Research Guides: National History Day: Primary Sources

What Are Primary Resources?

Ask yourself: Whose eyes am I seeing this through?

"A primary source is a piece of information about a historical event or period in which the creator of the source was an actual participant in or a contemporary of a historical moment."

-- Entering the Contest. National History Day. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

"Primary sources may include but are not limited to:

letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, maps, speeches, interviews, documents produced by government agencies, photographs, audio or video recordings, born-digital items (e.g. emails), research data, and objects or artifacts (such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons)."

-- Primary Sources on the Web: Finding, Evaluating, Using. ALA Reference and User Services Association, 2015. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Online Collections of Primary Source Material

American Indian Correspondence: Presbyterian Historical Society Collection of Missionaries Letters, 1833-1893 This link opens in a new window
Part of Archives Unbound, includes letters to and from missionaries to Native Americans written between 1833-1893.
Library of Congress Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
Free online access to digitized historical documents, photographs, sound recordings, moving pictures, maps, and other resources from the Library of Congress’s collections.
American Periodical Series This link opens in a new window
Search full-page images from 1,500 American magazines and journals published from 1740-1940.
Chronicling America This link opens in a new window
Search America's historic newspapers pages from 1836-1922.
Civil War in Words and Deeds This link opens in a new window
Part of Archives Unbound, contains 144,000+ pages of regimental histories and personal narratives, chronicling life during the American Civil War.

Digitised Manuscripts
Digitised manuscripts from the Middle Ages and Renaissance; provided by the British Library.
EuroDocs
Links to open-access European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.

Hansard Online Archive This link opens in a new window
Contains the proceedings of both the British House of Commons and the House of Lords back to 1803.
For the most recent proceedings, please see www.parliament.uk.
HarpWeek This link opens in a new window
Issues of Harper's Weekly published during the U.S. Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides full-page access to hundreds of journals dating to the late 1800s.
Individuals not affiliated with UNK may access content through a paid, personal JPASS account. Limited, free access is also available by registering for JSTOR's Register and Read program.
Overland Journeys: Travels in the West, 1800-1880 This link opens in a new window
Part of Archives Unbound, provides a unique view on the exploration and settlement of the Great Plains and Western United States.
Territorial Papers of the United States Series One through Four This link opens in a new window
The official history of every American territory before it became an American state, sourced from the National Archives of the United States
War Department and Indian Affairs, 1800-1824 This link opens in a new window
Part of Archives Unbound, includes letters to and from the U.S. War Department, including correspondence from Indian superintendents and agents, governors, military commanders, and other individuals.
World Digital Library This link opens in a new window
The World Digital Library (WDL) contains significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.

More primary source e-resources...

Search Books In the Library

Searching the Catalog for Primary Sources

Primary source material can be found throughout the print and microform collections of the Calvin T. Ryan Library. Try searching on your topic and adding one of these keywords:

correspondence
narratives
diaries
interviews
letters

Example: Ulysses Grant letters

Presentation

History Day Presentation