Research Guides: HIST 150: Unlearning US History (Fall 2023): Finding Primary Sources in Databases

Where to Start?

Full list of primary source databases
Full list of our massive collection of Primary sources databases

Tips

When looking for primary sources in our excellent databases, keep 2 things in mind:

Simplicity is best. Try to only use 2 or 3 keywords, do not overwhelm the system.
Remember that words change over time, and you need to use words from that era
1. Example: instead of "teacher" I may want to search Schoolmarm.

Also remember that every database has a unique focus, so you may need to try your search in multiple databases, and that's OK. Read the descriptions on the databases to see if it's the right fit for your topic.

NOTE: Words change over time. See "Nice"
See how the word Nice has changed meanings over time

Databases

Your syllabus contains a detailed appendix of Primary Sources Collections.
Below are some additional highlighted resources.
Please note the full list of primary source databases is also on the library webpage.

NEWSPAPERS:

Full list of primary source databases
Full list of our massive collection of Primary sources databases

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Broad coverage of African American history, culture, and daily life. Newspapers from over 35 states. Coverage: 1827-1998.
American Periodicals Series Online This link opens in a new window
This database contains periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals.
America's Historical Newspapers (includes Early American Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Newspapers from all 50 states with eyewitness reporting, letters, advertisements, obituaries, etc. Includes access to Series I (1690-1876), Series II (1758-1900), Series III (1829-1922), Series IV (1756-1922), and Series V (1777-1922). Coverage: 1690-1922.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
This database allows you to search and view public domain newspaper pages (1690-1963) and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Confederate Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The real and true history of (Southern) public opinion during the war. A mixture of issues and papers, some only single issues. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1860-1865.
Harper's Bazaar Archive (1867-) This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive, searchable archive of every page, advertisement, and cover of the Harper's Bazaar US and UK editions, from 1867 to the present. The issues are reproduced as high-resolution color page images and supported by fully searchable text and article-level indexing. This resource comprises a chronicle of American, British, and international fashion, culture, and society, supporting researchers by offering unique insights into the events, attitudes, and interests of the modern era.
New York Times: Historical Newspapers 1851-2017 This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. Coverage: 1851-2017.
19th Century US Newspapers This link opens in a new window
19th century U.S. urban and regional newspapers. Fully searchable. Coverage: 1800-early 20th century.
Southern Literary Messenger: Literature of the Old South This link opens in a new window
The Southern Literary Messenger (1834-1864) was one of the most successful and influential literary magazines in the South. Published in Richmond, Virginia, it is a source on Southern history, European history, military history, secessionism, states rights, and slavery issues. Contributors included prominent southern authors Edgar Allan Poe, Philip Pendleton Cooke, William Gilmore Simms, and Henry Timrod. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1834-1864.

CORRESPONDENCE AND DIARIES

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
This release contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs. Includes 4,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts such as the letters of Amos Wood and his wife and the diary of Maryland Planter William Claytor.

In PRIMO, search your topic with (letters OR diaries) in the search box to find these in the main catalog too

TRAVEL ACCOUNTS

Overland Journeys: Travels in the West, 1800-1880 This link opens in a new window
Accounts from settlers. Based on The Plains and Rockies: A Critical Bibliography of Exploration, Adventure, and Travel in the American West, 1800-1865; and The Trail West: A Bibliography-Index to Western American Trails, 1841-1869. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1800-1880.
Mountain People: Life and Culture in Appalachia This link opens in a new window
Covers Appalachia, defined here as "the vast region between Lexington, Kentucky and Winchester, Virginia, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Birmingham, Alabama." Topics include: American history, industry, education, religion, and folklore. Diaries, journals, narratives, travel accounts, family histories, etc. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1700-1950.
his collection comprises in its entirety, the Primary Source media microfilm collection entitled First Three Centuries of Appalachian Travel. In addition, a small very number of selected titles were included from the microfilm collections entitled Travels in the Old South I, II, & III: 1607-1860; Travels in the New South I & II, 1865-1950; and, Kentucky Culture: A Basic Library of Kentuckiana.

GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY RECORDS

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Historic and current congressional information. Includes Committee Prints, Congressional Record 1789-2009, CRS Reports, Hearings 1824-present, Unpublished Hearings 1973-1992, House & Senate Documents and Reports, Legislative Histories, Executive Branch Documents 1789-1952, and the Serial Set. Coverage: 1789-present.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion
The congressional globe
The Globe, as it is usually called, contains the congressional debates of the 23rd through 42nd Congresses (1833-73). There are forty-six volumes in the series based on the table found in the Third Edition of Checklist of United States Public Documents 1789-1909, Volume 1B (pp. 1466-69).
Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865
The Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865 was printed in a seven-volume set between 1904 and 1905 as Senate Document No. 234 of the U.S. Serial Set, 58th Congress, 2nd session. A Senate Resolution dated January 28, 1904, directed the secretary of war, Elihu Root, to transmit to the U.S. Senate a copy of the Journal of the Provisional Congress and of the 1st and 2nd Congresses of the Confederate States of America.

INTERVIEWS AND NARRATIVE ACCOUNTS OF FORMERLY ENSLAVED PERSONS

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress.
North American Slave Narratives
"North American Slave Narratives" collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of Black people struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Also included are many of the biographies of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people and some significant fictionalized first-person accounts of enslavement published in English before 1920.

Other Databases of Note

American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable facsimile images that capture daily life in America. Wide variety of items, including clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, theater and music programs, stock certificates, advertisements, menus, and social invitations. Coverage: 1760-1900.
American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window
Contains books, maps, artwork, and other primary source materials from the Gilder Lehrman Collection. It is divided into two modules: Module 1 Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859; and Module 2 Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945.
American Indian Histories and Cultures (now: Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America) This link opens in a new window
A wide-ranging digital resource presenting a unique insight into interactions between American Indians and Europeans from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library's extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection. Includes manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books, photographs and newspapers. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.
Ancestry.com This link opens in a new window
Provides access to historical U.S. and international documents and photos, local narratives, oral histories, indexes and other resources in over 30,000 databases that span from the 1500s to the 2000s. The Library Edition of Ancestry.com has fewer personalized functions and options than the versions available to private subscribers.
ArtStor This link opens in a new window
Digital images from around the world (including photography, architecture, decorative arts, graphic design, painting, and sculpture) in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences. Coverage: all time periods. To download or save images create a free user account with your W&M email.
America's Historical Imprints This link opens in a new window
American history, literature, culture, and daily life. Choose this database to search the following as one file: American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1, 1760-1900; Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) 1670-1800; Supplement from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) 1652-1800. Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) 1801-1819; Supplement from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) 1801-1819. Coverage: Varies.
Everyday Life & Women in America This link opens in a new window
This digital collection provides access to rare primary source material on American social, cultural, and popular history from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University and The New York Public Library. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes, emphasizing conduct of life and domestic management literature, the daily lives of women and men, and contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.
Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
Economic and business activity in the West, including agriculture, commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade, and transportation. Fully searchable. From the Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature. Coverage: 1450-1945.
ProQuest Civil War Era This link opens in a new window
This database covers a vast range of topics including the formative economic factors and other forces that led to the abolitionist movement, the 600,000 battle casualties and the emancipation of nearly 4 million slaves. Includes newspapers, advertisements, editorials, letters, obituaries, ephemera
Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
Early American history and culture. Books, pamphlets, serials, and other works and print matter about North, Central, and South America. Documents also cover the Caribbean and the Atlantic World. Coverage: 1500-1926.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
This digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries, with 16 key areas of focus: slavery in the early Americas; African coast; the Middle Passage; slavery and agriculture; urban and domestic slavery; slave testimony; spiritualism and religion in slave communities; resistance and revolts; the Underground Railroad; the abolition movement and the slavery debate; legislation and politics; freed slaves, freedmen and free black settlements; education; slavery and the Islamic world; varieties of slave experience; slavery today and the legacy of slavery. Documents include legal materials and court cases, broadsides, court records, maps, pamphlets, lists of enslaved peoples, ship's logs, registers, and reports. The collection also includes case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.
Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919-2019 This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919-2019 examines efforts to foster gender equity through expanded economic and social participation of women on a global scale. Covering a century, the database highlights and evaluates activism through individual efforts, organizational initiatives, and socio-cultural projects led by or for women in the Global South. It shows how women have negotiated power and status regarding private or public programs centered on their rights and social inclusion. Stressing the historical problem of the feminization of poverty, coupled with womens invisibility within most foreign aid regimes and approaches to technical assistance, the project documents how women and their allies worked to balance economic growth and social improvement while navigating equity and the fairer allocation of resources. Accompanying essays by leading scholars in the field outline and critique significant shifts in approaches to development, including that of a gendered post-development perspective.