Your Librarian
Primary Source Keywords
Consider using these keywords when searching for primary sources using library catalogs:
- records
- manuscripts
- writings
- papers
- letters
- corresondence
- documents
- sources
About Primary Sources
These websites contain information about primary sources - what they are, where to find them, and how to use them in your research:
Using Primary Sources on the Web (American Library Association)
Why Study History Through Primary Sources? (Fordham)
How to Read a Primary Source (Bowdoin)
Library Research Using Primary Sources (Berkeley)
Primary Source Databases and Websites
- Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
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Full text digitized declassified government documents from 1945-present regarding U.S. policy toward critical world events, with each module organized around a distinct topic and time period. See more… for a listing of the specific modules acquired by the library. Produced by the nongovernmental National Security Archive.
- National Security ArchiveAn independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States.
- Sabin Americana (1500-1926) This link opens in a new window
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Full text digitized books, pamphlets, serials and other documents of original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and more about the Americas, published throughout the world. Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana. Note: Access the collection from Gale Primary Sources to cross-search a wider range of digital collections.
- SALALM-Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library MaterialsThis site provides links to open access digitized collections of primary sources that relate to Latin America and the Caribbean. The materials listed are freely available to the public and were created or are hosted at an academic institution associated with SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials), either through institutional membership or through the personal membership of a staff member. The sources linked below range from collections of Mexican incunabula (1559-1600), to Latin American posters. The site is organized by format “Historical Texts by Country“, “Historical Texts General“, “Statistics“, “Recorded or Audiovisual Source“, “Visual Material by Country“, “Visual Material General“, and “Miscellaneous.”
- US Department of State Virtual Reading RoomLinks to documents / collections made available through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and to other websites with digitized federal government documents.
- Digital Archive of the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (UTexas, Austin)• A product of broad international collaboration, these digitized documents from the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (AHPN) aim to facilitate scholarly and legal research into a vast cache of historical documentation. The discovery of the National Police Historical Archive in 2005 opened an extensive and timely resource for the study of Guatemalan history and human rights in the region, spanning a broad array of topics from Guatemala's armed conflict between 1960 and 1996 to the sexually transmitted disease experiments performed at the behest of the United States government in the 1940s. This site currently includes over 10 million scanned images of documents from the National Police Historical Archive. This digital archive mirrors and extends the physical archive that remains preserved in Guatemala as an important historical patrimony of the Guatemalan people.
- Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)• The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. Includes “Panama and the Canal,” “Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library,” among many other collections.
- University of Miami Libraries Cuban Heritage Collection (CHC) Digital Collections• This is a rich group of digitized collections of manuscripts, photographs, letters, maps and other resources on different aspects of Cuban history. Way too many to list here, but just for example:
Lydia Cabrera Papers
Letters, photographs, research notes, and manuscripts from the papers of Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991), one of the 20th century's leading writers on Afro-Cuban religion and culture.
Cordovés and Bolaños Families Collection
Letters, documents, and photographs from Cuba's 19th-century Wars of Independence and the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Cuban Refugee Center Records
Selected photographs and newsletters from the 1960s and 70s published by the Cuban Refugee Program, a federal program that provided education, medical, employment, and relocation services to Cuban refugees. Photographs primarily depict refugee families and service activities coordinated by the Program. - LANIC (Latin American Network Information Center), University of Texas: Castro Speech DatabaseThis database includes speeches, interviews, etc., by Fidel Castro from 1959 to 1996. All texts are in English. . . "Castro Speech" is a database containing the full-text translations of speeches, interviews, and press conferences by Fidel Castro, based upon the records of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), a U.S. government agency responsible for monitoring broadcast and print media in countries throughout the world. These records are in the public domain.
- Museum of Memory and Human Rights (Chile) Digital LibraryDigitization project underway by the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago de Chile, inaugurated in 2010 with both state and private support. Documents focused primarily on the human rights violations in Chile between 1973-1990, but some reference to other Latin American experiences.
