Primary Sources - United States History Resources - Oakland 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Primary sources may be published or unpublished. Unpublished sources are unique materials (e.g., family papers) often referred to as archives and manuscripts.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.

Primary Source Databases

African American Newspapers – Series 1 & 2: 1827 - 1998 This link opens in a new window
African American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2, 1827-1998, provides online access to more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African-American experience. This unique collection, which includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states, features many rare 19th-century titles. Newly digitized, these newspapers published by or for African Americans can now be browsed and searched as never before.
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I This link opens in a new window
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.
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries knits together more than 1,000 sources of diaries, letters, and memoirs to provide fast access to thousands of views on almost every aspect of the war.
American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window
Traces the progress of American History and extensively covers the major themes of the period from colonization and settlement through the revolution, expansion, politics, slavery, the Civil War and reconstruction, to World War II.
American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900 This link opens in a new window
American Periodicals Series Online (APS Online) includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Some publications include Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine and the popular magazine Vanity Fair.
American State Papers, 1789-1838 This link opens in a new window
The American State Papers is a critical resource for the study of all aspects of American history. Sources include legislative and executive documents as well as speeches from President Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison.
Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window
A primary source collection details the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings of the activists themselves. The approximately 15,000 articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of almost 300 Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany.
Congressional (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The world's most comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information from Congressional Information Services. Includes access to many full-text Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, information about current members of Congress, and much more.

Includes U.S. Bills and Resolutions: 1789 - 2022
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans Digital Edition This link opens in a new window
For decades, this collection has served as the definitive resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America.
Early American Newspapers (1690-1922) This link opens in a new window
Early American Newspapers features cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers, providing more than one million pages as fully text-searchable facsimile images. Based largely on Clarence Brigham's "History and Bibliography of American Newspapers,1690-1820".
Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Early Encounters in North America is a full text collection of primary documents related to early encounters of North American Indian, European, American, and African peoples and cultures in North America, as well as descriptions of the natural features of North America at the time. The collection is centered on present-day Canada and the United States with some limited coverage of Mexico.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online includes a variety of materials -- from books and directories, Bibles, sheet music and sermons to advertisements -- and works by many well-known and lesser-known authors.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Empire Online includes approximately 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed materials covering the period 1492-1962. Empire Online also provides biographies of the individuals mentioned in the source material, a detailed chronology of the period covered, and both keyword and controlled vocabulary searching.
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.
Index to 19th Century American Art Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals indexes 42 art periodicals published in the United States during the 19th century. Includes articles, art notes, illustrations, stories, poems, and advertisements.
North American Immigrant Letters & Diaries This link opens in a new window
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories (IMLD) provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada. The materials begin around 1840 and extend to the present, focusing heavily on the period from 1920 to 1980.
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.
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.

Selected Primary Source Websites

This is a small sampling of the numerous online historical resources available on the Internet.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
"The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections."
Making of America
Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
Avalon Project
Documents in law, history and diplomacy
Resources in American History
From the National Archives, links to many primary and secondary sources.

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

United States History Resources - Oakland Campus

Christopher Lemery

What are primary sources?

Primary Source Databases

Selected Primary Source Websites