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Databases: Historical Primary Sources

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98 Databases found for Historical Primary Sources

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A

  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) History Commons
Collection of primary sources for American history, such as The Pennsylvania Gazette, The Virginia Gazette, The Liberator, Godey’s Lady’s Book, The Woman’s Tribune, and Frank Leslie’s Weekly.
  • Access provided by JMU
Archival documents from the US State Department Central Classified Files pertaining to relations with Afghanistan in the '40s, '50s, and '60s.
Fully searchable works by and about African Americans during a pivotal period of segregation and disenfranchisement, from the beginning of Jim Crow to World War I and beyond.
Fully searchable printed works essential for understanding the African-American struggle for identity from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow.
  • Access provided by JMU
Key texts of modern African literature, including hundreds of volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose.
Full text of almost 3,000 poems written between 1760 and 1900.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, Albright College offers access to their Nicaragua Revolution: David Schwartz Collection, an archive containing slides that were taken during photographer, David Schwartz's time in Nicaragua and Cuba in the late 1970's and early-mid 1980's.
  • Access provided by JMU
Cross-searchable platform of primary source collections. Contains books, pamphlets, broadsides, and other scarce material printed and distributed in America during the 17th-19th centuries, documenting American history, culture, and daily life.
  • Access provided by JMU
Cover-to-cover digitized historic newspapers from every state in the US from Readex.
  • Access provided by JMU
Fully searchable digitized editions of nearly 30,000 broadsides and ephemera printed in colonial America, 1760-1900.
  • Access provided by JMU
Primary source database of more than 400 diaries, letters and memoirs written during the American Civil War.
  • Access provided by JMU
Group of online collections: Papers of Dolley Madison, Papers of James Madison, Papers of George Washington, Papers of Eliza Lucas Pinckney & Harriott Pinckney Horry, Pinckney Statesmen collection, and Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution.
  • Access provided by JMU
Periodical collection of digitized American magazines and journals detailing American history and culture from Gale.
  • Open Access
Alternate Name(s) Library of Congress American Memory
Online collection of written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music documenting the American experience.
Works of the most influential American poets, colonial period to the early twentieth century; includes six landmark anthologies of American poetry.
  • Access provided by JMU
Legislative and executive documents of the United States government.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Readex
A cluster of collections reflecting the history of the United States through its congressional publications, popular newspapers, and commercial publishing: included are America's Historical Imprints, 1639-1800; America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1876; American State Papers, 1789-1876; U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980.
Historical documents, personal papers, and family histories collected from archives across the globe.
  • Access provided by JMU
Primary sources on social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world.
  • Access provided by JMU
Complete text of nearly 2,000 French works including classic works of French literature, non-fiction prose, and technical writing.

B

  • Access provided by JMU
Bibliographic data on historical writing dealing with the British Isles, and with the British Empire and Commonwealth, during all periods for which written documentation is available - from 55BC to the present.
  • Access provided by JMU
Collection of non-fiction published works of leading African Americans.
  • Access provided by JMU
Fiction, nonfiction and poetry by women from North America, Africa and the Caribbean.
  • Access provided by JMU
Primary source database offering women's diaries and letters.

C

  • Access provided by JMU
All-inclusive bibliographic tool for 19th-century research.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, Carleton College Special Collections & Archives offers access to The Carleton Miscellany and Haldore Hanson's China Collection (1937-1938).
  • Access provided by JMU
A collection of Foreign Office files exploring the history of Persia (Iran), Central Asia and Afghanistan from the decline of the Silk Road in the first half of the nineteenth century to the establishment of Soviet rule over parts of the region in the early 1920s.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, Central Methodist University offers access to their University Archives collection.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, Chatham University Archives & Special Collections offers access to their Minor Bird Collection and Eden Hall Architectural Plans and Drawings Collection.
  • Open Access
Digitized US newspaper pages from 1789-1963, as well as directory of information about historic newspapers published since 1690.
  • Access provided by JMU
Full-text of primary source documents, highlighting each year's most important events and issues.

D

  • Open Access
Historical map collection with rare 16th through 21st century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific and the World.
  • Access provided by JMU
Declassified documents from US foreign and military policy since 1945.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Sanborn Maps
Digitized fire insurance maps of Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia from 1867-1970.
  • Access provided by JMU
Primary sources, supporting materials, archives, and video content designed to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.
  • Access provided by JMU
Primary source documents tracing the Constitution's progress through the thirteen states' conventions.
  • Access provided by JMU
Dolley Madison's correspondence letters dated from 1788 - 1837.

E

  • Access provided by JMU
Full-text digital books about every aspect of 17th and 18th century of American life, from religion to agriculture to diplomacy.
  • Access provided by JMU
Collection of fully searchable digital books, a compilation of all books published in the United States from 1801 to 1819.
  • Access provided by JMU
Primary source collection of personal accounts of traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) EEBO
Literary and historical classics.
  • Access provided by JMU
Digital editions of nearly all books published in Great Britain in the 18th century as well as important books from the Americas.
  • Access provided by JMU
Full text primary source documents, including original manuscripts and printed material covering colonial history, politics, culture and society from 1492 to 1962.
Full-text English and British poems from the Anglo-Saxon period to the end of 19th century.
Full-text of works by named and anonymous authors from the Shrewsbury Fragments of the late 13th century, through the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, to British poets of the 19th century.
Full text for ethnic, minority, and international newspapers and magazines.

F

  • Access provided by JMU
FBI files on African Americans and others considered "politically suspect" from 1920 to 1984, including members of protest groups, Socialists, Communists, militant labor unionists, and many more.

G

  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Artemis Literary Sources; Gale Literary Sources
Cross-search Gale's Literature Criticism Online, Literature Resource Center, Scribner Writers, and Twayne's Authors.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Artemis Primary Sources
Cross-search Gale's primary sources Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) and NewsVault.
  • Access provided by JMU
Primary source documents from and about missionary activity in the United States, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and the Sandwich Islands during the 19th Century.

H

Alternate Name(s) Harper's Weekly, 1857-1912
A full-text database of Harper's Weekly text and images from the 19th century (1857-1912) .
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Accessible Archives Complete
Diverse primary source materials reflecting broad views across American history and culture.
Video archive of African American oral histories documenting the men and women who have made significant contributions to American life, history, and culture during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

I

  • Access provided by JMU
Digitized full run of the world's most iconic illustrated newspaper from 1842-2003.
  • Access provided by JMU
Digital archive containing firsthand accounts from sources around the world, covering such events as post-World War II Jewish resettlement, South African apartheid, Latin American migrations to the United States, and more.
  • Access provided by JMU
Digitized Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada, from historic pressings to contemporary periodicals, find coverage of events reported by and for Indigenous communities.
A comprehensive collection for exploration of the political, social, and cultural history of native peoples from the sixteenth century well into the twentieth century. The collection features indigenous-language materials, including dictionaries, bibles, and primers.

L

The digital Loeb Classical Library offers an interconnected, fully searchable, perpetually growing, virtual library of Greek and Latin Classical literature, history, philosophy, and more.
  • Open Access
Alternate Name(s) Cultural Equity; ACE Online Archive
The archives of noted musicologist, folklorist and sound recordist Alan Lomax, contains teaching resources, sound recordings, photograph collections, video collections, discussions, interviews, lectures, radio shows.

M

  • Open Access
Digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
  • Access provided by JMU
Digitized pages of the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts.
  • Access provided by JMU
A collection of primary source material containing over three thousand pages of medieval texts.

N

Alternate Name(s) History Vault
Provides documents and records of the civil rights movement, including internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices, along with first-hand views into crucial issues.
  • Access provided by JMU
Search for images, maps, cartoons, paintings; browse magazines from 1888-1994.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) The New York Times
Full access to The New York Times and International New York Times content. Access also includes unlimited access to the Archives and learning tools such as the Learning Network and the New York Times inEducation website.
Note: First time users will need to create a one year renewable account using these instructions
  • Access provided by JMU
Full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue to about 3 years ago.
Selected full text for U.S. and international newspapers, as well as TV and radio transcripts.
  • Access provided by JMU
Full text pdfs for select historical newspapers from the state of Virginia, includes publications from Danville, Harrisonburg, and Petersburg.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) NCCO, 19th Century Collections Online
Monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more from the 19th century.
  • Access provided by JMU
Collection of primary sources written by North American immigrants from 1800 to 1950.
  • Access provided by JMU
Collection of letters and diaries reflecting on the immediate experiences of 1,325 North American women.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, Notre-Dame offers access to their Lebanese Research Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies (LERC): The Lebanese Aboard the Titanic-Paintings Project and Heinz Gaube Lebanese Architectural Photographs Collection.