- International Human Rights Project (Chile)This is an NGO formed in London to contribute to the struggle for justice in Chile. Most of the information and documents are in Spanish, but they are trying to get more and more translated to English. The link here takes you to the small English-language site, which does include some testimonies from human rights victims. If you read Spanish, the full site will contain much more.
- American MemoryLibrary of Congress website providing free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. American Memory currently makes available more than 100 collections and more than 9 million individual items.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
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Full text access to full runs of law journals, but also to the Federal Register, US Statutes at Large, presidential documents, the Congressional Record, Supreme Court opinions, and Foreign Relations of the United States.
- Biblioteca Digital HispanicaPortal to the digital library collections of the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana.
- A Continent Divided: The U.S.-Mexico War, University of Texas ArlingtonThis site contains a lot of primary documents of various sorts. Under the Browse Tab, click Documents.
- David Rumsey Map CollectionThe historical map collection has over 28,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaDPLA is a portal which provides access to a united collection of millions of digitized items drawn from archives, libraries and museums located throughout the United States.
- EuropeanaMulti-lingual online collection of millions of digitized items from European museums, libraries, archives and multi-media collections.
- Latin American Pamphlet Digital CollectionThese pamphlets from the 19th and 20th centuries document the emergence of the Latin American colonies as independent states, and illuminate many aspects of their populations' social and cultural life. Many pamphlets are devoted to boundary disputes, territorial expansion, the description of unexplored territories and the relationship between Church and State.
- What Chilean Diplomats Learned About the HolocaustRichard Breitman, Professor of History, American University
IWG Director of Historical Research
IWG Report by Historian Richard Breitman, based on these newly-declassified records
In the early part of World War II American diplomats and other diplomats from countries not at war with Germany had very limited ability to observe what took place in territories conquered by Germany.1 One neutral observer, however, had a unique vantage point for judging Nazi efforts against Jews. The despatches of the Chilean consul in Prague demonstrate what someone with good connections and in the right place could learn about the onset of the Holocaust by late November 1941.
These reports are also relevant to the longstanding debate about how much the West learned of the Holocaust at the time, because the British secretly managed to obtain these Chilean despatches and shared them with American intelligence officials.
- Central American BroadsidesThis collection features broadsides from the Kenneth Spencer Research Library's William J. Griffith Collection of Guatemala and Central America. Dating from the 1820s to 1922, the broadsides are primarily Guatemalan, with a smaller number from Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Many pertain to national and local politics and include election materials, political manifestos, and government pronouncements.
- Children & Youth in History: Latin AmericaExplore more than 300 annotated primary sources focused on children and youth throughout world history. Read the introductory essay to learn strategies for using these sources critically.
- Our Americas Archive Partnership (OAAP)Our Americas Archive Partnership (OAAP) is a digital archive supported by search tools and teaching materials that provides open access to historical documents on the Americas, which are housed at collaborating institutions.
- A Colony in Crisis: St Domingue Grain Shortage of 1789The website is designed to provide online access to both the French originals and the English translations of key primary sources dealing with the grain shortage faced by the colony of Saint-Domingue in 1789, which are found under the Translations menu. Alongside the French original, each translation is presented with a brief historical introduction to situate the reader in the time period and help understand how this particular pamphlet fits into the episode. Each document has been reviewed by one of the scholars on our Board of Advisors. These pamphlets are primarily drawn from the University of Maryland’s Special Collections, although related items available at other institutions have been included as well.
- Puerto Rican Digitial CollectionsCenter for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College.Welcome to the Centro Archives Digital Collections, a growing resource of material digitized from collections throughout the Archive's holdings. This site provides access to photographs, documents, artifacts, art, maps, oral histories, moving image and audio clips, and other material pertaining to the Puerto Rican diaspora. Highlights include material from the Pura Belpre Papers, Justo A. Marti Photograph Collection, and interviews from Centro's Oral History Project. The Gallery section contains curated content on a variety of topics and people.