Head Librarian
Primary Sources in Books
When looking for primary sources in books, add the keyword {sources} to your search. For example, search {civil war sources} or {women history sources}.
Primary Sources in Big Databases
Tips for Finding Primary Sources in Big Databases
- Filter by Source Type > Primary Sources
- Filter by the date of your event
- Add types of sources as a keyword, like {world war II diary} or {pearl harbor interview}
- Search key people as authors
- US History (Gale in Context)
- Why search here? Find information on US history. Topic centers help organize the information to make it easier for you to find lots of resources about your topic.
- What's included? Reference articles, academic journals, magazines, primary sources, and vetted websites
- History Reference Center (Ebsco)
- Why search here? Find information on US and world history.
- What's included? Academic journals, magazines, reference articles, and primary sources
Primary Source Only Databases
Tips for Searching in Primary Source Only Databases
- Filter by date and source type
- Search key people as authors/creators
- Think about the words and terms people used AT THAT TIME to talk about your topic
- This thesaurus from the Library of Congress can help you find keywords for researching race and ethnicity in primary sources
- Historical Newspapers (NewsBank)
- Why search here? Find newspaper articles from hundreds of US newspapers in all 50 states.
- What's included? Primary source newspapers from 1690 - 1980
- Time Magazine Archive (Ebsco)
- Why search here? Find articles from Time magazine, a famous news magazine, from 1923-2000.
- What's included? Magazine articles, primary sources
- Atlantic Magazine Archive (Ebsco)
- Why search here? This magazine archive covers important events and political and cultural issues in American history.
- What's included? Primary source magazine articles from 1857-2014
- Digital Public Library of America
- Why search here? This website brings together the digitized archives of hundreds of libraries and museums. They also have pre-made source sets to help you find primary sources about a specific topic.
- What's included? Primary sources
- Smithsonian Primary Sources (Gale)
- Why search here? Find primary sources digitized from the collections of the Smithsonian.
- What's included? Primary sources
