Guides: ENG 201 English 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 (see the Newspapers box under Finding Articles).

Primary Sources

Early English Books Online (EEBO)

Full-text items published in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473 to 1700.

It contains over 100,000 of the 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgraves's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
Collection of English or foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom from 1701-1800, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800

Historical books, pamphlets and broadsides from 17th and 18th century America.
Accessible Archives [now available via History Commons]

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.

Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period
An electronic collection of over sixty volumes of lyric poetry by Scottish women, written between 1789 and 1832. The database includes the works of approximately 50 women poets, each with bio-bibliographical sketches or essays, including what is known about their lives, and a bibliography of their primary works and of criticism and reviews. Voices represent women from every social, economic, political, and religious stratum.

Online Archive of California (OAC)
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.

Newspapers

Newspapers can provide you with valuable information. They include books reviews, author interviews, information on book signs, etc. Historical Newspapers can also provide you with information on how the book was received when it was published, if it was published with in the papers range.

The Times Digital Archive (1785 - 1985)
The entire newspaper is online, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.

Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003

World's first illustrated weekly newspaper, news coverage of British and world events, including war, disasters, royalty, social affairs, the arts and science.

Los Angeles Times Historical

Los Angeles Sentinel (ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers)

Includes full-text of the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper from 1934 to 2010.
U.S. Major Dailies (ProQuest Newspapers)

Access to The New York Times (1980 - present), Washington Post (1987 - present), Los Angeles Times (1985 - present), Chicago Tribune, (1985 - present), and Wall Street Journal (1984 - present).
New York Times (NYTimes.com)

**Access requires logging in with a Pepperdine email on the NY Times homepage. Find step-by-step log-in instructions on the access guide to log in. **

Examples of Primary Literature Resources Found Online

Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections: Joseph Conrad
The Joseph Conrad collection contains manuscripts, letters, documents, and photographs
Kate Chopin Archives: A Guide to Primary Documents
Kate O'Flaherty Chopin Papers, 1855-1975 in the Missouri Historical Society Archive, St. Louis
Shakespeare Quartos Archive
The Shakespeare Quartos Archive is a digital collection of pre-1642 editions of William Shakespeare's plays. Produced jointly by a group of U.S. and U.K. libraries and academic institutions.
Jane Austin Fiction Manuscripts
Digitized collection of Jane Austin Manuscripts.

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Jane Austen’s fiction manuscripts are the first significant body of holograph evidence surviving for any British novelist. They represent every stage of her writing career and a variety of physical states: working drafts, fair copies, and handwritten publications for private circulation. The manuscripts were held in a single collection until 1845, when at her sister Cassandra’s death they were dispersed among family members, with a second major dispersal, to public institutions and private collections, in the 1920s.1 Digitization enables their virtual reunification and will provides scholars with the first opportunity to make simultaneous ocular comparison of their different physical and conceptual states; it will facilitate intimate and systematic study of Austen’s working practices across her career, a remarkably neglected area of scholarship within the huge, world-wide Austen critical industry.

Many of the Austen manuscripts are frail; open and sustained access has long been impossible for conservation and location reasons. Digitization at this stage in their lives not only offers the opportunity for the virtual reunification of a key manuscript resource, it will also be accompanied by a record in as complete a form as possible of the conservation history and current material state of these manuscripts to assist their future conservation.

The digital edition will include in the first instance all Jane Austen’s known fiction manuscripts and any ancillary materials held with them, as follows:

Volume the First
Bodleian Library, Oxford
Volume the Second
British Library, London
Volume the Third
British Library, London
Lady Susan
Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
The Watsons
Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
The Watsons
in private ownership; on deposit at Queen Mary, University of London
Notes
‘Plan of a Novel’ + 2 holograph notes (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York)
Opinions
‘Opinions of Mansfield Park’ and ‘Opinions of Emma’ (British Library, London)
Persuasion
British Library, London
Sanditon
King’s College, Cambridge
Poets.org
Site of the Academy of American Poets.