LibGuides: CSER 3919: Modes of Inquiry: Primary Sources: Archives

A Note about Primary and Secondary Sources

Definitions

Primary sources are materials contemporaneous to the time you are researching, created by someone with first-hand experience of the phenomena that you are researching. Primary sources can come in any format, including newspaper articles, diaries, memoirs, letters, reports, scholarly articles, books (including works of fiction and non-fiction), films, artworks, laws, financial records, posters, photographs, and artifacts.

Archives are materials created by people or organizations, in the course of their every-day activity, which are preserved because of their historical significance or value for research. Another definition of archives: unique constellations of materials, collected and preserved because they contain important information and/or evidence of their creator's responsibilities and actions. All archival collections are comprised of primary sources, but not all primary sources are archival.

Finding primary sources in secondary-ish places

Because primary sources can come in any format, many databases and other places you would look for secondary sources are also good for finding primary sources. Examples of this include books in CLIO or HathiTrust and scholarly journal articles in JSTOR (which includes articles from the 19th century, helpful for researching the history of a given field or area of knowledge) or other databases. One way to find primary sources in these places is to limit by date to the period you're researching. Another is to use keywords (particularly in CLIO) such as memoir, autobiography, source*, documentary (which often refers to books of re-printed primary source materials), letters, etc.

In addition to the resources listed below, historical newspapers and other news media can be a great place to find primary sources from the time you're researching. See the News page of this guide for more on doing historical news research.

Selected Digital Archives Collections

Some of these resources represent digitized archival materials from specific institutions; others are portals to multiple institutions' digital collections or databases collocating digital archival materials on a given topic. These collections include some formats highlighted elsewhere in this guide, including newspapers, government documents, and books; in addition, they contain manuscript materials (e.g. letters, notes, drafts of publications), photographs, and more. Archives are rarely able to digitize the entirety of their holdings or the entirety of a given collection; you should look to see full descriptions of collections on an institutions' website to get more context for digitized archival materials.

Start with ArchiveGrid.

Ad*Access
Presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Concentrates on five main subject areas: radio, television, transportation, beauty and hygiene, and World War II, providing a view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisements Collection of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History in Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.
American Indian Movement and Native American Radicalism
This collection includes the extensive FBI documentation on the evolution of the American Indian Movement (AIM) as an organization of social protest. In addition, there is documentation on the 1973 Wounded Knee Stand-off. Informant reports and materials collected by the Extremist Intelligence Section of the FBI provide unparalleled insight into the motives, actions, and leadership of AIM and the development of Native American radicalism.
American Indian Histories and Cultures
A wide-ranging digital resource presenting a unique insight into interactions between American Indians and Europeans from their earliest contact, continuing through the turbulence of the American Civil War, the on-going repercussions of government legislation, right up to the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. This resource contains material from the Newberry Library's extensive Edward E. Ayer Collection. Includes manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books, photographs and newspapers. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.
Black Abolitionist Papers
Black Abolitionist Papers gathers and makes accessible primary sources created African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865. Content includes letters, speeches, editorials, articles, sermons, and essays.
Digital Library of the Caribbean
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. Sources include photographs, maps, newspapers, legal materials, and more.

Digital Public Library of America
A portal to the digitized collections of various institutions across the nation, including millions of photographs, documents, books, audio materials, and moving images.

Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs
Covers years 1543-1945, bulk is 1880-1920, with monographs and serials from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and continental Europe. The collection is especially rich in women's journals, scholarly medical and sociological studies, and housekeeping and advice manuals.

Historypin
Historypin is a digital, user-generated archive of historical photos, videos, audio recordings and personal recollections.
Library of Congress Search
Search across digitized materials from the Library of Congress, including materials previously included in American Memory. Facet on date and location to narrow down.

Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries
Previously unpublished letters and diaries of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th century. The women wrote from the many places throughout the U.S. in which they lived, traveled, worked, studied, and observed the lives and historical events around them--including John Brown's raid; the activities of the Ku Klux Klan; numerous wars; experiences in a Colorado mining camp, through Nancy Colburn Hartford's log of her time there; frontier conditions in Florida in 1830, as lived and described by Julia Ann Draper Lazelle; World War I Army training camps and the American Expeditionary Forces in France, through Lizzie Bliss Dewey's correspondence with friends in service; charitable work in the South, documented by the Chase sisters' writings of their experiences.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. In selected cases, users will be able to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
North American Women's Letters and Diaries (NAWLD) includes the immediate experiences of 107 women, as revealed in more than 9,000 pages of iaries and letters. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. When complete, the collection will include more than 150,000 pages of primary material spanning more than 300 years.

NYPL Digital Collections
Digitized materials from New York Public Library's archival collections.

Oxford African American Studies Center
Comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture, coupled with precise search and browse capabilities. Features over 7,500 articles from Oxford's reference works, approximately 100 primary sources with specially written commentaries, over 1,000 images, over 100 maps, over 200 charts and tables, timelines to guide researchers through the history of African Americans and over 6,000 biographies.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
This resource contains digitizations of popular culture collections from the U.S. and U.K. between 1950 to 1975. These original archival materials are from various libraries and archives. Topics include student protests, civil rights, consumerism, and the Vietnam War. The collection includes pamphlets, letters, government files, eye witness accounts, underground magazines, visual and video materials and ephemera and memorabilia. Part II contains additional material, such as music, press kits, mail order catalogues, advertising proofs, additional photos from the Mirrorpix archives, and documents on student unrest and the Troubles in Northern Ireland from the National Archives.
History Vault: Slavery & the Law
Provides access to primary source, cross-searchable, full-text, full-image documents on widely studied topics in 19th and 20th-century American history. Content is applicable to research in history, African American studies, women's studies, political science, social sciences, sociology, and international studies. Contents include NAACP Papers' Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records; Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975; Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Africa and Middle East, 1960-1969; Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) records, 1880-1930; and more.
Slavery & Anti-slavery: A Transnational Archive
Slavery and Anti-Slavery includes documents from the United States and Europe, as well as other parts of the world. In addition to newspaper collections and books published in the antebellum era, Slavery and Anti-Slavery contains documents from several archives originally available only on microfilm.

Umbra Search
Umbra Search brings together hundreds of thousands digitized materials related to African American history from over 1,000 libraries and archives across the country.

New York Area Archives and Special Collections

This is a very short list of archival repositories that are close to Barnard's campus. For more help locating archival collections, navigating finding aids and scheduling research appointments with other archivists, or for an introduction to archival research, schedule a consultation with archives staff. You can also use the ArchiveGrid to search across finding aids and catalog records for archival collections in over 1,000 archival repositories, with some coverage outside of the United States. For non-U.S. archives in the Americas, I recommend the resources gathered by Archivistas en Espanglish (Latin America) and ArchivesCanada.ca (Canada).

Barnard Archives and digitalcollections.barnard.edu - We collect the history of Barnard College and special collections relating to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as well as Dance. Our Digital Collections feature a small fraction of our collections, including the yearbook, the Barnard Bulletin, student publications, and some photographs, with more added daily.
Archives at the Columbia libraries - Search in CLIO over the finding aids of six different archival repositories.
Brooklyn Historical Society - BHS’s Othmer Library and Archives houses the most comprehensive collection of materials related to Brooklyn’s history and culture in the world.
Interference Archive - An Archives in Brooklyn that explores the relationship between cultural production and social movements.
Lesbian Herstory Archives - An Archives in Brooklyn that is home to the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities.
New York Historical Society - A library, museum, and archives dedicated to fostering research, presenting history and art exhibitions, and public programs that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today.
NYPL Archives & Manuscripts - Search over the NYPL's many different repositories, including the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the general Manuscripts and Archives Division.
NYU Archival Collections + Brooklyn Historical Society + New-York Historical Society - Search across the finding aids of the various archival repositories at NYU (including the Fales Library and its Downtown Collection and the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives) as well as archival holdings at Brooklyn Historical and New-York Historical.
The National Archives at New York City - Holds records of federal courts and agencies in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Municipal Archives holds the historical records of the New York City government and agencies.