Research Guides @ Fordham: Biographical Research: Primary Sources

Recommended Primary Source Resources

Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Diverse primary source materials from books, newspapers and periodicals with views of American history and culture during the 19th century. Eyewitness accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records are available in a user-friendly online environment.

Library of Congress Primary Source Collections
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
Provided by the Library of Congress, NUCMC is a searchable catalog of manuscript collections in WorldCat.
Primary Source Sets From the Library of Congress
Shapell Manuscript Foundation
"The Shapell Manuscript Foundation has an extensive collection of primary sources, such as letters, documents, photographs, and other artifacts. [They] specialize in manuscripts relating to American History, including the Civil War, American Presidents, etc."
Smithsonian Collections
Digital images of the Smithsonian's collections.
Civil Rights Digital Library
Compilation of digitized primary source material including film archive from two Georgia television stations, oral histories, documents and photographs.
NARA - National Archives and Records Administration
Includes several online exhibits and catalog of digitized documents and photographs.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Newberry Library Digital Collections: Everett D. Graff Collection of Americana
Documents America's westward expansion; includes many primary sources.

PEN America Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Online archive of more than 1500 hours of audio and video recordings featuring the world’s foremost writers, intellectuals, and artists in candid and often heated discourse about the most relevant cultural and political issues of our times. Dates back to 1966.
Making of America, books This link opens in a new window
Digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection includes the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

Primary Source Material Collections - Global

HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Partnership of major research institutions and libraries creating digital archive of library materials. Full text access only to the portion of the archive comprising public domain works, indicated by "Full View". Downloading or printing depends on each title's copyright status. Click into each title to see entitlements on the left sidebar.
Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window
Now on the main ProQuest platform, C19 Index is the bibliographic spine of 19th century research, providing integrated access to the most important finding aids for books, periodicals, official publications, newspapers and archives.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Full text of 180,000 books published from 1700 to 1799. Transitioning to a new platform. Not all Browse functions working.

World History Sources
A project of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Digital Collections of Diaries, Letters, etc.

Influenza Encyclopedia: The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919
Collection of digitized primary source documents, images and narratives detailing the impact of the 1918-19 epidemic on 50 American cities.
Library of Congress Early Presidential Collections
View the presidential papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Calvin Coolidge.
American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement
Collection of first hand accounts of exploration from the Vikings to the 1800s.
American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920
Published narratives by Americans and visitors traveling in the colonies and U.S.
The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project
From the University of North Carolina/Greensboro; searchable; includes diaries, letters, oral histories, photographs, posters, publications, and uniforms
Civil Rights Digital Library
Compilation of digitized primary source material including film archive from two Georgia television stations, oral histories, documents and photographs.
Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences of World War I
From Brigham Young Libraries
Discovering American Women's History Online
Digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the U.S. from the 1600's to the present.
Documenting the American South
Digitized primary source material (books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs) relating to southern history, literature and culture.

Making of America, journals and monographs (Cornell University) This link opens in a new window
Now hosted on Hathi Trust, the Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is a digital library documenting American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
Making of America, journals and monographs (University of Michigan) This link opens in a new window
Digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

Rosa Parks In Her Own Words
An exhibit from the Library of Congress.
American Presidency Project
A comprehensive collection of resources pertaining to the study of the presidency from UCSB.

Digital Collections of Early Books & Journals

American Periodicals (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 1,100 journals and magazines both scholarly and popular published from 1740 to 1900.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans Digital Edition This link opens in a new window
Full texts of all the books published in America from 1639 until 1800.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker This link opens in a new window
New interface 1/4/24. From Readex. Books, pamphlets, and broadsides published during the early 19th century from the bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Full texts of over 180,000 books published mostly in the UK from 1700 to 1799.
European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive bibliography of printed works about the Americas written in Europe before 1750.
Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 1.7 million books, documents and articles from thousands of journals and newspapers.

Digital Historic Documents

[U.S.] Constitution Annotated: Analysis and Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution
From the Library of Congress.
Avalon Project
Full text of documents relating to the fields of history, law, politics, diplomacy, government and economics from the colonial era to the present.
A Century of Law Making
Full text documentary record of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention and the first 42 Congresses of the United States (1774-1873) from the Law Library of Congress.

CQ Historic Documents This link opens in a new window
Full text of thousands of U.S. documents since 1972, including presidential speeches, treaties, Supreme Court decisions and various government reports.

Foreign Relations of the United States
Official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian. There are two cumulative indexes covering 1861-1899 and 1900-1918.
Historic Government Publications from World War II: a Digital Library.
Collection of over 200 WWII era pamphlets mostly dealing with the home front, civil defence and war work.

Original Sources (formerly Omega Sources) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources and other documents from discovery and colonization to the present.
READING EPUB FILES
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Add the CHROME EPUBReader browser extension:
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Add the Firefox browser extension:
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TO READ AN EPUB FILE:
Click on the EPUBReader icon in your Chrome or Firefox toolbar to open it > click on the folder icon at the top of the page and select the previously saved ePub file.
NOTE: Your file will not be saved in the Reader; you will have to open the file each time you want to read it.

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project.
Collection of primary sources relating to the 1692 trials and a new transcription of the court records. Digital Humanities at the University of Virginia (DH@UVA).
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Collection of materials on ships, crews, slaves and places of embarkation and landing.
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
Digital collection from Harvard documenting immigration to the U.S. Primarily focusing on the 19th century, it includes books, pamphlets, photographs and manuscript material.

Digital Historical Documents, continued

History Vault: American Politics and Society from JFK to Watergate, 1960-1975 This link opens in a new window
Key archival materials consisting of digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections.
History Vault: NAACP Papers, The NAACP's Major Campaigns-Legal Department Files This link opens in a new window
Working case files of the NAACP's Legal Department from 1956 to 1972. The cases pertain to school desegregation, abuses of police procedure, employment discrimination, freedom of speech, privacy, freedom of association, and housing discrimination.
History Vault: NAACP Papers, Special Subjects This link opens in a new window
Records covering subjects that are crucial to the NAACP's history, such as civil rights complaints and legislation, the Klan, Birth of a Nation, the Walter White-W. E. B. Du Bois controversy of 1933-1934, the "red scare," relations with African colonial liberation movements, fundraising and membership recruitment, urban riots, the War on Poverty, and the emergence of the Black Power Movement.
History Vault: Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975 This link opens in a new window
Primary source materials highlighting U.S. international relations from the early days of the Kennedy administration, through the escalation of the war during the Johnson administration, to the final resolution of the war at the Paris Peace Talks.
Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower This link opens in a new window
Full text of 21 volumes of Eisenhower's most significant writings.

Historic Audio Sources

Music and Dance Online: American Music This link opens in a new window
Provides a suite of online audio recordings to support the teaching of American musical traditions including country, folk, jazz, bluegrass, western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, R&B and more.
National Jukebox This link opens in a new window
Historical recordings from the Library of Congress including songs and the spoken word.

Biographical Research: Primary Sources

American Library Association Guide for Primary Source Materials

Recommended Primary Source Resources

Primary Source Material Collections - Global

Digital Collections of Diaries, Letters, etc.

Digital Collections of Early Books & Journals

Digital Historic Documents

Digital Historical Documents, continued

Historic Audio Sources

Reference & Instruction Department