LibGuides: Electronic Resources: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary Sources are recorded or written down at the time of the event, while secondary sources are recorded later. Examples include diaries and letters (primary) as opposed to memoirs and autobiographies (secondary); or newspaper accounts (primary) as opposed to formal histories (secondary). This category provides access to "Primary Source" materials relevant to historical scholarship, including manuscripts, letters, diaries, newspapers, photographs, artifacts, literature, and maps. Also included are some categories of government information. Primary sources in the sciences are not addressed here.

For more information about using primary sources, see our Special Online Exhibit.

Browse Primary Sources by Subject, Title, or Vendor.

License Restrictions

Commonly Used Primary Sources

Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window 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. The collection begins with the works of Frederick Douglass and is targeted to include the works of W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Alain Locke, Mary McLeod Bethune, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Ralph Bunche, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis, Houston Baker, Jesse Jackson, Ida B. Wells, Bobby Seale, and many others. Black Thought and Culture is intended to present a wide range of previously inaccessible material, including letters by athletes such as Jackie Robinson, correspondence by Ida B. Wells, prefatory essays by Amiri Baraka, political leaflets by Huey Newton, and interviews with Paul Robeson. Much of the material is fugitive, and almost twenty percent of the collection has not been published previously.
Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window The Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) contains a large collection of recently declassified national security information, including material on U.S. relations with Cuba, El Salvador, Iran, Japan, Berlin, South Africa, etc.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window **Now on the ProQuest interface** EEBO, Early English Books Online, provides digital access to citations and facsimile full texts made from several microfilm sets. The works included were printed in England or other English-speaking places from the 1470s to 1700. The database may be searched by author, title, keywords, L.C. subject headings, imprint, date, type of illustration, film reel ID number, STC number, source library, language, or combination of these. There are browse indexes for authors' names, titles, and subject headings. Use these for best retrieval. Some of the full text items in EEBO have been marked up so as to be searchable by individual words in their texts by the TCP, Text Creation Partnership Project, at the University of Michigan, which is supported by M.S.U. and other libraries. Use the EEBO TCP entry in MSU Libraries' Electronic Resources to access this version of the database. Here it is possible to enter modern spellings of words and retrieve words from ye olden days. Not every item for which bibliographical details are present in EEBO has full text available here. In these cases, one must use the microfilm reel referred to in the entry by reel and position number. M.S.U. Libraries has the three microfilm sets mentioned: STC I, STC II, and the Thomason Tracts. STC I (this is the call number) contains items printed up through 1640. STC II (this is the call number) contains items printed from 1641-1700. 14458 (this is the call number) contains items in the Thomason Tracts, a set of broadsides from the English Civil War, 1640-1660. The microforms are now located in the library's Remote Storage. ESTC is a publicly available online bibliographical database containing library locations for the actual early printed works from the 1470s to 1800. These are the printed bibliographies from which the film sets were made: Pollard and Redgrave, Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475-1640, Consulting Reference Z 2002 .A27 c. 2 and oversize Z 2002 .A27 1976. Wing, Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 1641-1700, Consulting Reference Z 2002 .W52 v. 1-3 and Main Z 2002 .W52 1994. Thomason Tracts, 1640-1661..., Main Z 2018 .T49 1981.
Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window 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). Look here to find full texts of primary source materials in history, geography, literature, language, religion, philosophy, social science, fine arts, music, architecture, medicine, science, technology, and law, as well as general reference works from the 18th century. The database also includes works in other western European languages which were published or printed in England or other English-speaking places during this time.
Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project This link opens in a new window The Michigan State University Library and the MSU Museum presents this online collection of the most important and influential 19th and early 20th century American cookbooks. The digital archive will include page images of 75 cookbooks in the MSU Library's collection as well as searchable full-text transcriptions. The site will also feature a glossary of cookery terms, essays by culinary historian Jan Longone, and multidimensional images of antique cooking implements from the collections of the MSU Museum.

Making of America A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection contains the full text of approximately 1,600 books and 50,000 journal articles from the 19th century.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600 - 2000 This link opens in a new window Women and Social Movements is intended to serve as a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1700 and 2000, the website seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding at the same time that it makes the insights of women's history accessible to teachers and students at universities, colleges, and high schools. The database includes more than 25,000 pages of documents pertaining to Women and Social Movements, a dictionary of social movements and organizations, a chronology of U.S. women's history, and teaching tools with lesson ideas and document-based questions related to the website's document projects

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Electronic Resources: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

License Restrictions

Commonly Used Primary Sources