Primary source databases
Primary sources allow researchers to get as close as possible to original ideas, events, and empirical research as possible. Such sources include creative works, first hand accounts of events, and the publication of empirical observations or research.
Legend
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Freely accessible database, available to anyone without restriction.
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Resource provides self archiving opportunities and open access documents.
- African American Communities from Adam Matthew DigitalAfrican American Communities provides digitized primary sources on racism and discrimination, integration, culture and identity, and the history of the civil rights movement. Content includes pamphlets, magazines and newspapers, correspondence and oral histories, official records and government reports, photographs, maps, and essays from scholars. Early 1800s-present.
- America: History & Life from EBSCOhostAmerica: History and Life is an index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database includes citations and links to journal articles, dissertations, primary documents, and book and media reviews. Some content is available full-text (PDF and HTML). Allows limiting to peer reviewed articles, those with references, and to historical periods (date ranges). 1863-present.
- America in World War 2: Oral Histories from Adam Matthews DigitalAmerica in World War 2: Oral Histories features digitized video interviews from the National WW2 Museum, plus letters, diaries, photographs, artifacts and military records covering operations in Europe and the Pacific and post-war occupation ion Germany.
- Archives of Sexuality & Gender from GaleThe Archives of Sexuality & Gender provides primary sources on social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world. Includes LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 and Sex and Sexuality: 16th to 20th Century.
- Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966Confidential Print: Africa provides digitized primary sources from the British National Archives collections of confidential correspondence from colonial, Dominion, and Foreign Offices relating to Africa. Content includes reports, descriptions of leading personalities, political summaries, economic analyses, maps, and dispatches and letters.
- Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969Confidential Print: Middle East provides digitized primary sources from the British National Archives collections of confidential correspondence from the Middle East, Turkey, and the former Ottoman Empire. Content includes reports, descriptions of leading personalities, political summaries, economic analyses, maps, and dispatches and letters.
- Digital National Security Archive from ProQuestThe Digital National Security Archive provides primary documents on U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. Subsets include the CIA Family Jewels Indexed information which reveals the CIA's most closely held secrets about their domestic intelligence activities they considered outside its charter, conducted at the height of the Cold War through 1973, and the Cuban Missile Crisis: 50th Anniversary Update which includes unpublished records from U.S. and Soviet archives.
- Documenting the American South (DocSouth)A digital publishing initiative that provides online access to primary sources such as texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes fourteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, maps, literary works, oral history interviews, and songs. 1500s-present.Documenting the American South (DocSouth) includes fourteen thematic collections of primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture.
The texts, images, and other materials come primarily from the premier Southern collections in the libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These original Southern materials can be found in several library locations, including the Southern Historical Collection, one of the largest collections of Southern manuscripts in the country; the North Carolina Collection, the most complete printed documentation of a single state anywhere; the Rare Book Collection, which holds an extensive Southern pamphlet collection; and Davis Library, which offers rich holdings of printed materials on the Southeast. - Documents on British Policy Overseas from ProQuestThis database provides primary sources from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on diplomatic history from the 20th century. 1898-1990.
- Education Research Complete from EBSCOhostEducation Research Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journals, books, book chapters, case studies, essays, interviews, conference proceedings, product reviews, and experiments in all areas of education. You can limit to peer-reviewed journals. 1865-present.The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 2,100 journals, as well as full text for nearly 1,300 journals. This database also includes full text for nearly 550 books and monographs, full text for numerous education-related conference papers, plus author profiles for the most prolific authors in the field.
- Essay and General Literature Retrospective from EBSCOhostEssay and General Literature Retrospective indexes citations to English-language essays from periodicals, annuals, and other publications. Subjects covered include economics, humanities, and social sciences. 1900-1984.
- GreenFILE from EBSCOhostGreenFILE indexes citations, abstracts, and full-text articles, books, case studies, conference papers, speeches and interviews, letters, and reports covering all aspects of human impact to the environment including agricultural, architectural, engineering, education, and the social sciences. Full text is available in HTML and PDF. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. Free access version is also available. 1913-present.
- HathiTrustThe HathiTrust Digital Library contains over seven million volumes and over one billion pages of scanned books and other materials. About 20 percent of all content is in the public domain (and accessible to you). You can also browse several public collections. Content is available in several image formats, text, and PDF. 1200s-present.
- Independent VoicesIndependent Voices provides alternative press newspapers and magazines, in image and PDF formats, from the last half of the 20th century.Independent Voices is composed of seven series that align with the major social movements of the time.
