Primary Sources

Project Gutenberg : contains free digitized copies of works that are in the Public Domain.

Chronicling America : Library of Congress site contains digitized American newspapers from 1836-1922.

United States

  • The American Folklife Center
    Library of Congress exhibit presents a variety of historical topics in manuscripts, video recordings, audio recordings, and photographs.
  • American Life Histories The Library of Congress maintains this collection, which represents the work of the Federal Writers Project 1936-1940.
  • American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches Collected by a communications professor, this list includes text and, when possible, recordings of partial or entire key speeches in US History.
  • The Avalon Project at Yale Law School This is a browse-able and searchable database that specializes in legal, historical and diplomatic documents.
  • Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents The University Of Oklahoma maintains this collection of documents from pre-colonial times into the 21st century.
  • National Archives Go to the Searching in ARC link at the bottom of the page to help locate digitized primary sources from the Archive.
  • The National Security Archives An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
  • Thomas Legislative Information This site includes a special section titled “100 Milestone Documents 1776-1965” as well as a link to the Library of Congress “Primary Documents in American History.” Items are presented, when possible, in both transcribed form and digital images of the originals.

 

 

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World

  • Best Information on the Net O’Keefe Library at St. Ambrose University maintains this major portal for documents relating to U.S., world, and [Catholic] church history. It includes links Civil Rights oral history interviews, Civil War primary documents, Vietnam War primary documents, parchments from medieval Europe, collections of Egyptian papyri, writings of George Washington, digitized Medici archives, and documents from the Nurenmberg Trials.
  • EuroDocs BYU maitains this collection of links to European historical docouments in either transcribed, translation, or digital reproduction format.
  • Europeana.eu This is a free resource which provides digitized works of art, music, video, texts and recordings drawn from European museums, archives, special collections, and libraries. Use this to research primary source materials.
  • German Historical Documents These primary source documents from the 16th to 21st centuries are available in English as well as German.
  • Hanover Historical Texts This collection is strongest in documents from English and French history. Please note the conditions of use!
  • Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Islam From the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies, this site provides primary source links to elements of Islamic history including the Abbasid Caliphate, the Islamic Empire, Turkey, Muslim Persia and Spain, and Egypt and North Africa.
  • Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Home Page The starting point for locating primary and secondary sources on Rome, Byzantium, the Crusades and more.
  • Marxist Internet Archive This site containes primary sources on the history of the working class. Read and evaluate the "Who we are" and "How we function" sections to make decisions about bias.
  • Perseus Digital Library perseus focuses on primary sources in the humanities, including the Classics and English Renaissance.
  • University of Washington European History The site offers a collection of links to a wide range of European primary source documents, including maps, images, correspondence, and medieval manuscripts.
  • 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." (WDL: About: Mission)
  • World War I Document Archive The archive contains links to collections of images, books, diaries, and official documents from World War I.
  • World War II Resources This site includes diplomatic documents from American, British and French governmental sources, transcripts from the hearings following Pearl Harbor, U.S. Congressional documents regarding the declaration of war, and other primary sources.