Guides: American Studies: Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source

A primary source is "first-hand" information, sources as close as possible to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources are contrasted with secondary sources, works that provide analysis, commentary, or criticism on the primary source. In literary studies, primary sources are often creative works, including poems, stories, novels, and so on. In historical studies, primary sources include written works, recordings, or other source of information from people who were participants or direct witnesses to the events in question. Examples of commonly used primary sources include government documents, memoirs, personal correspondence, oral histories, and contemporary newspaper accounts.

Primary Sources

America's Historical Newspapers (“Early American Newspapers, Series 1”) This link opens in a new window
Series I offers more than 700 historical American newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia printed between 1690 and 1876
Accessible Archives [now available via History Commons] This link opens in a new window
Primary source material from 18th and 19th century including historical periodicals and books; eyewitness accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, business advertisements, and genealogical records.
Los Angeles Sentinel (ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Includes full-text of the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper from 1934 to 2005.
Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
Documents central to U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945, compiled by top scholars and experts.
Richmond Daily Dispatch This link opens in a new window
All issues of this American Civil War-era newspaper from November 1860 through December 1865.
American Memory Project This link opens in a new window
Digitized archival materials from the Library of Congress, including legal and historical materials.
Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new window
The Online Archive of California (OAC) provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 150 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses.
Pepperdine University Special Collections and University Archives has contributed a number of collections to the OAC.
Readers' Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 This link opens in a new window
Indexing includes full coverage of the original print volumes of Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature™.
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1-5 This link opens in a new window
Digital access to Series 1-5 of the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912.

Primary Resources Found Online

Making of America Project
Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 9,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. Making of America is made possible by by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Archive of Folk Culture This link opens in a new window
The Library of Congress American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture; traditional culture from around the world.

Documenting the American South
a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Currently DocSouth includes seven thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
This Library of Congress project allows users to search and view newspaper pages from 1897-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
100 Milestone Documents
Compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, and drawn primarily from its nationwide holdings, the documents chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965.
Archiving Early America
a unique array of primary source material from 18th Century America. Scenes and portraits from original newspapers, maps and writings come to life on your screen just as they appeared to this country's forebears more than two centuries ago.