LibGuides: ENG BC 3104_004 The Art of the Essay: Primary Sources

Some Primary Sources

Archives Unbound
Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history.

NYPL: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
The Berg Collection comprises some 35,000 printed volumes, pamphlets, and broadsides, and 2,000 linear feet of literary archives and manuscripts, representing the work of more than 400 authors. Printed books in English date from William Caxton’s 1480 edition of the Chronicles of England to the present day, and the manuscripts encompass an almost equally lengthy period
NYPL: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
The Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division collects, preserves, and makes available for research purposes rare, unique, and primary materials that document the history and culture of people of African descent throughout the world, with a concentration on the Americas and the Caribbean.
Archive Grid
Find Archival collections all around the world

Gale Primary Sources
Provides an interactive research environment that allows researchers to cross-search multiple Gale collections, including Archives Unbound, Archives of Sexuality & Gender, Associated Press Collections Online, Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture, British Library Newspapers, the Indigenous Peoples: North America database, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, The Making of Modern Law, U.S. Declassified Documents Online, U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978, and the Women's Studies Archive.

Barnard's Archives
As a repository of records of the life of Barnard College and broader feminist histories, we provide a space for critical, interdisciplinary inquiry into the past as well as the imagination of possible futures.

A very friendly, very accessible, very local, and very great archive

Using Primary Sources to Historize

Time: Date of publication - +/- 15 years or so Place/Location: What feels most relevant? Where does the book take place? What was going there/then? Or in the country or in the world? During the time of the book? During the time of that the book was written?Themes/Discourse/Terms/Questions: What questions does your close reading spark? What concepts/ideas/thinkers do you want to put those questions in conversation with?

Newspapers

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Full-text and full-image articles from major American newspapers: Atlanta Constitution, Baltimore Sun (1837-1985), Boston Globe, Call and Post (1934-1991), Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor (1908-1997), Irish Times (1859-2009), Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Norfolk Journal and Guide (1921-2003), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922), Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Scotsman (1817-1950). Every page in PDF files.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998
African American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2, 1827-1998, provides online access to more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection, which includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states, features many rare 19th-century titles. Part of the America's Historical Newspapers collection, African American Newspapers was created from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the world.
ProQuest News & Newspapers
Contains news reports, editorials, and, with ProQuest Historical and Recent Newspapers, advertisements, stock tables, cartoons, and more. More than 3,000 of the world's news sources, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian & Observer, The Globe and Mail, The Times of India, and many more are open to discovery.