This is a selected list of websites containing primary source materials.
Primary Source Gateway Sites
American Memoryhttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ From the Library of Congress, the American Memory project is a collection of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures and text from the Library of Congress Americana collections. There are over 70 collections included in the project. Go the the American Memory website and search a particular topic or browse through the collections. American Studies Web: Historical and Archival Resourceshttp://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asw/archives.html An extensive list of links to historical studies, archival resources and general history resources in the field of American history. Edsitementhttp://edsitement.neh.gov/websites.html?all The National Endowment for the Humanities maintains this site with links to best history, language arts and social sciences sites. In addition to primary sources, there are online lesson plans and other digital learning materials. SunSITE Digital Collectionshttp://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Collections/ From the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE, this guide links to other Berkeley SunSITE digital projects such as a virtual tour through UC Berkeley's history (Days of Cal at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/) and the Free Speech Movement website ( http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/FSM/. Other Digital Text Collections (Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE)http://Sunsite.berkeley.edu/Collections/othertext.html Links to digital text collections available on the Web. Subject areas include history, literature, philosophy and music. Repository of primary sources http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html A collection of sites for primary sources organized by region.
Using Primary Sources on the Web http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/RUSA/ This webstie is for teachers and students. It has sections defining primary sources, places to get primary sources and how to evaluate primary sources.
Primary Source collections
Ad*Accesshttp://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/ A collection of images from over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines from 1911 through 1955. Subject areas include: radio, television, transportation, beauty and hygiene and World War II. The American Civil War Homepagehttp://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war A general site on the American Civil War that includes links to images and photographs from the Civil War as well as links to important Civil War documents. American Memoryhttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ From the Library of Congress. The American Memory project consists of more than 70 collections including photographs and prints of the Woman Suffrage Movement, American Life Histories from the Federal Writers' Project (1936-1940) and Jackie Robinson and other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s. American Radicalismhttp://digital.lib.msu.edu/onlinecolls/collection.cfm?CID=1 An online collection of digital texts and images from the American Radicalism collection at Michigan State University. Among the many subject areas included are the Hollywood Ten, Black Panthers, Birth Control, I.W.W., Wounded Knee and Students for a Democratic Society. CaliforniaHeritage Collectionhttp://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHeritage/ From the Bancroft Library. An online archive of over 28,000 images illustrating California's history and culture. CIS History Universehttp://cisweb.lexis-nexis.com/histuniv/ A collection of selected primary and secondary sources in US History, specifically African American Studies and Women's Studies. Included are full text of laws and court cases, autobiographies, and manuscript materials. Documenting the American Southhttp://docsouth.unc.edu/ Sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this is an electronic collecion that provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture. Five different projects make up the site: Southern literature; first-person narratives; slave narratives; the Southern Homefront, 1861-1865; the church in the Southern Black Community. The Emma Goldman Papershttp://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/ Digitized collections from the Emma Goldman Papers Project at UC Berkeley. This collection includes letters, images and a newsreel clip from 1934. History Mattershttp://historymatters.gmu.edu/home.html More than 144 first person narratives of average Americans in extraordinary times. Strong in the WWI period. A project of the Center for Social History and the New Media, and George Mason University. Also includes lesson plans and teacher resources in US History. Making of Americahttp://moa.umdl.umich.edu/index.html or http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/MOA/
A collection of approximately 1,600 full-text books and 50,000 journal articles from the antebellum period through reconstruction. National Archives and Records Administrtation (NARA)http://www.nara.gov/nara/searchnail.html Do a "NAIL digital copies search" to find online images of many NARA documents. Very strong in 20th century pictures and documents on US themes. The New York Public Library Digital Library Collectionhttp://digital.nypl.org/ In addition to finding aids (guides to archival and manuscript collections), the NYPL Digital Library Collections contains texts and images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. US Historical Documents Onlinehttp://w3.one.net/%7Emweiler/ushda/list.htm Primary source documents from American history starting with Columbus and going through to the Civil Rights Act of 1991. While this is a private webpage, the quality is high. The Valley of the Shadow: Living the Civil War in Pennsylvania and Virginiahttp://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow/vshadow.html A project that interweaves the histories of two communities on either side of the Mason-Dixon line during the era of the American Civil War. It incorporates a narrative and electronic archive of the sources on which the narrative is based. World War II Resourceshttp://www.ibiblio.org/pha/ Primary source materials on all aspects of the war. WisconsinHistorical Societyhttp://wisconsinhistory.org The Wisconsin Historical Society has placed its entire collection online. They have developed standards based lesson plans for many of the documents (teacher and student resources and turning points). There are tools on how to use primary sources. They have also developed tools on how to foster critical thinking using primary sources (found under “teacher student resources”, then click on “classroom resources” and click on “handbook” under references)
Collections of Online Journals and Newspapers
HarpWeekhttp://app.harpweek.com/ Full text with illustrations of Harper's Weekly from 1857-1865, searchable by keywords, by literary genre, by occupations and role in society, and browseable by date. Historical Newspapers Onlinehttp://historynews.chadwyck.com/ In addition to indexing the Times of London (1790-1980) and The New York Times (1851-1922), this resource enables you to find the full text of every article in every issue of The Times (of London) from 1785-1870. Internet Library of Early Journalshttp://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/ A joint project of the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford to digitize substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals. JSTORhttp://www.jstor.org/ Digitized backfiles of some 117 core scholarly journals many of which go back to the 1800s. Making of Americahttp://moa.umdl.umich.edu/index.html
A collection of approximately 1,600 full-text books and 50,000 journal articles from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
PRIMARY SOURCES ON THE WEB
This is a selected list of websites containing primary source materials.
