There is no particular area in the library where you will find primary sources shelved. You need to use creativity and insight to think about where to find primary sources for your research. Diaries, memoirs, and letters are possibilities; so are popular press accounts of events and official documents. The items listed below are a sampling of resources that may prove helpful in historical research. Look, too, for collections of documents published as anthologies or for important historical texts from the web sources listed below.

Also visit our guide to Select Resources for Primary Sources.

Popular Press / Official Documents / Reference Books / Reprint Series / Microfilm Collections / Online Collections

The Popular Press:

• The New York Times Historical (1851-2003)
  The full text of the New York Times from 1851 to 2003 - covering the entire publishing history of the newspaper back to the first issue. The newspaper text is fully indexed and searchable and the database also contains full-page images, including graphics. Available on the Web through ProQuest.

• Poole's Index to Periodical Literature. Revised edition. New York: P. Smith, 1938. (Ref AI3.P7 1938)
  An index to the contents of periodicals published in the nineteenth century in England and America. Covers 1802-1881, with supplements that cover through 1906. Though less easy to use than later indexes, it is the only access to articles in popular periodicals by subject. Headings are not always easy to guess--the Civil War, for example, is found under United States--Civil War.
  

• Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. New York: Wilson, 1900--. (Ref AI3.R28)
  Indexes selected popular magazines by author and subject. It is a good way to find articles written for a general audience, though it will not cover scholarly journals. It is also ideal for finding primary source material on twentieth century history, since it began publishing in 1900.
  

Official documents:

• United States. Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States. Diplomatic Papers. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1861--. (JX233. A3, also on microfiche)
  Collected correspondence, memoranda, treaties, presidential messages, etc., relating to relating to U. S. foreign policy, arranged chronologically and by region. This is a rich depository of primary source material on foreign relations and international issues.
  

• United States. President. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Washington, DC: Office of the Federal Register, 1957--. (J80.A283)
  A repository of proclamations, speeches, statements, etc. of presidents, kept up to date by the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.
  

• U.S. Serial Set. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1789-1969. (Gov Docs Ref J74.C65)
  This series is a compilation of various sorts of Congressional documents. The library owns papers in this series covering the 17th Congress (1798-1823), the 36th through 41st Congress (1859-1871) and the 42nd Congress (1871-1873). They are available on microfiche in the government documents area in a cabinet marked "American State Papers"; a printed index provides subject access to the microfiche by document and envelope number. (For example, an entry for "S.misdoc. 22 (39 - II) 1278" is referencing document number 22 in microfiche envelope number 1278; it is a miscellaneous Senate document from the second session of the 39th Congress.)
  

Reference books:

• American Decades Primary Sources. Detroit : Gale, 2004. (Ref E169.1.A471977)
  This resource provides excerpts from primary sources for each decade from 1900-1999. Topics covered range from the arts to science and technology. Although this set does not contain whole documents, it does provide an introduction to each document and explains its significance.
  

• Historic Documents. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1972-2002. (Ref E839.5.H57 1972)
  Each volume of this series consists of a compilation of the most important government documents (including government reports, treaties, court decisions, presidential addresses, etc) for a given year.

Reprint series:
These book series can be searched on the library catalog by title keyword.

• The American Negro: His History and Literature
• The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
• The Black Women Oral History Project
• The Early English Text Society Series
• The Early Modern Englishwoman-a Facsimile Library of Essential Works
• The English Experience, Its Record in Early Printed Books Published in Facsimile
• Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation
• The March of America Facsimile Series
• Russia Observed
• Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Women Writers
• Women in America: From Colonial Times to the 20th Century

Microfilm collections

• American Culture Series, 1493-187. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1979. (Microform area)
  A large collection of microfilmed books and pamphlets, with a printed index to its contents.
  

• American Periodicals Series, 1741-1900. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1979. (Microform area)
  A collection of periodicals reproduced on microfilm. This library does not own the entire set. A general index, covering the subject matter of different magazines, is available in print form.
  

• American Women's Diaries--Western Women. New Canaan, CT: Readex, 198?--. (Microform F596.A5)
  This collection of microfilm reproduces the diaries of women who lived and traveled in the western U.S. It provides first-hand accounts of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon pioneers in Utah, and other experiences.
  

• The Cornell University Collection of Women's Rights Pamphlets. Wooster, MA: Bell and Howell, 1974. (Microfiche HQ1236.C6751974)
  This collection of microfiche contains 117 pamphlets published between 1814 and 1912.
  

• FBI File on Malcolm X. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1996. (Microfilm E185.97.L5 F231996)
  An unusual primary source, reproducing the actual FBI file kept on Malcolm X. Additional FBI surveillance files are available under Microfilm E185.61 .M315 1978. The library owns a similar microfilm collection that covers the FBI file on W.E.B. Du Bois with information the agency collected from 1942 to 1963. These files, though declassified, have been heavily censored and many portions of text are blacked out. Provides not only what the authorities believed was significant evidence on these public figures and their behavior, but insight into how they interpreted that evidence.
  

• Papers of the NAACP: Supplement to Part 4, Voting Rights, General Office Files, 1956-1965. Bethesda, MD: University Publications of America, 1995. (Microfilm E185.5.N276 1995)
  A firsthand record of the activities of the NAACP in the fight for voting rights in a critical period in African American History. Includes information on voter registration campaigns, reports on the political climate of the times, committee recommendations, accounts of resistance to voter registration campaigns, etc. Indexed by subject and by principal correspondent.
  

• Records of the Confederate States of America, 1859-1872. Wilmington, Del. : Scholarly Resources, [1967?]. (Microfilm JK9665.C65 1967)
  Known as the "Pickett Papers", these documents relate to the formation of the Confederate States and the conduct of its internal, external and military affairs.

Online collections

• American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html) Gateway to digitized primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States
  
• Avalon Project (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm) A site maintained by Yale Law School, contains documents pertaining to law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government.
• Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of nearly 100,000 books in English printed between 1473 and 1700 - virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, plus works in English printed elsewhere. Texts range from the first book printed in English by William Caxton through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War. Included are works by Malory, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle, Newton, Galileo; musical exercises by Henry Purcell; novels by Aphra Behn; prayer books, pamphlets, and proclamations; almanacs, calendars, and many other primary sources.
• EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe (http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page)
• Making of America (http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/) A collection of primary documents from the 19th century covering education, psychology, history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
• Medieval Sources Online (http://www.medievalsources.co.uk/sources.htm) A web-based learning resource containing hundreds of original medieval history documents compiled for the teaching and study of history.
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) (http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/index.html) Official depository of United States government documents, use the ARC catalog to search for documents and photographs.
  

Last updated December 7, 2006