LibGuides: ENGL 3920: Migration, Immigration, and the Borders of American Literature: 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 can offer a multitude of paths to potential primary source material for your research. In addition, you might want to try searches in the CLIO catalog, limited by date of publication.

Primary Sources : Digital Collections and Repositories

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.
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.
Black Drama
Contains over 1,200 plays by 300 playwrights from North America, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia, and other locations, including some of the great names in drama (Zora Neale Hurston, August Wilson, Ossie Davis, Sonia Sanchez, Langston Hughes). Also included, selectively, are production photographs, as well as images of playbills and other ephemera. Many of the plays are previously unpublished.
Black Short Fiction and Folklore
brings together 82,000 pages and more than 11,000 works of short fiction produced by writers from Africa and the African Diaspora from the earliest times to the present. The materials have been compiled from early literary magazines, archives, and the personal collections of the authors. Some 30 percent of the collection is fugitive or ephemeral, or has never been published before.
Black Studies Center
"A fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books, and much more. It combines essential resources for research and teaching in Black Studies, including The Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, Index to Black Periodicals Full Text, Black Literature Index, and the Chicago Defender historical newspaper from 1912-1975."
Black Thought and Culture
Non-fiction works by African-American leaders and others who have dealt substantially with issues of race in America. Includes books, essays, articles, speeches, letters, interviews, and other materials, some of which have not previously been published.

Center for Research Libraries Catalog
has particularly strong holdings of world newspapers on microfilm, including many newspapers from Africa. There's also a strong selection of other periodicals, including African American independent magazines and journals. Use the catalog to search these holdings, and then submit an interlibrary loan request for the microfilm reels you'd like to view (these can be delivered to the Columbia libraries).

Migration to New Worlds
Migration to New Worlds compiles primary sources documenting colonial and settler colonial migrations, and specifically the movement of people from Great Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and Asia to the Americas, Asia, New Zealand, and Australia. Split across two modules, and including collections from 26 archives, libraries and museums, Migration to New Worlds covers two centuries of mass migration.
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 Indian Thought and Culture
North American Indian thought and culture contains biographies, auto-biographies, personal narratives, speeches, diaries, letters, and oral histories by and about Native North American people.

Online Archive of California
The Online Archive of California (OAC) is a research gateway to unique and historical materials at archives, libraries, and museums throughout California. Among other collections you night access descriptive text for via this portal, are the Octavia Butler Papers at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA.

ProQuest history vault. Immigration: records of the INS, 1880-1930.
Covers the investigations made by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) during the massive immigration wave of 1880-1930. The files cover Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930, and European immigration.

Umbra Search
is a growing, searchable digital collection of over 400,000 sources related to African American history, from US cultural heritage institutions, museums, and archives. Umbra is developed by the Givens Collection of African American Literature at the University of Minnesota in partnership with the Penumbra Theatre Company.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
A resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, this collection seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding about U.S. women’s history generally. The collection currently includes 124 document projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors.

Primary Sources: Historical Newspapers and Other Periodicals

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.
American Indian Newspapers
Presents the publications of a range of communities, with an extensive list of periodicals produced in the United States and British Columbia, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada and Oklahoma, from 1828 to 2016.
American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside
.American Prison Newspapers bring together hundreds of prison periodicals from across the country into one collection that will represent penal institutions of all kinds, with special attention paid to women's-only institutions.
Black Newspapers
Full text and full-image articles from African American newspapers: Atlanta daily world, Los Angeles sentinel, New York Amsterdam news, Pittsburgh courier, The Chicago defender and more..
Ethnic American newspapers, 1799-1971
Extensive coverage of many of the most influential ethnic groups in U.S. history. Enables the study of often-overlooked aspects of the nation's history, politics & culture. Covers immigrant contributions to U.S. business, music, science, wars & more
Independent Voices
A four-year project to digitize over 1 million pages from the magazines, journals, and newspapers of the alternative press archives of participating libraries. Starting with collections by feminists and the GI press, the collection will grow to include small literary magazines, underground newspapers, LGBT periodicals, the minority press (Latino, Black and Native American) and the extreme right-wing press.
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.