Definitions
What makes a source
primary?
Depends on the topic;
it can be complicated.
Talk specifics with your advisor.
Very basic, simplistic definition:
What is a primary source?
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Search the Library Catalog for primary sources--both unpublished manuscripts and modern editions in print and online, sometimes in translation, of original primary sources.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 the guided keyword search with terms like:
sources
diaries
personal narrative
interview
letters
Newspapers Tips
With the exception of the
collections listed here,
newspapers are generally
not available full text before 1980,
especially non-US papers.
But older newspapers are
often available on microfilm
and can be interlibrary loaned.
There will be no index and
using newspapers on microfilm
is hard, time-consuming work.
To locate newspapers on
microfilm, use Worldcat:
country = subject
newspaper* = keyword,
limit = serial publications
format = microfilm.
Do NOT specify dates.
Digital Primary Source Collections
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)ECCO is a comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which has aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera. Subject categories include history and geography; fine arts and social sciences; medicine, science, and technology; literature and language; religion and philosophy; law; general reference. Also included are significant collections of women writers of the eighteenth century, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare. Where they add scholarly value or contain important differences, multiple editions of each individual work are offered.
- Gale Primary SourcesCross-search multiple Gale collections including Making of the Modern World, Eighteenth Century and Nineteenth Century collections, Making of Modern Law, and other Archives products.
- Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO)A collection of digitized editions of texts concerning economic, political, legal, and ecclesiastical history, such as treasury accounts, chronicles, papal registers, etc.
- Bloomsbury Fashion CentralFashion history as well as contemporary fashion. Content is peer reviewed by industry and academic experts and includes interconnected major reference works, exclusive articles, scholarly eBooks, case studies, biographies, lesson plans, bibliographic guides, textbooks, video content, runway and backstage photos from fashion shows, and tens of thousands of images from museums around the world to create a rich educational resource.
Historical Newspapers
- The Times digital archive, 1785-2006 Full-text and full-image articles from the Times of London for the years 1785-2006.
- 17th and 18th century Burney collection newspapersSearchable full-text access to the British Library's collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817)--the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. More than twelve hundred titles and almost one million pages are included. These rare and restricted documents are now available online and students and academics can conduct full-text searches of titles spanning from Parliamentary papers and the London daily news to the latest English humour of the 1600s.
- 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.
Government Documents
- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (1688-to present) Full text with detailed subject indexing.
- British Records on the Atlantic World Consists of 12 collections of manuscript material found in England. Includes materials such as journals, correspondence, official records, personal papers, and printed books from over a two hundred year period, all related to British involvement in the Atlantic region, including both Africa and the Americas. It has a wealth of information about Britain’s colonization, commercial, missionary and even literary relations with Africa and the Americas. Alongside the records of Liverpool merchants involved in the infamous Triangular Trade, there are those of slave plantation owners, of early Anglican missionaries, and of naval and customs officials.
- British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Included are the House of Commons Journal and House of Lords Journal
- Finding British Sessional Papers at Cornell
- The making of modern law: legal treatises 1800-1926. The Nineteenth Century and Twentieth Century Legal Treatises microfilm collections and 21,000 Anglo-American legal works including casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, speeches as well as material that isn't narrowly legal.