What Are Primary Sources:
Primary sources are the evidence of history, original records or objects created by participants or observers at the time historical events occurred or even well after events, as in memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include but are not limited to:
These sources serve as the raw materials historians use to interpret and analyze the past.
You can use the library online catalog, (the search box on the Library home page), to find published primary sources or books including primary documents. If you are interesting in the writings of a specific individual, just do an author search. If you are looking for primary sources on a specific topic, enter your keywords and add one of the following words, depending on what you are looking for:
For example: Haitian revolution and documents
Abolitionis* and sources
Articles from the time period of the events you are researching are also primary sources. Consider these newspapers and archives for your topic.
The Links in this box are to extremely large, well-researched and catalogued collections of primary sources. These are so large that rather than just search within them, you may also try a google search with the collection name in order to find specific resources without knowing how to navigate the whole collection. For example, you can search the terms "peace movements" in the Library of Congress digital collections site, which will find a number of primary source items. You can also google "peace movements Library of congress digital collection" which will find some additional items as well.
Government publications are a rich source of primary documents. Use this database to find congressional publications, bills, laws and regulations, hearings, and government reports.
Use this database to find public policy research and analysis from think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers. Provides links to full-text where available.
Here are some links to resources for International topics:
Here is one method of finding more specialized primary resources.
Many primary sources are collected as cultural preservation. Many of the organizing groups are communities connected to the culture they are preserving. So for example, the Japanese American community in San Jose has made it a priority to collect photos, letters, diaries, and oral histories from their community and create the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. The museum contains many collections of primary resources, some of which are available online - such as this Oral History project. If your research question involved finding primary resources related to the Japanese American Internment during World War 2, this would be an excellent source for you.
However, when you don't know exactly what kinds of primary sources are available, it can be hard to search for what is out there. So many times a better choice is to find the online organizations which have good collections first, then look for specific items. In my example above I found the Japanese American museum first, then searched for what they had available. Here is a quick and easy step by step approach to identifying and finding primary source collections for a very specific topic.
1. Write out your research question. Example: "What was the role of religion in the abolitionist movement?"
2. Write out 2 or 3 ideas for primary source evidence that would help you understand or answer this question. Example: "a copy of sermon given during the pre-civil war era either defending or criticizing slavery from a religious standpoint" or "The diaries or letters of prominent religious abolitionists like the Quaker Zachariah Shugart ".
3. Look at your examples, what kinds of people or communities are they describing? What are the characteristics of these people or communities described in the evidence you want to find? Example: "Quakers, 19th century religious movements, religious history collections"
4. Now brainstorm and research for places and collections online using Google site searching. (For more on site searching, check out the Google Tips tab on this research guide). A site:.org search will find only items located in the collections of archives, museums, libraries, or community non-profit organizations. Try different variations on the search, such as just the characteristics you are looking for or characteristics plus the type of primary source you want. Example: "site:.org Quaker AND abolition AND diary".
You can also use site:.edu to find only primary sources in colleges and universities. Or site:.gov to find only primary sources in government institutions like the Library of Congress.
Once you have found an online collection of primary sources on your topic, then you can search the collection to find a specific item.