LibGuides: HIST 111 Research Guide: Primary Sources

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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 This link opens in a new window
First hand historical documents, 1851-2017.
Additional year of content added annually.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
Descriptions of resources from open archive collections.
For users outside of SVSU, use this WorldCat link to search OAIster:
Search OAIster
Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Historical information such as accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, and advertisements. Dates from 1762-1930s.

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 This link opens in a new window
Chronicling America provides access to select historic newspapers from 1777 to 1963.
African American Experience This link opens in a new window
Articles and primary sources about the African American experience.
African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
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.