HIST 12A: Civilization and the City (Gudgeirsson): Primary Sources

"Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research."
(American Library Association, Reference and User Services, History Section)

Still not sure about the difference between primary and secondary sources? Watch this video:

Where to look for primary sources depends on what type of primary sources you are looking for.  Below are some resources to help you find magazine and newspaper articles from the time period;  government documents; letters and memoirs. These are just examples and they may not be what you need for your specific topic.   If you have trouble locating primary sources on your topic, just email me and I'll do my best to help you.

**Magazine Articles**
Magazine articles from the popular press are often used as primary sources in history research.  The most useful databases to find magazine articles for history research are:

Opinions Archives
Provides access to the complete archives of 17 leading journals of opinion, including Dissent, Commentary, Harper's, National Review, The New Yorker, and The New Republic.

Readers' Guide Full-Text : This database provides indexing and abstracting of over 300 popular magazines from 1983 to date, with full text from over 150 publications back to 1994.
Readers' Guide Retrospective, 1890-1982 : Indexes more than 3 million articles from about 370 general interest, popular, news, and even a few scholarly, English language magazines and journals published between 1890 and 1982

**Newspaper Articles**
The library subscribes to several archives of historical newspapers:
Times Digital Archive
The Times of London has covered all major international events from the French Revolution to the War in Iraq.  Every complete page of every issue is full-text searchable - every headline, article, editorial, announcement, image, and advertisement, from 1785 to 6 years ago.
19th Century U.S. Newspapers
With digital facsimile images of both full pages and clipped articles for hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers and advanced searching capabilities, researchers will be able to research history in ways previously unavailable. For each issue, the newspaper is captured from cover-to-cover, providing access to every article, advertisement and illustration.
New York Times Archives 
Full text of The New York Times newspaper from 1851–present. 
Los Angeles times Archives: 
Full text of the Los Angeles Times newspaper from 1881 to 1987.
Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005)
Considered to be the major newspaper of the Black community in Los Angeles during the 20th century. 
San Francisco Chronicle Archives:  
Full text of the San Francisco Chronicle from 1869 to 1984
Chicago Defender: 
Full text of the Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910 to 1975
Washington Post Archives:
Full Text of the Washington Post newspaper from 1877 to 1993
San Jose Mercury News :
Full-text of the San Jose Mercury News from 1985 to the present.
Access World News Research Collection
Includes full-text articles from 600 U.S. newspapers and over 700 international newspapers. Coverage varies, some newspapers going back as far as 1977.

You can find many collection of primary sources on the web.  Below are just a few examples of what's available. You need to be very careful when you use primary sources from the web.  Be sure to evaluate the site to see where the information is coming from and make sure that the source of the information is given. 

Urban Planning, 1794-1928 (Collection of Primary Sources)
Primary source material for the study of how urban planning developed up to the end of World War I, including information about techniques, principles, theories, and practice.

Rise of Industrial America: City Life in the Late 19th Century
Images and documents from the Library of Congress

Panoramic Photographs
Images (1851-1991) featuring American - and some international - cityscapes and landscapes. Subject strengths include: agricultural life; disasters; engineering work such as bridges, canals and dams; fairs and expositions; schools and college campuses; and transportation.

There is a great deal of historical information in government documents and you often need them as primary sources for your research.
Use the following database to easily access historical and current bills, laws and regulations, legislative histories, hearings and more.
ProQuest Congressionnal Publications

Primary Sources on specific topics are  often collected  and published as a monograph (collection of letters for example). A book can also include primary sources in appendices.  To locate primary sources on your topic, an easy way is to search OSCAR, the library catalog and to add to your search some keywords describing primary sources such as :  letters or diaires, or documents, or sources.  You can also search for books written during the time period you are researching. For example, if you were looking for some of the writings by Daniel Burnham, the architect and urban designer who directed the works for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, you could just do an author search in OSCAR.

Many older books are now in the public domain and have been digitized and made available through the web.   Here are a few digital archives where you can search for older materials:

Archive.org (also makes available more recent books during the Covid-19 crisis)

Project Gutenberg

Hathi Trust Digital Library