Primary Source Gateway Sites
American Memory http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/From the Library of Congress, the American Memory project is a collection of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures and text from the Library of Congress Americana collections. There are over 70 collections included in the project. Go the the American Memory website and search a particular topic or browse through the collections.
American Studies Web: Historical and Archival Resources http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asw/archives.html
An extensive list of links to historical studies, archival resources and general history resources in the field of American history.
Edsitement http://edsitement.neh.gov/websites.html?all
The National Endowment for the Humanities maintains this site with links to best history, language arts and social sciences sites. In addition to primary sources, there are online lesson plans and other digital learning materials.
SunSITE Digital Collections http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Collections/
From the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE, this guide links to other Berkeley SunSITE digital projects such as a virtual tour through UC Berkeley's history (Days of Cal at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/) and the Free Speech Movement website ( http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/FSM/.
Other Digital Text Collections (Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE) http://Sunsite.berkeley.edu/Collections/othertext.html
Links to digital text collections available on the Web. Subject areas include history, literature, philosophy and music.
Repository of primary sources
http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
A collection of sites for primary sources organized by region.
Using Primary Sources on the Web http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/RUSA/
This webstie is for teachers and students. It has sections defining primary sources, places to get primary sources and how to evaluate primary sources.
Primary Source collections
Ad*Access http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/A collection of images from over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines from 1911 through 1955. Subject areas include: radio, television, transportation, beauty and hygiene and World War II.
The American Civil War Homepage http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war
A general site on the American Civil War that includes links to images and photographs from the Civil War as well as links to important Civil War documents.
American Memory http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/
From the Library of Congress. The American Memory project consists of more than 70 collections including photographs and prints of the Woman Suffrage Movement, American Life Histories from the Federal Writers' Project (1936-1940) and Jackie Robinson and other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s.
American Radicalism http://digital.lib.msu.edu/onlinecolls/collection.cfm?CID=1
An online collection of digital texts and images from the American Radicalism collection at Michigan State University. Among the many subject areas included are the Hollywood Ten, Black Panthers, Birth Control, I.W.W., Wounded Knee and Students for a Democratic Society.
California Heritage Collection http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHeritage/
From the Bancroft Library. An online archive of over 28,000 images illustrating California's history and culture.
CIS History Universe http://cisweb.lexis-nexis.com/histuniv/
A collection of selected primary and secondary sources in US History, specifically African American Studies and Women's Studies. Included are full text of laws and court cases, autobiographies, and manuscript materials.
Documenting the American South http://docsouth.unc.edu/
Sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this is an electronic collecion that provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture. Five different projects make up the site: Southern literature; first-person narratives; slave narratives; the Southern Homefront, 1861-1865; the church in the Southern Black Community.
The Emma Goldman Papers http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/
Digitized collections from the Emma Goldman Papers Project at UC Berkeley. This collection includes letters, images and a newsreel clip from 1934.
History Matters http://historymatters.gmu.edu/home.html
More than 144 first person narratives of average Americans in extraordinary times. Strong in the WWI period. A project of the Center for Social History and the New Media, and George Mason University. Also includes lesson plans and teacher resources in US History.
Making of America http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/index.html or http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/MOA/
A collection of approximately 1,600 full-text books and 50,000 journal articles from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
National Archives and Records Administrtation (NARA) http://www.nara.gov/nara/searchnail.html
Do a "NAIL digital copies search" to find online images of many NARA documents. Very strong in 20th century pictures and documents on US themes.
The New York Public Library Digital Library Collection http://digital.nypl.org/
In addition to finding aids (guides to archival and manuscript collections), the NYPL Digital Library Collections contains texts and images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
US Historical Documents Online http://w3.one.net/%7Emweiler/ushda/list.htm
Primary source documents from American history starting with Columbus and going through to the Civil Rights Act of 1991. While this is a private webpage, the quality is high.
The Valley of the Shadow: Living the Civil War in Pennsylvania and Virginia http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow/vshadow.html
A project that interweaves the histories of two communities on either side of the Mason-Dixon line during the era of the American Civil War. It incorporates a narrative and electronic archive of the sources on which the narrative is based.
World War II Resources http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/
Primary source materials on all aspects of the war.
Wisconsin Historical Society http://wisconsinhistory.org
The Wisconsin Historical Society has placed its entire collection online. They have developed standards based lesson plans for many of the documents (teacher and student resources and turning points). There are tools on how to use primary sources. They have also developed tools on how to foster critical thinking using primary sources (found under “teacher student resources”, then click on “classroom resources” and click on “handbook” under references)
Collections of Online Journals and Newspapers
HarpWeek http://app.harpweek.com/Full text with illustrations of Harper's Weekly from 1857-1865, searchable by keywords, by literary genre, by occupations and role in society, and browseable by date.
Historical Newspapers Online http://historynews.chadwyck.com/
In addition to indexing the Times of London (1790-1980) and The New York Times (1851-1922), this resource enables you to find the full text of every article in every issue of The Times (of London) from 1785-1870.
Internet Library of Early Journals http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/
A joint project of the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Oxford to digitize substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals.
JSTOR http://www.jstor.org/
Digitized backfiles of some 117 core scholarly journals many of which go back to the 1800s.
Making of America http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/index.html
A collection of approximately 1,600 full-text books and 50,000 journal articles from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
Much of this information was found at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/PrimarySourcesOnTheWeb.html Copyright © 2004 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley.