Selected Digital Primary Sources for History

Sourced from the Edward E. Ayer Collection at the Newberry Library, this collection spans 400 years, and includes topics such as: early encounters between American Indians and Europeans; American Indians and colonial powers, and later, the US government; the Indigenous peoples of Mexico; conflict, wars, and military contact; the fur trade and Indian traders; education and American Indian residential schools; and the civil rights movement and political activism. Cross-searchable with American West.

Provides insight into US consumer boom of the mid-20th century via the complete market research reports of Ernest Dichter, the era's foremost consumer analyst, market research pioneer, and recognized "Father of motivational research." Covers a wide range of prominent companies, including Pepsi-Cola, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors. Contains significant market reports and an ad gallery that reproduces magazine advertisements and advertising brochures.

Chronicles the development of America across 200 years, from colonial times to the advent of American involvement in World War II. Features over 1,500 full- text, full-image periodicals, ranging from America's first scientific journal (Medical Repository) to popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal.

Sourced from the Everett D. Graff Collection of Western Americana at the Newberry Library, Chicago, this collection consists of original manuscripts, maps, and ephemeral materials (e.g., wanted posters, claim certificates, news-sheets, etc.); records of key railroad companies; and papers of early pioneers, explorers, and hunters. Canada and the Pacific Northwest are well-documented; coverage includes accounts of the Gold Rush and landscape. Cross-searchable with American Indian Histories and Cultures.

Contains 7 collections of books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents, and ephemera printed in America from approximately 1690 to 1922:
1. America's Historical Imprints (1639-1820)
2. America's Historical Newspapers, Series 1 to 3
3. African American Newspapers (1827-1998)
4. American State Papers (1789-1838)
5. U.S. Congressional Serial Set, (1817-1980)
6. House and Senate Journals (1789-1817)
7. Journals of the House of Representatives and Senate (1789-1817).

Sourced from the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library, this digital collection of English-language sources includes maps, colour paintings, photographs, and drawings. It contains records of major diplomatic missions to China, from the late 18th and early 19th century missions of Macartney and Amherst, to those of Nixon and Heath in the 20th century. Provides a fully-searchable access to the Chinese Recorder, a major Protestant missionary periodical, from 1867-1941.

Issued by Britain's Foreign Office (FO) and Colonial Office (CO), these documents range from one-page letters or telegrams to large volumes of text and treaties. All were circulated to leading officials in the FO, the Cabinet, and Heads of British missions abroad. Includes the entire classes: CO 880/1-32 North America, 1839-1914; CO 884/1-38 West Indies, 1826-1961; FO 414/1-278 North America 1824-1941; FO 461/1-13 America, 1942-1956; and FO 462/1-10 USA, 1947-1956.

Provides a gendered perspective on a vast body of original British source material useful for researchers in history, literature, sociology, and education. Includes contextual essays by leading scholars from Australia, Canada, the UK, and USA; the essays introduce the major themes of the project and provide direct links to sources. Sources include: ephemera, pamphlets, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, manuscript journals, poetry, receipt books, and conduct and advice literature.

Contains the most comprehensive set of declassified government documents available. Subscribed content includes collections compiled by top scholars and experts and exhaustively covers critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post World War II through the 21st century. Subject collections include: Afghanistan, the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, South Africa, the Soviet Union, and the Vietnam War.

Subtitle: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment. Assembled from hundreds of sources, this collection documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. It focuses on personal accounts, and provides unique perspectives from traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials. Document types include published and unpublished accounts, such as narratives, diaries, journals, and letters.

Spans five centuries, from 1492 to 1969, and charts the rise and fall of empires around the world. Sections include: Cultural Contacts (1492-1969); Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion and Empire; and Race, Class, and Colonialism (c1789-1969). This resource provides original documents and contextual essays to enable exploration of colonial history, politics, culture, and society. Cross-searchable with Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration, and Cultural Exchange.

Outstanding resource for the study of American social, cultural, and popular history during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals, and broadsides that address political, social, and gender issues; religion; race; education; employment; marriage; sexuality; home and family life; health; and pastimes. Especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature.

Features a wealth of primary source materials for the study of the Great War, complemented by a range of contextual secondary sources. Includes 3 modules:
1. Personal Experiences (with letters, photographs, diaries, postcards, sheet music, etc.)
2. Propaganda and Recruitment (with aerial leaflets, atrocity propaganda, international posters, cartoons, etc.)
3. Visual Perspectives and Narratives (with material from the Imperial War Museum, including artwork, museum objects, film clips, etc.)

