Databases by type: Primary Sources

Having trouble accessing a database? Report a problem.

Database Description Coverage

Collection of ebooks covering history and literary criticism. Includes large a collection of slave narratives. 

Ancient times-present
More info…

African American Archives provides over one million pages of original historical documents pertaining to the African American experience.

1672-1941
More info…

Focuses predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina.

1840-2010
More info…

This collection was developed with the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) as part of an effort to preserve serials related to African American religious life and culture.

1829-1922
More info…

Primary sources for such diverse disciplines as cultural, literary and social history, ethnic studies, and more.

1827-1998
More info…

Nearly 3,000 poems written by African-American poets in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

1750-1900
More info…

Provides more than 40 fully searchable African newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries.

1800-1922
More info…

A comprehensive historical collection of primary source materials that covers American history, literature, culture and daily life.

1639-1900
More info…

Includes more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and 1922, including titles from all 50 states.

1690-1922
More info…

Offers fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900.

1760-1900
More info…

Market Research and American Business provides a unique insight into the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century through access to market research reports and supporting docum

1935-1965
More info…

American Fiction, 1774–1920 contains more than 17,800 titles written by Americans from the political beginnings of the United States through World War I.

1774-1920
More info…

More than 7,000 videos including commercial and governmental news, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. 

1500s-present
More info…

Sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, this collection of documents brings to life American history from the times of the earliest settlers until the end of World War II.

1493-1945
More info…

Covers over 1,100 periodicals published between 1740 and 1940.

1740-1940
More info…

Republication of approximately 6,280 numbered publications, largely Congressional, but also containing Executive Department materials issued from 1832-1861.

1789-1838
More info…

Now part of Readex AllSearch

The Archive of Americana features over 1,375 newspaper titles from all 50 states, more than 100,000 books, broadsides and pamphlets, and much more.

1639-1980
More info…

ArchiveGrid connects you with primary source material held in archives, special collections, and manuscript collections around the world.

1800s-present
More info…

Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents.

1500-present
More info…

Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1 presents a collection of historical content pertaining to U.S.

1700s-1960
More info…

ATLA Historical Monographs Collection: Series 1 consists of titles from the 13th century through the 1893 World Parliament of Religions with the majority of titles from the 19th century.

1300s-1893
More info…

ATLA Historical Monographs: Series 2 offers material on the significant shifts in the religious identification of Americans and the growing interest and experimentation with non-Western religions.

1894-1922
More info…

British History Online is a collection of nearly 1300 volumes of primary and secondary content relating to British and Irish history, and histories of empire and the British world.

1000s-1800s
More info…

Collections range from digitized manuscripts (Beowulf and Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook) and illuminated manuscripts, to an extensive collection of maps from around the world.

1000-present
More info…

British Library Newspapers delivers a wide range of local and regional voices to reflect the social, political, and cultural events of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

1700-1950
More info…

British Literary Manuscripts Online presents facsimile images of literary manuscripts, including letters and diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels, and other literary works.

1150-1900
More info…

C19 Index draws on the strength of established indexes such as the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index, and Poole's Index.

1800s
More info…

This collection provides a wide variety of original source material detailing China’s interaction with the West.

1793-1980
More info…

ProQuest and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have teamed up to digitize the association’s archives, bringing one of the most famous records of the civi

1909-1972
More info…

Colonial America consists of all 1,450 volumes of the CO 5 series of Colonial Office files held at The National Archives in London.

1606-1822
More info…

Provides indexing of many Congressional publications from 1789 to the present, including Hearings, Committee Prints, Research Reports, Legislative Histories, and much more.

1789-present
More info…

The Digital Library on American Slavery offers a searchable collection of public records concerning enslavement.

1750-1867
More info…

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

1100-present
More info…

DigitalNC is the online home for materials presented by the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

1800s-present
More info…

Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans, Early American Imprints consists of more than 37,000 books, pamphlets and broadsides.

1639-1800
More info…

Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819) provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early years of the 19th century.

1801-1819
More info…

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains  virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere.

1473-1700
More info…

East India Company offers access to a unique collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London.

1599-1947
More info…

The Economist Historical Archive delivers a complete searchable copy of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2015.

1843-2015
More info…

A variety of materials is included—from books and broadsides, Bibles, tract books and sermons to printed ephemera—with works by many well-known and lesser-known authors.

1700-1799
More info…

Empire Online contains primary source documents that span five centuries, charting the story of the rise and fall of empires.

1492-2007
More info…

English Historical Documents is a comprehensive, annotated collection of over 5,000 documents on British history.

500-1914
More info…

On-campus access only.

Fold3 provides access to military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served.

1700s-1800s
More info…

FBIS Daily Reports include English-language, full-text broadcasts and news transcripts—translated as needed—from around the world.

1941-1996
More info…

An interdisciplinary academic collection devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of Black Americans covering the tumultuous period from 1900 to present day. From U.S.

1900-present
More info…

A research and learning platform that allows students and researchers to apply natural language processing tools to raw text data (OCR text) from all of Gale's primary source collections.

1500-present
More info…

Gale NewsVault searches across a range of historical newspaper and periodical collections. It includes over ten million page images spanning four hundred years.

1604-2006
More info…

Gale Primary Sources searches 18th Century Collections Online (ECCO), 19th Century Collections Online (NCCO), the Making of the Modern World, and Sabin Americana.

1500-1926
More info…

Includes primary sources for the study of gender history, women’s suffrage, the feminist movement and the men’s movement.

1800-present
More info…

This resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of global commodities in world history.

10200 BCE-present
More info…

Harper's Weekly, America's leading 19th century illustrated newspaper

1857-1877
More info…

Researchers can use HeritageQuest Online to find their ancestors, trace their paths across America, and learn what life was like in the areas where they settled.

1700s-present
More info…

Presents a unique insight into interactions between American Indians and Europeans from their earliest contact.

1493-2010
More info…

Latin American Newspapers provides access to more than 280 Latin American newspapers published between 1805 and 1922. Featuring titles from 20 countries in the region.

1805-1922
More info…

Contains the complete paper cover-to-cover of every issue, with full-page and article images in PDF format.

1881-1999
More info…

The Making of the Modern World is a digital collection of primary sources covering the history of Western trade. 

1450-1945
More info…

American Consumer Culture provides a unique insight into the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century through access to market research reports and supporting documents.

1935-1965
More info…

Explores the movement of peoples from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia.

1800-2000
More info…

This collection consists of the diaries, journals, and narratives of explorers, emigrants, military men, Native Americans, and travelers.

1700-1950
More info…

Contains the complete paper cover-to-cover of every issue, with full-page and article images in PDF format.

1851-2015
More info…

Nineteenth Century Collections Online focuses on primary source collections including monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more.

1796-1910
More info…

A free, online scholarly edition of six nineteenth-century periodicals and newspapers.

1806-1890
More info…

C19 Index draws on the strength of established indexes such as the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index, and Poole's Index.

1800s
More info…

Digital facsimile images for hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers. Each newspaper is captured from cover-to-cover, providing access to every article, advertisement and illustration.

1800-1899
More info…

19th Century UK Periodicals covers the events, lives, values and themes that shaped the 19th century world. 

1800-1900
More info…

North American Women's Letters and Diaries (NWLD)  includes the immediate experiences of 1,017 women, as revealed in approximately 150,000 pages of diaries and letters, and manuscripts.

Colonial times-1950
More info…

Newspapers.com North Carolina Collection. 3.5 million pages of digitized content from over 1,000 North Carolina county newspapers.

1764-1999
More info…

The University of Oxford Text Archive develops, collects, catalogues and preserves electronic literary and linguistic resources for use in Higher Education, in research, teaching and learning.

1500s-present
More info…

Complete facsimile images of over 230 manuscripts written or compiled by women living in the British Isle during the 16th and 17th centuries.

1500-1700
More info…

This collection provides insight on fringe groups from both the right and left of the political spectrum through rare, hard to access primary sources.

1900-2000
More info…

Offers full-text and full-image articles for 13 large American daily newspapers and two daily British Newspapers (The Guardian and The Observer)

1764-2005
More info…

Readex AllSearch is a streamlined platform for efficiently searching across Readex's historical collections.

1690-1999
More info…

Religions of America traces the history and unique character of religious movements that originated in or were re-shaped by the US during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

1792-2004
More info…

This collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900s.

1500-1926
More info…

Previously part of British Newspapers, 1600-1950

Represents the largest single collection of seventeenth and eighteenth century English news media available from the British Library. 

1600-1800
More info…

Slavery and Anti-Slavery is a thematically organized, historical archive devoted to the scholarly study and understanding of slavery from a multinational perspective.

1490-1896
More info…

Online primary source materials including manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings, maps and other documents for the study of slavery, abolition and social justice.

1490-2007
More info…

Provides access to over 3 million pages of 16th- & 17th-century British government documents and over 200,000 searchable pages of Calendars and catalogues.

1509-1714
More info…

The Times Digital Archive (London) provides access to the entire newspaper, with all news articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos, editorial and commentary, and features.

1785-2011
More info…

The TLS Historical Archive, 1902-2012 provides full-text access to every page of every issue of the TLS from 1902 to 2012, including 300,000 book reviews, film reviews, and more.

1902-2012
More info…

The United States Congressional Serial Set contains House and Senate Documents and House and Senate Reports.

1817-1980
More info…

Wall Street Journal; Eastern Edition

The financial newspaper of record offering in-depth coverage of national and international finance as well as coverage of hard news.

1889-1994
More info…

The Washington Post has been known for its national political coverage, international reporting, and investigating reporting.

1877-1995
More info…

Includes original documents on the suffrage question in Britain, the Empire, and colonial territories, and a finding aid to women's studies resources in The National Archives at Kew.

1900-1970
More info…

This archive presents materials covering the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and offers a look at the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society.

1800s-1999
More info…