Research Guides: Reference Resources: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary sources include original records, data, or manuscripts, and they are presented without commentary or interpretation. Examples include the following:

speeches
photographs
posters
letter
diaries
newspaper and magazine articles that report on an event (shortly after that event occurred)
poems, novels, plays, or other original literary works
scholary articles describing original research done by the author

This guide focuses on primary sources/documents as they relate to the study of history. Literary works and scholarly research articles may be accessed through other Research Guides.

Other Primary Source Web Sites

100 Milestone Documents
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates
AMDOCS Documents for the Study of American History
American Memory, Library of Congress
Annals of Congress, 1789-1824
Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School
Avalon Project: The Middle East 1916-2001 -- A Documentary Record, Yale Law School
Core Documents of Our Democracy, U.S. Government Printing Office
Cornell University Collection of Political Americana
This collection is "comprised of approximately 5,500 Presidential promotional and commemorative items dating from 1789 to 1980. The collection contains political materials in a variety of formats, including cartoons, prints, and posters; lapel buttons, ribbons, textiles, hats, and other costume items; ballots, broadsides, leaflets, and other ephemera; pamphlets and other formal publications; sheet music and songbooks; and a variety of three-dimensional items."
Digital Bodleian, University of Oxford
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
"The DPLA offers a single point of access to millions of items—photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States....Users can also explore digital exhibitions curated by the DPLA’s content partners and staff."
Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention
Making of America, Cornell University
This is a "digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction." Joint project of Cornell University and University of Michigan.
Making of America, University of Michigan
This is a "digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction." Joint project of Cornell University and University of Michigan.
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration: Online Exhibits
Digital Collections for the Classroom, Newberry Library

Library Databases for Historical Newspapers and Other Primary Historical Documents

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HeinOnline: The Modern Link to Legal History This link opens in a new window Features archival access to select law reviews and law journals; documents by and about U.S. presidents; historical and contemporary reports and books about the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kean University New Jersey History Project This link opens in a new window “Trevar Riley-Reid created this collection within the HathiTrust Digital Library, which contains the full text of documents on the history of the state of New Jersey.”
New Jersey Historical Newspapers (Readex) This link opens in a new window Provides access to late 18th and 19th century New Jersey newspapers.
Periodicals Archive Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window Provides archival access to journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences; Periodicals Archive Online does not provide the most recent issues but instead provides access to a journal's older issues.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (VALE) This link opens in a new window Digital image archive of the New York Times beginning in September 1851 and ending several years before the current year.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law (HeinOnline) -- Complimentary This link opens in a new window Features "a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world...[including] every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery." The collection also provides access to full-text books as well as articles from periodicals, proceedings, reports, and other publications.

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