USAFA Library Guides: English: Primary Sources

Primary Sources in Library Databases: General Purpose

Gale Primary Sources
New content added for Fall 2024: Decolonization: Politics and Independence in Former Colonial and Commonwealth Territories. Search across multiple Gale primary source products through one interface. It combines historical archives covering hundreds of years of history and various resources such as monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, and photographs.
History Vault (ProQuest)
Primary source materials from a wide variety of archival collections for research in US history, international relations, and military conflicts

Primary Sources in Library Databases: British History

Nineteenth Century British Pamphlets (JSTOR)
Primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain
Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals
Two main parts: First part covers covers the advent of commercial lifestyle publishing in Britain and the second part looks at Empire and the role Britain played as an imperial power throughout the century
Ben Jonson Online
The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online contains Jonson’s complete writings for readers of the twenty-first century, in the light of current editorial thinking and recent scholarly interpretation and discovery.

Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969
Sourced from the National Archives UK, Confidential Print: Middle East from the British Colonial and Foreign Offices are digitized primary source documents on Middle Eastern history, politics and culture from 1839 through 1969 that covers the following areas: Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan, Persia, Suez Canal, Turkey, Jordan, Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Syria.
Confidential Print consists of various documents issued or received by the British Colonial Office or Foreign Office such as telegrams, treaties, reports, correspondence, and other materials from the British government.
Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700

Newspapers

New York Times, 1851-2017: ProQuest Historical Newspapers
ProQuest provides this historical newspaper that provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.

Times Digital Archive, 1785-2014
More than 200 years of coverage from The Times, a British daily national newspaper published in London.
Civil War Era
Comprehensive collection of full-text primary source materials of historical newspapers and pamphlets that focuses on the entire era, from Manifest Destiny through the end of the American Civil War (1840-1865).
Newspapers include:
Southern Titles: Richmond Dispatch (Virginia), Charleston Mercury (South Carolina), New Orleans Times Picayune (Louisiana)
Northern Titles: Boston Herald, New York Herald, Columbus State Journal (Ohio)
Border States/Mississippi Valley Titles: The Kentucky Daily Journal, Memphis Daily Appeal

Online Resources

Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more

HathiTrust
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

African & African American

Accessible Archives Access African American newspapers, abolitionist and Civil War collections
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Eyewitness accounts of historical events, vivid descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records found in leading historic periodicals and books.
Content includes: African American Newspapers; America and World War I -- American Military Camp Newspapers; American County Histories; The Civil War Newspapers; Frank Leslie's Weekly, Women's Suffrage Collection and Newspapers and much more
African American (Fold3) Archival records of the African American experience across several centuries, including documents relating to the American Colonization Society (known for its role in the founding of Liberia), Civil War records, records of the Military Intelligence Division - Negro Subversion, and the Amistad. Warning! Contains old-timey handwriting!
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 African American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2, 1827-1998, provides online access to more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience.
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This unique collection, which includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states, features many rare 19th-century titles. Newly digitized, these newspapers published by or for African Americans can now be browsed and searched as never before.
African History & Culture, 1540-1921 Covers the history of Africa and its diverse people over nearly 400 years. More than 1,300 books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera. Compiled by the curators of the extraordinary Afro-Americans Imprints collection.

American

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 from the Evans Collection
Contains almost every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America from 1639-1800. The complete digital editions of nearly 38,000 printed works cover nearly every aspect of early America on subjects ranging from history, literature and culture to politics, government and society.