The University of West Alabama

Online repositories of primary documents for use by History Majors 

 

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/PrimDocsHome.html -- American primary documents

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html -- American documents

http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page -- transcripts, facsimiles, and translations of European documents

http://www.cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php -- early sound recordings

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp  -- international legal documents ancient to modern

www.proquest.com -- newspaper collections going back to the 18^th century

http://www.archive.org/index.php -- music, film, and documents archive

http://bartok.brandonu.ca/specialcollections.aspx -- Fabian Society documents

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/catalogue.aspx?type=2 -- British documents from Middle Ages to present

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook01.html#Student%20Papers%20and%20Projects -- discussion of the concept of primary documents and historiography; additional sites with primary documents

http://gilderlehrman.org/collection/index.html -- American history

http://library.csusm.edu/subject_guides/history/online_primary.asp -- Portal for collections of primary documents in many historical fields and nationalities

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/sections/history/resources/pubs/usingprimarysources/index.cfm -- Discussion of the nature of primary documents, evaluating primary documents, and sources of primary documents online

 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moagrp/ 

http://digital.library.cornell.edu/m/moa/index.html -- Both sites offer access to the “Making of America” program which “is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.”

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/primarysourcesontheweb.html -- Portal for collections of primary documents

http://library.uwa.edu/DBs/db_by_subj.asp#Newspapers -- UWA’s online newspaper collection

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ -- Newspapers

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/primary.html -- Portal for collections of primary documents

http://library.davidson.edu/archivesdb/primaryquery.asp  -- Search American and European documents and primary source websites

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/ -- documents and historical maps of Britain

http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Resources/Type/primary.html -- Portal for collections of primary documents in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe

http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/ -- US documents from pre-colonial to the present

http://www.primarysourcesonline.nl/?view=c -- European primary documents; strong in Russian documents

http://www.archives.gov/index.html -- US National Archives has some documents available online; interlibrary loan might acquire copies of the written records after you search this site and find what you want

http://www.archives.gov/index.html -- “meta index” of archives

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html -- Speeches and public papers of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the US government

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/pubpapers/search.html -- Public papers of the US presidents from George Bush the Elder to George Bush the Younger

http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html -- Portal to North American and international archive websites; most don’t have online access, but you can find material that might be available through interlibrary loan

http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalLibrary.cfm -- Smithsonian Institute Digital Library contains podcasts, webcasts, reprints of lectures, and primary documents in American history

http://www.oaister.org/ -- Search international digital records and documents

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/advanced-search.aspx?tab=1 -- UK National Archives

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/HistResEur/ -- Online guide to archives and libraries in Europe; search for material that might be available through interlibrary loan

http://xooxleanswers.com/newspaperarchives7.aspx -- International source of online accessible newspapers

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/index.html -- A number of resources on the history of slavery in the US including some primary documents

http://docsouth.unc.edu/ -- “Primary resources for the study of Southern history, literature, and culture”

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html -- American slave narratives

http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/archives/page.cgi?d=1 -- Portal to international archive websites

http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/choosepart.html -- Ante-bellum and Civil-War era documents from Virginia

http://www.virtualjamestown.org/slavelink.html -- “Selected Virginia Statutes relating to Slavery”

http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/abolitionism/index.htm -- Slave narratives and primary abolitionist documents

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/doughome.html -- Frederick Douglas papers

http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/index.html -- Historical census browser

http://docsouth.unc.edu/true/  -- Student letters from the University of North Carolina from 1795 to 1868

http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page -- World War One treaties, official papers, letters, diaries, images, links to other sites

http://www.merrycoz.org/ -- 19^th-century children’s literature

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ -- UK primary documents

http://www.teacheroz.com/WWIIDocs.htm -- Portal to World War II primary document sites

http://www.teacheroz.com/wwi.htm#docs -- Portal to World War I primary document sites

http://www.teacheroz.com/civilwar.htm -- Portal to Civil War primary document sites

http://www.teacheroz.com/Native_Americans.htm -- Portal to Native American primary document sites

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/wwii.asp -- World War II primary documents

http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/ -- World War II primary documents

http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page -- Massive portal for European primary documents

http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Germany:_National_Socialism_and_World_War_II -- German primary documents (many translated into English) for World War II

http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/versailles.htm -- Primary documents from World War I in addition to the Treaty of Versailles

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women/wh-wwii.html -- Primary documents relating to American women in World War II

http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/tm/war.html -- Portal for primary documents for most of the belligerents in World War II

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/index.htm -- Primary documents relating to the use of the atomic bomb to end World War II

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/ -- Advertisements in US and Canadian newspapers and magazines from 1911 to 1955

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html -- “‘Man-on-the-Street’ Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor”

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/williamson/ -- Alice Williamson’s diary detailing the occupation of Gallatin, TN, by Union troops in 1864

http://www.historylink101.com/1/world_war_II/research.htm -- Eclectic portal of primary documents on World War II

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/hgp -- Digitized copies of material distributed by the Government Printing Office during World War II

 http://www.historywiz.com/worldwartwo.htm -- Collection of some World War II images relating to the Nazis and the Holocaust

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/index.html -- Primary documents relating to official US reaction (or lack thereof) to the Holocaust

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listdocumentpa.html -- Site dedicated to “Document Based Questions” for teaching history; has a portal to a wide range of primary documents web sites

http://lifelines.midhudson.org/lifelines2/soc-primary-documents.html -- Another site dedicated to “Document Based Questions” which has a portal to a wide range of primary documents web sites

http://www.ushistorysite.com/ -- The site contains lesson plans for US history but also primary source websites; the left-hand panel contains the periodization and clicking on them takes you to primary documents, among other sources

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Ghent.html -- Primary documents on War of 1812

http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/ww2_links.html -- World War II (military) primary documents

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm -- Primary documents of Nazi propaganda (translated)

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ww2.htm -- Massive portal of primary documents relating to World War II

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/wcf/ -- Primary documents from American female journalists during World War II

http://content.lib.washington.edu/postersweb/ -- World Wars I and II posters

http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/ -- Artifacts at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

http://international.loc.gov/intldl/intldlhome.html -- International portal by the Library of Congress for international research, including primary documents

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Indian.html -- “Indian Removal Act” and ancillary events from the Library of Congress

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/fletcher/fletcher.htm -- “Camping with the Sioux: Fieldwork Diary of Alice Cunnigham Fletcher” a 19^th-century ethnographer

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/index.htm -- “Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties”

http://www2.csusm.edu/nadp/ -- Reports of the Board of Indian Commissioners (1871-77)

http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/primarysources.html -- Eclectic source of primary documents relating (even if tangentially) to the formation of the US and to US history from 500 BC to AD 1800

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p1.cfm  -- Primary documents relating to American history from Columbus to the Civil War

http://library.csusm.edu/subject_guides/history/online_primary.asp  -- Portal of American and international websites of primary documents

http://www.franklinpapers.org/franklin/index.jsp?src=g1&gclid=CPuih5SRvZwCFRlinAodSVMJow  -- The papers of Benjamin Franklin

http://www.earlyamerica.com/ -- Links to a few primary documents from the 18^th century

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/ -- North American slave narratives

http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/publication-types/primary-sources#united -- Discussion of how to evaluate primary documents and links to primary document websites in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa

http://www.yale.edu/glc/index.htm -- “Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, & Abolition”

http://www.usouthal.edu/history/faculty/brazy/primary.html -- Sampling of primary document websites for American history

http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/history/by_period.shtml -- British and North American primary documents by time period

http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/ -- Documentary history of Reconstruction

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aapchtml/aapchome.html -- “From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909” [Library of Congress]; browse by title, author, or subject or search by keyword

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/online_king_records_access_okra/ -- Martin Luther King, Jr. papers

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sthtml/sthome.html -- “Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860”

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/ -- Portal of US and British primary document websites

http://www.difp.ie/ -- Irish foreign policy documents, 1919-21, 1923-32

http://www.europeana.eu/portal/ -- European written, pictorial, and film documents

http://www.cems.ox.ac.uk/holinshed/ -- Access to Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland written during the Tudor period

http://www.ibiblio.org/collection/collection.php?primary=11 -- An eclectic site that might have some useful primary source websites

http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces -- Amazing data base of the “almost 35,000 slave voyages”

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/hist_sites.html# -- Historical maps on the internet

http://www.princeton.edu/~mapglobe/HTML/home.html -- Maps and charts depicting the process of globalization

http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/PFP/PFP_Intro.html -- Catholic comic book, Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact,  published from 1946 to 1972 (1946-1963 have been digitized); Pettigrew for President, published in 1964 about a presidential campaign in the future (1976) depicts the nomination of the first African-American for president.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_newspaper_archives -- Collection of newspapers from around the world.  Some are archived so they could be primary documents.  (Yes, it’s on Wikipedia, but sometimes even a blind nut finds a squirrel).

www.bedfordstmartins.com/mapcentral  -- Has a multitude of free historical and physical maps

www.bedfordstmartins.com/doclinks  -- Has links to primary documents in history (including court cases)

www.bedfordstmartins.com/historylinks  -- Has links to history related web sites

http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu:8080/founders/FOEA.html  -- “Founders Early Access” contains primary documents written by the Founding Fathers

http://www.zwangsarbeit-archiv.de/en/index.html  -- Interviews with survivors of the Nazi forced labor program

http://digital.library.cornell.edu/  -- Offers a number of digitized primary sources in various collections

http://wardepartmentpapers.org/index.php  -- “Papers of the War Department, 1784 to 1800”

http://library.uncg.edu/slavery/  -- “Digital Library on American Slavery”

http://www.harpweek.com/  -- Political cartoons from Harper’s Weekly  

http://digitalcollections.harvard.edu/  -- An immense collection of digitized images from Harvard library’s collection covering a wide range of historically relevant topics

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/ -- Primary documents in American history from the National Humanities Center

http://aalt.law.uh.edu/ -- Primary legal documents from Medieval and Early Modern England

http://slavery.yale.edu/ -- A portal containing primary documents at Yale University as well as links to primary documents on “slavery, abolition, and resistance”

http://www.europeana.eu/portal/ -- A portal with links to museums, the visual arts, music, maps, etc.

http://www.histbib.eu/ -- “European Historical Bibliographies” containing links to a number of university and document depository websites.

http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/timeline/historytimeline.html -- Timeline of British history including images of primary sources

http://primary-sources.eui.eu/ -- Portal with links to European primary sources

http://digital.wustl.edu/eyesontheprize/ -- All the interviews of the persons that went into making the documentary, Eyes on the Prize 

http://gale.cengage.co.uk/product-highlights/history/illustrated-london-news.aspx -- Digitized collection of the Illustrated London News from 1842 to 2003.