Primary Sources
What are primary sources?
Primary sources are the evidence of history, original records or objects created by participants or observers at the time historical events occurred or even well after events, as in memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include but are not limited to: letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, maps, speeches, interviews, documents produced by government agencies, photographs, audio or video recordings, born-digital items (e.g. emails), research data, and objects or artifacts (such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons). (1)
U.S. National Archives
- National Archives of the United StatesThe National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.
Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you
International Digital Archives
- Online Parliamentary MaterialLinks to digitized parliamentary records and resources elsewhere on the web.
- Europeana(from the European Union) "Europeana offers a journey through time, across borders, and into new ideas of what our culture is. More than that, it will connect people to their history..."
- World Digital LibraryThe World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
Primary Source Book and Periodical Databases
- Finding Primary Sources in the popular literature of the day: You may be able to find articles, speeches, and personal accounts that qualify as primary sources in the magazines, newspapers and popular literature of the day. Lehigh's library also makes available a significant number of online sources that provide the searchable full text of historic materials and publications. Be sure to look at the News tab in this guide for other resources.
- American Periodicals Series This link opens in a new windowFull text of over 1,100 periodicals published between 1740 and 1900.
- 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.
- Early American Imprints: 1639-1800 This link opens in a new windowProvides access to primary sources covering nearly every aspect of early American history, literature, philosophy, religion, politics and every day life. Coverage from 1639 to 1800.
- Early American Imprints: 1801-1819 This link opens in a new windowIn 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 English Books Online This link opens in a new windowContains images of nearly every work printed in the British Isles and North America from 1470-1700, as well as works in English printed elsewhere. Includes transcriptions of about 50% of texts.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowDigital access to nearly 150,000 items including books, broadsides, Bibles, tract books and sermons and printed ephemera and includes works by many well-known and lesser-known authors published between 1701 and 1800.
Primary Sources on the Web
Libraries, archives, museums and other institutions are digitizing enormous amounts of primary source materials from their collections and making them freely available on the internet. Many of these materials are also cataloged in WorldCat.
- American Memoryprovides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music .It is a digital record of American history. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America
- Avalon ProjectA collection of historical, diplomatic and legal texts from Yale Law School
- Documenting the American South19th century American South materials from the University of North Carolina
- Making of America - Univ. of Michigana 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. The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
- NYPL Digital CollectionsSpanning a wide range of historical eras, geography, and media, the New York Public Library Digital Collections offers drawings, illuminated manuscripts, maps, photographs, posters, prints, rare illustrated books, videos, audio, and more.
- Valley of the ShadowDetails life in Augusta County, Va. and Franklin County, Pa. during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Contains letters, diaries, newspapers, speeches, census records and church records.
- War Department Papers, 1784 - 1800"After a traumatic and devastating fire in 1800, many historians thought that the early files of the United States War Department were essentially lost forever. Thankfully, the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University recently completed a decade long project to locate all of these records and place them online here. The collection is a very important one, because during this time period the War Department was responsible for Indian affairs, veteran affairs, and naval affairs." Holly Hill, Archives and Archivists listserve.
Archives and Manuscript Collections
- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new windowProvides a search interface for primary source material held in archives, special collections, and manuscript collections around the world.
- National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections This link opens in a new windowAccess to records drawn from the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) and the OCLC bibliographic database that describe archival and manuscript collections in research, college, university and public and special libraries, archives, museums and historical societies in North America and worldwide.
- Lehigh Digital Libraryexplore the primary sources in our Special Collections department which have been digitized to allow easy access.
Congressional Record
The official records of House and Senate actions are kept in their respective journals, but a fuller record of proceedings is kept in the Congressional Record, which has been published by the Government Printing Office (GPO) since 1873. GPO publishes new issues of the record daily and transmits each new issue to the Library of Congress overnight. The Congressional Record is available online in a variety of places as indicated below:
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowLegal history and documents in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format. Find law journals, the Congressional Record in entirety, coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, famous world trials back to the early 1700's, legal classics, the United Nations and League of Nations Treaty Series, all United States Treaties, the Federal Register from 1936, the CFR from 1938, and much more.
Lehigh's print holdings go back to 1873 as follows:
1873 - 1933 in Storage. The print indexes are in FM - 2- South in the Government Documents area under call number 328.732 C74r. Use the indexes to determine which volumes to request from storage.