OneFile) provides access to more than 2,300 major U.S. regional, national, and local newspapers, as well as leading titles from around the world. It also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts.
Newspaper Source This link opens in a new window Provides cover-to-cover full text for 20 national (U.S.) & international newspapers, including The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Times (London), Toronto Star, etc. Also contains selected full text for more than 230 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, Daily News (New York), San Jose Mercury News, etc. In addition, full text television & radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, NPR, etc.
U.S. History (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window The U.S. History Collection is useful both to the novice historian and to the advanced academic researcher, providing full-text, balanced coverage of both current thoughts on events in U.S. history as well as scholarly work established in the field.
World History (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window World History Collection provides access to scholarly journals and magazines useful to both novice historians as well as advanced academic researchers. The database offers balanced coverage of events in world history and scholarly work being established in the field. Exclusive features, including Topic Finder, InterLink, and a mobile-optimized interface, support and enhance the search experience.

Why are Primary Sources Important?

"Documents--diaries, letters, drawings, and memoirs--created by those who participated in or witnessed the events of the past tell us something that even the best-written article or book cannot convey. The use of primary sources exposes students to important historical concepts. First, students become aware that all written history reflects an author's interpretation of past events. Therefore, as students read a historical account, they can recognize its subjective nature. Second, through primary sources the students directly touch the lives of people in the past. Further, as students use primary sources, they develop important analytical skills." - The National Archives, 2016.

The use of primary sources in a student's research is a rewarding experience for both the student and their readers. Primary sources provide context for historical events from the perspective of those living through them, creating a personal connection to an otherwise distant concept. Students are encouraged to incorporate primary sources in their writings, and this page is meant to aid in the process of finding documents, images, and videos thorough various archives online.

Digital Archives

History

America from the Great Depression to World War II
Created by a group of U.S. government photographers, these images show Americans in every part of the nation. Early years emphasize rural life and the negative impact of the Great Depression, farm mechanization, and the Dust Bowl. Later years focus on the mobilization effort for World War II.
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Images
American Memory
"American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity."
Making of America from Cornell University
Making of America provides digital reproductions of primary sources related to development of the U.S. infrastructure. Content is provided in text, GIF, and PDF formats. Major segments of this collection include magazines, ebooks, and Civil War documents. 1840-1900.
Making of America from the University of Michigan
Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. Content is available in text, GIF, and PDF formats. 1840-1900.
Civil Rights History Project
Oral histories (with interview transcripts) and digital photographs of people who participated in the civil rights movement.
Documenting the American South
A digital publishing initiative by the University of North Carolina. It provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture.
The Federalist Papers
Series of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison between October 1787 and May 1788 to encourage support for ratification of the proposed United States Constitution.
Online Library of Liberty
Full texts of almost 1500 classic works on art, economics, history, law, literature, music, philosophy, political theory, religion, science, sociology, war and peace
Milestone Documents
A list of milestone documents, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, and drawn primarily from its nationwide holdings. The documents chronicle United States history.
Avalon Project
Digital documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government from ancient times to the 21st century.
National Archives
A collection of all of the important documents that have been created by the United States Government. Their records date back to 1775, and most of these records have been digitized and made available through this collection.
Digital Public Library of America
Portal to resources from U.S. libraries, archives, and museums. Browse by place, time, subject, or contributing partner.
World Digital Library
Large, well-organized collection of print and visual primary sources from ancient to current times. Material may be browsed by place, time, topic, type of resource, or contributing institution.
Kentucky Digital Library
A digital collection of materials that record the history of Kentucky. These items were selected by the leading Archivists in Kentucky as being essential to Kentucky History and have been digitized and made available for the general public.
DocsTeach
A subset of the National Archives, this collection takes many of the most important documents in U.S. history and arranges them by major topics. An invaluable resource for those who are looking for primary source material relating to some of the pivotal moments in our nation's history.

Literature

The African American Women Writers of the 19th Century Guide
This New York Public Library guide includes pieces from a Digital Schomburg collection of 52 published works by 19th-century black women writers. This guide provides access to the thought, perspectives and creative abilities of black women as captured in written works published prior to 1920.
Early American Fiction
Digitized editions of American fiction written between 1789-1875. Collection has 886 volumes, representing 136 authors.
The Gutenberg Project
Provides thousands of public domain e-texts, ranging from classical literature to modern works from authors who support the project's goals. Most in ASCII format, but also other formats such as PDF or audio.
Poetry Archive
A large archive of poetry.
Victorian Women Writers
Transcriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century.

Activism

African Activists Archive Project
The African Activist Archive is preserving and making available online the records of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s
Community Service Society Photographs
Nearly 1400 photographs (and a few illustrations). They offer representations of urban poverty, unsafe tenement housing, inadequate hygiene in public areas, and other pressing social issues in late-19th- and early-20th-century New York. The images range from the 1880s through the 1950s.
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Images
Occupy Archive
Documenting and saving the digital evidence and stories from worldwide Occupy protests that began in September 2011.
We Raise Our Voices
Small collection of items documenting Boston's African American, Latino, feminist, and LGBT community histories