The GI Underground Press Series was developed in collaboration with the GI Press Project. It is the most comprehensive collection of digitized GI underground newspapers and newsletters ever compiled. Adding to the value of the series is its placement in the context of the hundreds of other underground press publications published during the same period. GI underground publications could be found on military bases, in coffeehouses, and in other places where GI’s gathered in the U.S. and around the world in every branch of the military. The GI underground press covered many topics, including military indoctrination, seemingly arbitrary rules and regulations, racism, sexism, the bounds of power and authority, legitimacy of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, the military as an institution, and the definition of “enemy.” The content was creative and diverse. In addition to news articles and editorials, publications included fiction, poetry, cartoons, letters to the editor, and more.
Throughout the twentieth century, literary magazines were a primary means for sharing new writing and forming literary communities. “Little magazines,” as they are often called, were usually noncommercial in nature and often committed to certain literary ideals. Nearly every literary movement of the 1950s to 1980s began or evolved in the pages of these magazines. Focusing primarily on poetry but also including fiction and criticism, this collection reflects many often-overlapping groups and communities, including writers and editors affiliated with the Beat Generation, the Black Arts Movement, Black Mountain, the Deep Image movement, the New York School, San Francisco Renaissance, Surrealism, visual and concrete poetries, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, and the Kootenay School of Writing.
Underground, alternative, and literary newspapers and magazines from the fifties through the eighties were everywhere. They were in urban, suburban, rural, ghetto, barrio, tribal, and other communities in every U.S. state and in countries around the world. Reveal Digital’s Independent Voices is the most extensive digital collection of these historic publications that has ever been conceptualized and created. The Campus Underground series includes publications that originated from college and university campuses and surrounding communities. Whether laid out in traditional black and white straight columns or full-color psychedelic, the publications in this collection provide a vivid mosaic of the times.
Two of Independent Voices most important series are the Feminist Periodicals and LGBT Periodicals. Sourced largely from Duke University’s Sallie Bingham Center and Northwestern University’s Deering Library, these closely related series include cover-to-cover complete runs of over 120 women’s papers. These publications sparked the women’s movement in the fifties and early sixties and propelled the second wave of feminism in the late sixties and early seventies. Groups represented by these publications include the Redstockings, New York Radical Women, Daughters of Bilitis, Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, The Furies, Third World Women’s Alliance and many others. - Library of Congress Digitized CollectionsThe Library of Congress's digitized American historical materials are organized into more than 100 thematic collections. Original formats include manuscripts, prints, photographs, posters, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, books, pamphlets, and sheet music. Collections may be browsed individually, searched individually (including full-text searching for many written items), or searched across multiple collections. 1400s-present.The original formats include manuscripts, prints, photographs, posters, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, books, pamphlets, and sheet music. Each online collection is accompanied by a set of explanatory features designed to make the materials easy to find, use, and understand. Collections may be browsed individually, searched individually (including full-text searching for many written items), or searched across multiple collections.
- Oxford African American Studies CenterThe African American Studies Center provides full-text articles from encyclopedias and other references sources, plus primary sources with commentary, maps, charts, and biographies on African and African-American history, culture, literature, education, and the arts.African American Studies Center combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture.
The African American Studies Center provides students, scholars and librarians with more than 10,000 articles by top scholars in the field. - Political Science Complete from EBSCOhostPolitical Science Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and full text of journal articles, conference papers, reference books, country reports, interviews and speeches, and book reviews on all aspects of political science. You can do cited reference searches and limit to scholarly sources. 1887-present.
- Race Relations in America from Adam Matthew DigitalRace Relations in America provided digitized primary source documents from the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries covering desegregation, migration, the role of the church, race riots and racial tensions, protest marches, demonstrations, and legal cases of the Civil Rights Movement. Content includes audio recordings of speeches, photos, scrapbooks, surveys, case studies, posters, and photos. 1943-1970.
- Service Newspapers of World War 2 from Adam MatthewService Newspapers of World War Two contains an extensive range of both rare and well-known wartime publications for soldiers serving in major theatres around the world. Publications are included from many key nations involved in the conflict, such as the US, Canada, New Zealand, India, and the countries of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Both Allied and Axis publications are presented, offering a broad view of the war and the experiences of those on its front lines. 1939-1948.
- Last Updated: Oct 21, 2024 1:55 PM
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