LibGuides: How to: Work With Primary Sources: On the Web

Primary Sources on the Web

You can find many primary sources freely available online. In fact, some of the best collections of primary sources can be found in the digital collections of institutions, archives, and research libraries around the nation and the world.

The Library of Congress (www.loc.gov) and the National Archives (www.nara.gov) usually make good starting places -- here are a few more you may wish to explore:

Periodicals - Newspapers, Magazines & More

The Gazette Online Provides full-text access to the Belfast Gazette(Early 20th century-present), the Edinburgh Gazette(Late 19th century-present) and the London Gazette(Late 19th century-present)
Internet Library of Early Journals Ceased, but some access still available: Digital archive of 18th and 19th century British journals. A joint project by the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford.
NIneteenth-Century Serials, 1806-1890 Free, online edition of six 19th century periodicals and newspapers. A collaboration between Birkbeck, University of London, King's College London, the British Library and Olive Software.
Penny Illustrated (1861-1913) and The Graphic (1870-1900) Full-text access to these British newspapers. The Penny Illustrated and The Graphic are free from this site, but other publications are not so you may want to limit your search to these publication titles. Produced by the British Library’s British NewsPaper Archive.

Government & Legal Documents - U.S. & Foreign

American Presidency Project Provides full-text access to the Public Papers of the Presidents (1929-present), the Annual Messages to Congress on the State of the Union (1790-present), Inaugural Addresses (1789--present), the Saturday Radio Addresses (1982-present), Fireside Chats, Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches (1960-2004), and the Presidential Candidates Debates (1960-2004). Also includes the National Political Party Platforms (parties receiving electoral votes, 1840 - 2004), and more. Established by John Woolley and Gerhard Peters at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Avalon Project Digital documents in law, history and diplomacy, economics, politics, and government.
The Founder's Constitution The web edition of the five-volume, print edition of The Founders' Constitution provides written commentary from individuals who wrote during the early seventeenth century to the 1830s and were "engaged in the problem of making popular government safe, steady, and accountable." This site is a joint venture of the University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund. It is edited by Professors Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner of the University of Chicago
Presidential Recordings Program (Miller Center, University of Virginia) Access to audio and transcripts of secret presidential recordings for administrations from FDR to Richard Nixon.
United Kingdom Legislation (BAILII) Includes the full texts of legislation from the parliaments of: England (1215 - 1706), pre-UK parliaments (1424-1707), and Ireland (1495-1800).

Images

Archive of Early American Images Provides access to 6,000 images of “the colonial Americas” scanned from “primary sources printed or created between 1492 and ca. 1825.” Images are selected from the holdings of the John Carter Brown Library and produced by Brown University with the support of the Ahmanson and Getty Foundations.

Advertising, Propaganda & More

Ad*Access "An image database of over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Covering five categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II - Brief histories of the industries and timelines of world and national events help put the ads in the context of their times." Provided by Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Emergence of Advertising in America A database of over 9,000 advertising items and publications… illustrating the rise of consumer culture, especially after the American Civil War, and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States." Provided by Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

Books

Core Historical Literature of Agriculture Agricultural texts published "between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century. Full-text materials cover agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, crops and their protection, food science, forestry, human nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science." Produced by the Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University.
English Short-Title Catalog ESTC covers material printed before 1801 in the British Isles, Colonial America, USA (1776-1800), Canada, or territories governed by Britain, in all languages, and items printed elsewhere wholly or partly in English or other British vernaculars. It is a union catalogue of holdings in the British Library and more than 2,000 other libraries worldwide."

Other Primary Documents - U.S.

American Journeys Reproductions and translations of eyewitness accounts pertaining to the discovery and exploration of America, from 1000 to 1800 CE.
American Memory Provides "more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections." The collection includes such diverse works as the Abraham Lincoln Papers and Frederick Douglass to a set of historical baseball cards, and includes 22 collections specifically pertaining to war and the military. Produced by the Library of Congress.
Black Abolitionist Archive Sponsored by the University of Detroit Mercy Libraries, this archive is "a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials" from the 1820s to the time of the Civil War.
The Blues, Black Vaudeville and the Silver Screen, 1912-1930s Primary materials from the Douglass Theater in Macon, Georgia. Presented by the Digital Library of Georgia, part of the Galileo Initiative.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project 1936-1938 Slave narratives collected from the WPA during 1936-1938. Inlcudes photographs from those years.
Documenting the American South Primary source archive. Includes books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
Explore Chicago Collections Portal Search maps, digital images, and finding aids for archival collections all over Chicago. Explore by topic, neighborhood, and more.
From Slavery to Freedom: The African American Pamphlet Collection Almost 400 pamphlets published from 1822 through 1909 by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery and related topics. Produced by the Library of Congress.
Immigration to the United States As part of the Open Collections Program, Harvard University offers a wealth of texts and images related to voluntary immigration to the United States from 1789-1930. The collection’s strongest offerings are from the nineteenth-century.”
Women Working: 1800-1930 Focuses on women's role in the United States economy and provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University's library and museum collections.

Other Primary Documents - Outside the U.S.

British History Online Transcriptions of primary and secondary resoures of importance to British history; browse by source type, genre, region or period/century, or keyword search.
British Library Digital Collection Guides
EuroDocs Primary historical documents from Western Europe, including selected transcriptions, facsimiles and translations.
Europeana A portal for cultural materials -- images, sounds and videos as well as texts (including digitized books) -- drawn from libraries, archives, museums and more throughout Europe. Everything in Europeana is free to access.
Gallica The digital library of the Biblotheque Nationale de France, providing access to 2+ million documents, including many rare items. The collection encompasses a variety of documents, including images, sounds, and maps as well as books and original manuscripts, among others.
Internet History Sourcebook Project A collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented for educational use. Edited by Paul Halsall and provided by Fordham University.
UK National Archives Digitized primary source materials from the British National Archives. Search with keywords or browse the index for a topic.
World Digital Library Digitized primary sources from all over the world. "The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries; the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations."