Primary Sources in U.S. History, Primary Sources in European History, Primary Sources in World History
See also our Primary Source Timeline to browse a selection of primary source databases organized by coverage dates and locations.
A primary source is material produced at the time of an event, or by a person being studied. Examples of primary sources include:
Whenever possible, primary sources should be consulted. The thoughts of those who lived through an era or an event provide you with first-hand perspective on history, and allow you to question and challenge the assumptions made in secondary sources. Examining primary sources can also help you develop a thesis.
Primary sources can be difficult to find. Most databases do not have an option that allows for direct searching on primary sources. They are often interspersed in books or disorganized in large collections of materials. Detailed information about how to locate primary sources can be found on our Finding Primary Sources page.
Consult with Archives & Special Collections to locate Dickinson-related primary sources.
In addition, the databases below contain digitized copies of primary sources that are useful for general historical study. Additional primary source databases can be found in the Special Topics section of this guide.
View streaming films from across the disciplines, including many HBO documentaries. Search for specific video segments, organize videos into folders, and create personal playlists. Closed captioning is available for many films. This access may be used for on-campus showings by student groups and co-curricular programs for which no admission is charged. Coverage: varies, contains primary sources. Full text.
Many libraries and organizations are making digital materials available online.
To find these collections, use this search string in Google or another search engine, in addition to keywords relevant to your topic, for example:
digital collection library site:.edu “Civilian Conservation Corps”
You can also try the same search limiting to site:org rather than site:edu BUT:
Be careful!
EDU = educational institution
ORG = organization, which can mean almost ANY kind of noncorporate organization. If you aren't familiar with the organization, do some research on it! Who are they? What do they promote? Are they reliable?
In this era of "fake news," don't just trust the information you see on a website's "About Us" tab or page.
Google the organization(or look it up in Wikipedia -- learn more about them
from other sources.
Questions to ask when you are assessing online primary-source collections:
Use Google and other sources like Wikipedia to research the authors, organizations, or institutions responsible for the page and for its funding. Don't just trust the About page!
With primary-source websites, you want to know that you are looking at accurate reproductions of the original item.
If there is a transcript, look for a link or an image of the original!
Ancestry Library Edition, for example, includes original census records, which were written by hand. Ancestry.com has added an interface that lets you search through transcripts of the records by typing in names and other information, but: these are the results of machines reading the handwriting and there are transcription mistakes.
Ancestry Library Edition now also includes AI summaries/information taken from newspapers in Newspapers.com; but if you do not have a subscription to Newspapers.com (note: the library does not have a subscription to Newspapers.com), you can’t see the original story. So you might get something like this:
Exactly one personal name in this record is correctly spelled -- even the name of the dorm is incorrect.
(This is Jill's aunt; Jill's grandmother absolutely did not go by the single name "Sneitz")