LibGuides: History Subject Guide: Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

A primary source is the direct, firsthand account of a person or event, or an originally produced work. Secondary sources typically draw upon primary sources for their information, and analyze and comment on them.

Some types of primary documents are:

artifacts
diaries & letters
newspaper reports right after an event
speeches
photographs
interviews
recordings
works of art, literature, and music

Gateway Websites

Avalon Project
Thousands of primary-source documents in the areas of law, history and diplomacy, organized into thematic collections.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Collections of digitized documents, photographs, sound, moving pictures and text. You can search the individual collections by keyword or browse by topic.

Online Primary Sources: World History

China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980
Materials on Chinese history and culture, featuring unique archival manuscripts along with printed materials including missionary periodicals, atlases and books.

EuroDocs
Links to online collections of digitized primary source documents, organized by European country.
Internet Medieval History Sourcebook
Primary source texts arranged by country, period and topic for easy browsing.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Primary source texts arranged by country, period and topic. Use the left-side menu to browse by subject.

Online Primary Sources: Women's History

Everyday Life and Women in America
A primary source collection offering insights into the daily lives of women from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
A collection of hundreds of women's letters and diaries from the Colonial period to 1950. It also includes biographies and an extensive list of sources.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, Scholars' Edition
This collection brings together primary documents, books, images and essays documenting women’s activism in public life.

Women Working, 1800-1930
A collection of manuscripts, books, pamphlets, and photographs that shed light on women's role in the workforce during this period of American history.

Online Primary Sources: Southern U.S.

Documenting the American South
A collection of digitized primary sources on Southern history from UNC-Chapel Hill.
MosaicNC
Digital publications from the North Carolina Office of Archives and History, including governors' papers, colonial records, and thematic exhibits.
North Carolina Digital Collections
Photographs, state government publications, and manuscripts related to North Carolina history.
Samuel May Anti-Slavery Collection
Pamphlets relating to the anti-slavery struggle in the United States. Included are sermons, local newsletters, poetry anthologies, Freedmen's testimonies, and broadsides.

Primary Sources in Libraries

To find primary sources collected in books, do a Keyword search in WorldCat that combines the name of a person, group, or event with words such as: memoirs, diaries, correspondence, papers, personal narratives, or sources.

For example:

George Washington and correspondence
Civil War and letters
Indians and treaties
Crusades and sources
Winston Churchill and diaries

Online Primary Sources: U.S. History

American Journeys
A collection of eyewitness accounts of early American exploration and settlement, from sagas of Vikings in Canada to diaries of mountain men in the Rockies.
American Presidency Project
An impressive collection of presidential documents, including the text of press conferences, executive orders, state of the union addresses, and the Public Papers of the Presidents.
Founders Online
A digital collection of over 100,000 letters and other documents written by the US's founding fathers, including Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and others.

HeritageQuest
A treasury of American genealogical sources: primary sources, local and family histories, and finding aids.

Immigration to the United States, 1789–1930
This digital collection portrays the immigrant experience through a large number of online books, photographs, diaries, and journals.

Indigenous Peoples of North America
A primary source collection focusing on the cultural, political, and social history of indigenous peoples from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

National Security Archive
The NSA's Briefing Books provide sets of declassified documents plus interpretative essays on various topics in US foreign policy.
Social Welfare History Image Portal
Find digitized photos, pamphlets, documents, and other artifacts covering the history of social welfare and social reform in the US.

U.S. Declassified Documents Online
An online archive of declassified U.S. Government documents from 1900-2008, including State Department political analyses and White House confidential file materials.

Wilson Center Digital Archive
Search or browse declassified documents relating to US foreign diplomacy and international relations, with emphases on the Cold War and nuclear weapons.