Contact:
McGraw-Page Library
804-752-4712
Subjects:Art History, General Research / Interdisciplinary, History, Religious Studies
Primary source provide a first-hand record of what happened and/or was experienced at a particular time and place. These materials provide the raw material for interpretation and analysis by historians and other researchers.
The first step in finding primary sources in many cases is to review secondary sources on your topic. The footnotes and bibliography sections of secondary sources will often include references to useful primary sources. Locating materials produced by an individual closely associated with the historical event is another good way to find relevant primary source material.
Includes a dozen important African American newspapers. Dates range from 1827-1919. For a more comprehensive collection with over 350 papers, see: African American Newspapers, Series 1 &2 (Readex)
Full text of over 350 African American newspapers published throughout the U.S. from 1827-1998, documenting the African American experience through coverage of African American history, culture, and daily life.
Primary source materials on African-Americans during the Jim Crow era in American history.
Primary source materials on African-Americans during the Reconstruction era in American history.
Full-text searchable editions with page images of nearly 50 newspapers from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. In addition to articles, includes advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, editorials, etc.
Collection of over 75,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents, and other materials published in America between 1639 and 1819, covering all subject areas. This full text primary source database includes virtually all known published materials in early America.
A union catalogue of sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century correspondence, covering Europe.
Index to printed works about the Americas published in Europe.
Online edition of Harper's Weekly, a newspaper including editorials and illustrations. Covers 1857-1877.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set (1817-2014)
American State Papers (1789-1838)
Congressional Documents and Congressional Reports (2015-2019)
Primary source archive of materials documenting the cultural, political and social history of Native Peoples of North America from the seventeenth into the twentieth century.
A digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily 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.
Digital reproductions of over 66,000 rare primary source books and serial publications chronicling the development of the modern western world through world trade, exploration and colonization of the New World, the Industrial Revolution and the development of modern capitalism. Subject coverage includes history, political science, economics and business, women's studies, and legal and religious history. Individual publications are also in WorldCat Discovery
Historic archive of the New York Times newspaper from 1851-4 years ago. Includes the complete indexes from 1851-1993 in addition to full-text searching. For current articles, choose the New York Times database.
Primary source materials on the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions, and events of North, Central, and South America and the West Indies, covering the Americas from early European exploration through 1926. Includes books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, sermons, political writings, newspapers, literature, and more.
Searchable full text of the Times of London newspaper from 1785 through 6 years ago.
A collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts compiled by Fordham University for educational use.
1736--1780, some known issues missing from the online version (digitized by Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
