Locating Primary Sources for Historical Research

What is a primary source? 

Primary sources include riginal, first-hand accounts of events or time periods.

Primary vs Secondary Sources

 They inlcude the following:

• Autobiographies
• Diaries
• Journals
• Letters
• Raw data and Statistics
• Oral History Tapes
• Photographs, Posters, Cartoons
• Speeches
• Newspaper Accounts
• Treaties and other government publications
• interviews

How do I locate primary sources? 

Monographs 

• The Libraries' book collection includes works that include primary sources. Use
  PILOT (http://pilot.passhe.edu:8001/) our online catalog to find books and government documents  in our collection
  and links to other valuable resources  on the Internet.
• To search the catalogs of other Pennsylvania Libraries, and to borrow from them directly, search PALCI 
  and  log in using your 16-digit I-card number.)
• WorldCat --search the OCLC Database of paper and electronic titles. Books located through this database can
  generally be acquired through Interlibrary Loan.

In your searches you can include the following terms in your subject searching: 

• Caricatures and cartoons

• Case Studies

• Diaries

• Journals

• Papers

• Personal Narratives

• Photographs

• Speeches

• Sermons

• Public opinion

Historic Journals and Newspapers  

Newspapers can be a good source of primary material if articles are first person accounts stories
on a breaking issue, or journalists reporting the results of their investigations.  For links to historical
collections of newspapers online, microform collections, indexes, and individual titles available in our
collection go to Newspapers for Historical Research . 

Full-Text Databases

• Academic Search Premier--limit search to Publication Type/Primary Source Document.

• American Periodicals Series Online -- --This unique and valuable collection includes digitized
  images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century.

• Black Thought and Culture  --monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by
  leaders within the black community from the earliest times to 1975.

• The Civil War, a Newspaper Perspective

• Early English Books Online [EEBO]

• Historical New York Times  

• Historical Wall Street Journal

• History Reference Center

• In the First Person

• Pennsylvania County Histories 1870-1900

• Times Digital Archive 1785 - 1985  

• Women and Social Movements 

Indexes

• Humanities & Social Science Retrospective  1907-1984 

• Nineteenth Century Masterfile:Series I  

Useful Websites

• Identifying Primary Sources

• Using Primary Sources on the Web

• Finding Primary Source Material in the Library 

• Evaluating Primary Sources-American Memory

Websites for Primary Sources

• American Memory -- gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and
  culture of the United States.
• Making of America - "digital library of primary sources in American social history from
  the antebellum period through reconstruction."