Research Guides: History Research Guide: Primary Sources

What's a Primary Source?

Primary sources are documents created at the time of interest. They offer a firsthand or "primary" view of historical events, people and topics. Examples include:

Letters
Diaries
Sermons
Financial records
Newspaper articles published at the time
Government and institutional documents

Historical Census Data Online

Statistical Abstract of the United States
Statistics on U.S. social and economic conditions.

Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts
The Census Bureau has collected and digitized selected population and housing data from earlier censuses.
National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)
Provides easy access to summary tables and time series of population, housing, agriculture, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for years 1790 through the present and for all levels of U.S. census geography, including states, counties, tracts, and blocks

Primary Sources in Print and Microfilm

The Mansfield Library owns thousands of books and microfilm reels that contain transcriptions or reproductions of personal papers, business records and government agency records. Search in OneSearch for keywords or title words such as sources, papers or papers of, documents or documents of, manuscripts, records, diary or diaries, journal or journals, narrative or narratives, reminiscences, letters and similar terms.

Some examples:

Documents of Soviet History (book)
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower (book)
Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs: Central Classified Files, 1907-1939 (microfilm)
Western Americana, Frontier History of the Trans-Mississippi West, 1550-1900 (microfilm)
Women’s Studies Manuscript Collections from the Schlesinger Library, Series 2, Women in National Politics (microfilm)
Journals published by state historical societies, such as Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, often contain transcripts of primary source accounts of life and activities in that state.

Primary Sources in Library Databases (see also Newspapers)

Use your NetID and password to access library databases off campus.

Access NewspaperARCHIVE
Full text digitized pages of U.S. and global newspapers from 1607-present. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword and date.
African American Newspapers
Full text digitized newspapers from the 1800s, written by African Americans for African Americans. Also provides early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection (Series I-VII)
Full text digitized pages of over 7,200 American historical journals and magazines, the majority published 1693-1877. New for Sept 2024: Part VI adds more than 150 titles running up to 1923. Part VII adds over 190 new titles, 1812-1976 (mostly from the 1840s to early 1900s). The library does not license Part VIII. Note: Access the collection from Gale Primary Sources to cross-search a wider range of digital collections.
American Periodicals Series
Full text digitized reproductions of more than 1,500 eighteenth and nineteenth century American newspapers and periodicals archived at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL). Titles include general interest, children's, women's, early scientific, and professional publications that chronicle the development of America across 150 years published from 1740-1940.
American State Papers
Full text digitized legislative and executive documents of the first 14 U.S. Congresses (1789-1838), many originating from the period between 1789 and the beginning of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in 1817. Note: Go to Readex AllSearch to include the U.S. Congressional Serial Set (1817-1994) in your search.
Black Abolitionist Papers
Full text of over 15,000 digitized primary sources including correspondence; speeches, sermons, and lectures; articles, essays, and editorials from more than 200 newspapers; and poems and other miscellaneous documents from African Americans involved in the abolition movement between 1830-1865, with the majority of content coming from the U.S., Canada, and the British Isles.
Burney Collection - Seventeenth & Eighteenth Century Newspapers
Full text digitized newspapers, pamphlets, proclamations, and newsbooks from 17th and 18th century English news media. Mainly materials published in London, with some papers from provincial England, Ireland, Scotland, the American colonies, Europe, and India. Note: Access the collection from Gale Primary Sources to cross-search a wider range of digital collections.
Chicago Defender Historical
(1909-1975) Full text digitized newspaper covering politics, society, and events of the time from an African-American perspective
Chicago Tribune Historical
(1849-2014) Full text digitized newspaper. Includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover.
Digital National Security Archive
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.
• Afghanistan: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1973–1990
• Argentina, 1975-1980: The Making of U.S. Human Rights Policy
• The Berlin Crisis, 1958–1962
• Chile and the United States: U.S. Policy toward Democracy, Dictatorship, and Human Rights, 1970–1990
• China and the United States: From Hostility to Engagement, 1960–1998
• CIA Covert Operations: From Carter to Obama, 1977-2010
• CIA Covert Operations II: The Year of Intelligence, 1975
• CIA Family Jewels Indexed
• Colombia and the United States: Political Violence, Narcotics, and Human Rights, 1948-2010
• The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
• The Cuban Missile Crisis: 50th Anniversary Update
• The Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited: An International Collection, From Bay of Pigs to Nuclear Brink
• Death Squads, Guerrilla War, Covert Ops, and Genocide: Guatemala and the United States, 1954-1999
• Electronic Surveillance and the National Security Agency: From Shamrock to Snowden
• El Salvador: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–1984
• El Salvador: War, Peace, and Human Rights, 1980–1994
• Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–1980
• The Iran-Contra Affair: The Making of a Scandal, 1983–1988
• Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. Policy and the Prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980–1994
• Japan and the United States: Diplomatic, Security, and Economic Relations, 1960–1976
• Japan and the United States: Diplomatic, Security, and Economic Relations, 1977–1992
• Japan and the United States: Diplomatic, Security, and Economic Relations, Part III, 1961-2000
• The Kissinger Conversations, Supplement: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969–1977
• The Kissinger Conversations, Supplement II: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969-1977
• The Kissinger Telephone Conversations: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969-1977
• The Kissinger Transcripts: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969-1977
• Mexico-United States Counternarcotics Policy, 1969-2013
• Nicaragua: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1978–1990
• Peru: Human Rights, Drugs and Democracy, 1980-2000
• The Philippines: U.S. Policy During the Marcos Years, 1965–1986
• Presidential Directives on National Security, Part I: From Truman to Clinton
• Presidential Directives on National Security, Part II: From Truman to George W. Bush
• South Africa: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1962–1989
• The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947–1991
• Terrorism and U.S. Policy, 1968–2002
• U.S. Espionage and Intelligence, 1947–1996
• U.S. Intelligence and China: Collection, Analysis and Covert Action
• The U.S. Intelligence Community: Organization, Operations and Management, 1947–1989
• The U.S. Intelligence Community After 9/11
• U.S. Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction: From World War II to Iraq
• U.S. Military Uses of Space, 1945–1991
• U.S. Nuclear History, 1969-1976: Weapons, Arms Control, and War Plans in an Age of Strategic Parity
• U.S. Nuclear History: Nuclear Arms and Politics in the Missile Age, 1955–1968
• U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy, 1945–1991
• U.S. Policy in the Vietnam War, Part I: 1954-1968
• U.S. Policy in the Vietnam War, Part II: 1969-1975
• The United States and the Two Koreas, Part II, 1969-2010
• The United States and the Two Koreas (1969-2000)
Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Full text digitized pages of 132,600 works printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America from 1473-1700. Mostly English, but also covers more than 30 languages from Algonquin to Welsh, and variant editions and multiple copies. Includes transcriptions of many thousands of works created by the Text Creation Partnership.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
Full text of over 136,000 English-language books, tracts, and printed ephemera published in the UK between 1701-1800, plus thousands from elsewhere. Primarily in English, also contains works in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Welsh. Access provided by the Mansfield Library and the UM Law School. Note: Access the collection from Gale Primary Sources to cross-search a wider range of digital collections.
Electronic Enlightenment
Full text edited correspondence from the most eminent thinkers and writers of the early 17th to mid-19th century, linking people across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Access limited to 1 user at a time. Note: This is an http site. If your browser automatically changes the link to https, manually change it to http in your browser window so you can connect to the resource.
"Too many concurrent users" indicates that the database is already being used by the maximum allowable number of users. Try to access the database at a different time.

