Portals to Primary Sources
Don't know where to start? Try one of the following database portals. They allow researchers to search across multipe databases produced by the same publisher.
- Archive ExplorerPublisher: Adam Matthew
- ArtemisPublisher: Gale
- Archive of AmericanaPublisher: Readex
Contact Information
Newspapers
- America's Historical NewspapersLarge online collection of historic American newspapers. Part of the Archive of Americana, a collection of various newspaper databases, by Readex.
- African American NewspapersOnline collection of the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the United States—those of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Kansas State Historical Society and the Library of Congress. Also part of the Archive of Americana by Readex.
- Accessible ArchivesDigital collections of important 19th century African American and Civil War newspapers.
- Chronicling AmericaWebsite providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages.
- Newspapers.comLarge collection of digital newspapers.
- NewspaperArchiveLarge collection of digital newspapers.
- Nineteenth Century US NewspapersDigital collection of 19th century newspapers from a broad range of urban and rural regions.
- Google News ArchiveDigitized newspapers crawled from miscellaneous web sources.
- Proquest HistoricalOnline database of major 19th and 20th century US newspapers (NYT, AJC, etc.)
- Proquest Civil War EraOnline collection of newspapers and pamphlets covering the American Civil War from 1840-1865.
Books & Periodicals
- African American PeriodicalsReadex. Collection of rare African American periodicals from the 19th to the 20th century.
- Proquest's American Periodicals Series (APS)Historically significant periodicals from the 18th and 19th century.
- EBSCO's American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodical CollectionExtensive collection of historical periodicals dating from 1693 to 1865.
- America's Historical ImprintsDigital collection of early American imprints, broadsides and ephemera. Based on the American Antiquarian Society's collections.
- Harper's Weekly, 1857-1912Contains scanned images of all of the pages of Harper's Weekly together with a series of indexes. Nation Digital Archive Online collection from America's oldest weekly magazine.
- Niles' Register IndexGuide to Niles news magazine.
- Godey's Lady's Book, 1830-1896Popular women's magazine from the nineteenth century. Includes colorful fashion plates.
- American Periodicals from CRL Council of Research LibrariesDigital collection of trade magazines, labor and trade publications.
- 19th Century MasterfileA vast "index of indexes," bringing together in one database the contents of dozens of subject indexes.
Government Documents
- American State Papers, 1789-1838Rich source of material on early nineteenth century America.
- US Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980Reports, Documents and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that have been bound in sequential volumes since 1817.
- Making of Modern Law, 1832-1978Collection of 22,000 treatises on American and British Commwealth law.
- Proquest Congressional, 1789-presentLarge database of congressional hearings and publications.
Digital Manuscript Collections
- History VaultCollection of digitized microfilm. See especially: The Records of Southern Antebellum Plantations
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational ArchiveHuge collection of primary sources related to slavery and abolition.
- American Civil War Letter and DiariesOnline archive of more than 1,000 sources of diaries, letters and memooirs from the Civil War Era.
- Ancestry Library EditionMajor source of census and other records of interest to historical, social and genealogical researchers.
- American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories, 1840-presentDigital Archive of personal narratives of immigrants to the United States and Canada, including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral history interviews.
- Women and Social Movements in the United StatesOnline primary source and secondary source materials related to women in social movement in the U.S.
- Everyday Life & Women in America, 1800-1920Full text of momographs, periodicals, pamphlets and broadsides from Duke university's Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, and the New York Public Library.
- Making of the Modern WorldDigitized library of economic and business literature on topics like the Industrial Revolution, the development of modern capitalism, and the emergence of modern economics.
- Jewish Life in AmericaOriginal manuscript collections from the unique holdings of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York.
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007Brings together documents and collections covering the period 1490-2007 from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world, including the United States.