A primary source can be defined as a first-hand account from a time period that you are studying. Primary sources include: Original documents such as diaries, speeches, autobiographies, manuscripts, letters, maps, postcards, interviews, laws, court decisions, treaties, photographs, and newspaper reports. Primary sources can include texts of government documents that have been reprinted into a book or posted on a website. Oral histories, where a person gives their recollection of an era or event, can also be considered a primary source.
If accessing these from off-campus, you will have to log in using your library username and password.
If you are accessing the links on this page from off-campus, you will need to log in using your username and password (last name and last four digits of your student ID, example: smith1234 or clinton-dix1234).
Children and Childhood in World Religions by
Contents: Judaism; Christianity; Islam; Hinduism; Buddhism; Confucianism.
I Found My Friends: The oral history of Nirvana by
Soulsby interviewed over 150 musicians from bands that played and toured with Nirvana, including well-known alternative bands like Dinosaur Jr., The Dead Kennedys, and Butthole Surfers, as well as scores of smaller bands.
Landmark Speeches on the Vietnam War by
The 14 speeches collected in this volume trace both the evolution of U.S. policy and its contestation.
Reporting the Revolutionary War: Before it was history, it was news by
This is a collection of primary source newspaper articles and correspondence reporting the events of the Revolution, containing both American and British eyewitness accounts and commentary and analysis from 37 historians.
Reference Shelf: Representative American Speeches, 2019-20
"Selected from a diverse field of speakers and venues, this volume offers some of the most engaging American speeches of the year. Distinguished by its diversity, covering areas in politics, education, popular culture, as well as trending topics in the news, these speeches provide an interesting format to explore some of the year's most important stories."
The American Nation: Primary sources by
"The American Nation" features primary sources from the end of the Civil War through America’s entrance into World War II.
Environmental Issues: Essential primary sources by
Contents: Roots of environmental and ecological thought; The physical earth; The biosphere; Exploration; Environmental legislation; Energy use and perils; Environmental disasters; Conservation and activism.
Milestone Documents in African American History by
Among the documents included in the set are important legislative documents such as the Reconstruction era amendments; critical Supreme Court decisions from Dred Scott v. Sandford to Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education; and iconic speeches and writings by leaders such as Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Martin Luther King Jr., Shirley Chisholm, and Barack Obama.
Milestone Documents in World History by
Key documents from all important world cultures are included, from the ancient Near East and ancient Egypt to the Greek and Roman Empires, medieval Islam, Renaissance Europe, and modern Africa and Asia. Constitutions, speeches, letters, acts, treaties, and legal cases are all covered. Among the documents included in the set are iconic legal and constitutional documents such as the Code of Hammurabi, Magna Carta, Meiji Constitution, and the Constitutive Act of the African Union.
Below are some websites offering primary sources. Before trusting a website, evaluate it to ensure credibility.
While commercial search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo! can find plenty of results, those results may not be adequate for college-level research. Try these academic search engines instead: