The First Photograph
Enhanced version by Helmut Gersheim (1913–1995), performed ca. 1952, of Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras, (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin), the first successful permanent photograph created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827, in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes (Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne, France). Captured on 20×25 cm oil-treated bitumen. Due to the 8-hour exposure, the buildings are illuminated by the sun from both right and left.
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
Electronic resources
This is just a sampling of the many, many primary resources available in electronic form.
Try the "primary sources" section of the library 's databases section.
- 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.
- 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.
- Punch historical archive, 1841-1992Call Number: OnlineFrom 1841 to 1992 Punch was the world's most celebrated magazine of humour and satire. From its early years as a campaigner for social justice to its transformation into national icon, Punch played a central role in the formation of British identity - and how the rest of the world saw the British. The Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992 includes the complete run of the weekly magazine, as well as its annual Almanack, seasonal issues, and indexes. The archive also correlates the previously anonymous articles and those written under pseudonyms with the private ledgers of contributors kept by the Punch editors, in many cases revealing for the first time the true identity of the authors.
- The illustrated London news historical archive, 1842-2003Call Number: OnlineHistorical archive full color digitized images of the complete run from 1842-2003 of illustrated newspaper. This database includes full-text searching of articles and captions and issues can be browsed.
- Mellon Teaching Set, History of PhotographyPresents images from the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and Cornell University Library collections to introduce "photography’s expansive and complex technological, cultural, and aesthetic histories"