LibGuides: American Studies: Primary Resources

Primary v. Secondary - Infographic

Primary versus Secondary Sources

Detailed description of, "Primary vs. Secondary Sources"

Find Primary Sources

The Real Deal

If you are interested in viewing the original primary resource (rather than a preproduction, reprint, or digital version) you will need to visit an archive or special collection. Each archive will collect for a certain topic or time period. Visiting that archive's website and/or online catalog will help you determine what it holds. WorldCat also includes records for archival collections. Some Indianapolis archives and libraries with original primary resources include: IUPUI University Library Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives, Indiana State Library, Indiana State Archives, and Indiana Historical Society.

To best access original archival and manuscript collections via IUCAT, WorldCat or other library catalogs, look for mechanisms in the advanced search functions that allow you to limit by archive or manuscript. For example in WorldCat's Advanced Search screen you can put a check next to Archival Materials.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) Created by the Library of Congress beginning in 1959 this catalog brings together the catalog records for millions of manuscript collections from across United States libraries, archives, museums, etc. 1959-1986 records/indexes are only accessible in print at IUPUI (other libraries may have access to digital versions). See call # Z6620.U5 N3 for those volumes. Post-1959 records are accessible via WorldCat.

ArchiveGrid
Database of archival collections in thousands of libraries and museums around the world.

Reprinted Primary Resources in IUCAT, World Cat, or other library catalogs

Remember that primary sources may be in the form of reprints (monograph compilations, reprinted letters, diaries, microfilm, etc.) Doing a search in a library catalog adding the following subject headings to your keyword search, will help you find these reprints as well as original archival collections:

charters

correspondence

diaries

early works to 1800

interviews

manuscripts

oratory

pamphlets

pictorial works

sources

speeches

Freely Available Digital Primary Resources

Some of the collections of primary resources listed above are freely available resources, digitized and placed online for scholarly use by cultural institutions such as libraries, museums, and historical societies. Many other collections of this nature exist and can be located through a simple Google search. Search strategies for locating possible collections: 1) Try a simple keyword search (Ex. Indianapolis Sanborn maps) 2) Try searching for the museums and libraries geographically or topically related to your research project. (Ex. Indiana Historical Society)

A word of caution, If you are searching the open web for primary sources make sure you carefully evaluate the source and site. Don’t just assume the digitized document is a quality resource.

American History Digital Primary Resources

19th Century U.S. Newspapers (Gale) This link opens in a new window
19th century U.S. newspapers cover-to-cover, providing access to every article, advertisement and illustration. Part of Gale NewsVault where it can be cross-searched with other Gale historical newspaper archives.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
Newspapers from more than 35 states.

AmDocs: Documents for the Study of American History
A section of the WWW Virtual Library. A chronological listing of primary documents and maps related to American History.

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Diaries from North and South, rich and poor, and international visitors.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Housing more than 7 million digitized items, this collection contains items relating to U.S. history, people, politics, and culture. Items include photographs, maps, illustrations, manuscripts, diaries, sheet music, motion pictures, and sound recordings.

American Periodicals (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, and children's and women's magazines.

Amistad Digital Archive
While the educational guides on the site are geared towards a middle and high school audience the primary resources, including: photographs, audio, video, and documents, are of use to all research levels.
Black Panthers Manifesto from Michigan State University
Materials concerning the Black Panther Party, an advocate of the Black Power movement.

Black Studies in Video (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Documentaries, newsreels, interviews and archival footage surveying the evolution of black culture in the United States.
Black Thought & Culture (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Non-fiction published works of leading African Americans, 1700-present.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present" - Chronicling America Homepage.
Civil Rights Digital Library (University of Georgia)
"The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale"- Homepage

Colonial America (Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Materials from the archives of the British government covering 17th and 18th-century American history and the early-modern Atlantic world. We have access to: Module 1: Early Settlement, Expansion and Rivalries, and Module 2: Towards Revolution.

Digital Histories
A collaborative project hosted by the University of Houston's website. Includes primary resources, reusable learning objects, timelines, and more.
Digital Public Library of America
A portal for digital cultural heritage collections from a range of organizations, including the Library of Congress, HathiTrust, and the Internet Archive, universities, libraries, historical societies, museums and beyond from across the United States. Includes books, images, historic records, and audiovisual materials.
Discovering American Women's History Online
Women's history research guide page from Middle Tennessee State University. Features digital collections of primary sources, as well as tools for finding primary resources.
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. Currently DocSouth includes ten thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs." (from website)

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
Lists books published in 17th- and 18th-century America and links to images of the books themselves.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans Supplement From the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) 1652-1800 (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
Books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in the U.S. during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) 1670-1800 (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
Books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in the U.S. during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters (for example, between the French and Huron), 1474-present.
Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
Historical statistics including population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations.
Hoosier State Chronicles This link opens in a new window
Indiana's historic newspapers provided by the Indiana State Library and funded by IMLS under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)

IUPUI University Library Digital Collections
Primarly focusing on Indianapolis history but spanning to all of Indiana the collections include early Indianapolis maps, the full run of The Indianapolis Recorder, early issues of Indianapolis newspapers, images from Indianapolis neighborhoods, civil war telegraph books, German Americana, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and more.

LGBT Thought & Culture This link opens in a new window
Books, articles, and archival materials documenting political, social and cultural movements, 20th century-present.

Making of America: Cornell University
A digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. These collections are particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
Making of America: University of Michigan
A digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. These collections are particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

Migration to New Worlds (Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Movement of people from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia. Includes government documents, diaries, ship logs, oral histories, and secondary research aids.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times with Index (1851-2014) (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Backfile, 1851-latest available. In combination with the Historical New York Times (1851-2005).
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Personal views of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Collection of women's diaries and correspondence spanning more than 300 years.
Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900 (Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
The development of 'popular' medicine in America during the nineteenth century, through material aimed at the general public.
Proquest Congressional (Index 1789-present) This link opens in a new window
Access to U.S. Congressional materials including hearings, bills, Congressional Record, compiled legislative histories, statistical datasets, and more.
Readers' Guide Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Full-text for a broad selection of the most popular periodicals. (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's.
Sixties: Primary Sources and Personal Narratives 1960-1974 (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.

Umbra Search
Umbra: Search African American History (umbrasearch.org) is a free digital platform that brings together content documenting African American history and culture in order to enable the creation of new works—research projects, scholarship, curricula, art of all kinds—that illuminate parts of our history that have not been enough broadly accessible.

Gale in Context: U.S. History This link opens in a new window
Primary documents, reference articles, and journals covering U.S. history from pre-Colonial times to the present. (Access is restricted to Marion County residents only. Access provided by the Marion County Internet Library with support from the Library Fund of The Indianapolis Foundation.)
U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Records and briefs brought before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Valley of the Shadow
Details the life in two American communities, one Northern and one Southern, from the time of John Brown's Raid through the era of Reconstruction. In this digital archive you may explore thousands of original letters and diaries, newspapers and speeches, census and church records, left by men and women in August County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Giving voice to hundreds of individual people, the Valley Project tells forgotten stories of life during the era of the Civil War.

Women and Social Movements in the United States (1600-2000) (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources and documents of women in social movements in the U.S.

Women Working, 1800-1930
"Focuses on women's role in the United States economy and provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University's library and museum collections. The collection features approximately 500,000 digitized pages and images"-collection's website.

Digital Primary Resources: Literature

African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923
Includes digitized sets of parts for about 200 band and salon orchestral arrangements of popular songs by African American Composers.

African American Poetry (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new window
Early history of African American poetry, from 1746 to the major poets of the nineteenth century.
Black Drama (3rd edition) (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Full text of plays written from the mid-1800s-present by playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
Black Short Fiction and Folklore (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Literary magazines, short stories and folktales.
Black Women Writers (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Fiction, poetry, and essays of women from Africa and the African Diaspora.
Latin American Women Writers (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Prose, poetry, drama, and essays by women writing in Mexico, Central America, and South America.
Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction This link opens in a new window
Fiction, poetry, and plays representing the Chicano culture and all the different ethnicities of Latin American writers with a Hispanic background working in the United States.

Women Writers Online
...is a full-text collection of early women’s writing in English, published by the Brown University Women Writers Project. It includes full transcriptions of texts published between 1526 and 1850, focusing on materials that are rare or inaccessible. The range of genres and topics covered makes it a truly remarkable resource for teaching and research, providing an unparalleled view of women’s literate culture in the early modern period.

American Studies

Primary v. Secondary - Infographic

​Find Primary Sources

American History Digital Primary Resources

Digital Primary Resources: Literature

Find Primary Sources