Research Guides: The City as American History, Hist 2660/GSWS 2662/URBS 2660: Primary Sources

The Arcade, Cleveland, Ohio, c. 1910
Library of Congress

Strategies for Finding Primary Sources

Start with a secondary source: a book, article, or dissertation on topic. The bibliography or notes may include the author's primary sources, especially if the author is a historian.
From our list of Databases, choose Database Types > Archival collections (a selective list).
Primary Sources in American History includes suggestions for finding a variety of types of primary sources at Bowdoin and online. Sources include books; archives and libraries; newspapers, magazines, and journals; diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, letters, interviews, oral histories, and personal narratives; government publications; etc. (The suggestions can easily be adapted for non-US sources as well.)
When searching databases, use as search terms those words and phrases that would have been used during the time period you are researching. For instance, for materials produced before ca. 1900, in addition to searching on "childbirth", also search on "puerperal", "puerpery", and related words.

Ask Us for further assistance and advice!

Primary Source Databases

American Pamphlets, Series I, 1820-1922
More than 25,000 short works from every region of the United States span 100 years of American life, from the Jacksonian Era through the dawn of the Jazz Age, 1820-1922
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 w/ suppl.
Full-text digitization of Early American Imprints, which was based on the American bibliography of Charles Evans, covering American history and literature from the colonial period up to the eighteenth century: 1639-1800.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 w/ suppl.
Full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century, based on the authoritative bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker: 1801-1819.
NCCO (Nineteenth Century Collections Online)
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) is a multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the long nineteenth century.
Public Health Archives: Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970
Documents the rise of the twentieth-century public health system in the United States through correspondence, reports, pamphlets, ephemera, and more.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Archival materials from the Library of Congress
Making of America
Primary sources from University of Michigan, mostly from antebellum to reconstruction
Women Working, 1800-1930
Primary sources from Harvard University

Find Archival Materials

To find "collections of documents or historical records, including notes, correspondence, minutes, photographs, legal papers, etc., pertaining to those persons or organizations", search Compass or WorldCat (a national database of library catalog records) for a name of person, family, or corporate body; class of persons, ethnic group, type of corporate body, type of educational institution, or military service and the word "archives", Best Bet e.g.

Einstein AND archives
presidents AND archives

To find "collections of source materials of all types", search Compass or WorldCat (a national database of library catalog records) for a historical topic or system of law and the word "sources", Best Bet e.g.

antisemitism AND sources
"Soviet Union" AND sources

ArchiveGrid Best Bet
includes collection descriptions from WorldCat bibliographic records and from finding aids harvested from ArchiveGrid contributors' websites as well as a list of archives.

Search OCLC WorldCat (Manuscript materials) is a front-end for searching archival and manuscript collections in WorldCat.

National union catalog of manuscript collections (NUCMC) (in print and online via HathiTrust). The items in NUCMC have not all been entered into WorldCat.

Maine Historical Societies / Historical Records Repositories. Maintained by the Maine State Archives.

Directory of historical organizations in the United States and Canada Best Bet
Main Ref E172 .D5 15th 2002
Although dated, it is still useful for finding historical societies.

Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research, Society of American Archivists

Try to use Google to search for a historical society in a particular city or town, county, or state.

Google search on something like this:
[YOUR TOPIC] AND ("digital archive" OR "digital library" OR "digital collection" OR "digital repository" OR "virtual archive" OR "virtual library" OR "virtual collection" OR "online archive" OR "online library" OR "online collection") Best Bet
(Source: Search string suggested by Archive Discovery: A How-To Guide, Sam Houston State University.)

Please consult with a research librarian about how to find other primary sources.

Other Gems

Digital Collections (formerly American Memory) Best Bet

American Memory: Remaining Collections Best Bet

Primary Sources in American History, Bowdoin College Library Best Bet

The City as American History, Hist 2660/GSWS 2662/URBS 2660

Strategies for Finding Primary Sources

Primary Source Databases

Find Archival Materials

Other Gems

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