Primary Sources
What is a primary source?
A primary source is first hand evidence. It was there at the time of an event. It is contemporary to the period being studied. Examples of primary sources are speeches, letters, songs, legislation, court decisions, journals/diaries, interviews, artifacts, autobiographies, and photographs.
More about Primary Sources
Distinguish Between Primary and Secondary Sources
Using Primary Sources on the Web
Primary Source Databases
ABC-CLIO databases contain many primary sources
Digital Vaults (NARA selections)
SIRS Government Reporter
SIRS Historic Documents
United States Documents
Documents of the World
Speeches, Interviews, and other voices!
Maps and Images
A primary source is first hand evidence. It was there at the time of an event. It is contemporary to the period being studied. Examples of primary sources are speeches, letters, songs, legislation, court decisions, journals/diaries, interviews, artifacts, autobiographies, and photographs.
More about Primary Sources
Distinguish Between Primary and Secondary Sources
Using Primary Sources on the Web
Primary Source Databases
ABC-CLIO databases contain many primary sources
Digital Vaults (NARA selections)
SIRS Government Reporter
SIRS Historic Documents
United States Documents
- Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project LincolnNet
- Ad Access Database (advertisements)
- American History and Government Hotlist
- American Memory Collection Finder
- AP US History: Docs (American Revolution)
- Census Statistics
- Charters of Freedom
- Chronology of US Historical Documents (U. Oklahoma)
- Civil War Newspapers Harper's Weekly
- Columbia University Digital Collections
- Core Documents of U.S Democracy
- Digital Classroom
- Digital History
- Documenting the American South
- DocsTeach from the National Archives
- Ellis Island - FREE Port of New York Passenger Records Search
- Emergence of Advertising in America (1850 - 1920)
- EyeWitness: History through the Eyes
- Eye Witness: History Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It
- Eyewitness to Labor History (1948 - 1975)
- Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
- Historical Text Archive
- History Central: Primary Sources
- HistoryNet
- NARA 100 Milestone Documents
- National Archives Experience
- National Archives Search
- New Deal Network
- Nineteenth Century Documents
- Oral History Online! Oral History Online
- Our Documents
- Project Gutenberg: Listing by Author
- Say it Plain A Century of Great African American Speeches
- Smithsonian Institution
- Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet
- U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1873
- U.S. Historical Documents
- Voices of Feminism (Sophia Smith Collection)
- World War I Document Archive
Documents of the World
- Avalon Project
- Contagion: Historical Views on Diseases and Epidemics
- Eurodocs
- EyeWitness: History Through the Eyes of Those who Lived it (Eyewitness accounts organized by date starting with Ancient Greece.)
- German Propoganda Archive
- Gift of Speech Women's Speeches from around the World
- Hanover Historical Texts Project
- History of the United Kingdom Primary Documents
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook
- Middle East Peace Process Documents
- National Archives Learning Curve
- Penn Library: Government Treaties
- Repositories of Primary Sources
- United Nations Treaty Collection
- University of Texas Historical Maps
- Victoria Research Web: 19th-Century Britain
- World History Archives
- World War I Document Archive
- World War II Documents
Speeches, Interviews, and other voices!
- All Things Considered Archive (radio transcripts including many interviews)
- After the Day of Infamy: 'Man-on-the-Street' Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
- American Rhetoric: Online Speech Bank
- BBC Interviews
- Conversations with History (Interviews)
- Gifts of Speech: Women's Speeches from Around the World
- Historical Voices
- History and Politics Out Loud
- History Place: Great Speeches Collection
- "I Do Solemnly Swear . . .": Presidential Inaugurations
- Lost and Found Sound (from NPR's All Things Considered)
- Martin Luther King Online: Speeches
- Online Speech Bank
- Social Activism: Sound Recording Project
- Speech/Transcript Center
- Speeches and Transcripts (University of Albany)
- Speeches of Abraham Lincoln
- Speeches and Transcripts (University of Albany)
- Talking History
- Vincent Voice Library
- White House.gov (for speeches of the President, Vice Presidents, First Ladies)
- Yivo Institute Photographs of Jewish Life in Eastern Europe
- Correspondence Between John and Abigail Adams
- Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum
- "I Do Solemnly Swear . . .": Presidential Inaugurations
- Nixon White House Tapes
- Presidential Debates
- Presidential Libraries
- Speeches of Abraham Lincoln
- White House.gov
- LBJ White House Tapes
- America From the Great Depression to WWII (Library of Congress)
- American Posters of World War I
- American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology
- Avalon Project: World War II Documents
- Black History: Primary Source Links
- Civil War Women--Primary Sources
- Civil War Newspapers Harper's Weekly
- Dr. Seuss Went to War (political cartoons)
- Ellis Island Database Search
- From Revolution to Reconstruction (actual documents and transcripts from 1400 to 2001)
- Gulf War: An Oral History
- Historic Government Publications of World War II
- Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive
- Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties
- After the Day of Infamy: 'Man-on-the-Street' Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
- New Deal Network
- North American Slave Narratives
- Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art of World War II
- Private Art (letters to and from the homefront--WWII)
- Publications of the War
- Rutgers Oral History Archive of World War II
- Salem Witchcraft Papers
- Suffragists Oral History Project
- They Drew Fire: Combat Artists of World War II
- Veterans' History Project
- War Stories
- World War I Document Archive
- War Poster Collection
- War Relocation Authority: Photographs of Japanese-American Relocation and Resettlement
- World War I Images
- World War I Trenches on the Web
- World War II Oral HistoryWeb
Maps and Images
- About.com Historic Maps
- America's First Look at the Camera (1839-1864)
- American Memory Collection (Library of Congress)
- American Memory Maps Collection (1500--1999)
- American Posters of World War I
- American Photography: A Century of Images
- AP Photo Archive
- By Popular Demand (Presidential portraits)
- Cartoonstock
- Collection Finder American Memory (click on Maps or Photos and Prints)
- George Eastman House Museum
- Helios: National Museum of American Art: Photography
- Historical Atlas of the 20th Century
- History of Photography: From its Beginnings to the 1920s
- HyperHistory Online (click on "maps")
- International Center of Photography
- Library of Congress Photo Stream on Flickr
- Masters of Photography
- Metropolitan Museum Timeline of Art History
- NARA ARC Basic Search (select photographs)
- NARA: Picturing the Century
- National Museum of Photography, Film and Television
- New York Public Library Picture Collection Online
- Perry Casteneda Library Map Collection
- Picture Collection Online (New York Public Library)
- Politicalcartoons.com
- NYPL Digital Gallery
- Posters American Style
- Powers of Persuasion (WW II posters)
- Smithsonian Flickr PhotoStream
- Smithsonian Photographs Online
- Time-Life Photo Sight Home Page
- Time Photo Essays
- World War II in Color
- World War II Military Situation Maps (Library of Congress)
- WWW Virtual Library History and Images Index