LibGuides: History (World) Research Guide: Primary Sources

Finding Items in Other Libraries

ArchiveGrid connects you with primary source material held in archives, special collections, and manuscript collections around the world. It helps researchers contact archives to request information, arrange a visit, or order copies.

ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Access to detailed archival collection descriptions
*ArchiveGrid includes nearly a million descriptions of archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies and archives worldwide.

*It is an important destination for searching for historical documents, personal papers and family histories held in archives throughout the world. Researchers can learn about the contents of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials or order copies

*ArchiveGrid’s search engine brings you results that include the title of the collection, holding institution, brief description and a link to an extended description.

Finding Items using Google's Advanced Search

Google's Advanced Search page allows researchers to input more specific search criteria than traditional Google searching.

Access the advanced search option from a Google search results page by clicking on the settings icon and scrolling down to "advanced search."

On the advanced search page, type your keywords into the field labeled "Find pages with all these words."

In the field labeled "Find pages with any of these words," type the following phrases, including quotation marks: "primary sources" "digital library" "digital archives" "digital collection" "online library" "online archive" "online collection".

This search will typically limit your search results to websites containing digital primary sources.

For a more detailed explanation, watch the video below.

Using the Library Catalog to Find Primary Sources in the Collection

When using a library catalog to search for primary sources, you may have to wade through many pages of secondary source material to find primary documents for your project. Here are some tips to help you locate these documents quickly.

Search By Author

When searching for primary documents on a person, try using the person's name as an Author search (LastName, FirstName). When correspondence is cataloged, the writer of the letter (your topic) is generally listed as the author of the collection. (Example: Warren, Robert Penn). This same strategy works for organizations, too.

Important Keywords

Manuscript collections or archives of organizational records often include some of the following keywords in their titles or content descriptions. By including these words as keywords in a search, you have a better chance of finding collections of historical documents:

Note: Use truncation to pick up both the singular and plural form of these keywords.

Limiting Your Search

You may be able to limit your search to Archival material by using Advanced Search. Look for a field labeled "material type" and try selecting one of the following terms:

ARCHIVAL MATL or MANUSCRIPT

World History Primary Source Resources (subscribed by APSU)

Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
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Archival collections and primary sources documenting the history of Indigenous Peoples
The wide range of material included in Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America presents a unique insight into interactions between Indigenous Peoples in North America and European colonists from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid- to late-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library’s extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection; one of the strongest archival collections on histories of Indigenous Peoples in North America in the world.

Document types, digitized in full color, include:
-An extensive collection of manuscripts ranging from the early 16th to the mid-20th centuries
-A striking collection of artwork including rare ledger art
-Speeches and petitions
-Diaries, essays, travel journals and ledger -books from early European expeditions
-Correspondence, notes and minutes relating to important treaties
-Early linguistic studies and ethnographic accounts of life
-Thousands of photographs
-Historic maps and atlases
-Rare printed books
-newspapers from the 1960s-1990s

This rich selection of primary sources covers such important themes as:
- Indigenous Peoples and the European Powers
-Indigenous Peoples and the US Government
-Military Encounters: Conflicts, Rebellions and Alliances
-Observation, Representation and Cultural Encounters
-Indigenous Peoples of Mexico
-First Nations of Canada
-Missionaries and Education
-Trade and Indian Economies
-Civil Rights Movement
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
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History, Literature
*spans more than 400 years of personal writings, bringing together the voices of women from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales
*lets researchers view history in the context of women’s thoughts – their struggles, achievements, passions, pursuits, and desires
*includes approximately 100,000 pages of material assembled from numerous bibliographies and from newly conducted research
Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 This link opens in a new window
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Primary sources covering the history of countries in mainland South and Central America, plus Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba
The files in this collection extend from the 1830s to the 1960s

Nature of the material:-
Profiles of leading political, military, diplomatic and economic figures
-Incoming and outgoing diplomatic dispatches
-Correspondence
-Statistical charts and tables
-Descriptions of leading personalities
-Accounts of tours
-Minutes of meetings and conferences
-Texts of treaties
-Political summaries
-Economic analyses
-Annual reports and calendars of events, by country
-Maps

Topics covered include slavery and the slave trade, immigration, relations with indigenous peoples, wars and territorial disputes, the fall of the Brazilian monarchy, British business and financial interests, industrial development, the building of the Panama Canal, and the rise to power of populist rulers such as Perón in Argentina and Vargas in Brazil.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
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Collection of digitized materials from the eighteenth century
*contains 26 million pages of text from more than 136,000 titles (155,000 volumes)

*contains Canonical titles of the period as well as contemporary works that analyze and debate those titles

*contains materials ranging from books and directories to Bibles, sheet music, sermons and advertisements
Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
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Works printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America from 1473-1700
*contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America

*Date range for publications is 1473-1700.

*includes prayer books, pamphlets, proclamations, almanacs, calendars, and many other primary resources

*Subjects covered include English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science.
European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 This link opens in a new window
Printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750
*comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750

*derived from the seminal reference work European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750.

*wide range of subject areas are covered; from natural disasters to disease outbreaks and slavery
Films On Demand (Archival Films & Newsreels Collection) This link opens in a new window
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Archival films and newsreels from 1888 through the 21st century
Includes newsreels and archival films divided into browseable eras including:
Pre-World War I (1888-1913), World War I (1914-1918), Jazz Age & Depression (1919-1938), World War II (1939-1945), Postwar (1946-1968), Late 20th Century (1969-2000), and 21st Century. Each section is further subdivided into categories: Arts, Business & Economics, History & Politics, Science & Technology, and Social Sciences.
- Create and share playlists—use premade clips, full videos, or custom segments to engage students
- Add a personalized video introduction to any playlist you create
- Public performance rights and no copyright infringement
Holocaust Studies: Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
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Archive of primary sources related to the Holocaust
APSU has access to the Holocaust studies bundle within Archives Unbound. Deep and broad in its coverage, this collection incorporates anti-Semitic propaganda, correspondence from prisoners, documents from resistance groups, bank records from Nazi financiers, eyewitness accounts from concentration camps, and much more.

Available collections include:
*Correspondence from German Concentration Camps and Prisons
*German Anti-Semitic Propaganda, 1909-1941
*Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West's Response to Jewish Emigration
*Jewish Underground Resistance: The David Diamant collection
*Nazi Bank and Financial Institutions: U.S. Military Government Investigation *Reports and Interrogations of Nazi Financiers, 1945-1949
*Nazism in Poland: The Diary of Governor-General Hans Frank
*Nuremburg Laws and Nazi Annulment of Jewish German Nationality
*SAFEHAVEN Reports on Nazi Looting of Occupied Countries and Assets in Neutral Countries
*Testaments to the Holocaust. Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library, London
*The Holocaust and Records of Concentration Camp Trials: Prosecution of Nazi War Crimes
*The Jewish Question: Records from the Berlin Document Center
*U.S. Relations with the Vatican and the Holocaust, 1940-1950
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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Primary source collections for the 19th Century (All 12 archives available)
APSU Library has acquired the twelve Archives in this collection published as of 2015. They are:

1. Asia and the West: Diplomacy & Cultural Exchange (including US State Department Consular & Diplomatic Records, British Foreign Office Political Correspondence regarding Japan, missionary journals and correspondence).

2. British Politics & Society (including coverage of major political figures, working class radicalism, the Oxford Movement, etc.)

3. British Theatre, Music & Literature: High and Popular Culture (including British Playbills, 1754-1882; Drury Lane Theatre Archive)

4. Children's Literature and Childhood (provides a wide range of primary sources related to the experience of childhood in the long nineteenth century)

5. Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, & Conquest (including Colonial, Foreign, and War Offices Papers on Africa; personal narratives of African exploration)

6. European Literature, 1790-184: The Corvey Collection (includes 18,000 volumes with a particular focus on the British Romantic Era, plus thousands of works in French and German)

7. Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature

8. Photography: The World through the Lens (including The Photographic News from 1858 to 1908 and selections from the Photographic Collection of the British Colonial Office)

9. Religion, Society, Spirituality, and Reform

10. Science, Technology, and Medicine, 1780-1925 (including a collection of American Medical Periodicals from 1797-1900 and a collection of 600 monographs on “Evolution and the Origin of Species”)

11. Science, Technology, and Medicine: 1780-1925, Part II

12. Women: Transnational Networks (includes manuscripts from the Mary Braddon Archive, manuscript Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and a collection of Quaker Women’s Diaries from the 18th and 19th Centuries)
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
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History, Sociology
*Provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada.

*More than 100,000 pages of personal narratives, including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories

*Materials begin around 1840 and extend to the present, focusing heavily on the period from 1890 to 1920
Oral History Online This link opens in a new window
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Searchable oral histories
*Provides in-depth indexing to more than 2,700 collections of Oral History in English from around the world

*Provides keyword searching of almost 281,000 pages of full-text by close to 10,000 individuals from all walks of life

*Contains pointers to over 4,100 audio and video files and almost 19,000 bibliographic records
Primary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new window
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Primary source collections for the 18th and 19th Century (cross-search the Gale products Sabin Americana, ECCO and NCCO)
Gale Primary Sources is a full-text primary source database that cross-searches Gale's Sabin Americana (1500-1926), Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO), and Nineteenth-Century Collections Online (NCCO).
Revolutionary War Era Orderly Books from the New-York Historical Society This link opens in a new window
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Primary Sources providing accounts of both sides of the American Revolutionary War and other military units between 1748 and 1817
Orderly Books were the controlling document of day-to-day life in the military, most notably during the Revolutionary War. It offers access to Orderly Books found nowhere else and contains handwritten volumes documenting military orders, movements and engagements by brigade, regiment, company and other specific military units between 1748 and 1817. The content in Orderly Books provides detailed accounts of troops’ daily lives, documenting everything from court martial cases to the price of necessities charged by locals.

Content Includes:
*Over 30,000 pages of original primary source material from two hundred handwritten volumes
*Original images, fully transcribed and keyword-searchable

Subjects Include:
*Both sides of the American Revolutionary War
*The French and Indian War
*The War of 1812
*The early frontier
*Other various military deployments throughout the young United States
Social and Cultural History: Letters and Diaries Online This link opens in a new window
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History, Native Americans, Sociology, Women's Studies
*Combines all of the content from Alexander Street’s seven award-winning collections of letters, diaries, and oral histories together with a growing archive of additional content

*Combined, the materials in this vast collection offer something entirely new and critically important for history research—personal, contemporaneous, first-person accounts
Brought together under a unified search interface is all the premium content from the following Alexander Street individual collections:
• North American Women’s Letters and Diaries
• Manuscript Women’s Letters and Diaries (from the American Antiquarian Society)
• British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries
• The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
• Black Thought and Culture
Southeast Asian Studies: Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
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Archive of primary sources related to Vietnam and Southeast Asian studies
Colonialism, Communism, military conflict in Vietnam, and more pivotal topics and events are covered extensively in primary sources providing perspectives on complex issues and ideals. Newspapers, official reports, and many other documents dating from 1910 to 1975 help researchers discover multiple facets.
Women’s Studies Archive: Women’s Issues and Identities (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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Collection of primary sources tracing the path of women’s issues from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries
As the first in the Women’s Studies archive, this collection traces the path of women’s issues from past to present—pulling primary sources from manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, and more. It captures the foundation of women’s movements, struggles and triumphs, and provides researchers with valuable insights.

As a comprehensive academic-level archival resource, Women’s Studies Archive: Women’s Issues and Identities will focus on the social, political, and professional achievements of women throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. Along with providing a closer look at some of the pioneers of women’s movements, this collection offers scholars a deep dive into the issues that have affected women and the many contributions they have made to society.

Content will include approximately one million never-before-digitized pages of primary source material, all aligned with women’s studies.

Much of history is one-sided, mainly focused on the male perspective; women's voices are not often heard. Women's Issues and Identities provides the opportunity to witness history from the female perspective. Offering coverage of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Women's Issues and Identities allows for the serendipitous discovery of commonalities among a variety of archival collections.

Global in scope, the archive presents materials covering the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and offers a look at the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society. Women's Issues and Identities spans multiple geographic regions, providing a variety of perspectives on women's experiences and cultural impact. Within the archive can be found fascinating historical records from Europe, North and South America, Africa, India, East Asia, and the Pacific Rim with content in English, French, German, and Dutch.
World History (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
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World History since B.C.
*Formerly titled History Resource Center: World

*Contains approximately 100,000 pages of more than 1300 primary documents

*Contains nearly 100 scholarly full-text journals, as well as citations from 180 titles

*Covers world history from B.C. to the present

*Contains approximately 1400 images and maps

World History Primary Source Resources (free to all)

ArchiveGrid
ArchiveGrid includes over 7 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,400 archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
Archives Portal Europe
The Archives Portal Europe provides access to information on archival material from different European countries as well as information on archival institutions throughout the continent
Digital Bodleian
The Digital Bodleian contains over a million images of rare books, manuscripts, and other treasures from the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford college libraries. The collection includes content from the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.
Euro Docs
Euro Docs contains open access sources are readily available to all -- without fees or subscriptions. Links connect to European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.
Europeana
Europeana provides digital access to millions of cultural heritage items from institutions across Europe. Discover artworks, books, music, and videos on art, newspapers, archaeology, fashion, science, sport, and much more.
European History Primary Sources
European History Primary Sources provides an easily searchable index of scholarly digital repositories that contain primary sources for the history of Europe.
European Studies Section Research Guides
European Studies Research Guides (LibGuides) are curated by Association of College and Research Library's European Studies Section members and offer freely available scholarly resources related to European regions and topics.
Fordham University Sourcebooks
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly for educational use. The collection's content covers Western civilization as well as Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history.
Hanover Historical Texts
The Hanover Historical Texts Collection makes available digital versions of historical texts for use in history and humanities courses.
World Digital Library
This collection contains cultural heritage materials gathered during the World Digital Library project, including thousands of items contributed by partner organizations worldwide as well as content from Library of Congress collections.

Subject Guide

Gina Nigro

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Watch Veteran Interviews

Clip from video interview with World War II Veteran Forrest Gore. (Download Video)

Download this item and watch many other video interviews in the APSU Veterans' Oral History Project.