It is recommended that users of this database do the following to limit concurrency turnaways and to allow for other users to gain access to the database: 1) Ensure all browsers are set to enable cookies or the system may log each individual piece of content on a page as a new request and register it as a separate session; 2) Log out completely after finishing a session. If the log out button is not selected upon exiting the database, it may take up to 20 minutes for the session to expire; 3) Use only one open browser per session. Multiple browser windows may be logged as separate sessions.
History Vault
Full text of several million pages of digitized primary source materials drawn from the National Archives, presidential libraries, and the archival papers of key organizations and individuals, presented in eight modules: (1) Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records, (2) Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1, (3) NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files, (4) NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces, (5) Slavery and the Law (1775-1867), (6-7) Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records, Parts 1 and 2, (8) Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975. Note: Beginning July 2024, History Vault moved to a new interface. The former version is available from History Vault (Legacy).
Lily, The: A Temperance and Feminist Newspaper, 1849-1856
Full text digitized version of the first newspaper for women, covering temperance, child-bearing and education, women's rights, and laws, among other topics.
Los Angeles Times Historical
(1881-2016) Full text digitized newspaper. Includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover.
Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926
Full text of nearly 22,000 legal treatises on U.S. and British law including casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, speeches, and other works from the influential writers and legal scholars of the era. Note: Access the collection from Gale Primary Sources to cross-search a wider range of digital collections.
New York Times Historical
(1851-2021) Full text digitized newspaper articles. Includes complete paper, cover-to-cover.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Full text digitized newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. Includes major newspapers as well as those published by African Americans, Native Americans, women's rights groups, labor groups, the Confederacy, and other groups and interests. Also included are illustrated papers that bring the nineteenth century to life through the drawings of many artists. Note: Access the collection from Gale Primary Sources to cross-search a wider range of digital collections.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
This is a comprehensive index to the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States. The content reflects the history of twentieth-century America. Approximately 375 magazines and periodicals are included.
Sabin Americana (1500-1926)
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.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994
This database contains House and Senate documents and reports. It began publication with the 15th Congress. Documents before 1817 may be found in the American State Papers. It includes committee reports related to bills and other matters, presidential communications to Congress, treaty materials and more.
Washington Post Historical Archive
(1877-2008) Full text digitized newspaper. Includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover.

Free Primary Sources (see also Newspapers)

American Presidency Project, The
The non-profit and non-partisan American Presidency Project contains 133,619 presidential and non-presidential documents.
Avalon Project at Yale Law School
Digital documents (transcripts, not scans of the originals) relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government.
Calisphere (California Digital Library)
This collection contains more than 200,000 digitized items, including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts revealing the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history.
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Over 17,000 maps online. Collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North and South American maps but also has maps from around the world. Collection includes atlases, maritime charts, globes, city and county maps, and more. You will need to download a plug-in to view more than a thumbnail image.
Documenting the 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 sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
Europeana Collections
Explore 58,222,927 artworks, artefacts, books, films and music from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives.
Google Books
Currently the largest source of e-books. To limit your search to free books, choose "Full view only" and "Books" in the advanced search mode.
Harvard Digital Collection
Harvard Digital Collections provides free, public access to over 6 million objects digitized from Harvard collections - from ancient art to modern manuscripts and audiovisual materials.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
The Library of Congress provides access to primary-source material relating to the history and culture of the U.S. Find correspondence, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, sheet music and more.
Making of America at Cornell University Library
The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is comprised of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. It is now searchable via Hathi Trust.
Making of America at University of Michigan
Digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
Online Library of Liberty
A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
This database has information on almost 35,000 slaving voyages.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library (WDL) is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world. The WDL makes available significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.