What is a primary source?
Primary sources are sources that were created during the time period a researcher is studying, and provide firsthand evidence about a person, event, work of art, or object. They can include:
- letters or other forms of direct communication
- creative writing such as novels, poems, or plays
- speeches
- newspapers
- works of art
- eyewitness accounts
- interviews
Web Resources
General Websites
- Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) This link opens in a new windowAggregates collections from a vast span of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available on the web, with contents ranging from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science.
Websites specific to the Underground Railroad
- Natural Park Services Underground Railroad Map"This map contains sites, interpretive programs, and research facilities that are included in the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. "
- Aboard the Underground Railroad (NPS)Includes a list of Underground Railroad sites.
- The Geography of Slavery in Virginia"A collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers."
- Pathways to Freedom: Maryland and the Underground RailroadMaps and other primary source documents concerning people and places in Maryland's Underground Railroad.
- The Abolition of the Slave TradeCaptures essays, books, articles, maps, and illustrations to show the story of the eradication of the international slave trade to the Americas.
- Yale Slavery and Abolition PortalContains primary sources related to slavery, abolition, and resistance.
- The William Siebert CollectionContains correspondence, notes, manuscripts, student papers, maps, and photographs related to the Underground Railroad. Siebert was an early historian of the Underground Railroad.
Library Subscription Databases
- African American Newspapers: 1827-1998 This link opens in a new windowAccess to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience.
- African American Periodicals: 1825-1995 This link opens in a new windowFull text of more than 170 African American Periodicals published between 1825 and 1995.
- ARTStor This link opens in a new windowDatabase of digital images that may be used for academic purposes only. These collections are interdisciplinary, supporting research and teaching in both the humanities and social sciences.
- New York Times (Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowA full-image archive that includes the entire historical run of The New York Times, since 1851.The database delivers every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF.
- Chronicling America (Newspapers)Library of Congress historic newspaper project.