Finding Primary Sources - New York - Researching - Research Guides @ Fordham at Fordham University Libraries

Open Access Digital Collections

Best Bet Search Options

Digital Public Library of America
Best place to search for digital collections across many libraries, museums, and historical societies.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
Offers over 911,000 items digitized from The New York Public Library's collections.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Offers many New York-specific items.
HathiTrust Digital Library
A great place to search for 19th century books and city government reports.

Additional Options

Ancestry.com New York

Several New York repositories have formed a partnership with Ancestry.com to digitize New York family history records and make them available online for free.

Ancestry.com New York
Follow the directions from the New York State Archives to sign up for a free Ancestry.com New York account to search New York records. Does not included all Ancestry.com content.

Searching for Archives

ArchiveGrid
This platform helps researchers locate archives. Offers over 5 million records describing archival materials consisting of historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.

Plan of the City of New York, 1789

Image credit: "Plan of the city of New York," 1789 via the Library of Congress.

Libraries, Archives, and Museums

These libraries, archives, and museums hold collections for onsite research use. Click the links to find out more about the collection scope, access requirements, or availability of digital collections.

Archival Collections Portal at Columbia University Libraries
Archives of the Archdiocese of New York
Bronx County Historical Society
Center for Brooklyn History
Center for Jewish History
Centro for Puerto Rican Studies
LaGuardia and Wagner Archives
Lesbian Herstory Archives
LGBT Community Center National History Archive
Municipal Archives - NYC Records and Information Services
Museum of Chinese in America
Museum of the City of New York
New-York Historical Society Museum & Library
New York Public Library - Archives and Manuscripts Division
New York Society Library
New York State Archives
New York Transit Museum
New York University Special Collections
Includes University Archives, Fales Library, and the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Dutch & Colonial New York

See the Government Documents page

Resources at New York Public Library

A selection of digital primary source collections available to use remotely with a library card from NYPL.

Selection of Primary Source Databases at Fordham

See News & Magazines Tab
For historical newspapers, magazines, and journals.

JSTOR & ARTSTOR (WITH AI RESEARCH TOOL - BETA) This link opens in a new window
Use the options within the database to limit your search to primary source content.
NOTE: Basic and advanced searching defaults to "read and download" content we subscribe to. Browsing defaults to "all content." Look for the Access Level limiter on the lower left side to change settings. Access excludes ebooks, Thematic Collections and Global Plants (part of Primary Sources).Fordham does not subscribe to the Constellate text/data analytics service. Users can download full datasets with up to 25,000 items. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION.
JSTOR Subscribed Collections with Access:
Arts & Sciences I through XV, Ireland, Life Sciences, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, World Heritage Sites: Africa, Business IV, Hebrew Journals, Lives of Literature, Public Health, Security Studies, Sustainability, Global Plants,19th Century British Pamphlets.
ARTSTOR notes:
To go directly to Collections, use the Browse function dropdown (upper right corner) or filtering on the left side after doing a search.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans Digital Edition This link opens in a new window
New Interface 1/4/24. From Readex. Books, pamphlets, and broadsides published during the 17th and 18th centuries from the bibliography by Charles Evans and Roger Bristol's Supplement.
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 text of 180,000 books published from 1700 to 1799. Transitioning to a new platform. Not all Browse functions working.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (scholar's edition) This link opens in a new window
Thousands of documents, images, bibliographies and teaching aids.

Digital Collections on 9/11

9/11 Commission Records
Digital Collections at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum
National September 11 Collection
Offers access to early collections documenting September 11th from the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian.
September 11, 2001 Web Archive
Understanding 9/11 : A Television News Archive

New York - Researching: Finding Primary Sources

Archives and Special Collections at New York City Institutions