Lalla
James Stephanoff. Lalla Rookh (detail), 1826. Watercolor and gouache. Yale Center for British Art Collection. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Special exhibit
The Songs of Lalla Rookh Across Space & Time
Special Collections & Archives, Queen's University, Belfast
Useful Tips
Browse footnotes and bibliographies of books, encyclopedias, and articles for information about primary sources.
Search the Library Catalog for primary sources--both unpublished manuscripts and modern editions in print and online, sometimes in translation, of original primary sources. Use keywords such as:
- sources
- diaries
- personal narratives
- interviews
- letters
- correspondence
What is Microfilm?
When you can't find published primary sources, you may be able to get ahold of electronic or microfilm copies
Much archival primary source material has been filmed over the years, but using it will take some getting used to. Ask for help with microfilm, microfiche, or microcards at a reference desk!
Using Microfilm
A sense of what it is and how you use it
Recommended databases
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British PeriodicalsA fully searchable database that provides the full text of periodical articles published in Britain from the 1680s to the 1930s. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences, literature, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.
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Victorian Popular CultureAn essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Consists of four components: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; and Moving pictures, optical entertainments & the advent of cinema. Includes full-text, full-color reproductions of books, ephemera, handbills, pamphlets, photos, posters, programs, scripts, and other types of materials. Coverage is most extensive for Great Britain; but there is also a fair range of materials for the U.S.A.
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Gale 19th Century Collections OnlineNineteenth Century Collections Online provides full-text, searchable content from a broad range of primary sources including a variety of material types: monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more. Selected with guidance of an international team of experts, these primary sources cover a wide range of academic disciplines and areas of study. They include works in Western and non-Western languages, and are sourced from rare collections at libraries and other venerable institutions from around the globe.
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Gale: Primary Sources[was Artemis: Primary Sources]. Gale Cengage. Subscription.
Cross-searches eighteen of Gale's online digital history resources. Click on "See What's Inside: Learn More" to see the complete list of archives and the date coverage for each archive. All of the news titles in Gale NewsVault are included plus additional collections with partial newspaper content.
Electronic resources
This is just a sampling of the many, many primary resources available in electronic form.
Try the "history: primary sources" section of the Cornell library databases list.
- Accessible archivesA site devoted to primary source material in American history. Information archived is from leading historical periodicals and books, and includes eyewitness accounts of historical events, vivid descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records. Databases are encyclopedic in scope and allow full Boolean, group, name, string, and truncated searches. Transcribed individual entries are complete with full bibliographic citations and are organized chronologically. Titles will continue to be added covering important topics and time periods for scholars and students of all academic levels.
- Hathi Trust Digital LibraryAs a digital repository for the nation's great research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the immense collections of partner institutions. It was initially conceived as a collaboration of the thirteen universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the University of California system, and the University of Virginia to establish a repository for those universities to archive and share their digitized collections, and quickly expanded to include additional partners with fast growing treasure of digitized collections.
Internet Archive (archive.org)"The Internet Archive "was founded [in 1996] to build an 'Internet library,' with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format," such as Internet sites and other cultural digital artifacts (i.e. movies, interviews, images, etc.). Using the Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine," users can look at their own Web site and track how it has evolved. Plug-ins are made available as needed. "Special Wayback Collections" provide a sense of how events such as September 11, 2001, were recorded digitally. This site is appropriate for anyone doing research on the history of the Internet and for those who want to see how the Internet has changed over the years." "Best Free Reference Web Sites 2002." RUSA Quarterly, Fall 2002; reviewed Feb. 19, 2002.
Electronic resources: Historical Journal Articles
- JSTORJSTOR is a fully-searchable database containing the back issues of several hundred scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, music, ecology and botany, business, and other fields. It includes the following collections: Arts & sciences I, II and III, General science, Ecology and botany, Business, Language and literature.
- ProQuest Historical NewspapersThis database offers full-text and full-image articles for newspapers dating back to the 19th century. For most titles, the collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue, cover to cover, in downloadable PDF files. The database is an ongoing project.