Guides: College in High School History Guide: Primary Source Databases

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Primary sources may be published or unpublished. Unpublished sources are unique materials (e.g., family papers) often referred to as archives and manuscripts.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

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.
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. The letters and diaries are by the famous and the unknown, giving not only both the Northern and Southern perspectives, but also those of foreign observers. The collection includes approximately 100,000 pages of published memoirs, letters, and diaries from individuals, in addition to 4,000 pages of previously unpublished materials.
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.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans Digital Edition This link opens in a new window
Series 1 is based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans and the collection has served as the definitive resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America. Series 2 is an unique Web-based collection that thoroughly chronicles the people, ideas and events behind the early political, social, cultural and geographic growth of the United States.
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 digitally captures this influential period and provides new research opportunities in ways previously unavailable. 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. Much of the material is previously unpublished. Several thousand pages of Ellis Island Oral History interviews, indexed and searchable for the first time, are included. 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.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Social Explorer is mainly an interactive map of demographic information drawn from the US Census. Users can examine geographic areas while selecting the type of data to be shown, such as population density or income level. Note: Creation of a Personal Account is required to fully access all Social Explorer features.
Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantation Records, Part 1 (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window
The Plantation Records in this module documents the far-reaching impact of plantations on both the American South and the nation. As business owners, the commodities produced by plantation owners—rice, cotton, sugar, tobacco, hemp, and others— accounted for more than half of the nation’s exports. The plantation, therefore, played a key role in the development of a nationwide market economy. Plantation records also document the personal lives of plantation owners and their families.
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.

Primary Sources - Russian History

30 Dnei Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
The 30 Dnei Digital Archive comprises the entire collection of the popular literary monthly journal, totaling 195 issues, 5,850 articles, and 19,500 pages.

It offers scholars the most comprehensive collection available for this title, and features full page-level digitization and complete original graphics.
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.
Izvestiia Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Among the longest-running Russian newspapers, Izvestiia was founded in March 1917 and during the Soviet period was the official organ of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Remarkable for its serious and balanced treatment of subject matter, Izvestiia has traditionally been a popular news source within intellectual and academic circles.
Pravda Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Full text of the famous Soviet newspaper from its roots as an underground publication through its rise to prominence as the main state sanctioned outlet for party propaganda until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Universal Database of Russian Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The EastView database includes searchable full text articles from over 30 currently published Russian newspapers.

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

College in High School History Guide

What are primary sources?

Primary Source Databases - US History

Selected Primary Source Websites

Primary Sources - Russian History