PRIMARY SOURCES

HERE IS A SELECTION OF HIGH QUALITY PRIMARY SOURCES/ORAL HISTORIES IN VARIOUS CATEGORIES THAT MAY BE RELEVANT TO YOUR RESEARCH IN ARCHIVES AND WEB COLLECTIONS

GENERAL | MISCELLANEOUS

DPLA PRIMARY SOURCE SETS (sort by subject or time period)

GILDA LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

HERB SOCIAL HISTORY (narrow by historical era and by type or topic within that)

HISTORY: FAMOUS SPEECHES

ADVERTISEMENTS | MAGAZINES

LIFE MAGAZINE ARCHIVES (1950-)

ADFLIP (choose a decade like 1950s)

U OF ILLINOIS ADVERTISING EXHIBIT (browse by theme)

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

BLACK PAST (documents and other primary sources that contributed to the shaping of African American history)

BLACK WORKERS REMEMBER (ebook, oral history)

HARVARD SCHLESINGER BLACK WOMEN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

JFK LIBRARY: 1963, THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: RACE RELATIONS 1930s - 1940s (a collection of documents)

TEXAS SLAVERY PROJECT

LAW AND DIPLOMACY

THE AVALON PROJECT (select a century and then search for specific items or scan for topics like Cuban Missile Crisis)

13th AMENDMENT

14th AMENDMENT

15th AMENDMENT

FAIR HOUSING ACT, 1968 (and consider Segregation by Design)

LGBTQ+

COME OUT! MAGAZINE 1969 - 1972

DOCUMENTS FROM THE LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER NATIONAL HISTORY ARCHIVE (The Early Liberation Movement)

IMAGES OF LIBERATION

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: STONEWALL ERA AND UPRISING

STONEWALL RIOTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

STONEWALL RIOTS POLICE REPORTS

VILLAGE VOICE STONEWALL REPORTING 1969

NEWSPAPERS

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CHRONICLING AMERICA NEWSPAPERS (1789 - 1963)

ORAL HISTORIES

HARVARD SCHLESINGER LIBRARY WOMEN'S HISTORY PROJECTS (all interviews available here with audio and transcripts in various categories)

HARVARD MODERN IRANIAN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

STANFORD CHINESE RAILROAD WORKERS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

STONEWALL RIOTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

VIETNAM WAR ARCHIVES AT TTU 

VIET STORIES: VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT AT UC IRVINE

PRESIDENTIAL PAPERS + ELECTIONS

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY PROJECT (executive orders, speeches, correspondence, congressional legislation, and more)

POLITICAL CAMPAIGN CARTOONS (1789 - 1976)

PROPAGANDA + WAR

WILSON CENTER: COLD WAR DECLASSIFIED

LOC'S THE HOME FRONT (WWI and WW2)

SAM JOHNSON VIETNAM WAR ARCHIVE (oral histories)

TRUMAN LIBRARY IDEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF COLD WAR

HERE IS A SELECTION OF HIGH QUALITY PRIMARY SOURCES IN VARIOUS CATEGORIES THAT MAY BE RELEVANT TO YOUR RESEARCH IN OUR LIBRARY DATABASES OR PRINT COLLECTION

BLACK LIFE IN AMERICA The experience and impact of African Americans as recorded by the news media.

AMERICA'S HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS use the timeline view to find your event/key dates

PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS: THE CHICAGO DEFENDER Graphical edition of The Chicago Defender (prominent African American newspaper)

PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS 

SEE A RESOURCE LIST OF BOOKS THE CSW LIBRARY HAS THAT FEATURE LOTS OF PRIMARY SOURCES

SEARCHING FOR PRIMARY SOURCES

Consider looking in digital archives, like the Library of Congress or University collections. Add "primary source" to your Google Search string.

In databases, add keywords like "eyewitness" "eyewitness account" "witness to" "speech" "diary" "oral history" to your searches. This will bring back ebooks with extensive primary sources within them.