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Santa Clara UniversityUniversity Library

History 30/130A: The French Revolution: Primary Sources

French Primary Sources in Translation

What Are 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)

If you are doing research on French history and you don't speak French, one of the challenges is to find primary sources in translation.  This section is designed to help you locate such materials. Many sources have now been digitized and are available on the web.  Other primary sources are collected together and published in a book; you can locate them through OSCAR, the online catalog.  

Using OSCAR to Find Primary Sources

Using Oscar to Find Primary Sources:

Search OSCAR, the library's catalog, directly for the best control. OSCAR will tell you what books the library has.

Your Own Keyword Search

Keywords that represent primary sources include: correspondence, papers, speeches, memoirs, personal narratives, documents, sources. Combine one or more of those words with a word representing your French Revolution inquiry (person, group, fact, concept)

Example Search Structures:

feuillant and sources

                         Barère and memoir

Some Books with Primary Sources from OSCAR

This is an excellent ebook that has something for everyone in terms of breadth of French Revolution documents and other sources.

Women and the French Revolution

Featured Source

Imaging the French Revolution: 
Depictions of the French Revolutionary Crowd

French Democrats surprizing the Royal Runaways. Published June 27, 1791
Source: Museum of the French Revolution 89.100

Images

Images of the French Revolution (Stanford University and Bibliotheque Nationale de France)

ARTStor
​Use this database to find paintings of the Revolutionary era.  It contains more than 1.9 million high-quality digital images and reproductions of a wide range of works of art from all times and places throughout the world.  You can search by names of artists, or just do a search on "French Revolution".  

BERG Fashion Library
This database provides a wide range of information on dress and body adornment worldwide throughout history.   Do a search on "French Revolution" or for specific garments such as the "Phrygian bonnet", the "cockade", or the "sans culottes trousers" to learn fascinating things about these symbols of the revolution.

Songs

Revolutionary Songs (from the Liberty, Equality, Fraternity site)

-To learn more about the songs of the French Revolution, check out this e-book:

Singing the French Revolution: Popular Culture and Politics, 1787-1799

 

Primary Sources On the Open Web

There are a number of well-curated online collections of digitized primary sources from the period of the French Revolution.

In these repositories, orient yourself to what types of materials are there to develop an appropriate searching/retrieval plan. Sometimes browsing following the organization of the collection is more advantageous than searching with keywords.

Spotlight on Europeana

Primary Sources on the Web

Large Collections of Primary Documents

French Revolution Digital Archive (Stanford University and Bibliotheque Nationale de France)
Useful for the vast collection of images of the French Revolution.  Also includes the "Archives Parlementaires", but not in translation

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity:  Exploring the French Revolution
Provides access to an "extraordinary archive of some of the most important documentary evidence from the Revolution".  The site includes 245 images and political cartoons, maps, songs,  and 338 text documents ()personal memoirs, official reports, newspaper articles, eyewitness accounts), most of them translated in English and edited for the student and general reader.

Times of London
If you are interested in the British newspaper coverage of the French Revolution, the London Times Digital Archive (1785-2009)  is available to you.

The French Revolution  and the Revolutions of 1848 (Hanover Historical Texts)
Small collection of primary documents (translated in English) scanned by the History Department at Hanover University

Enlightenment (Fordham University)
Good collection of primary sources (many translated in English) from the Modern History Sourcebook at Fordham University.

French Revolution (Fordham University)
Good collection of primary sources (translated in English) from the Modern History Sourcebook at Fordham University.

French Revolution (Online Library of Liberty) 
The Online Library of Liberty is a project of the educational foundation Liberty Fund.  The section on the French Revolution includes several interesting primary sources including "On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship".

The principal speeches of the statesmen and orators of the French revolution, 1789-1795;

Specific Documents, letters, personal accounts, etc.

Cahiers de Doleances 1789
Some of the Cahiers from the three estates have been digitized.  You can also find some of them in print in the library in Translations and Reprints of the Original Sources of History, vol. 4

Letters from Paris, on the Causes and Consequences of the French Revolution, by William C. Somerville, 1822

Memoirs Relating to the French Revolution, by Francois-Claude-amour Bouille, marquis de. 1797

On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship, by Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, 1790

Prison Journals During the French Revolution, 1837

Source Studies on the French Revolution

The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, 1888

The reign of terror; a collection of authentic narratives of the horrors committed by the revolutionary government of France under Marat and Robespierre. Written by eye-witnesses of the scenes. Tr. from the French. , 1826

Vindiciae gallicae : defence of the French Revolution, 1791 / James Mackintosh