Skip to Main Content

HIST 150: Writing Early American Lives (Fall 2023)

Finding Primary Sources in our catalog

  • Search your historic individual as "author" and see what materials they wrote
  • Search your historic figure. Put their name in the first search box. In the second box, add one of these as a "subject:
    • personal narratives
    • correspondence
    • biography
    • autobiography
    • diaries
    • speeches
    • documents
    • letters
    • papers
  • Example: "Thomas Jefferson" AND correspondence

Primary Sources in HathiTrust, Googlebook, Internet archive

Search for your historic figure, then limit their name to author search. This will show materials they've written.
Be sure to limit the publication date range to their lifetime to limit false results.

Primary Source Databases

William and Mary has over 500 primary source databases of which almost 200 include letters, diaries, and oral histories.
We also have newspapers from the early American period, most notably Early American Newspapers Series, 1-5, 1690-1922

Tips for searching primary sources

  • keep your searches simple (Ex, "Richard Bland") and don't add too many search terms.
  • If you do add search terms, use AND and only use a one or two extra terms.
  • Use the search limiters built into the database itself (Ex publication date, document type)

Unsure were to start? Try these!