NEWSPAPERS
USEFUL LINKS
HOW DO I?
COURSE GUIDES
DATABASES
Any document, image, or artifact created at the time of the topic being researched is a primary source.
Examples include: eyewitness accounts, autobiographies and memoirs, diaries, letters, speeches, reports, newspapers, household and day-to-day objects, clothing, works of art, architecture, and photographs.
Please note: primary source documents are a reflection of the time and culture in which they were created and may contain language or images that are considered offensive today.
ALWAYS limit your search to the date range relevant to your topic.
Try searching terms, phrases, etc. that were commonly used at the time in relation to your topic. For example: For World War I, try "Great War" or simply "World War." Parentheses around phrases such as Great War will produce better results.
Look for document-type limiters that may improve your results, such as article, commentary, editorial, front page / cover story, letter to the editor, etc.
Citations can be exported from this source to NoodleTools.
Thank you for handling these fragile bound volumes with care! Want a copy of an article or advertisement? Please take a picture or scan the image using your smartphone.
The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971
Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present
Presidential Elections 1789-2004
Vital Statistics on the Presidency: Washington to Clinton
The Black Past: Remembered & Reclaimed The "Google" of African American history includes an online encyclopedia, primary sources, and much more.
Digital History An extensive documents collection is part of this award-winning American history website from the College of Education at the University of Houston.
Digital Public Library of America: Primary Source Sets A vast collection of free content from American libraries, archives, and museums.
Discovering American Women's History Online Digital collections of primary source materials browseable by subject, place, time period, and source type.
Finding Primary Sources is the launch page to the vast collection of American history primary source content available online at the Library of Congress.
The New York Times TimesMachine Over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared. From Volume 1, Number 1 (1851) to 2002. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit of digital subscribers so be sure to sign up here to access the library's digital NYT account.
Presidential Libraries and Museums offer digital document archives and museums full of important Presidential artifacts, beginning with Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman up to Donald J. Trump.
Social History for Every Classroom a database of primary documents, classroom activities, and other teaching materials in U.S. history. Keyword search or browse by theme (Civil Rights and Citizenship, Immigration and Migration, Labor activism, etc) or by historical era.
Dedicated to the history of social reform and social welfare services that have strengthened the fabric of American society....While designed for broad public use, the site includes links and references to key archives, libraries, scholarly websites and other sources of reliable information that we hope will be useful to students, researchers and scholars. From Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.
Teaching American History: Core Document Collections by Era (A project of the Ashbrook Center, Ashland University, dedicated to supporting students and teachers of U.S. history)
To cite a Primary Source, first choose the NoodleTools option that best describes where you found it:
next to the database name.Website = a document found on the Websites page of the course guide, found through a web directory like SweetSearch, or a search engine such as Google.
Print or In Hand = a document found in a book in the library. For example: in a reference book or a secondary source.
Next, determine what kind of primary source you are citing: