Research Guides: A Latin American & Caribbean Studies Research Guide: Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

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. Historians carefully read and evaluate primary sources to make decisions about how and why things happened as they did.

Primary Sources - EMORY ACCESS ONLY

World Newspaper Archive : Latin American Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
World Newspaper Archive : Latin American Newspapers, Series 2 This link opens in a new window
Caribbean Newspapers. Series 1, 1718-1876: From the American Antiquarian Society This link opens in a new window
Caribbean History and Culture, Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia (1535-1920) This link opens in a new window
NewspaperArchive This link opens in a new window
Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture: The Oliveira Lima Library (Parts I and II) This link opens in a new window
Latin American Anarchist and Labour Periodicals Online This link opens in a new window
Some of the major publications included are La Protesta, La Vanguardia and Acción Obrera (Argentina) ; O Exempio. Jornal do Povo and Battaglia (Brazil); the Chilean Voz del Mar (Chile); and Ariete, Redención Obrera, Revolución Social, El Sindical (Mexico).
Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 This link opens in a new window
Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century This link opens in a new window
Formerly known as Gale World Scholar.
Caribbean Colonial Statistics from the British Empire, 1824-1950 This link opens in a new window
For the most part these statistical records cover the years from 1839 to 1938, although some records commence from 1824 and others continue until 1950. The records for each colony are prefaced by a brief introduction to that colony. The population returns are published alongside education reports, while grants of land reveal who held the colonial wealth. Imports and exports are joined by prison records which reveal what the crimes were at that time. As these records are published together, the reader can compare the living conditions and access to services across colonies. The imperial statistics in this collection are listed by year for ease of reference. The territories covered by this resource include Antigua, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher (Kitts), St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, Tortola, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Virgin Islands (British).
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Collections vary widely by subject and include the following: Through the Camera Lens:" The Moving Picture World and the Silent Film Era Evangelism in Africa: Correspondence of the Board of Foreign Missions, 1835-1910 Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 Federal Response to Radicalism James Meredith, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Integration of the University of Mississippi Correspondence from German Concentration Camps and Prisons Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees: The West's Response to Jewish Emigration Jewish Underground Resistance: The David Diamant collection Newspapers of the French Revolution, 1848 Indochina, France and the Viet Minh War, 1945-1954: Records of the US State Department, 1945-1949 Czechoslovakia from Liberation to Communist State, 1945-63: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files East German from Stalinization to the New Economic Policy, 1950-1963