Research Guides: HIST 290: The Craft of History: Find Primary Sources

Places to Find Primary Sources

Library Databases
- Below you will find a list of some popular databases used to locate historical primary source research. It is not a full list of a databases for this type of research you have access to through the library. For a full list, please view the link below.
Books
- Books written during the time period you are studying or memoirs can be considered primary sources. You can locate books and eBooks available through our libraries by using Search@UW and the eBook database tab listed below.
Digital Collections Freely Available Online
- Depending on your research topic, you may not find that any databases cover the time period, content or geographic area you are studying. This is where digital collections freely available online such as the Library of Congress Digital Collections can be really helpful. If you need help locating relevant digital collections online, click on the research help page of this guide to connect with a librarian.
UW-Green Bay Archives & Area Research Center
- Our campus archive has thousands of primary sources specifically related to our University, Wisconsin and Northeast Wisconsin history. To learn more, visit the link below to visit our campus archives website to connect with an archivist.

Databases for Primary Source Research
Here you will find a full list of library databases containing primary sources, including newspapers.
Archives and ARC - Local History & Genealogy
Contact the Archives & Area Research Center for more help with local history and genealogy research.

Databases for Primary Sources

Brill E-book Collections This link opens in a new window
Full text e-books in the humanities and social sciences.
Browse e-books in a variety of subjects including Asian Studies, Biblical Studies, Ancient Near East and Early Christianity, Biology, Classical Studies, European History and Culture, Language and Linguistics, Materials and Surface Sciences, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Religious Studies, Theology and Philosophy and Social Sciences.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include literature, history, philosophy, humanities, and religious studies. Find digital copies of works printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700
Coverage from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War. 1473-1700
Project Gutenberg This link opens in a new window
Project Gutenberg is an on-going project to produce and distribute free electronic editions of books in the public domain. Most are works of literature such as novels, poetry, and drama.

FedFlix
Find films produced by the United States government. All films are in the public domain and are available for reuse without any restrictions.
American History in Video (Alexander Street Press)
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Subjects covered include history, biography, politics, world events. Find primary sources, streaming video content, and newsreels.
The early newsreels, including the complete series of United Newsreel and Universal Newsreel, available online in their entirety only in this collection, capture history as it was made and reported to viewers of the time. Collection mainly consists of contemporaneous video from the 1890s to the 1980s.
Black Studies in Video (Alexander Street Press)
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Subjects covered include African American history, politics, art and culture, family structure, gender relationships, and social and economic issues. Find film and streaming video.
Alexander Street Press
LGBT Studies in Video
Subjects covered include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies, gender studies, history, and politics. Find documentaries, interviews, archival footage, and select feature films

Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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Subjects covered include history, news, and a wide range of topics. Find primary sources: the full text and full image articles from the New York Times dating back to the 19th century.
Coverage from 1851 to present- most recent 3 years not available.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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A wide range of subjects covered. Find citations to primary sources: popular, general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890 to 1982.
Readers' Guide Retrospective is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America.
Times Digital Archive (Gale)
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The Times (London, England) Digital Archive is an online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times, one of the most highly regarded resources for the 19th – 20th Century history detailing every complete page of every issue from 1785-2009.
African American Newspapers (1827-1998) This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies, news, and more. Find primary sources and news.
1827-1998 provides online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection features papers from more than 35 states—including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles.
Newspapers.com Library Edition - World Collection
Historical newspapers archive from the 1700s - 2000s containing thousands of well-known regional, state, and small local newspapers in the United States and other countries.
This is a Badgerlink resource, if you are unable to access please visit the Badgerlink site: https://badgerlink.dpi.wi.gov/
African American Periodicals (1825-1995) This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies, news and more. Find news, commentary, advertisements, literature, drawings and photographs, and primary source material.
1825-1995 features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations' bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
Early American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include historic local, regional, & national news. Find news and primary sources.
Available here: Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876; Series 1 (2009 ETC); Series 2, 1758-1900; Series 2 (2009 ETC); Series 3, 1829-1922; Series 3 (2009 ETC); Series 4, 1756-1922; Series 4 (2009 ETC); Series 5, 1777-1922; Series 5 (2009 ETC); Series 6, 1741-1922; Series 6 (2009 ETC); Series 7, 1773-1922 and Series 7 (2009 ETC).
Lily (Accessible Archives)
The Lily is the first newspaper for women, and was issued from 1849 until 1853 under the editorship of Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894).
NewspaperARCHIVE.com This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include genealogy, history, and culture. Contains Wisconsin newspaper coverage.
NewspaperARCHIVE includes fully searchable newspaper pages from more than 400 cities and towns—from The Washington Post to the Stevens Point Gazette.Years of coverage vary, but some newspapers go back as far as the 1700s and include titles from the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom. Pages are reproduced in PDF format.Coverage: 1700s - (updates vary); varies by title

Artstor
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Subjects covered include art, design, architecture, fashion, maps, photography, and more. Find images from museums, archives, and other institutions.
Description: The Artstor Digital Library is a database of 2 million images for use in the humanities. Comprised of nearly 300 collections from museums, archives, scholars, and artists, the Artstor Digital Library makes available high-qualities images for download, along with tools for exporting images into PowerPoint and creating citations.
History Vault: Civil Rights
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Subjects covered include cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies, news, and more. Find primary sources, federal records, organization records, and more.
Contains the collection Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle. Features records of NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, and federal records.
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include history, First Nations studies, cultural studies, and environmental studies. Find primary sources; both published and unpublished acounts, including narratives, diaries, journals, and letters.
It focuses on personal accounts and provides wide range of perspectives. Includes both published and unpublished acounts, including narratives, diaries, journals, and letters.Coverage: 1534-1850
Gilded Age (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include race, labor, immigration, commerce, western expansion, and women’s suffrage. Find photographs, songs, and other primary source materials as well as scholarly essays.
These essays illuminate the rapidly changing cultural landscape of America during the decades between the end of the Civil War and the election of Theodore Roosevelt.Coverage: Approximately 1865-1902.
North American Immigrants Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include history and related fields. Find primary sources: North American immigrant letters, diaries, and oral histories from the United States and Canada.
Coverage: 1840-present, with the majority of the coverage from 1920-1980.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colonial to 1950 (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include history and related fields. Find primary sources: letters and diaries that describe the immediate experiences of 107 women.
Coverage: Colonial to 1950
U.S. History In Context
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Subjects covered include United States history, including events, biographies, social movements, and politics. Find academic, trade, popular, and primary sources.
Women and Social Movements US 1600-2000: Basic Edition (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include women and gender studies, social movements, social justice, sociology, politics, activism, history, and realted fields. Find projects addressing aspects of women and social movements in the United States, each project contains primary documents and contextual materials collected to answer a specific question.
It includes as well book, film and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools.Coverage: 1600-2000
North American Indian Thought and Culture
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Subjects covered include First Nations Studies, history, biography, and cultural studies. Find autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files.

HIST 290: The Craft of History

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Places to Find Primary Sources

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