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Michigan State University

Introduction to History Research at MSU: Primary Source Collections

Primary Source Collections

  • Archives of Sexuality and Gender This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    Archives of Sexuality & Gender, the largest collection available in support of the study of gender and sexuality, enables scholars to make new connections in LGBTQ history and activism, cultural studies, psychology, health, political science, policy studies, and other related areas of research.

    Includes: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Parts I & II; Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century; and International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture.
  • Archives Unbound Collections This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward--from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history.
  • Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    When complete, Black Thought and Culture will provide approximately 100,000 pages of monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community from the earliest times to 1975. The collection is intended for research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art.
  • Border and Migration Studies Online This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    Border and Migration Studies Online is a collection that explores and provides historical background on more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including: U.S. and Mexico; the European Union; Afghanistan; Israel; Turkey; The Congo; Argentina; China; Thailand; and others. Featuring at completion 100,000 pages of text, 175 hours of video, and 1,000 images, the collection is organized around fundamental themes associated with border and migration issues.
  • C19: The Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    C19: The Nineteenth Century Index is a gateway, or portal, into a variety of primary sources for 19th Century studies, especially of the British Isles. Each resource or database may also be accessed/searched individually in the Electronic Resources pages: Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals,1824-1900,American Periodicals Series, Periodicals Index Online, NSTC, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Palmer's Index to the Times, Archives USA, U.S Congressional Serial Set. Results of searches in the Times newspaper, 1800-1870 link to full-text, as do most searches in Wellesley Index, APS, PIO, and House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. For results from NSTC searches, use our online catalog to see if we own the book.
  • Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 is the definitive resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, and just about any other topic imaginable. This resource consists of more than 37,000 books, pamphlets, and broadsides.
  • Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    Covering every aspect of American life during the early decades of the United States, Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819) provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century. In addition to its books, pamphlets and broadsides, this comprehensive collection features many state papers and government materials, including published reports; presidential letters and messages; congressional, state and territorial resolutions.
  • Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) contains digital versions of 150,000 works published or printed from 1701-1800 in England, and other English-speaking places around the world (including the rest of the British Isles, the American colonies, and the early United States).
  • HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    The HistoryMakers Digital Archive provides access to a collection of thousands of African American video oral histories.
  • Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    Includes archive collections on British politics and society; Asia and the West; British Theatre, Music, and Literature; European Literature, 1700-1840; Europe and Africa; Photography; Science, Technology, and Medicine; Children's Literature; Maps and Travel Literature; and Religion, Society, Spirituality, and Reform.
  • Slavery & Anti-Slavery: a Transnational Archive This link opens in a new window
    • This resource is available only to Faculty, Staff, and Students logged in with their NetID.
    This resource includes documents from the United States and Europe, as well as other parts of the world. In addition to newspaper collections and books published in the antebellum era, Slavery and Anti-Slavery contains documents from several archives. Includes:

    Part I: Debates Over Slavery and Abolition
    Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World
    Part III: The Institution of Slavery
    Part IV: The Age of Emancipation
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