Guides: History Resources @ Pitt: Primary Sources

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Primary sources may be published or unpublished. Unpublished sources are unique materials (e.g., family papers) often referred to as archives and manuscripts.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

Primary Source Databases

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.
British Online Archives (BOA) This link opens in a new window
Primary sources related to British involvement in the Atlantic region, including both Africa and the Americas. Materials include journals, correspondence, official records and personal papers from 1630 to 1950. Topics covered include colonization, commercial interests, missionary work, the slave trade, and literary relations.
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.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Early English Books seeks to be a comprehensive collection of all books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the English language in any country from earliest times through 1700. This includes books on philosophy, religion, science, politics, exploration and poetry, prose and drama. Contains over 96,000 titles -- 230 years of English printing.
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.
Global Commodities This link opens in a new window
Brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history. The commodities featured in this resource have been transported, exchanged and consumed around the world for hundreds of years. They helped transform societies, global trading operations, habits of consumption and social practices.
Hispanic-American Periodicals Index (HAPI) This link opens in a new window
HAPI is the source for authoritative, worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States.
Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
The Making of the Modern World looks at history through the lens of wealth and trade with a focus on economics in the widest sense, including political science, history, philosophy, sociology, and special collections on banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing.
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.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (with iPOLL) This link opens in a new window
Roper iPoll is the largest collection of public opinion poll data with results from 1935 to the present. Roper iPoll contains nearly 800,000 questions and over 23,000 datasets from both U.S. and international polling firms. Surveys cover a range of topics.
Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
This database presents Joseph Sabin's bibliography of works related to early American history. The full text of the books is available alongside.
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 many primary source materials 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
Harvard University Libraries Digital Collection
Contains links to many documents in American history.
Resources in American History
From the National Archives, links to many primary and secondary sources.

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

History Resources @ Pitt

History Liaison Librarian

What are primary sources?

Primary Source Databases

Selected Primary Source Websites