Research Guides: History 3385 Research Guide: Websites

Primary Sources Online

A small sample of the many primary sources available online. Libraries and archives are continuing to digitize their collections. The source matters, however. Using materials from the website of a well-known historical association or university is preferable to documents with an unknown or murky provenance.

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
This site provides links to maps, charters, speeches, letters, and many other primary source materials that document various aspects of U.S. history from the 11th century to the present. Arranged chronologically.
Artstor Digital Library
The Artstor Digital Library is the most extensive image resource available for educational and scholarly use. Our collections feature visual media from leading museums, photo archives, scholars, and artists, offering many rare and important collections available nowhere else.
Digital Public Library of America
Online portal to over 10,000,000 books, photographs, movies and more. Searchable by geographic location and time as well as by keyword.
Discovering America's Women's History Online
This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources that document the history of women in the United States from the 17th to the 21st century. Researchers can browse the database by subject, place, time period, and primary source type.
Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
While this site’s scope is the entirety of Southern history, it necessarily offers a wealth of primary documents for students of the ante- and post-bellum periods, as well as the Civil War itself.
Library of Congress - Digital Collections
Formerly known as American Memory, this extraordinary collection of primary documents includes maps, diaries, letters, photographs, and audio & video materials. It chronicles life in the United States, spanning pre-colonial times to the present day. Researchers can browse by topic, time period, place, or can perform a guided search.
more...less...
Contains digitized primary documents
Valley of the Shadow (Universtiy of Virginia)
This unique site offers a parallel look at all kinds of primary documents (letters, diaries, newspapers) from two communities: Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Though one was Union and the other Confederate, the voices of ordinary citizens and soldiers resonate without regard to political allegiance.
World Digital Library
The 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.

Finding online archives and digital collections

Using Google, follow these steps.

Enter the broadest version of your topic.
Example: take your research topic, "integration efforts from the civil rights era" and distill is down to "civil rights"
Enter the type of material you are looking for.
Example: maps, images, diaries, video, etc.
Enter the designator or type.
Example: archive, repository, or digital collection.

Example:
Original search - "integration efforts from the civil rights era"

New search - "civil rights video digital collection"

Find quality sources

Narrow your search results to government, educational, or nonprofit organizations.

Google search:

site:.edu (to find sites located at colleges, universities)
site:.gov (to find government sites, government documents)
site:.org (to find sites at nonprofit organizations)

After entering our search terms, type "site:.edu"

Example: dust bowl letters OR correspondence site:.edu

History 3385 Research Guide:Websites

Primary Sources Online

Finding online archives and digital collections

Find quality sources