O

  • Access provided by JMU
Index with select transcripts of full oral interviews, including Ellis Island oral history narratives and rare Black Panther Party interviews and more.
Alternate Name(s) OSEO
Provides trustworthy, annotated primary texts from writers active between the 8th and 20th century, plus Classical Latin and Greek authors. Trial expires 8/24/23

P

  • Access provided by JMU
Letters, diaries, travel journals, recipe books, and more from two women of one of South Carolina's leading families.
  • Access provided by JMU
The Papers of George Washington: Diaries, Revolutionary War, Colonial, Confederation, Presidential, and Retirement from 1748-1799.
  • Access provided by JMU
Documents from Madison's times as Congressman, Secretary of State, President of the United States, and in retirement.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Pinckney Statesman
The papers of three members of notable Pinckneys from South Carolina: brothers Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746–1825) and Thomas Pinckney (1750–1828) and their cousin Charles Pinckney (1757–1824).
  • Access provided by JMU
Searchable full-text collections, in English and/or Latin, of the writings of philosophers and theologians from antiquity into the 20th century.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Chicago Defender
A collection of prominent Black newspapers, such as the Chicago Defender, Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, and The Norfolk Journal and Guide.
  • Access provided by JMU
News articles from Ethnic NewsWatch, Chicago Defender (1910-1975), New York Times Historical (1851-2009), and the Washington Post Historical (1877-1996) in a single search.

R

  • Open Access
An electronic archive of eighty-two documents carrying fragmentary texts written by Dickinson between 1870-1886, including poems, letters, and commentaries.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collection, Roanoke College Digital Collections offers access to their Roanoke College Fresh Water Fishes of Virginia slide collection.

S

  • Access provided by JMU
Full text of every book about the Americas published anywhere between 1500 and 1926.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, Salve Regina University Archives & Special Collections offers access to South Kingstown Colonial Records.
  • Access provided by JMU
50,000 Historical maps from within the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, Smith College Special Collections offers access to three collections: Rotman Stereograph Collection, Historic Costume Collection, and Van Buren Antiquities Collection.
  • Access provided by JMU
Private writings and personal narratives from diverse ethnic and social groups over several hundred years.
  • Access provided by JMU
Correspondence, reports, parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants, etc. from British governments spanning 1509-1714.

T

  • Access provided by JMU
Full text PDF facsimiles of specific articles as well as complete pages, including photos and advertisements, from every issue of the London Times.
  • Access provided by JMU
A collection of every page of the Times Literary Supplement published from 1902 - 2005.
  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, Trinity College offers access to four archive collections: Webster Collection WWI Photos, Hartford Collection, British Theatre Playbills, and George Watson Cole European Postcards.

U

  • Open Access
Part of JSTOR's Open Community Collections, University of Pennsylvania offers access to five archival collections: Marion Anderson Collection of Photographs, Etta Winigrad Sculptures, Philip H. Ward Collection of Theatrical Images, 1856-1910, Furness Theatrical Images Collection, and Alumni Association of the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing.
  • Access provided by JMU
A collection of primary source material on all aspects of American history originating from Congress and other federal agencies, covering commerce, exploration, science/technology, military, environment, health, social issues, and others.

W

  • Access provided by JMU
Full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue to about 15 years ago.

#

  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Burney
Full text searchable newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) that form a comprehensive collection of early English news media.
  • Access provided by JMU
Alternate Name(s) Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals
Full text of journals, magazines, and specialty newspapers that portray British life in the Victorian Age. Subscription includes Series 1: New Readerships and Series 2: Empire.
  • Access provided by JMU
Full text searchable archive of rural and urban US newspapers from the 19th Century.

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