Research Guides: American History: Find Primary Sources

Primary Source Websites

This is a list of selected primary source archives, databases, and websites available freely on the Internet.

They are separated into seven categories: General American History, American Civil War, Slavery & Abolition, African American History, Law, Women's History, Speeches.

General American History

Ad Access
Historical Advertisements from publications dating from 1911 - 1955.
Library of Congress
From Library of Congress, covers everything in American history from Law, to Women's History, to war, to religion. Essential source for anyone interested in History.
American Memory: Photos from Great Depression to WWII
The American Presidency Project
Established in 1999 as a collaboration between John Woolley and Gerhard Peters at the University of California, Santa Barbara. These archives contain 88,496 documents related to the study of the Presidency.
Chronicling America
From the Library of Congress, this site includes two sections:
Digitized Newspapers, 1777-1963, and The U.S. Newspaper Directory which contains information on American newspapers published from 1690 to the present.
FOIA Electronic Reading Room
Accessible through keyword search, contains declassified CIA documents.
David Rumsey Map Collection
Over 11,000 Historical Maps available.
Diaries of John Quincy Adams
Digital Public Library of America Primary Sources
Primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture developed by educators. Arranged by subject and time period.
Documenting the American South
Texts, images, and audio files related to the history of the American South. Search or browse by collections, authors, titles, subjects, or by region.
FBI Freedom of Information
Declassified FBI documents on famous people and events.
FedFlix
Downloadable movies from the National Archives, contains movies from the US Government, from training films to history, to National parks to US Fire Academy videos.
Founders Online
Through this website, you will be able to read and search through thousands of records from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison and see firsthand the growth of democracy and the birth of the Republic.
Historical Publications from WWII
Contains pamphlets, Government reports, regulations, speeches, and other documents.
History Matters
Search Database with Primary and Secondary sources from hundreds of digital archives and websites. Browse or search by numerous options.
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
Selected materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that chronicles voluntary immigration to US. Contains over 410,000 pages, 100 maps, and 7,800 photos.
Life Magazine
From 1935 - 1972.
Making of America
A digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction.. Contains over 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles. Browse or search by subject, author, or title.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Over 400,000 works of art, browsable and searchable by artist and collection, all in the public domain.
The Newton Project
Published and unpublished works of Sir Isaac Newtown
NYPL Digital Collections
This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
Old Maps Online
A portal that allows users to search across several different online collections of historic maps, mostly from Europe and North America. The collections include maps from as early as the fifteenth century through the present day.
Virginia Gazette
Published weekly in Williamsburg, 1736-1780. The news covered all of Virginia and included some information for other colonies, Scotland, England etc.
Virginia Memory
The Library of Virginia's Digital Collections relating to Virginia History.
War Times Journal
Includes memoirs, photos, orders, and eyewitness accounts of WWI and WWII.
World War I Document Archive
Primary and Secondary Sources from 1890 - 1930.
World War II - DocsTeach
Online primary sources archive from the National Archive. This page focuses on topics related to World War II.

American Civil War

Abraham Lincoln Papers
Complete Abraham Lincoln papers housed at the Library of Congress with over 20,000 documents.
American Civil War Museum Online Collections
A searchable online collection from the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, VA.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841–1955)
An important daily newspaper, the Eagle was unusual for its time since it covered national as well as regional news.
Chronicling America
Search newspapers from all over America from 1777-1963
The Civil War Archive: Letters Home from the Civil War
A collection of letters from both Union and Confederate soldiers, organized by name and regiment.
The Civil War Collection at Michigan State University.
A huge online collection of scanned letters, newspaper articles, images, photographs, diaries, and much more, filled with the stories of Michigan soldiers.
Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints
Approximately 7,000 portraits and battleground images are available
Civil War Maps
Nearly 3,000 maps are included in this online composite of three collections from the Library of Congress, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia.
The Civil War: Women and the Home-front
Duke University has put together this study guide relating to women’s role during the war. Use the tab labeled “Primary Sources Online,” which includes digitized diaries and letters, as well as outside links to other institutions’ collections. The online papers include a collection from Rose O’Neal Greenhow, a famed Confederate spy. Other letters include those written by African American slaves, describing their living conditions in the South.
First Person Narratives of the American South
Everyday people’s voices speak through their diaries, autobiographies, ex-slave accounts, and memoirs on this site, which is organized alphabetically or by subject.
Manuscripts of the American Civil War
This special collection contains seven soldier’s diaries, which have been carefully scanned and transcribed. The soldiers represented are from both sides of the war. The diaries highlight their day-to-day experiences—from the mundane to the terrifying.
Pictures of the Civil War
The new era of photography brought the battles home during the American Civil War
Richmond Daily Dispatch (1860–1865)
This paper was published from the Confederate capital and has a digitized and searchable online archive of 1,384 issues.
Secession-Era Editorials
This site from the Furman University history department contains transcribed editorials from contemporary newspapers, all from the 1850s. The specific issues discussed are the Nebraska Bill debates, the caning attack on Senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston Brooks, John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, and the Dred Scott decision. These events all highlight the varied and inflexible opinions of their time from both sides of the conflict.

