Primary Documents and History Websites
Primary Sources are original documents from which historians draw interpretations and conclusions about the past. Some examples of primary sources include letters, diaries, journals, official government reports and documents, maps, newspapers, film, and oral histories.
The following resource guide lists websites that contain original documents held in libraries and archives throughout the United States. Many of the documents are digital or scanned versions of the actual document. Other websites contain a reproduced version of the original document such as a typescript of a letter or oral history interview.
The links are listed in rough chronological order and/or by theme. Within some of the sites, the archival portions may not appear immediately, but can be found within a website by clicking on links noted as “documents,” “archives,” or “resources.”
Need help deciphering the “old stuff “ from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries?
Go to www.dohistory.org for guidance in reading original documents, particularly handwriting, from these eras.
This list will be updated as new links will be added in the future.
COLONIAL AND EARLY AMERICA
Diary of Martha Ballard:
White woman from MaineVirtual Jamestown
Witchcraft In Salem Village: Documents relating to witch hunts of the era
etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft
19th CENTURY: AFRICAN AMERICANS
See also “Slavery, Resistance, and Abolitionism”
First-Person Narratives of the American South
www.metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/fpn/fpn.html
The Church in the Southern Black Community
www.metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/church/index.html
19th CENTURY: POPULAR CULTURE
Making of America Digital Library in American Social History:
Magazines, books, journals, broadsides from the era
Godey’s Lady’s Book
www.history.rochester.edu/godeys
Harper’s Magazine
Library of of Southern Literature
www.metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/southlit/southlit.html19th CENTURY: SLAVE TRADE
Records of Slave Ship Movement Between Africa and the Americas, 1817-1843
dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/slavedata/slaintro1.html
19th CENTURY: SLAVERY, RESISTANCE, AND ABOLITION
American Slave Narratives: University of Virginia
xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html
“Been Here So Long”: Select WPA Slave Narratives
Ex-Slave Narratives: Library of Congress
lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam015.html
North American Slave Narratives: University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
www.metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/neh/neh.html
Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition
19th CENTURY: THE SOUTH
Documenting the American South:
First Person Narratives of the American South
Library of Southern Literature
North American Slave Narratives,
The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865
The Church in the Southern Black Community
19th and 20th CENTURY WOMEN- GENERAL
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1830-1930
19th CENTURY: WHITE WOMEN
Diary of Martha Ballard
www.dohistory.org
Letters of Florence Nightingale
19th CENTURY: TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT
American Prohibition: Selected Documents
www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/prohibition/default.htm
19th CENTURY: CIVIL WAR
American Civil War Homepage
Southern Homefront, 1861-1865
metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/imls/
jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/contents.html
19th CENTURY: HAYMARKET BOMBING AND RIOT (1886)
Haymarket Drama
www.chicagohistory.org/dramas/index.htm19th AND 20th CENTURY: NATIVE AMERICANS
Native American History Archives
19th and 20th CENTURY: SUFFRAGE MOVEMENTS
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921
Suffragists Oral History Project
library.berkeley.edu/BANC/ROHO/ohonline/suffragists.html
20th CENTURY: AFRICAN AMERICANS
See also “Civil Rights” and “The South”
First-Person Narratives of the American South
metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/fpn/fpn.html
The Church in the Southern Black Community
www.metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/church/index.html
Harlem, 1900-1940: An African-American Community
20th CENTURY: ASIAN AMERICANS
Asian-American Oral History Site
www.itp.berkeley.edu/~asam15020th CENTURY: THE SOUTH
Race and Place: An African-American Community in the Jim Crow South
www.vcdh.virginia.edu/afam/cvilleenter.html
Documenting the American South:
First-Person Narratives of the American South
Library of Southern Literature
The Church in the Southern Black Community
20th CENTURY: WHITE WOMEN
Emma Goldman Papers Project: Early 20th Century anarchist, feminist, peace advocate
Margaret Sanger Papers Project: Early 20th Century Birth Control Activist
20th CENTURY: LABOR HISTORY
Seattle General Strike Project (1919)
faculty.washington.edu/gregoryj/strike
20Th CENTURY: DEPRESSION ERA
American Life Histories, 1936-1940; Voices from the Thirties
rs6.loc.gov/wpaintro/wpahome.html
20th CENTURY: WORLD WAR II, ATOMIC BOMB
A-Bomb WWW Museum: Info about the dropping of the A-Bomb in 1945 including oral history interviews of A-Bomb survivors
www.csi.ad.jp/ABOMB/index.html
20th CENTURY: CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS
Civil Rights Laws
www.usbr.gov/laws/civil.htmlCivil Rights Oral History Bibliography:
Oral history interviews of participants20th CENTURY: THE SIXTIES
The Sixties Project: Oral history of individual experiences in the 60’s, politics, culture
lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties
1968- The Whole World Was Watching: An Oral History
www.stg.brown.edu/projects/1968
20th CENTURY: WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT
(1960’s and 1970’s)
Women’s Liberation Movement Papers
ADDITIONAL HISTORICAL RESOURCES
African-American Mosaic: Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture
www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.htmlAmerican Identities and Ethnicities
This is an extensive site that contains links and resources for numerous racial, religious, and ethnic groups within the United States
xroads.virginia.edu/~YP/ethnic.html
Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
National Civil Rights Museum
www.midsouth.rr.com/civilrightsPeople With A History: Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans History
This website is extensive as it contains both secondary and primary sources from all historical periods in U.S. history as well as World history. Looking for primary sources only? Within each geographical and chronological period, click on “texts.”
Statistical Abstracts of the United States
www.census.gov/statab/www