LibGuides: HIST 111 Research Guide: Primary Sources

A Primary Source is an original record created about a time period or event by someone who actually witnessed the event, participated in it, or lived at the time that it happened.

Here are some suggested resources to use to locate primary sources on your topic.

Primary Source Resources

New York Times Historical
First hand historical documents, 1851-2017.

Additional year of content added annually.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences
JSTOR's archival journal collections include more than 2,000 journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

SVSU subscribes to Arts & Sciences 1, 2. 3 and 5 only. Other articles and books can be requested through Tipasa.
OAIster

Descriptions of resources from open archive collections.

For users outside of SVSU, use this WorldCat link to search OAIster:
Search OAIster
Accessible Archives

Please see History Commons.

Accessible Archives is now known as History Commons.

Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

Chronicling America - Historic American Newspapers
Chronicling America provides access to select historic newspapers from 1777 to 1963.
African American Experience
Articles and primary sources about the African American experience.
African American Studies Center
Works about African American and African history and culture.

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics
This online collection offers important historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology today and contributes to the understanding of the global, social–history, and public–policy implications of diseases.
US National Library of Medicine Digital Collections
A free online repository of biomedical resources including books, manuscripts, still images, videos, and maps.
Immigration to the US, 1789-1930
A collection of selected historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression. includes more than 2,200 books, pamphlets, and serials, totaling over 400,000 pages; more than 1,800 archives and manuscripts selections, totaling over 9,600 pages; over 100 individually cataloged maps; and more than 7,800 photographs.

HIST 111 Research Guide

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Primary Source Resources