Locating Primary Sources - The Gilded Age & Progressive Era - Bradford Campus

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Primary sources may be published or unpublished. Unpublished sources are unique materials (e.g., family papers) often referred to as archives and manuscripts.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

Two of the many primary documents available from the Early American Imprints database."

Locating Primary Souces in Library Databases

Adam Matthew Explorer This link opens in a new window
Collections spanning the social sciences and humanities, developed in collaboration with leading libraries and archives. Includes unique primary source content with a wealth of additional features to enhance engagement.
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I This link opens in a new window
Based on the American Antiquarian Society's landmark collection -- the most extensive in existence -- American Broadsides and Ephemera offers fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing, theater and music programs, stock certificates and more.
Black Drama: Third Edition This link opens in a new window
Black Drama, now in its expanded third edition, contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print.
Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
With more than 2.3 million entries, PQDT is the database of record for doctoral dissertations and master's theses. The database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities in North America and from around the globe. Over 60,000 new dissertations and theses are added to the database each year.
Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
Presents mainly US census data for the nation as a whole, such as immigration statistics by country of origin or mortality rates by disease, ranging back to the 1800s.
Historic Pittsburgh This link opens in a new window
Historic Pittsburgh is a digital collection that provides an opportunity to explore and research the history of Pittsburgh and the surrounding Western Pennsylvania area on the Internet. It is a joint project of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Most of the materials in Historic Pittsburgh's Full-Text Collection were published or produced before the early 1920s and are out of print or not readily accessible.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
When complete this collection will include approximately 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, plus 4,000 pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn from more than 1,000 sources the collection represents all age groups, ethnicities, regions and the famous and the not so famous.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery This link opens in a new window
A digital archive in four parts devoted to the study and understanding of the history of slavery in America and the rest of the world from the late 15th through the early 20th century.
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).
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
WSM brings together books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies, documenting the multiplicity of women’s reform activities and examines perspectives on women’s social movements from Colonial times to the present.

Newspapers

African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Rich with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts and business and commodity markets this enormous collection of African-American newspapers contains a wealth of information about the cultural life and history during the 1800s. It also contains large numbers of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements, all of which embody the African-American experience.
Atlanta Daily World This link opens in a new window
The Atlanta Daily World had the first black White House correspondent and was the first black daily newspaper in the nation in the 20th century.
Baltimore Afro-American This link opens in a new window
The most widely circulated black newspaper on the Atlantic coast. It was the first black newspaper to have correspondents reporting on World War II, foreign correspondents, and female sports correspondents.
Chicago Defender This link opens in a new window
A leading African-American newspaper, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside Chicago.
HarpWeek This link opens in a new window
The HarpWeek database contains all the pages of Harper's Weekly for the Civil War Era and Reconstruction (1857-1912) as scanned images, together with a series of indexes. HarpWeek provides information on domestic and foreign news, editorials, and people during the Civil War era.
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.
Philadelphia Tribune This link opens in a new window
The oldest continuously published black newspaper, it was dedicated to the needs and concerns of the fourth largest black community in the U.S. During the 1930s the paper supported the growth of the United Way, rallied against the riots in Chester, PA, and continuously fought against segregation.
Pittsburgh Courier 1911-2002 This link opens in a new window
The Pittsburgh Courier was one of the most nationally circulated Black newspapers and reached its peak in the 1930s. A conservative voice in the African-American community, the Courier challenged the misrepresentation of African-Americans in the national media and advocated social reforms to advance the cause of civil rights.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Historical) This link opens in a new window
This database provides full page and article images with searchable full text for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1786-2003). The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue in PDF format.
Washington Post (Historical) This link opens in a new window
The Washington Post from 1877-2000

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

The Gilded Age & Progressive Era - Bradford Campus

What are primary sources?

Locating Primary Souces in Library Databases

Newspapers