Finding Primay Source Documents, Reference Department, Davis Library

Finding Primary Source Documents

Introduction
What are primary sources?
Strategies for locating primary source materials:
     Search the Library's Catalog
     Use electronic resources provided by the University Libraries
     Consult directories and databases of primary source collections on the Web
     Search WorldCat for Web resources
     Use a search engine
     Explore important digitized collections
     Archives and manuscripts collections
Other guides to finding and using primary sources

Introduction

This is a selective guide to finding primary source materials for beginning and undergraduate historical research. The University Libraries maintain rich collections of primary sources in print, microform, and electronic formats. Additionally, there are hundreds of collections of primary source materials available on the Web, and more are added everyday. Because there is no single comprehensive database of primary sources, you may need to explore different strategies for locating resources of interest.

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are often referred to as "first hand" accounts or "original" records. They are the evidence historians use to build interpretations of the past. Most primary sources are created at the time an historical event occurred. While others, such as autobiographies, are produced long after the events they describe. Among the many types of materials that may be primary sources are letters, diaries, speeches, newspaper articles, autobiographies, oral histories, government and organizational records, statistical data, maps, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings, advertisements and artifacts.

This page from History Matters - Making Sense of Evidence - is a helpful resource for understanding primary sources and how scholars use them in their work.

Strategies for Locating Primary Source Materials:

The sections that follow offer different approaches to locating primary source materials and are good starting points for research. You may want to explore several or all of these strategies. Don't hesitate to Ask a Librarian for assistance.

Search the Library's Catalog for Primary Sources in Print and Microform

Often the fastest and easiest way to locate primary source documents is to search the library's catalog for published documents and collections.

Search by Subject
The following subheadings can be added to a subject search to locate primary sources:

    • sources
    • diaries
    • correspondence
    • interviews
    • personal narratives
    • pamphlets

Examples:

     Nuclear arms control -- Sources
     world war 1939-1945 personal narratives
     Slavery -- United States -- Personal narratives
     Witchcraft -- Massachusetts -- Salem -- History -- Sources
     Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973 -- Diaries
     Prohibition--United States--History--Sources

Note that you must use Library of Congress Subject Headings in a subject search, and these are not obvious or intuitive. You can use a keyword search to locate appropriate items and then examine the record for the subject headings (Example), or Ask a Librarian for assistance.

Search by Keyword

You can also use the subheadings listed above in a keyword search.

Examples:

     vietnam and sources
     explorers and diaries
     women and great britain and (sources or correspondence)

See Suggested Resources for Beginning General Historical Research for more on finding primary sources in print and microform.

Use electronic resources provided by the University Libraries
("Article Databases and More" )

The library subscribes to a growing number of electronic databases that include primary source materials. Researchers have access to collections of letters, diaries, oral histories, historical newspapers, government documents and statistics, pamphlets, broadsides, photographs, and maps. Some important examples are listed below.

AccuNet/AP Photo Archive
"The AccuNet/AP Photo Archive is a database of approximately 500,000 current and archived photos from the Associated Press's 50 million image print and negative library. It is updated by an average of 800 contemporary photos each day. The best 200 of them are retained permanently in the database, while the rest are removed after 12 months. The Photo Archive's historical collection features notable figures and images from significant events of the 20th and, occasionally, the 19th centuries."

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century Via Accessible Archives
"This database will ultimately contain the complete text of the major African-American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century." Includes material from Freedom's Journal, The Colored American, The North Star, The National Era, Provincial Freeman, Frederick Douglass Papers, The Christian Recorder.

American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography
"American Slavery: a Composite Autobiography database includes the life histories of former American slaves and the transcripts of actual slave interviews. This is an authoritative collection of Works Progress Administration (WPA) slave narratives and the Comprehensive Name Index for The American Slave on the Web."

Atlanta Constitution Historical Newspaper
Part of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database, The Atlanta Constitution offers thousands of full-text and full-image newspaper articles from 1868 to 1925. Also includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, marriage and birth announcements, historical and stock photos, and advertisements.

Black Thought and Culture
"Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of non-fiction writings by major black leaders in North America. Works by teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures" are included. Coverage from 1700 forward.

Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective Via Accessible Archives
"This database contains the full text of major articles from over 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865. Included are descriptive news articles, eye-witness accounts and official reports of battles and events, editorials, advertisements and biographies." Also included are articles on travel, arts, leisure, sports, etc.

Declassified Documents Reference System Online
"Covering major domestic and international events since the end of World War II, this collection of declassified material provides the foundation for research in political science, history, journalism, diplomacy, and international studies. Information relating to all major political and military events from every corner of the globe offers fascinating insights into U.S. government views, decisions, and activities." Materials from the FBI,CIA, Justice Dept., National Security Agency, State Dept. and White House.

