LibGuides: Upper School: Primary Sources

Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Locating Primary Sources in Books

Locating Primary Sources in Books

Often books contain excerpts or entire transcripts of primary source materials. When searching the card catalog, look for subject headings that use the terms "personal narratives" or "sources." These terms indicate there are primary sources located in a book. Below are a list of general reference sources that contain primary source documents.

Witness to America: An Illustrated Documentary History of the United States from the Revolution to Today
Call Number: REF 973 W825
Documents of American History
Call Number: REF 973.08 C734
Annals of America
Call Number: REF 973 A613
Great Documents of Western Civilization
Call Number: REF 914.03 V798
Pageant of Europe: Sources and Selections from the Renaissance to the Modern Day
Call Number: 940.2 S799
Landmark Documents of the U. S. Congress
Call Number: REF. 328.73 L257
Modern Europe: Sources and Perspectives from History
Call Number: 940.2 M689
Imperial Japan 1800-1945
Call Number: 952 L786

Primary Sources in Databases

Gale Artemis Primary Sources This link opens in a new window

Locating Primary Sources on the Web

Locating Primary Sources on the Web

Enter your search term and "primary source" in a Google search and you will find posted documents.

Electronic Databases with Primary Source Materials

Locating Primary Sources in Electronic Databases

The databases listed below contain primary source materials that are searchable by subject and most are available full text.

American Decades Primary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new window Cross-disciplinary source spanning the 20th century. Each volume in the set includes full or excerpted primary sources representing the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from a decade. Includes oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, TV, play and movie scripts, letters, laws, legal decisions, newspaper articles, cartoons, recipes, and more.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context (Gale) This link opens in a new window Opposing Viewpoints in Context is the premier online resource covering all sides of today’s hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration, to violent video games.
British Library Digitised Manuscripts This link opens in a new window The Digitised Manuscripts site contains many different kinds of manuscripts, archives and documents. Much of the content available here has been digitised as part of the British Library’s digitisation projects.
Cincinnati History Library and Archives This link opens in a new window The Library Catalog contains information about books, pamphlets, newspapers, photographs, maps and manuscript collections.
Colonial North American Project This link opens in a new window When complete, the project will make available to the world digitized images of all known archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th and 18th century North America.
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science.
iSearch This link opens in a new window Find reliable information for your research projects with just one search. Use the tabs to find encyclopedia, newspaper, magazine, and journal articles, primary source documents, videos, and ebooks at your reading level.
Library of Congress American Memory This link opens in a new window American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity.
Library of Congress Chronicling America This link opens in a new window Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
LIFE Photo Archive This link opens in a new window Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
National Archives This link opens in a new window Explore our nation's history through documents, photos and records.
NYPL Digital Collection This link opens in a new window This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
Time Magazine Covers This link opens in a new window Search Time's covers back to 1923, learning about cultural and historical "hot" topics
World Digital Library This link opens in a new window Search 11,324 items about 194 countries between 1200 BCE and 2000 CE