Challenge Guide for U.S. History - Housley/Nyland - St. Mary's: What are Primary/Secondary Sources?
Primary Sources on the Web
The photo on the right, Two 7 Year Old Newsies, circa 1910, is from the US National Archives on Flickr.
- American Memory Project from the Library of CongressAmerican Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaThe Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. Individuals can access a trove of thousands of videos across these institutions through DPLA's search interface (by selecting the "moving images" filter on results after performing a keyword search).
- Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersDigitized historic American newspapers pages from 1836-1922.
- United States Historical MapsDigitized maps from the Perry-Castañeda Library
Map Collection at the University of Texas-Austin. - The Avalon Project : Documents in Law, History and DiplomacyThe Avalon Project mounts digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government.
- Documenting the American SouthFrom the University of North Carolina, a digital collection of texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.
- New York Public Library Digital GalleryOver 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
- Hathi Trust"Founded in 2008, HathiTrust is a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving 17+ million digitized items."
- Flickr CommonsOffers public domain photographs and other photographs from national and international libraries, museums, archives, and cultural institutions.
- LIFE Magazine Photo ArchiveSearch millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
- Ad*AccessPresents images and information for advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines from 1911 to 1955. Focuses on these subject areas: radio, television, transportation, beauty & hygiene, and World War II.
Finding Primary Sources
Search for Primary Sources
A primary source is an item that was created during the period being studied, and it documents in some way what is being studied. Examples of primary sources include speeches, diaries, newspapers, and personal accounts.
Additionally, primary sources can be contextual to the research, for example a television show like Game of Thrones could be a primary source for research about power relationships.
Search the PSU Library Catalog
Go to the PSU Library Catalog and look for primary sources on a certain topic by using the Advanced Search:
- In the first search field, leave the menu on Any Field and then enter keyword(s) for your topic;
- In the second search field, change the drop-down menu to Subject, then add the type of primary source.
This image shows a search for a memoir related to Paul West.
Choose multiple related topics by inserting a capitalized OR between them.
This image shows a search for "civil war" as a keyword phrase and correspondence OR diaries as the types of primary resources.
Search the Public Domain
If your topic is pre-1923, you can find primary sources that are in the public domain. Resources in the public domain are not under copyright protection and are usually available online for free. Google, HathiTrust, and the Digital Public Library of America have digitized documents from the world's major research libraries. The Chronicling America project at the Library of Congress has digitized American newspapers from 1836 to 1922.
Library Databases with Primary Source Content on United States History
- American WestContains manuscripts, books, maps, photos, and other materials focusing on the American West.
- Arte Publico Hispanic Historical CollectionsContains a digital collection of historical content pertaining to U.S. Hispanic history, literature, and culture from colonial times through the 20th century. Content is in both Spanish and English.
- Civil Rights in America: From Reconstruction to the Great SocietyProvides an archive of official publications and primary source material related to civil rights in the United States.
- Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries from the American Antiquarian SocietyContains the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts.
- Plowshares: Digital Archive for Peace StudiesArchives primary documents such as minutes, diaries, correspondence, pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals from the 1700s to the present. Chronicles the social justice efforts of the students and faculty of Earlham, Goshen, and Manchester colleges as well as the members of their affiliated historic peace-churches; the Quakers, Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000, Scholar's EditionMaintains primary source documents and historical interpretations focusing on women in American social movements.
Primary vs Secondary Sources Video (Vermont Tech, Hartness Library 2017)
Search for Resources Tutorial
Check the Table of Contents of this tutorial for the section on primary resources. It will only take you a few minutes to review, and it may help you to further contextualize the use of primary sources.