Slavery and Abolition

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936–1938
Includes more than 2,300 first-person accounts, and more than 500 photographs. The narratives were collected in the 1930s by the Federal Writer’s Project and the Works Progress Administration, and put into a seventeen volume set.
Frederick Douglass Papers
A former slave and devout abolitionist, Douglass’s papers were digitized by the Library of Congress.
Geography of Slavery in Virginia
The Geography of Slavery in Virginia is a digital collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers. Building on the rich descriptions of individual slaves and servants in the ads, the project offers a personal, geographical and documentary context for the study of slavery in Virginia, from colonial times to the Civil War.
The Liberator
Boston based abolitionist paper, 1831 - 1865.
North American Slave Narratives
Not every manuscript is a primary document, but many are. Included on the site are narratives of fugitive and former slaves in published form from before 1920.
Slavery and Abolition in the U.S.: Select Publications of the 1800s.
Reflecting both sides of the slavery question, these publications from the 1800s include speeches, tracts, pamphlets, books, legal proceedings, religious sermons, and personal accounts.
Slaves and the Courts 1740–1860
This site consists of trials and cases, arguments, proceedings, and other historical works of importance that relate to the prosecution and defense of slavery as an institution. The collection contains more than 100 pamphlets and books published between 1772 and 1889.

African American History

African American Experience in Ohio
Produced by Ohio Historical Society, provides overview of daily life between 1850 - 1920. Manuscripts, newspapers, pamphlets, and photos.
African American History Web Sources
Links to the Web Resources on the VPCC African American History Research Guide.
Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive
Diaries, photos, and manuscripts, all searchable and browesable.
Freedom's Journal
First African American owned and run newspaper in US, 1827 - 1829.

Law

Library of Congress Digital Collections: Law & Government
Browse all collections or select each individually.
The Avalon Project
Collections of primary source documents related to law and diplomacy from governments and nation-states around the world. This collection encompasses 4000BC to present
Federalist Papers
Historical Publications of the US Commission on Civil Rights
U of Maryland Law.
Our Documents
100 milestone documents in American History.

Women's History

Women Working
Books, Manuscripts, and other documents from 1800 - 1930. Essential for Women's Studies.
American Memory: Women's History
Godey's Lady's Book
Godey's Lady's Book was an American women's magazine published in the 19th century.

Speeches

American Rhetoric
Contains several databases of speeches including "The Speech Bank" and "Top 100 Speeches".
Gifts of Speech: Women's Speeches from Around the World
A non-profit project, sponsored by Sweet Briar College, dedicated to preserving and creating access to speeches by inspirational, influential and contemporary, women from around the world. This resource contains transcripts only.
The History Place: Great Speeches Collection
Speeches by well-known political figures.
Presidential Speech Archive
The Scripps Library at the University of Virginia, through cooperation with various presidential libraries, has been collecting some of the most important presidential speeches in American history. These speeches all have transcripts, and some are available in their entirety in audio or video.
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
Small non-profit that started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

Library Databases for Primary Sources

Most of the library's databases include magazine, newspaper, and journal articles. Sometimes these can be considered primary sources, but below we've included the databases that are great for looking for primary sources in particular.

America's News This link opens in a new window
Includes the Daily Press, Virginian-Pilot, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch as well as expansive access to U.S. news content from local, regional, and national sources. Source types include printed and online newspapers, blogs, journals, newswires, broadcast transcripts and videos. Explore a specific issue or event through the detailed local coverage or compare a wide variety of viewpoints from across the country on topics such as politics, business, health, sports, cultural activities and people.
Includes access to the Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot
Black Life in America This link opens in a new window
Provides comprehensive news coverage of the African American experience from 1704 to the present. It is sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 African American publications.
A digital archive of news media that presents the broad sweep of African American history, including many Black achievements not covered in most textbooks, and provides balanced coverage from diverse sources published across four centuries. From Black-owned newspapers to mainstream publications, this primary source collection offers a broad view into centuries of African American history, culture and daily life – as well as how the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of African descent.
Hispanic Life in America This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage of the Hispanic American experience from the early 18th century to the present day. Sourced from more than 17,000 publications, including 700 Spanish-language newspapers and periodicals.
African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest, 1883-1922 This link opens in a new window
This collection offers +1,000 fully searchable books, pamphlets, and speeches from the beginning of Jim Crow to post-World War I that provide insights into African American culture and life during this period of segregation and disenfranchisement. Topics include African American identity, relationships with peoples of other nations, and literature.
African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883 This link opens in a new window
This collection offers roughly 1,400 fully searchable printed works, books, pamphlets, and speeches from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow. It includes documents related to African Americans and citizenship, voting rights, literacy, land rights, employment, and more, including the gaps between written law and practice.
HarpWeek This link opens in a new window
Provides electronic access to Harper’s Weekly, the illustrated 19th century "Journal of Civilization," for
1857 - 1865: The Civil War Era
1866 - 1871: Reconstruction I
1872 - 1877: Reconstruction II
Includes news stories, illustrations, cartoons, editorials, biographies, literature and even advertisements that shaped and reflected public opinion.
Indigenous Peoples of North America This link opens in a new window
A collection of manuscripts, monographs, newspapers, photographs, motion pictures, images of artwork, and more that increase understanding of the historical experiences, cultural traditions and innovations, and political status of Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Canada.
Issues and Controversies in History This link opens in a new window
Delivers dynamic, concise, and balanced coverage that provides the background, outcome, and contemporary points of view for every major debate and conflict in history. Presented in a pro/con format that clearly explains both sides of the historical dispute, each article is supported by a timeline and a wealth of primary sources.
LGBTQ History Since 1940 This link opens in a new window
An archive of LGBTQ primary sources that cover the latter half of the 20th century. Part I and II of Archives of Sexuality & Gender.
New York Times This link opens in a new window
In order to gain access to the New York Times you must register for access by creating a user account via this link.
After registering you can access all content from the New York Times back to 1851.