Primary sources are original, uninterpreted information, such as firsthand accounts of events in letters, diaries, interviews, or historical news reportage; original works of fiction, art, or music; research reports or data; testimony, speeches, etc.

Visit Special Collections to use original texts in print or manuscript.

Librarians for Primary Sources

Laura Reiner - History
Research & Instruction, x2108

Alana Kumbier - Literature
Research & Instruction, x3372

Ruth Rogers
Special Collections, x3592

Mariana Oller
Special Collections, x2129

Related resources

• Special Collections
  
• Repositories of Primary Sources - Terry Abraham
• Statistics and Data


• Library catalog
• Interlibrary loan
• Writing help (PLTC)
• Citing sources
 

• Early American Imprints: Evans 1639-1800
• American Broadsides & Ephemera - 1760-1900
• Literature Online (LION)
• American Culture series 1493-1875  (microfilm)
• American Memory – Library of Congress
• AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
• Discovering American Women's History Online
• Women & Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000
• Women Writers Online 1400-1850
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Colonial to 1950
• American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Settlement… - Wisconsin
• Periodicals Archive Online

• Early American Imprints – 1801-1819
• American Broadsides & Ephemera - 1760-1900
• The Nation Digital Archive 1865-present
• American Culture series 1493-1875  (microfilm)
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories - 1840-present
• American Memory – Library of Congress
• Nineteenth Century in Print - U Michigan & Cornell
• Discovering American Women's History Online
• Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000
• Women Writers Online 1400-1850
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Colonial to 1950
• Literature Online (LION)
• Periodicals Archive Online
• Congressional Record – debates & proceedings in the U.S. Congress 1789-present - see online listings here
  

• Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective
• Valley of the Shadow - VA Center for Digital History
• African-American Women Archival Collections – Duke University
• American Memory – Library of Congress
• North American Slave Narratives – UNC Library
• Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 – full collection in Slave Narratives: a folk history of slavery in the United States (microform)
• American Broadsides & Ephemera - 1760-1900
• Discovering American Women's History Online
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Colonial to 1950
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories - 1840-present
• eHistory - Ohio State University

• National Security Archive
• American Memory – Library of Congress
• Discovering American Women's History Online
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Colonial to 1950
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories - 1840-present
• Foreign Broadcast Information Service – 1974-1996 - foreign news broadcasts in translation
• BBC Worldwide Monitoring – foreign news broadcasts in translation
• World War I Document Archive
• Chronicling America: select historic American newspapers 1880-1922 - & find information about American newspapers 1690-present

• Early English Books Online (EEBO)
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
• British History Online
• Hansard Parliamentary debates - 1803-2005
• EuroDocs
  
• ARTFL: A French textual database
• Perseus Digital Library – Tufts
• Literature Online (LION)
• Women Writers Online
• Periodicals Archive Online
• World War I Document Archive

• America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1922
• Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers 1880-1922 - & find information about American newspapers 1690-present
• Boston Globe - 1872-1924
• Chicago Tribune - 1849-1986
• Chicago Defender - 1905-1975
• Los Angeles Times 1881-1986
• New York Times - 1851-2003 | 1980-present
• Washington Post 1877-1971
• Ethnic NewsWatch 1960 - present
• The Times of London 1785-1985

• OAIster - portal/search engine for digital libraries
• NUCMC - National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
• WorldCat - add search terms such as memoir, diary, letters, papers, etc.

Offcampus Access · Databases A-Z · Research Guides by Subject | by Course · Reference Books Online · Library Catalog

Wellesley College Library • Information Services • last modified: July 7, 2009