Created by the U.S. intelligence community to benefit policy makers and analysts, this resource provides foreign views and perspectives on historical events from thousands of monitored broadcasts and publications. Geographic scope includes: the Middle East, Africa, North Africa, the Near East, and South Asia. Comprehensive media reports include: news, interviews, speeches, and editorial commentary.

Sourced from the UK National Archives, this resource combines eye-witness accounts, regular reviews, and analyses; syntheses of newspaper articles, conference reports, and economic assessments; and synopses of key events, personalities, and developments relating to China from 1949-1956. It reflects the exchange of information between London, the British Embassy in Beijing, and consular outposts; it also reveals the ongoing dialogue between Britain, America, Europe, and the Commonwealth on issues relating to East Asia.

The single largest source for the study of women's history in the world, containing materials dated from 1543 to 1945, written in 15 languages, and originating from Continental Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand. Digitized contents include: books, pamphlets, and periodicals reflecting the evolution of feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights.

Focuses on 15 commodities with intertwined histories: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, oil, opium, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits. Commodities are documented by a range of primary materials: maps, photographs, objects, and rare books. Facilitates research through the themes of exploration and discovery, imperialism and monopoly, trade wars, economic geography, slavery, mass production, luxury, and the evolution of global branding.

Annual reports covering US companies, including over 75% of the most prevalent Fortune 500 companies, which have been on the ranking list for 30 years or more. 160+ years of continuous coverage for some of the most notable companies in America's history. Reports date from the 1800s to the present.

Sourced from the American Jewish Historical Society, New York. Explores the history of Jewish communities in America from their first arrival in New York in 1654 to their integral role mid-20th century.

Includes the complete Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) files 7 and FCO 82 from Great Britain's National Archives, and features top-level Anglo-American discussions and briefing papers. Also includes a wealth of material on social conditions, domestic reforms, trade, culture, and the environment. Valuable in providing a British, European, and Commonwealth perspective on Nixon’s handling of numerous Cold War crises, his administration’s notable achievements, and the controversial activities and unorthodox use of executive powers that culminated in Watergate and his impeachment.

Provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to Canada and America. Contains over 100,000 pages of personal narratives, including: letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories. Much of this material was previously unpublished. Coverage begins around around 1840 and extends to the present, focusing heavily on the period from 1890 to 1920.

Essential resource for research into the history of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canada's First Nations. Contains over 100,000 pages of text, much of which is previously unpublished, rare, or hard to find. Integrates autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files.

Largest digital collection of women’s diaries and correspondence ever assembled. Contains approximately 150,000 pages of letters and diaries from colonial times to 1950, including 7,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Draws on over 1,000 sources, including: journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings. More than 1,500 biographies enhance the use of the database. Complements British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries.

Part I includes pamphlets, letters, government files, and eye witness accounts of key events; underground magazines, including OZ and IT; and a rich collection of American fanzines and alternative press titles. Part II includes artist files, record company documents, chart lists, and posters from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; press kits and lobby cards for movies and television; the complete run of Gandalf’s Garden magazine; and video footage of key pop culture personalities.

Indexes information produced by or related to the U.S. Congress, from 1789 to the present. Provides full text for many documents, generally from the early 1990s to the present. Includes full text of Congressional Research Service reports (1916 to present), full text of Congressional hearings (1824-2003), full text of Committee Prints (1830-2003), and full text of the Serial Set Collection with maps (1789-1969). A complete description of contents, coverage, and update frequency is available via the Online Help section.

Brings the 1960s to life through diaries, letters, autobiographies, memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. Themes include: civil rights, counter-culture, mass and underground media, sexual revolution, student activism, the Vietnam War, and women's rights.

An important portal for slavery and abolition studies. Contains documents and collections produced from 1490 to 2007, sourced from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. Topics include: the African Coast, the Middle Passage, the varieties of slave experience, religion, revolts, abolition, and legislation. Features case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba. Provides links to significant external online sources, approved by leading scholars.

Contains over 1,500 trench journal titles sourced from leading archives around the world, including those of the Imperial War Museums and The British Library, written by service people from every type of unit and every combatant nation. Most are journals from units based on the Western Front in France and Belgium; but there are also magazines from units serving on the Eastern Front in Gallipoli, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Britain, and America.

Currently includes 116 document projects and archives, with 4,700 documents and more than 160,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by more than 2,450 primary authors. Also includes book, film, and website reviews; notes from the archives; and teaching tools.