Guide to Primary Sources

American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later.

This 13,000 page reference center is dedicated to providing information to the general public on African American history and on the history of the more than one billion people of African ancestry around the world. Includes full text primary documents, and major speeches of black activists and leaders from the 18th Century to the present.

Thousands of digitized FBI documents from throughout the organization's history, including profiles of prominent figures. Browse by topic or search for keywords.

MoA is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.

Search the National Archives for images, documents, videos, and more.

Primary sources in US history and literature going back to 1492.

The Printed Ephemera collection at the Library of Congress is a rich repository of Americana. In total, the collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. Broadsides (newspapers) are the bulk of the collection, but it also includes pamphlets, advertisements, programs, timetables, and more.

This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to interviews with women engineers from the 1970s.

Documents in law, history, and diplomacy, ranging from ancient to modern times. Emphasis on US and Western European documents but not exclusive.

A collection of documents covering the end of the Roman empire through the Renaissance and the Reformation.

A collection of documents covering the Reformation and early modern life through the 21st century and a variety of geographic areas.

Free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.

Project details life in two communities-- one white, one black-- in the Civil War era (John Brown's Raids through Reconstruction). Materials include letters & diaries, census & other official records, newspapers, images, church records.

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

The Radicalism Collection includes books, pamphlets, periodicals, posters, and ephemera covering a wide range of viewpoints on political, social, economic, and cultural issues and movements in the United States and throughout the world.

Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience.