Library Guides: HIST 090: Wild, Wild West: Finding Primary Sources

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. This can include:

letters or other forms of direct communication
creative writing such as novels, poems, or plays
speeches
newspapers
works of art, photographs, and music recordings
eyewitness accounts
interviews
maps

Databases Containing Primary Sources

Primary Source Collections provided by A.M. Explorer This link opens in a new window
Enables cross searching of 88 primary source collections covering a wide range of humanities and social science subjects.
Major themes include Area Studies, Cultural Studies, Empire and Globalism, Ethnic Studies, Gender and Sexuality, History, Politics, Literature, Theatre, and War and Conflict
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) This link opens in a new window
Aggregates 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.
Early American Imprints: 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
In addition to its books, pamphlets and broadsides, this collection features many state papers and government materials, including published reports; presidential letters and messages; congressional, state and territorial resolutions. Coverage from 1801 to 1819.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819) provides full-text search capabilities and access to an image database of the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century. Continues Readex's Early American Imprints: Series I: Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1659-1800. This primary source database is based on the bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker and now supplemented by thousands of new items.
HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Collection of digitized books and other materials from major U.S. research libraries.
Search for known items or by keyword. Not all resources in the catalog are accessible online. Printing and downloads are limited. This is a great source of pre-1922 materials.

African American Periodicals: 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
Full text of more than 170 African American Periodicals published between 1825 and 1995.
American Periodicals Series This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 1,100 periodicals published between 1740 and 1900.
Includes special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.
Harper's Weekly: The Civil War Era 1857-1865 This link opens in a new window
Provides Harper's Weekly online for the years 1857 to 1865.
All the pages of Harper's Weekly (1857-1865) are viewable as scanned images, together with a series of four indexes: subject, illustrations, literature & publishing, and advertising.
Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
Collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912, provided by the American Antiquarian Society (AAS).
Subjects covered in the collection reach all facets of American life, including science, literature, medicine, women's fashion, agriculture, family life, and religion.

Collections:

African American Newspapers: 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience.
Features papers from more than 35 states, including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles.
African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Newspaper coverage of events and issues of the day, as well as biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements.
Early American Newspapers, Series II, 1758-1900 This link opens in a new window
Offers more than 200 significant 18th and 19th-century newspapers, focusing on the period between 1820 and 1860, when the number of American newspapers rose dramatically.
Based primarily on the newspaper collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Series II also includes titles from the holdings of the Library of Congress, the Wisconsin Historical Society and other organizations. Dates of coverage vary by newspaper.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspaper Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Cover-to-cover full-text contents for hundreds of 19th century U.S. papers, 1800-1899.
Dates vary for individual newspapers, however the entire database covers 1800-1899

Specific Titles:

New York Times (Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
A 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.
Covers Sept. 18, 1851 to 3 years before the current year
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Philadelphia Inquirer This link opens in a new window
A full-image archive that covers the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1860-2001. The database delivers every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
A full-image archive that covers the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 1786-2003. The database delivers every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF.

Websites Featuring Primary Sources

California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849 to 1900
A digital collection from the Library of Congress.
Meeting of Frontiers
A collection from the Library of Congress that focuses on westward expansion.
Prairie Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters
A collection from the Library of Congress, featuring materials from the Nebraska State Historical Society, the Solomon D. Butche photographs, and letters from the family of Uriah W. Oblinger.

U.S. Government Reports as Primary Sources

U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window
The U.S. Congressional Serial Set is an incomparably rich, and until this digitization, a largely untapped collection of primary source material detailing all aspects of American history. Lehigh's Federal Depository collection has had many of these materials in print form, however the indexing was limited and discovery was difficult and time consuming. With this online database one can easily research U.S. political, social, cultural, military and ethnic history, as well as international relations, exploration expeditions across the country and throughout the world, genealogy, commerce, industrial development and much more. Its contents come not only from the U.S. Congress, but also include key Executive Department publications and publication series. Lehigh's official subscription to this product contains the 19th and 20th Century documents beginning with Volume 1 in the first session of the 15th Congress (1817) and extending to 1980.

HIST 090: Wild, Wild West

What is a primary source?

Databases Containing Primary Sources

Websites Featuring Primary Sources

U.S. Government Reports as Primary Sources

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