Research Guides: HIST 348: Ethnic Experience in America: Primary Sources

What are Primary Sources?

Historians make distinctions between what they call primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are firsthand accounts of events, recorded or produced by witnesses or recorders who were present at the time of the event or experienced the conditions being documented. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in original, microfilm/microfiche, digital format, or published format.

A secondary source is a work that interprets or analyzes an historical event or phenomenon. It is generally at least one-step removed from the event. Examples include scholarly or popular books and articles, reference books, and textbooks.

You can find many primary sources online via the portals below.

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
Contains personal narratives of immigrants to the United States and Canada. Materials including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral history interviews, beginning around 1840 and extending to the present.
Migration to New Worlds (1800-1980) This link opens in a new window
From the century of immigration, through to the modern era, Migration to New Worlds charts the emigration experience of millions across 200 years.
Set against a backdrop of colonial expansion, industrial progress and global conflict; Migration to New Worlds tells the stories of individuals and families who risked everything to build new lives in North America and Australasia between 1800 and 1980. Unique primary source diaries, correspondence, photographs, oral histories and journals narrate the vivid realities of ocean travel and life in adopted homelands.
Archive Explorer (Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window
Access primary sources for a wide variety of themes and topics. Materials concentrate on English language archival documents from the UK and the U.S For this class relevant collection may include: American Indian Newspapers, Everyday Life and Women in America, Jewish Life in America c.1654-1954, Migration to New Worlds, Race Relations in America
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
The Digital Public Library of America empowers people to learn, grow, and contribute to a diverse and better-functioning society by maximizing access to our shared history, culture, and knowledge.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Search a large number of primary source databases.
History Vault This link opens in a new window
Access historical documents and digitized microfilm collections.