Digital National Security Archive
"Containing the full text of more than 43,000 declassified documents (more than 300,000 pages), this is a significant collection of important primary source materials relative to U.S. foreign policy since 1945. It comprises 22 collections, including the Berlin crisis of 1958-1962, the Iran-Contra Affair, and Terrorism and U.S. Policy. The material varies from presidential memos to secret letters and from diplomatic dispatches to email, accompanied by reference and secondary material."

Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans (1639-1800)
"Evans is the definitive resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, and just about any other topic imaginable. When completed it will contain all titles in Evans microform editions, for a total of 36,000 items, plus 1,200 new titles. The 2,400,000 images also have OCR-created ASCII text."

Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819)
"Covering every aspect of American life during the early decades of the United States, Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819) provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century. Researchers can study the emergence of American arts and literature, follow the progression of American economic, religious and scientific thought, track the westward expansion, and much more. This comprehensive collection features many government materials, including published reports; presidential letters and messages; congressional, state and territorial resolutions."

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
"Early English Books Online [EEBO] includes the total surviving published record of the English-speaking world for 227 years in digital format. It reproduces images of over 125,000 books, pamphlets and broadsides published in England and her colonies in any language between 1475 and 1700, and in English worldwide for this period. When complete, EEBO will contain all the works--more than twenty-two million pages--represented in the microfilm series, Early English Books I & II."

Eighteenth Century Collections Online
"The Eighteenth Century Collections Online [ECCO] provides remote access to 33 million full-text images and text-searchable pages of nearly 150,000 English-language titles and editions published between 1701-1800."

Fondo Documental Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle
"Fondo Documental Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle is a diverse collection of primary source material documenting political and social activity in Chile during the 1970s and 80s. The database contains digitized reproductions of secret documents and clandestine publications produced by political parties and various other organizations outlawed by the Chilean military regime (1973-1990)."

Godey's Lady's Book Via Accessible Archives
"Godey's Lady's Book was intended to entertain, inform, and educate the women of America. In addition to extensive fashion descriptions and plates, the early issues included biographical sketches, articles about mineralogy, handcrafts, female costume, the dance, equestrienne procedures, health and hygiene, recipes and remedies, etc." Godey's later included many book reviews, literary articles and illustrations. Coverage: 1830 - 1855.

HarpWeek
"Harper's Weekly was one of the most important serials of nineteenth-century America, because it provided detailed information about cultural, military, political, and social issues. Its illustrations helped readers visualize current events. Its editorials were a major force in shaping public opinion in the North. The three parts of HarpWeek, an indexed, full-text database of Harper's Weekly, provide searchable access to the events, people, and culture of the "Civil War Era, 1857-1865"; "Reconstruction I, 1866-1871"; and "Reconstruction II, 1872-1877."

Hein-On-Line
Hein-On-Line is a comprehensive collection of legal research material that currently provides full-text of hundreds of legal periodicals. Also included are U.S. Treaties and Other International Agreements (1950-1984), the Federal Register (1936-1992), Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1977-2003), U.S. Reports (1790-2002), and Official Opinions of the Attorneys General of the U.S. (1791-1982).

LexisNexis Congressional
"LexisNexis Congressional offers full-text of congressional bills, testimony, reports, documents, selected prints, and the Congressional Record for recent years, as well as the U.S. Code, the Federal Register, and the Code of Federal Regulations. The United States Congressional Serial Set, simply called the Serial Set, is labeled Historical Full-Text in LexisNexis Congressional. Historical Full-Text will include the American State Papers, House and Senate Reports, House and Senate Documents, selected Executive Branch documents, other documents that Congress ordered printed, as well as all maps, illustrations, photos, and lithographs found within the printed Serial Set. Monthly updates are provided and full coverage from 1789-1969 will be available by the end of December 2005."

LLMC Digital
The Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC) is a library cooperative housing the world's largest collection of legal literature and government documents in microform. This collection is being digitized and made available on the LLMC Digital site. Available publications include Presidential papers, decisions and reports of executive departments and independent agencies, treaties, U.S. Supreme Court Reports, U.S. Statutes at Large and much more.

New York Times Historical Newspaper
"The New York Times, in the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database, offers 3,400,000 pages of full-text and full-image newspaper articles covering the entire publishing history of the newspaper, from 1851 to 1999. Researchers can use the images to find not only news, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, and birth and marriage announcements, but also historical photos, stock photos, and advertisements." Keyword searchable ASCII text underlies images of articles and pages.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries
"North American Women's Letters and Diaries is the largest collection of women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled. The collection includes some 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, including more than 6,000 pages of previously unpublished materials."

