Primary Source Collections and Lists
Sometimes it is worth being creative with finding primary sources. For example, you may find some in materials created for teachers who are teaching primary source literacy to students. Or, you may be able to find sourcebooks that contain collections of copies of primary sources. Additional search-terms that you can use to find these materials include "historical reader" or "primary sourcebook."
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Eurodocs: The Portuguese Age of DiscoveryEurodocs is an open wiki developed by Richard Hacken, an emeritus European Studies Librarian. The website says "Links connect to European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated."
Primary Source Databases
The library subscribes to a number of databases that contain primary sources.
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Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
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Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowAccess to digital images of every page in books published during the 18th century. Search the full text of millions of pages of interest to a range of academic disciplines: history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science, and more.
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European Views of the Americas, 1493 to 1750 This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750.
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Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new windowContains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 20th century, including books, pamphlets, etc. that provide accounts of exploration, slavery, Native Americans, and much more. Over 6 million pages from 29,000 works.
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Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new windowContains 5.4 million cross-searchable pages: 12,049 books, 170 serials, 71 manuscript collections, 377 supreme court records and briefs, and 194 reference articles.
Museums, Archives, and Centers
You can access online collections of primary sources through several museums, specialized research centers, and archives. These collections may contain a variety of material types, from images, to manuscripts, to newspaper clippings and ephemera!
Find more beyond this list by searching Google for "digital collections," "digital archives," and your topic or time period, and maybe an additional keyword. In this case, "empire," "imperial," and "maritime" may all be useful keywords to include.
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HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
A library partnership with millions of digitized books. Search the full text or catalog records. Especially good for searching for older texts, pre-1922.
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Library of Congress (LOC) Digital CollectionsThe Library of Congress is always adding new digital collections for public access.
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DPLA: Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
This project, led by Harvard University, is working to compile an aggregated catalog of open access digital objects from libraries across the U.S.
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British History Online"British History Online is a digital library of printed primary and secondary sources for the study of Britain and Ireland, with a focus on the period 1300 to 1800"
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Europeana"Search, save and share art, books, films and music from thousands of cultural institutions."
Primary Sources in OneSearch
It can be possible to find primary sources through our OneSearch. After you type in your keywords, see how far back you can set the "publication date"!
You may find a lot of manuscripts and old books/tomes that have been digitized. They appear because OneSearch has access to indexes with information about those materials. You may also find print reproductions or print compilations of primary sources in our collections.
