Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence created by participants or observers of a historical event or time period.
Often, these materials are created at the time when the events or conditions occurred. However, primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs and oral histories that are written or recorded later.
The following types of materials are generally considered primary sources:
These are not the only databases that contain primary sources. Check with a librarian for more help.
An online database collection on African American history and culture Developed with the guidance of African American librarians and subject specialists
The American Indian Experience is an invaluable digital resource that provides in-depth historical accounts and cultural information about the indigenous peoples of North America.
Ethnic News Watch was created in 1991 as a resource to comprehensively cover minority issues in periodical literature and includes global news reports, newswires and news sites.
Educators count on Cambridge to provide outstanding media resources that support the development of the whole student, both in and out of the classroom. Cambridge programs provide a practical, accurate, and reliable foundation of knowledge that helps students think through opportunities and choices and reach their potential at school, in work, and in life.
The first-ever database dedicated to the history and culture of Latinos, the largest, fastest growing minority group in the United States.
Electronic editions of record of newspapers, many in California, for valuable local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers--all in one easy-to-search database-- providingunique coverage of local and regional news, including companies, politics, sports, industries, cultural activities, and people in the community. Paid ads are excluded.
Includes more than 700 full text newspapers, providing more than 33 million full text articles and featuring more than 757,000 television and news transcripts.
Contais a comprehensive and authoratative collection of information on popular culutre in America, both past and present.
Here are some common primary sources. For more resources please see our Research Guides for HIST.
HIST 17A Primary Sources
HIST 17B Primary Sources
USC Digital Library Helps to fulfill the mission of the USC Libraries to select, collect, preserve, and make accessible high quality digital images of unique materials with metadata to support research, and provides a gateway to resources on Los Angeles and Southern California.
Includes: ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, tintypes, portraits, social and political caricatures, drawings, European political prints, engravings, and photographs
16 collections
Part of the University of Minnesota's Social Welfare History Archives, this site lets you search posters by subject, keyword, and date.
A rich resource for digitized images, documents, videos, sound recordings and more. Currently covers American History topics from the American Revolution to 9/11/2001.
Contains the Alan Lomax Archive, a collection of recorded music, dance, and the spoken word. Alan Lomax was an anthropologist of the performing arts.
This University of California-Berkeley Bancroft Library site provides access to over 30,000 images illustrating California's history and culture
Calisphere is the University of California's free public gateway to a world of primary sources. More than 150,000 digitized items, including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts, reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history
Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art
The ICAA Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art digital archive provides access to primary sources and critical documents tracing the development of twentieth-century art in Latin America and among Latino populations in the United States.
Early Landscape Photography of the American West This New York Public Library site provides access to over 200 prints from the 1860s and 1870s of American Western landscape, plus some tex
This collection comprises 170 German-language titles of books and pamphlets. The collection presents anti-Semitism as an issue in politics, economics, religion, and education. Most of the writings date from the 1920s and 1930s and many are directly connected with Nazi groups. The works are principally anti-Semitic, but include writings on other groups as well, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Jesuits, and the Freemasons. Also included are history, pseudo-history, and fiction.
(from the Library of Congress) Over 30,000 photographs, drawn from the holdings of the Western History and Genealogy Department at Denver Public Library.
Presents primary source material from the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, "the center of American eugenics research from 1910-1940."
Specializing in works by Philadelphia photographers and printmakers, and images that document the city of Philadelphia, the collection visually records the history of the Philadelphia area from the late 17th to the mid 20th century. In addition to Philadelphia area materials, the graphics collections include historical and commemorative prints, portraits, and political cartoons documenting American history at the national level from the 18th through the early 20th century.
Google provides access to Life magazine's millions of photographs, from the 1750s on, most of which were never published.
This collection provided by the University of North Carolina presents images from woodcuts, engravings, lithographs, and photographs--most of these were made by people accompanying Union forces, or were made from sketches and other information they provided
Provides access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives Digital Library Collection
USC is beta test partner for Umbra, a freely available digital discovery tool designed for the research and study of African American history and culture. It includes a growing collection of digital materials—images, videos, books, and more—provided by libraries, museums, and other repositories around the country.
Photographs from the West Virginia and Regional History Collection – Made available by West Virginia University, this site includes thousands of digitized photos.
(from Princeton University) Consists of photographs of Indians of the Americas and views of the American West, including landscapes, cityscapes, and mining, railroad, and agricultural operations. Also included are views of towns in Mexico. The bulk of the photographs date from the 19th century.
Digitized by the University of Oklahoma Libraries. Includes over 250,000 prints and negatives with an emphasis on the periods of 1870-1940.