Research Guides @ Fordham: American History: Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are original records created during the time under study. Because they were present during the experience, they offer an inside first-hand view of a particular event unfiltered by interpretation, criticism, or evaluation.

Some examples:

Letters
Newspapers
Interviews
Photographs
Manuscripts
Memoirs
Speeches
Diaries
News film footage
Autobiographies
Official records
Personal narratives
Creative works: poetry, drama, novels, music, art
Anecdotes
Correspondence
Pamphlets
Case studies

Use terms as Subjects that show subdivisions, e.g., personal narratives, sources, diaries, etc.

Examples:

Civil War - sources

Immigrants - personal narratives

Women's suffrage - diaries

Eleanor Roosevelt - letters

(Make sure the subdivisions above are plural . . . diaries and not diary).

*[Research interest or person] - correspondence or diaries

*Rule: Sources goes with topics; Archives goes with people and organizations. To be safe, try this: [research interest] - sources or archives

*From the book Magic search: Getting the best results from your catalog and beyond/Kornegay, R.S., et al. (2009), Chicago: American Library Association.

American Library Association Guide for Primary Source Materials

A guide to finding, evaluating, and using primary source materials created by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association (ALA).

Diaries

If I Get Out Alive: World War II Letters and Diaries of William H. McDougall, Jr. by Gary Topping (Ed.)
Call Number: D805.J3 M324 2007 (RH)
Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2007.
Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections From the Wartime Diaries Of Ordinary Japanese by Samuel Hideo Yamashita
Call Number: D811.A2 L37 2005 (LC)
Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2005.
Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis by Karsonya Wise Whitehead
Call Number: F158.44.W55 2014 (RH)
Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, [2014].

Recommended Primary Source Resources

Accessible Archives
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.

Newberry Library Digital Collections: Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection
" . . . one of the world's premiere sources of primary documents on American Indians."
Newberry Library Digital Collections: Everett D. Graff Collection of Americana
Documents America's westward expansion; includes many primary sources.
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."

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)
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)
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.

Digital Historic Documents

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
Full text of thousands of U.S. documents since 1972, including presidential speeches, treaties, Supreme Court decisions and various government reports. Use the Search Box to find all editions.

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)
Primary sources and other documents from discovery and colonization to the present.

READING EPUB FILES
When opening an ePub file, make sure to choose “save file”
Remember the file name and where it is saved on your computer. You will need to know this when it is time to read the file in the EPUBReader extension.

Add the CHROME EPUBReader browser extension:
menu icon (3 dots) > more tools > extensions > get more extensions > search for EPUBReader > add to chrome > close welcome box.
The EPUBReader icon should be automatically added to your toolbar.

Add the Firefox browser extension:
menu icon (3 lines) > add-ons > get add-ons > see more add-ons > search for EPUBReader > add to firefox > close the welcome box
The EPUBReader icon should be automatically added to your toolbar.

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).

Digital Collections of Early Books & Journals

American Periodicals (ProQuest)
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
Full texts of all the books published in America from 1639 until 1800.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker
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
Full texts of over 180,000 books published mostly in the UK from 1700 to 1799.
European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750
A comprehensive bibliography of printed works about the Americas written in Europe before 1750.
Nineteenth Century Index
Full text of over 1.7 million books, documents and articles from thousands of journals and newspapers.

Historic Audio Sources

Music and Dance Online: American Music
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
Historical recordings from the Library of Congress including songs and the spoken word.

American History: Primary Sources