Primary Sources
The following is a selected list of primary source databases that focus on American materials (books, newspapers, images, articles from earlier periods). For a more comprehensive listing, see the History: Primary Sources database page.
- ProQuest historical newspapersMajor North American and other national newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post from the 19th century until about 2010.
- Ethnic NewsWatchFull-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press from 1960.
- Hispanic American newspapers, 1808-1980Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries. (Also available within available within America's Historical Newspapers.)
- African American Newspapers OnlineUse this guide to find newspapers by and about the African American communities in the US.
- Latin American NewspapersHistorical Latin American newspapers, 1805- 1922. Countries include Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Venezuela.
- Proquest CongressionalA full-text collection of House & Senate Documents, Reports, Hearings, Bills, Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports, and the Congressional Record.
- Archive of Contemporary MusicA not-for-profit music library dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing information about popular music from around the world.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaImages, texts, videos, and sounds from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States.
- NYPL Digital CollectionsDigital collection documenting the history of New York City, and more.
- Internet ArchiveOpen-access text/video archive. Lots of material now in the public domain published before 1926.
- Reader's Guide Retrospective 1890-1982Comprehensive index of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States 1890 through 1982.
- American MemoryThe Library of Congress's primary-source collections on American history and culture, including photographs, documents, sound recordings, and motion pictures.
- America's Historical NewspapersIncludes Early American Newspapers Series 1, 2, 3 and 6, 1690-1922, and African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 and many regional titles as well.
- Times of London Digital ArchiveFull-text and full-image articles from the Times of London for the years 1785-2006.
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975: Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and ProtestTopics include student protests, civil rights, consumerism, and the Vietnam War. The collection includes pamphlets, letters, government files, eye witness accounts, underground magazines, visual and video materials and ephemera and memorabilia, and more.
- The Sixties: primary documents and personal narratives 1960-1974.Diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary on the arts, music, and leisure, civil rights, counter-culture, law and government, mass media, new left and emerging neo-conservative movement, student activism, Vietnam War, women’s movement, etc.
African American Primary Source Collections
- Black Studies CenterBlack Studies Center combines invaluable resources for research and teaching in Black studies: Schomburg studies on the Black experience, International index of Black periodicals (IIBP), The Chicago defender, ProQuest dissertations for Black studies, and Black literature index. This fully cross-searchable gateway to Black studies includes scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more.
HistoryMakers: Oral History
THE DIGITAL REPOSITORY FOR THE BLACK EXPERIENCE
- HistoryMakers"The HistoryMakers is a national non-profit video oral history archive headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The HistoryMakers is dedicated to preserving African American history as the missing link in American history. Focused on American history, oral history and education in general and more specifically on African American history, education, music, law, the arts, science, technology, media, medicine, entertainment, fashion&beauty, business, the military, politics and sports, The History Makers is a combination archive, library, museum, stock footage collection, on-line educator and educational PBS/TV programming. Its topics include but are not limited to African American organizations and associations, slavery, reconstruction, the labor movement, the civil rights movement and black authors."
Music resources
- Music ResourcesLinks for additional primary and secondary sources.
Rare Books & Mss.
The Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC) includes 400,000 printed volumes, more than 70 million manuscripts, and another million photographs, paintings, prints, and other visual media. Explore RMC's 19th century American photography collection as represented in an online exhibition.
Kheel Archives - ILR Library
The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives is the unit of Catherwood Library that collects, preserves, and makes accessible special collections pertaining to the history of the workplace and labor relations. Materials consist of unique and rich primary sources, including printed and hand-written historical documents dating back to colonial times, historical photographs, rare pamphlets, audio recordings, film, and oral histories.