Pennsylvania Gazette Via Accessible Archives
The Pennsylvania Gazette "provides a first hand view of colonial America, the American Revolution and the New Republic, and offers important social, political and cultural perspectives of each of the periods. Thousands of articles, editorials, letters, news items and advertisements cover the Western Hemisphere, from the Canadian Maritime Provinces, through the West Indies and North and South America, giving a detailed glimpse of issues and lifestyles of the times. " Coverage: 1728-1800.

Primary Source Microfilm Online Guides
Primary Source Microfilm, part of the Gale Group, has constructed a very large library of microfilm sets of primary source materials covering the humanities and the social sciences. This Web site provides indexing to these collections, many of which are available at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and North Carolina State.

Sanborn Maps North Carolina
"Sanborn Maps for the state of North Carolina provide digital access to 11,173 large-scale maps of 158 North Carolina towns and cities from the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. Sanborn Maps were originally created to aid the insurance industry in assessing risk. They show towns at specific points in their history and provide detailed information on street layout, civic infrastructure, building type, building use, and ownership."

Consult Directories and Databases of Primary Source Materials on the Web

The Web sites listed below are directories, gateways and databases that help you locate digitized primary source documents and collections. They are generally arranged by subject, time period, or geographically. Some are keyword searchable. Some include secondary as well as primary sources.

Because there is no single comprehensive database for primary sources, you may want to explore several of these sites. (Some of these sites include resources that are available by subscription only. UNC Chapel Hill students will also have access to many of these from our Article Databases and More" page.)

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
This page links to important documents for the study of American history from 1400 to the present. From the University of Kansas.

American Women's History: Digital Collections of Primary Sources
A subject directory of digitized collections of primary source materials for the study of American women's history. From Middle Tennessee State University Library.

Digital Collections Online
This is a database that links to digital collections of primary source documents. Search by keyword or browse by subject. From the University of Connecticut Libraries.

Digitized Primary American History Sources
This directory includes general and topical sources, works of presidents, photographs, illustrations, cartoons and sources for the U.S. at war. From the University of Northern Iowa Library.

Digitized World History Sources
Directory of world history sources arranged geographically. From the University of Northern Iowa Library.

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe
"These links connect to Western European (mainly primary) historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated." Arranged by country and then chronologically. From Brigham Young University.

History Guide
This database is a subject gateway to history Web sites of scholarly interest. It can be searched by keyword or browsed by region, time period, and subject area. It contains records and links to hundreds of primary source collections. From the Göttingen State and University Library.

History Matters
This database is a gateway to Web resources for teachers of U.S. history. Choose "WWW.History" to browse sites by topic and time period. Choose "Many Pasts" to browse a collection of over 900 primary documents. Or choose Full Search to search by keyword and limit by type of primary source and other criteria. The materials in "Many Pasts" emphasize the experiences of "ordinary Americans". From the American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning and the Center for History and New Media.

History On-Line
This database links to hundreds of history Web sites, many of which contain primary sources. Browse, or search by keyword and limit by time period. From the Institute of Historical Research.

History on the Web
A directory of history Web sites, annotated and organized by region and topic. Includes many primary source materials. From the University of Washington Libraries.

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web
This database contains links to over 3000 online exhibitions, many of which contain images. Browse by title or search. From the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

U.S. Government Historic Documents
This is an extensive directory to U.S. Federal government primary sources from the University of Michigan Documents Center.

Search WorldCat for Primary Sources on the Web

WorldCat is a "union catalog" made up of millions of records from the holdings of several thousand libraries. Some libraries create catalog records for useful Web sites and therefore WorldCat can be searched to locate primary source materials Online.

Follow these steps to search for primary sources Online:

Open WorldCat
Enter your topic in the first search box
Enter an appropriate subheading such as "sources" or "diaries" in the second line
Change the second pull down box to "Subject"
Important: Click the checkbox in front of "Internet Resources"

Some of the results will be for electronic books and databases you may not have access to. But many records will be for freely available Web sites that may be useful. Follow the links.

Use a Search Engine

Search engines are very useful for locating specific primary source documents. If you use Google, put the names of specific documents in quotation marks.

Example:

"war powers resolution"

For broader searches, add terms like "documents", "primary sources", or "papers" to your search string.

Examples:

world war ii primary sources
roosevelt papers

Explore Important Collections of Digitized Primary Sources on the Web

The Web sites listed below are examples of important collections of digitized primary sources available on the Web. Use the strategies outlined above to find other collections on the topic in which you are interested. This list is highly selective and focuses primarily on U.S. History.

American Journeys
"American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later." Search or browse by expedition, settlement, geographic region, state or province. From the Wisconsin Historical Society.

American Memory
"American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections." Search or browse by topic, time period, geography, or format. From the Library of Congress.

American Presidency Project
Nearly 40,000 documents related to the study of the American Presidency including the Public Papers of the President, State of the Union and inaugural addresses, presidential debates, national party platforms, and more. From UC Santa Barbara.

American Rhetoric - Online Speech Bank
"A Growing database of full text, audio and video (streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events."

Archival Research Catalog
The Archival Research Catalog (ARC) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) can be used to search a subset of NARA documents that are available online. The tips page offers searching advice by subject area. Select the yellow button to open ARC and click the checkbox to limit to "Descriptions of Archival Materials linked to digital copies."

Avalon Project at Yale Law School
"The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government." Search, browse by time period, or collection.

Core Documents of U.S. Democracy
"The basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society." This includes "cornerstone" documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and from recent years: Congressional bills, the Congressional Record, public and private laws, the U.S. Code, Supreme Court decisions, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, the Statistical Abstract of the United States, and much more. From GPO Access.

Digital Schomburg
A selection of images and texts from the Shomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Collections include African American Women Writers of the 19th Century and Images of African Americans from the 19th Century.

Documenting the American South
"Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Currently DocSouth includes seven thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs. " From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

FDR Library Digital Archives
Includes over 13,000 pages from the "President's Secretary's File", over 1000 images, and Roosevelt's Fireside Chats. From the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Historical Census Browser
"The data presented here describe the population and economy of U.S. states and counties from 1790 to 1960. The available data differ somewhat from decade to decade, according to what was collected in the census and the items chosen for transcription to electronic form. For the early decades, most of the enumerated items are included. For later decades, only a portion of characteristics have been transcribed." From the University of Virginia Library.

Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
"Since its inception in 1957 the United States Commission on Civil Rights has been at the forefront of efforts by the Federal government and state governments to examine and resolve issues related to race, ethnicity, religion and, more recently, sexual orientation." Historical documents arranged by title, date, subject, and SUDOC number. From the Thurgood Marshall Law Library.

History Channel - Speech Archive
Listen to hundreds of 20th Century speeches. Categories include politics and government, war and diplomacy, science and technology, arts and entertainment. Requires RealPlayer (free download).

Making of America - Cornell University Library
"The Making of America project is a collaborative effort by the libraries of Cornell University and the University of Michigan to present digital copies of primary source materials published in the United States from before the American Civil War to the 1920s. Journals and other periodicals are the principal publications available, as well as some book titles. The fields of education, American history, religion, sociology, psychology, religion, and science and technology are especially well represented."

Making of America - University of Michigan Library
See entry for Making of America - Cornell University Library, above. The two Web sites hold different collections.

Women Working, 1800-1930
"Provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University's library and museum collections. The collection features: 7,500 pages of manuscripts, 3,500 books and pamphlets, and 1,200 photographs."

World War II Poster Collection
A comprehensive collection of over 300 posters issued by U.S. Federal agencies from the onset of war through 1945. Search by word or phrase and browse by date, title or topic. From Northwestern University Library

Archives and Manuscripts Collections

Researchers have access to unpublished primary source documents found in special collections on campus, and at other locations in the Chapel Hill area.

Be aware that special procedures and policies are in place in all archives and manuscripts collections and that using archival materials can be time consuming.

Special Collections at UNC Chapel Hill:
    Southern Historical Collection
    Southern Folklife Collection
    University Archives
    North Carolina Collection
    Rare Books Collection
    Southern Oral History Program
    Government Documents
    Maps Collection

See Manuscripts Research Tutorial for detailed information on working with manuscripts and the collections available at UNC- Chapel Hill.

Other Local Special Collections:
    Duke University Archives
    Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library
    North Carolina Office of Archives & History

Other Guides to Finding and Using Primary Sources

Using Primary Sources on the Web
How reliable are the primary sources you find on the Web? Who maintains the site? Are documents transcribed or scanned? This guide includes important information on evaluating and citing primary sources located on the Web. From the American Library Association.

Suggested Resources for Beginning General Historical Research
This is a guide to library and Web resources for beginning and undergraduate historical research. From the Davis Library Reference Department.

Manuscripts Research Tutorial
"A self-paced instructional module designed to introduce you to the methods of finding and using primary source materials with specific strategies for identifying the holdings in the Manuscripts Department at UNC Chapel Hill." From the UNC Chapel Hill Manuscripts Department.

Making Sense of Evidence
This site includes strategies for analyzing various types of primary source materials and interviews/case studies with leading scholars. From History Matters.

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