LibGuides: American Studies: Primary Sources

Early America (1630-1877)

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
Monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and and other imprints listed in the renowned bibliography by Charles Evans. Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800.
Early American Newspapers 1690-1876 This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of historic newspapers listed in Clarence Brigham's authoritative bibliography and in additional subsequent bibliographies.
Early American Newspapers 1801-1900 This link opens in a new window
500,000 issues from more than 500 historical newspapers. Includes weeklies, dailies and historical significant newspapers. Key titles include the New York Herald, New York Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, South Carolina City Gazette, Dallas Morning News, Kansas City Star, San Jose Mercury News.
Early American Newspapers 1803-1916: The American West This link opens in a new window
The largest online collection of 19th-century U.S. newspapers from the American West. Approx. 2,500 titles published in all 24 states west of the Mississippi River, plus a number of titles published east of the Mississippi for valuable political and economic context.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Brings together documents and collections between 1490 and 2007. Looks at varieties of slavery, its legacy, the social-justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today. Also useful secondary sources; including an interactive map, scholarly essays, tutorials, a visual sources gallery, chronology and bibliography.
Early Americas Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
A collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 - c. 1820.
Cornell University Making of American Collection This link opens in a new window
A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Subject areas education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

Women, gender, & sexuality in the US

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Documents women's activism in public life by bringing together books, images, pamphlets, advice literature, training guides, documents (including primary documents), scholarly essays, commentaries, bibliographies, links to other websites, and other ephemera.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 This link opens in a new window
Presents important aspects of LGBTQ life in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. Covers experiences not just of the LGBTQ community as a whole, but of individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations that constitute this community.

Race in the US

The African-American Mosaic This link opens in a new window
Online database on African American history containing a number of primary sources.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Search more than 270 African American newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a collection focused on Black Freedom, featuring select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history
BlackPast.org This link opens in a new window
Online database on African American history containing a number of primary sources.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history
Chicago Defender Archive 1910-1975 This link opens in a new window
A key newspaper of the African-American press. Easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Civil Rights Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale. Unedited news film from the WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany, Ga.) television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries. Educator resources and contextual materials, including Freedom on Film, relating instructive stories and discussion questions from the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia, and the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Civil Rights Movement veterans This link opens in a new window
Documents the Civil Rights Movement of 1951-1968 by movement veterans. Articles, essays, poems, speeches, photos, interviews, personal stories, original publications, memos and reports and transcripts.
Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
A digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Includes slave narratives and other primary sources relating to African American history.
History Vault This link opens in a new window
Primary source materials, digitised letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. The Civil Rights modules features records of NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, and federal records on the black freedom struggle. The World War II module includes formerly confidential reports of U.S. diplomats and military officers on planning, operations, intelligence, Axis war crimes, and refugees.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
Brings together documents and collections between 1490 and 2007. Looks at varieties of slavery, its legacy, the social-justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today. Also useful secondary sources; including an interactive map, scholarly essays, tutorials, a visual sources gallery, chronology and bibliography.
Southern Life and African American History, 1775–1915, Plantations Records This link opens in a new window
Provides access to Plantation records concerning Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War
Umbra Search This link opens in a new window
Thousands of primary sources relating to different aspects of African American history.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Documents women's activism in public life by bringing together books, images, pamphlets, advice literature, training guides, documents (including primary documents), scholarly essays, commentaries, bibliographies, links to other websites, and other ephemera.

American History

American Memory collection from Library of Congress
Primary source and archival materials relating to American culture and history. Most content available above in the Library of Congress digital collections
Library of Congress digital collections
Search millions of items including maps and photographs, letters, diaries and newspapers, personal accounts of events, sound recordings and historic films.

American Literature

Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
Largest cross-searchable database of literature and criticism with over 355,000 full-text works of poetry, prose and drama in English, and the definitive online criticism and reference library.

Blue Mountain Project (Princeton University)
A digital thematic research collection of art, music and literary periodicals published between 1848, the year of the European Revolutions, and 1923 – a functional boundary for works presumed to be in the public domain.

Colonial History

Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window
Thousands of documents and bibliographic records concerning Britain's colonial relations with the Americas and other European rivals, the Caribbean and Atlantic world. Covers early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery.
Frontier Life This link opens in a new window
A multi-archive collection which captures the lives, experiences and colonial encounters of people living at the edges of the Anglophone world from 1650-1920. Covers various colonial frontiers of North America and the settlers of Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand.