Digital Literacy and Reference Librarian
Anacely Lopez Murphy
She/Her/Hers
Contact:
St. Mary's University
Louis J. Blume Library
One Camino Santa Maria, San Antonio, TX 78228-8608
Louis J. Blume Library
One Camino Santa Maria, San Antonio, TX 78228-8608
210-436-3673
Website
Primary Sources by Region
The online sources listed below are just a small sample of the archival materials available on the Internet. A small number are archival databases from the Blume Library.
I selected these collections because of either their prominence or their potential to interest students at St. Mary's University.
Primary sources are arranged by geography. Choose a region to see a list of primary source collections for the area.
International
- Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and DiplomacyProject of Yale Law School that includes primary research materials (mostly digitized text) from the ancient era (4000 bce) to the present.
- The Commons on FlickrDatabase of photographs from archives, museums, and other public institutions from around the world. Contributors include the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian, George Eastman House, National Archives UK, etc.
- Harvard Library Explore CollectionPortal to various collections at Harvard University Library. Collections cover popular research topics like the women's history, the Holocaust, immigration, crime, etc. NOTE: Be sure to check box Available Online.
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryCollection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. Note: some full-text items, some limited access titles.
- Hein Online - Foreign & International Law Resource Collection"includes the publications of the American Society of International Law along with prominent Yearbooks from around the world, including the Hague Permanent Court of International Justice series.It also includes U.S. Law Digests, International Tribunals/Judicial Decisions and more"
- Hein Online - United Nations Law Collection"major United Nations legal publications, including the complete collection of the United Nations Treaty Series, the League of Nations Treaty Series, the Monthly Statement of Treaties & International Agreements, UNCITRAL Publications, UNIDIR Publications, the United Nations Legislative Series and much more"
- Hein Online - World Treaty Library"collection brings together Rohn, Dumont, Bevans, Martens, League of Nations, United States, and United Nations treaties into one searchable database"
- International Military Tribunal for GermanyNuremberg Trials Collection via the Avalon Project website. Transcripts in English. Period: World War II.
- Internet ArchiveSearchable portal to a huge range of archival collections from hundreds of institutions. Browse the top collections to gain an ideas of the scope. Also includes several million books through the "Books to Borrow" service.
- Internet History Sourcebooks Project"A collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented ... for educational use." Topics include ancient history, medieval history, and modern history from across the globe.
- National Archives CatalogLocate records, and limited digitized materials, from the National Archives. Search and then choose "Available Online" to find digitized materials.
- NATO Archives OnlineDigitized collection of NATO documents (North American Treaty Organization). Documents from the Alliance's first 10 years and a collection of NATO publications.
- Origins of the Cold WarAnnotated list of open access primary sources
- Primary Sources on the Web: Finding, Evaluating, UsingFor other ideas, take a look at this site, produced by the RUSA Division of the American Library Association, which was "designed to provide students and researchers with information to help them evaluate the internet sources and the quality of primary materials that can be found online."
- Wilson Center Digital Archive: International History Declassified"The Digital Archive contains once-secret documents from governments all across the globe... It collects the research of three Wilson Center projects which focus on the interrelated histories of the Cold War, Korea, and Nuclear Proliferation."
- World Digital LibraryProject of the US Library of Congress and the United Nations UNESCO to make available "significant primary materials from all countries and cultures."
- World War IDetailed research guide listing resources for historical and literary analysis of World War I. Created as part of the St. Mary's University Community Reading Experience hosted in Fall 2014.
Australia
- Trove: National Library of AustraliaPortal to "over 456,695,596 Australian and online resources: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more." Includes digitized newspapers from 1802 to 1954.
Central & South America, Caribbean
- Digital Library of the CaribbeanOpen digital library to find resources about the Caribbean from archives, libraries, and private collections. Free registration required to access some materials.
- LANIC Digital InitiativesLatin American Network Information Center (LANIC) page with online access to various collections "on, from, or about Latin America".
- LLILAS Benson Digital CollectionsDigital collections from the Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin. Partnership wit h LLILAS.
Europe
Multinational, General Sources
- The British Museum - Online CollectionsImages and other sources from the museum's collections. "Most images in the collection online are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license."
- EuroDocs: Online Sources for European HistoryLinks to freely available European historical documents. May be browsed by country.
- European History Primary Sources (EHPS)Index of online primary resources on the history of Europe. Site created and maintained by the Department of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute.
- Europeanadigital collections from Europe's libraries, archives, and museums. Content includes documents, books, images, audio files, videos, maps, etc.
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryCollection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. Note: some full-text items, some limited access titles.
Additional Sources
These sources are more narrow in their focus but are very useful to find primary material for specific research topics.
- British History Online (BHO)Digital library of major texts of British history, including countries that were part of the UK. Primary focus is between 1300-1800 with older and more recent texts.
- British Pathé on YouTubeLarge archive of historic video from British Pathé. "All 85,000 newsreels are now searchable and viewable on YouTube. This equates to 3,500 hours of filmed history." Great source for contemporary historical research into topics like war (WWI, WWII), religion, culture, and science & technology. Videos and more details on the British Pathé website.
- Digital BodleianDigital collections from the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford. The more than 100,000 images include items like illuminated manuscripts, maps, posters, and facsimile publications.
- French Revolution Digital ArchiveDigital versions of key research sources of the French Revolution. Includes two main collections: a parliamentary archive and images of the Revolution. Primarily in French.
- German History in Documents and Images (GHDI)Primary source documents, in modern English translation and in German, from 1500 to the present. Themes include political, social, and cultural history.
- Internet Classics ArchiveSearchable full text works of classical literature. Mainly Greco-Roman works, all translated into English.
- Hansard - British Parliamentary DebatesDebates in the House of Commons and House of Lords from 1803 to the present.
- Origins of the Cold WarAnnotated list of open access primary sources
- Papyri.infoSearchable online ancient papyrological documents and related materials. Includes images, transcripts, and translations.
- Perseus Digital LibraryOnline materials of the Greco-Roman world and other classics topic areas. Browse the collections for an overview of major topics covered.
- The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913Searchable archive of English criminal court proceedings.
Middle East
- Internet Islamic History SourcebookSubset of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. "a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented... for educational use."
- Islamic Heritage Project"Harvard’s Islamic Heritage Project (IHP) is a digital collection that includes over 280 manuscripts, more than 50 maps, and more than 275 printed texts from Harvard’s renowned library and museum collections. Through the IHP, these materials are freely available to Internet users worldwide." Most materials are not translated into English.
- Islamic Manuscript CollectionDigitized collection of over 1000 Islamic manuscripts from the University of Michigan collection. Most materials are not translated into English.
- Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Middle East Since 1944One of a series of history primary sourcebooks. This subsection links to source on Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Iran, and the Kurds.
United States
Best Bet
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers"Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present."
- Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)"Offers a single point of access to millions of items—photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States." Some material is freely available; access to copyrighted material is limited to in-person use at the member institution.
- Library of Congress Digital Collections: Search"A gateway to the Library of Congress’s vast resources of digitized American historical materials." This portal includes the content from the old American Memory site and additional digital sources. LOC.
- govInfo.govgovinfo is the portal to GPO hosted material. It provides access to U.S. government publications from the three branches of the federal government.
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryCollection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. Note: some full-text items, some limited access titles.
- National Archives CatalogLocate records, and limited digitized materials, from the National Archives. Search and then choose "Available Online" to find digitized materials.
- Historical Newspapers: New York Times with Index This link opens in a new windowThis historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the time's politics, society, and events.
The Historical New York Times with Index (1851-1993) provides search capability using subject terms and topics for focused and targeted results in combination with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images from the Historical New York Times.
Coverage: 1851 - 2019
Subject coverage - Historical local, regional, national and international news
Additional Sources
These sources are more narrow in their focus but provide primary material for specific research topics.
- American Civil War: A collection of free online primary sourcesCurated list of Civil War primary source websites that include online newspaper archives, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, and official records for both sides of the conflict.
- CIA FOIA Electronic Reading RoomThe CIA's Freedom of Information Act ERR provides access to over 12 million declassified pages.
- Civil Rights Digital LibrarySearchable databases of online digital collections, and educational material, on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
- Congress, the Presidency, and other US institutionsPrimary and secondary government publications about Congress, the Presidency, and the judiciary.
- Cornerstone DocumentsSome items on this website include the Articles of Confederation , The Bill of Rights - the first ten amendments to the Constitution, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, The Constitution of the United States of America, The Declaration of Independence, Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, The Emancipation Proclamation, The Federalist Papers, and The Gettysburg Address.
- Declassification & Transparency Initiatives (NSA/CSS)Declassified, decoded documents dating from World War I through the early part of the Cold War.
- Documenting the American South"Documenting the American South includes fourteen thematic collections of primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture."
- Famous American Trialsincludes links to official documents, background and analytical studies, contemporary and later reactions, maps, photographs and other illustrations
- FBI Records: The VaultDocuments and other media released by the FBI, many as the result of FOIA requests.
- Federal Writers' Project"The Federal Writers' Project materials in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division are part of a larger collection titled The U.S. Work Projects Administration Federal Writers' Project and Historical Records Survey. The holdings from Federal Writers' Project span the years 1889-1942 and cover a wide range of topics and subprojects. Altogether, the Federal Writers' holdings number approximately 300,000 items and consist of correspondence, memoranda, field reports, notes, graphs, charts, preliminary and corrected drafts of essays, oral testimony, folklore, miscellaneous administrative and miscellaneous other material."
- FedFlixCollection of freely downloadable movies from US government agencies . All films are in the public domain and may be re-used without restrictions.
- Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) at University of Wisconsin Madison LibrariesSearchable online collection of Foreign Relations of the U.S (FRUS) from 1861-1960
- A guide to Vietnam War resourcesA curated list of Vietnam War sources with a focus on government documents, oral histories, and antiwar materials. Many of sources include primary materials.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowFull text law journals, case law, and treaties. A number of collections include historical information, incuding, but not limited to: Early American Case Law, English Reports, Pentagon Papers, Slavery in America and the World, Women and the Law.
- Hoover Institution: Digital CollectionsKey digital collections include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service recordings.Some are online, some must be used at the archive.
- Indian Affairs: Laws & TreatiesDigitization of a major reference resource: Kappler's Indian Affairs. 7 volumes
- Making of AmericaA digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction containing approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. Subject areas covered include education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
- National Security ArchiveLarge Archive of declassified U.S. documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Based at George Washington University's Gelman Library.
- Origins of the Cold WarAnnotated list of open access primary sources
- Security - Military and other agenciesPrimary and secondary government publications about the US military and other security-focused agencies.
- Treaty AffairsUS State Department portal to "all aspects of U.S. and international treaty law and practice." Includes Treaties in Force, Texts of Agreements to which the US is a Party and other treaty links and materials.
- Wilson Center Digital Archive: International History Declassified"The Digital Archive contains once-secret documents from governments all across the globe... It collects the research of three Wilson Center projects which focus on the interrelated histories of the Cold War, Korea, and Nuclear Proliferation."
- Women Working: 1800-1930Digitized copies US Labor Department publications as well as other content like photos, etc.
Texas
Note: Several sources listed in the United States box are also relevant to Texas history researchers.
- Bexar Archives Online"the official Spanish documents that preserve the political, military, economic, and social life of the Spanish province of Texas and the Mexican state of Coahulia y Texas." Documents range from 1717-1805. Includes thousands of documents translated into English. The physical collection is archived at the University of Texas at Austin Briscoe Center.
- Portal to Texas History"The Portal is a gateway to Texas history materials. From prehistory to the present day, you can explore unique collections from Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, genealogical societies, and private family collections."
- Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Online CollectionsList and links to online collections available via the TSLAC website.
Use Google Advanced Search to Locate Primary Source Collections
Google Advanced Search can be a good tool to locate online primary source collections IF you do not find ideas from the Online Primary Source page list of resources.
Feel free to copy and paste the following into the Google Advanced search box labeled "any of these words".
repository digital archive virtual digitized primary
I recommend limiting your search to the site or domain. For instance, edu for educational institutions or gov for government websites, or various country code for non-United States website.
You should always evaluate all sources you use. Ask yourself questions about the website: Who created it? Why did they create it? When was it created or last updated? What is it; what do you know about it? Where does this material come from?
Video: Finding Primary Source Collections with Google Advanced Search.
- Google Advanced SearchGoogle search where you can search by a number of criteria include phrase, site/domain, file type, language, region.
Use the SIFT Method to assess a website. One idea, search for the URL you found in Wikipedia to see if you can find basic information about the website. This tip comes from the SIFT Method to assess a website.