Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Original materials that provide direct evidence or first-hand testimony concerning a topic or event.

Primary sources can be contemporary sources created at the time when the event occurred (e.g., letters and newspaper articles) or later (e.g., memoirs and oral history interviews).

Primary sources may be published or unpublished. Unpublished sources are unique materials (e.g., family papers) often referred to as archives and manuscripts.

What constitutes a primary source varies by discipline. How the researcher uses the source generally determines whether it is a primary source or not.

Media, News and Historical Newspapers

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) This link opens in a new window
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) is a collection of English-language transcriptions of media content from around the world collected by the United States' intelligence community between 1941-1996. This collection provides an international perspective on world events.
Los Angeles Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
The Los Angeles Times from 1881-1993
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times from 1851-2013 with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images.
Wall Street Journal (Historical) This link opens in a new window
The Wall Street Journal from 1889-2000 with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images.
Washington Post (Historical) This link opens in a new window
The Washington Post from 1877-2000
Times of London Digital Archive 1785-2011 This link opens in a new window
Provides the full text of The Times of London newspaper from 1785-2011. For current articles (1985-present) from The Times of London see Academic OneFile.

Additional information is also available from our LibGuide on Declassified Documents.

Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
The Digital National Security Archive contains over 40,000 U.S. government documents declassified under the Freedom of Information Act. These documents derive from the CIA, the FBI, the Defense Department and numerous other government agencies.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
U.S. Declassified Documents Online provides immediate access to a broad range of previously classified federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The collection brings together the most sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies in a single, easily searchable database. Former title: Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS).