Research Guides: History: Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources are original documents or artifacts created during the time period being studied. They often include firsthand or eyewitness accounts or have an inside view of a particular event.

Original documents include advertisements, artwork, autobiographies, diaries, government documents (bills, laws, congressional hearings, etc.), interviews, letters, newspaper articles, official records, oral histories, photographs, posters, raw research data, speeches, etc.

Subscription Digital Archives

American Race Relations Global Perspectives, 1941-1996 This link opens in a new window Global reporting and analysis of 20th-century U.S. race relations
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Civil Rights in America From Reconstruction to the Great Society This link opens in a new window Official publications and primary source documents related to a century of civil rights issues in the United States
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African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest, 1883-1922 This link opens in a new window Primary documents in African American history under enforced racial segregation
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African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883 This link opens in a new window Primary documents in African American history following the Civil War
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HarpWeek This link opens in a new window Full-text historical content from Harper's Weekly magazine, 1857-1912
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New York Times Digital Edition This link opens in a new window Create an account for full-text access to the digital version of the New York Times, 1851 to the present, on any device
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Primary Sources Online

As always, use discretion before relying on websites. Verify that the source is what it says it is by searching for the title elsewhere. When in doubt: check with your professor.

Avalon Project From Yale Law: Covers law, history, and diplomacy.
British History Online A "digital library of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800."
Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1925 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Document Bank of Virginia (DBVa) Library of Virginia's initiative to provide students with primary resources from Virginia. CONTENT WARNING: Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.
EuroDocs From BYU: Primary European documents covering prehistory to modern Europe.
Founders Online Over 184,000 searchable documents, fully annotated, from the authoritative Founding Fathers Papers projects.
Freedmen's Bureau Search Portal | Smithsonian primary sources on topics related to slavery and Reconstruction in the papers of the United States Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau
Hanover College Historical Texts Collection Ancient and modern, North American and global. Many letters and personal accounts.
Hansard: British Parliamentary Archives "Produced from digitised editions of Commons and Lords Hansard, the Official Report of debates in Parliament."
Historypin "A place for people to share photos and stories, telling the histories of their local communities." Hit or miss, but worth checking.
Internet Archive (archive.org) A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
Library of Congress: Digital Collections Access to print, pictorial and audio-visual collections and other digital services
Old Bailey Online A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
Online Library of Liberty A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets.
Pamplin Historical Park and the Museum of the Civil War Soldier: Archives Artifacts and images, a large archive of documents dating from the 18th to 20th Centuries – including the famed Wiley Sword Collection
Primary Source Sets | Digital Public Library of America From the Digital Public Library of America. Explore the rest of the site, too.
Times Machine (NYT Archive) Over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared. If it asks for a login, sign up for a free account through SU's New York Times subscription.
Learn & Explore | Virginia Museum of History & Culture Browse through 16,000 years of Virginia history by topic or time period.
Virginia Memory Online exhibits from the Library of Virginia, which maintains vast and varied collections that tell the history of the commonwealth and its people
Virginia Untold Library of Virginia's Virginia Untold provides access to pre-1865 African American history and genealogy found in primary sources
World Digital Library A joint project of the U.S. Library of Congress and the U.N. Books, manuscripts, maps, and other primary materials, from 8000 BCE to 2000 CE.

Primary Source Images

Wikimedia Commons Crowd-sourced images: a good source for buildings, outdoor monuments, and architecture.
The Commons on Flickr
Getty Open Content images of artworks from the J. Paul Getty Museum available for free download under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)
Library of Congress Photos, Prints, Drawings
The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Digital Public Library of America

Government Documents

U.S. Congressional Record Official recordings of Congressional sessions, including speeches, debates, etc.
Public papers of recent U.S. Presidents
U.S. State Department History
Presidential libraries and museums

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window Full-text access to law journals, U.S. government publications, case law, treaties, and more
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Shenandoah University Archives

Archives and Special Collections
by Kathy Evans Last Updated Mar 25, 2024 177 views this year

The Huffer-McAdams Memorial Archives, known as the University Archives, is on the second floor of Smith Library. It houses the Shenandoah Collection of archival materials relating to the history of the university. Access is available by appointment.

Examples of materials in the archives include annual reports and financial statements, accreditation self-studies, the Zynodoa yearbook, and publications by current and former faculty and alumni, as well as books and materials concerning the history and development of the university.

Searching the SU Library Catalog

Use better keywords! These terms can help you find primary sources:

sources, archives, archival sources
personal narratives, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies
letters, correspondence
interviews
pamphlets
maps
speeches

Example: "civil war" memoir

Try Advanced Search

Follow these steps to begin searching for primary sources:

Click the Advanced Search link above.
Enter your topic word(s) in the first search box.
Enter an appropriate keyword such as "sources" or "diaries" in the second box.
Try changing the second drop-down box to "Identifier; Subject" to see if this improves your results.

Depending on what limits you choose, you may retrieve a wide range of results, including archival collections, books, ebooks, and databases at other institutions to which SU may not have access. However, the results may also include freely available websites, which may be of particular interest.

Just follow the links in the catalog records to find the material you are interested in. If you locate a book, journal, or microfilmed item in WorldCat that SU does not hold, do not hesitate to request it through interlibrary loan.

Using Google Advanced Search for Primary Sources

Google Advanced Search

Primary Sources in Google Advanced Search
Follow the example in this screenshot, using your own keywords.

Primary Source Research Guides

These guides from other universities contain dozens of links to primary source materials. You will not have access to everything.