LibGuides: SPAN 3349: Imagining Hispanic Worlds: Narrative and Representation from Antiquity to 1700: Primary Sources

Approaches to Finding Primary Sources

The "primaryness" of a source emerges in relation to the researcher's engagement with it. The UC Berkeley Libraries define primary sources as "either created during the time period being studied or...created at a later date by a participant in the events being studied (as in the case of memoirs)."

(source: Finding Historical Primary Sources: Getting Started, last updated 8/12/18, http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/c.php?g=4409&p=15606)

When determining primary sources for your research, it's helpful to give yourself a historical context that defines your search. This could be a range of dates. It could also be determined by geographical sites of origin. You might also be interested in a specific type of source. Some examples include:

photographs
diaries
newspaper articles
advertisements
films
web sites
sound recordings
government documents
works of art

Databases and digital repositories (see below) can offer a multitude of paths to potential primary source material for your research. In addition, you may use CLIO and the open web to find materials that you can engage as primary sources in your research (see boxes at left for strategies).

Finding Primary Sources: Digital Collections for a Range of Source Types

ArchiveGrid
is a collection of over five million archival material descriptions, including MARC records from WorldCat and finding aids harvested from the web. It contains archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives.
ARTstor
Artstor is a searchable database of digital images and associated catalog data from museum, archives, galleries and libraries from around the globe. ARTstor documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, anthropology, ethnographic and women's studies, as well as many other forms of visual culture. Users can search, view, download and organize images.

Biblioteca Digital del Patrimonio Iberoamericano
a portal which brings together digitized newspapers, magazines, images, manuscripts, maps, and other sources from a range of national and university libraries and archives in Latin America.
Biblioteca Digital Hispanica
is a project of the National Library of Spain. It offers online access to books, manuscripts, drawings, prints, brochures, posters, photographs, maps and atlases, from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Through the search box, you can also cross-search archival sources from Europeana and Biblioteca Digital del Patrimonio Iberoamericano.
Biblioteca Digital Puertorriqueña
Biblioteca Digital Puertorriqueña collects and provides access to a browseable and searchable collection of images and texts covering the history and culture of Puerto Rico. Sources include posters, photographs, digitized rare books and manuscripts, and historical newspapers.
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
has the world’s largest open access collection of digitized literary and historical texts in Spanish. You can also search the site for archival resources and critical work on major writers in Spanish. A project of the University of Alicante.

Cuban Culture and Cultural Relations, 1959-
Primary-source collection of circa 45,000 fully-searchable documents from the Casa de las Américas in Havana, documenting the culture and cultural relations of Revolutionary Cuba and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Includes such diverse materials as articles, newspaper clippings, cable messages, interviews, conference memorabilia, etcetera, collected from 1959 onward. Together they document the activities of the institution both in Cuba and beyond, bearing testimony to the conflicts and passions of a turbulent time. Conferences and controversies, manifestos and open letters combine to shed a light on a vibrant cultural history, which is now accessible for the first time from new and unexpected angles.
Primary-source collection of ca. 45,000 fully-searchable documents from the Casa de las Américas in Havana, documenting the culture and cultural relations of Revolutionary Cuba and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Includes such diverse materials as articles, newspaper clippings, cable messages, interviews, conference memorabilia, etc., collected from 1959 onward. Together they document the activities of the institution both in Cuba and beyond, bearing testimony to the conflicts and passions of a turbulent time. Conferences and controversies, manifestos and open letters combine to shed a light on a vibrant cultural history, which is now accessible for the first time from new and unexpected angles.

Cuban Heritage Collection (University of Miami)
The Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami Libraries is home to the largest repository of materials on Cuba outside of the island and the most comprehensive collection of resources about Cuban exile history and the global Cuban diaspora experience. They collect, preserve, and provide access to primary and secondary sources of enduring historical, research, and artifactual value that relate to Cuba and the Cuban diaspora from colonial times to the present.

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.

HathiTrust Digital Library
As a digital repository for the nation's great research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the immense collections of partner institutions. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.
Latin American Digital Initiatives Repository
The Latin American Digital Initiatives (LADI) repository is a collaborative project that preserves and provides digital access to unique archival documents from a network of Latin American partners with an emphasis on collections documenting human rights issues and underrepresented communities. Sources include posters, books, newspapers, pamphlets, and photographs. Based at the University of Texas in Austin.
Latin American Women Writers
Latin American Women Writers is an extensive searchable collection of prose, poetry, and drama composed by women writing in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Also included are essays by Latin American feminists and revolutionaries, who address both the universal concerns of women in every age and the distinctive issues of their struggles in the region.

PARES: Portal de Archivos Españoles
is a project of the Spanish Ministry of Culture for the diffusion in Internet of the Spanish Historical Documentation. The portal offers free access to fully digized Spanish historical documents, including government and legal sources.

Finding Primary Sources: Historical Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Serials

TIPS FOR SEARCHING FOR PERIODICALS USING CLIO CATALOG:

To search for access to a periodical with a title you know, type the title into the box and select Journal Title from the drop-down menu.
To browse periodicals published in a specific city or country, enter relevant search terms (you can use OR between them to expand results), and select Publication Place from the drop-down menu.

SEARCHING FOR ARTICLES USING KEYWORDS IN CLIO ARTICLES+:

If you are looking for articles where a specific term or set of terms might appear, type them in and select Keywords from the drop-down menu.
Use * as a symbol for missing letters to search related terms. Enclose phrases in quotes.
For instance, for articles mentioning Puerto Rico and education, you may search "Puerto Rico" AND educ*
Once search results appear, use facet boxes on the left side of the screen to narrow down by publication date, content type, and other features.

Arte Público Hispanic historical collection. Series 2.
The Latino-Hispanic American Experience: Leaders, Writers and Thinkers presents thematic content focusing on the evolution of Hispanic civil rights, religious thought, and the growing presence of women writers from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Rare and relevant books and newspapers --including rare anarchist newspapers -- are presented in their original form. Extensive manuscript collections of both organizations and individuals are included for viewing, indexed for ease of search and maximum discovery. This collection offers a unique approach, focusing exclusively on the Latino-Hispanic history in the United States.

Hemeroteca Digital
offers access to full color digitized historic newspapers and magazines, from Spain as well as a smaller selection of sources from Latin America, with well over 1000 titles in the collection. You can search the full text of these periodicals, or you can browse them by topic and title words. Coverage extends from the late 17th to the late 20th century.

Latin American Anarchist and Labour Periodicals Online
This collection contains the periodicals that have been accumulated by the Austrian anarchist, historian and collector Max Nettlau (1865-1944), together with a number of later additions, held at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam. The collection provides a richness of documentation pertaining explicitly to the formative anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist episode (1890-1920) in the history of Latin American labor movements.
Latin American and Caribbean Periodicals
Searchable and browseable collection of digitized newspapers, magazines, and journals published in Latin America, ranging from the late 1800s to mid 1900s. Hosted by the UCLA Library.
Latin American Newspapers. Series 1
Series 1 of a searchable collection of historical Latin American newspapers. Once completed this collection will include 35 newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th century in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
Latin American newspapers. Series 2
Series 2 of a searchable collection of historical Latin American newspapers. Once completed this collection will include 35 newspapers published between 1805 and 1922 in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Venezuela.
NACLA Digital Archive
NACLA Digital Archive provides access to back issues of the NACLA Report on the Americas, a magazine covering major trends and current affairs in Latin America. The archive contains searchable full text in PDF format from 1967 to present.