Contact Librarian: Jill Hollingsworth
Finding Primary Sources
I. What is a primary source?
"A primary source is a work that was written at a time that is contemporary or nearly contemporary with the period or subject being studied....a secondary work for a subject is one that discusses the subject but is written after the time contemporary with it."-How to Study History by Norman F. Cantor and Richard I. Schneider, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1967, p. 22-23.
"In historiography, a primary source is distinguished from a secondary by the fact that the former gives the words of the witnesses or first recorders of an event..." -The Modern Researcher by Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, p. 124.
If you have any questions about what your instructor will accept as a primary source, ask.
II. Examples of primary sources.
III. Using George to Find Published Versions
Search GEORGE, the online catalog, for published versions of primary sources. If you know of a person involved in the event or from the time period, look under that person's name as an author or subject for memoirs, diaries, and correspondence.
Key subheadings include: correspondence, personal narratives, sources. Use these terms in a keyword search. For example, titanic and correspondence.
To search by subject, try subject headings like the ones listed below:
For travel accounts:
Armenia--Description and travel
Russia--Description and travel--Early works to 1800
For letters:
Composers--Austria--Correspondence
Diplomats--United States--Correspondence
Diplomats--Correspondence, reminiscences, etc.
For other types of sources:
Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Personal narratives
Ireland--History--Famine, 1845-1852--Sources
France--Civilization--17th Century--Sources
France--Social life and customs--Sources
World War, 1914-1918--Treaties
United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Foreign Public Opinion
Bloomsbury Group--Caricatures and cartoons
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People--Archives
Indians of North America--Government relations--Sources
IV. Contemporary News, Periodicals and Other Publications
19th Century British Pamphlets (within JSTOR)
http://0-www.jstor.org.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/
Pamphlets were an important means of public debate in the 19th century, covering key political, social, technological, and environmental issues. This collection of significant British 19th-century pamphlets held in seven UK research libraries includes the Knowsley Pamphlet Collection; the Cowen Tracts (personal collection of Joseph Cowen, Member of Parliament and social reformer); the Hume Tracts (personal collection of Joseph Hume, Radical Member of Parliament); Earl Grey Pamphlets; National Liberal Club Pamphlets; and the Wilson Antislavery Collection, among others. Use an advanced search within JSTOR limiting by type (pamphlet) and date.
American Periodicals Series Online (1740 to 1940)
http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/pqdweb?RQT=575&TS=1089143595&clientId=5604&DBId=5197&LASTSRCHMODE=2
Digital images of historically significant American periodicals from 1740 to 1900, including literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and popular magazines. Allows searching by article type (e.g., letter, obituary, poetry, recipe, ad, editorial cartoon, review).
http://0-britishperiodicals.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/
Facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts, archaeology, architecture, and the social sciences.
Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective
http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?prod=HSR
Indexes book reviews and articles from English-language periodicals (from 1807-1984), including scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines. Covers a wide range of interdisciplinary fields (including sciences into the 1950s), represented in a broad array of humanities and social sciences journals.
http://0-www.umi.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/pqdauto?COPT=U0ZEPTImU01EPTQmSU5UPTAmREJTPTFBQ0Q@
Complete, full-text archive of the New York Times, from its first issue on September 18, 1851, through 2005, with coverage of national and international news. NOTE: The newspaper was titled the New York Daily Times from 1851-1857. In 1857, its name was changed to the New York Times.
Ref A121.N44 1851- .
Niles' Register: Cumulative Index 1811-1849
http://old.library.georgetown.edu/service/cdnet/app.cfm?appname=NilesRegister
Indexes articles that appeared in the Niles publications: The Weekly Register, Niles' Weekly Register, and Niles' National Register. Published in Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia, with national readership, the Register was an influential, widely-read newsweekly. Citations are for the volume and page, which is on microfilm in Lauinger Library.
Nineteenth Century Periodicals
http://resources.library.georgetown.edu/libdata/page.phtml?page_id=50
Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue - 1801-1870
http://old.library.georgetown.edu/service/cdnet/app.cfm?appname=NineteenthCenturyStc-1801-1870
A union catalog of books in English printed between 1801 and 1919. Include "all books published in Britain, its colonies and the United States; all books in English wherever published; and all translations from English." Books are from the catalogs of the following British and US libraries: Bodleian Library, British Library, Cambridge University Library, Trinity College (Dublin), National Library of Scotland, University of Newcastle Library, Harvard University Library, Library of Congress.
Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue - 1871-1919
http://old.library.georgetown.edu/service/cdnet/app.cfm?appname=NineteenthCenturyStc-1871-1919
A union catalog of books in English printed between 1871 and 1919. The NSTC Project "aims to provide increasingly complete listings of British books," which include "all books published in Britain, its colonies and the United States; all books in English wherever published; and all translations from English." The database was prepared from the catalogs of the following British and US libraries: Bodleian Library, British Library, Cambridge University Library, Trinity College (Dublin), National Library of Scotland, University of Newcastle Library, Harvard University Library, Library of Congress.
http://0-pio.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu
An international, interdisciplinary database providing the complete tables of contents for older issues of 3,536 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences. PIO covers not only journals published by academic presses but also those journals published as popular reading which now provide valuable research materials for scholars.
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature
http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?prod=RDGFT
Index to the most popular general-interest magazines and journals published in the United States. For 1890 to 1982, use the Readers' Guide Retrospective.
Ref AI3.R48 and AI3.R496 1890-1996
Vanderbilt Television News Archive
http://0-tvnews.vanderbilt.edu.library.lausys.georgetown.edu
The core collection includes evening news broadcasts from ABC, CBS and NBC (since 1968), an hour per day of CNN (since 1995) and Fox News (since 2004). Special news broadcasts include political conventions, presidential speeches and press conferences, Watergate hearings, coverage of the Persian Gulf War, the events of September 11, 2001, the War in Afghanistan, and the War in Iraq. Tapes of all broadcasts are available for loan for a fee.
http://0-infotrac.galegroup.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/itweb/wash43584?db=ttda
Searchable, electronic version of The Times, Britain's newspaper of record, essential for primary source research in British history, politics, and culture. Provides a complete full-text and full-image archive of The Times from 1785 to 1985.
Wall Street Journal Historical
http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/login?COPT=REJTPTFhY2MmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=5600
Complete, full text archive of the Wall Street Journal from its first issue on July 8, 1889 through 1991. The Wall Street Journal is the financial newspaper of record. It offers in-depth coverage of national and international finance and other news.
http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/login?COPT=REJTPTI2OGEmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=5604
Complete, full-text archive of the Washington Post, from its first issue on December 6, 1877 through 1993.
V. Documents Collections
http://0-infoweb.newsbank.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/
Indexes United Nations documents and publications, articles appearing in UN periodicals, and treaties in the UN Treaty Series from 1975. Some full text is included. Documents come from the six main bodies of the United Nations: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, Secretariat, and International Court of Justice. The "Readex Year" field identifies documents included in the Readex microfiche collection available in the Government Documents and Microforms area on the first floor of Lauinger Library.
http://rs6.loc.gov/amhome.html
Multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library of Congress's Americana collections.
Annals of America
A collection of source material providing a documentary history of America. Part I is comprised of 18 text volumes chronologically arranged from 1493 to 1968. Part II is a two-volume conspectus or topical index with essays reflecting an overview of major recurring themes throughout American history.
http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/servlet/DDRS?locID=wash43584
Provides access to post- World War II papers from the CIA, the FBI and many other agencies, which have been gathered from presidential libraries. Major domestic and international events of the post-World War II world are covered, including the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, and the civil rights movement. Documents display in a digital facsimile format or ASCII text.
Digital National Security Archive
http://0-nsarchive.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu
A full-text database of 22 core collections of primary documents acquired by the George Washington University based National Security Archive. The collection has been acquired through extensive use of FOIA. Each core collection is focused on one topic, e.g. Iran-Contra, Terrorism and U.S. Policy. Each topical collection includes diverse policy documents supplemented by contextual and reference material on chronology, glossary and bibliography.
http://library.cqpress.com/historicdocuments?PHPSESSID=oqtbi5eca5qoro6cd5afm43eg0
Published annually since 1972, the Historic Documents Series now contains 36 volumes of primary sources. Each volume includes approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of the year. These documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions. The online version is part of the CQ Press Political Reference Suite.
VI. Selected Bibliographies in Reference
American Diaries: An Annotated Bibliography of Published American Diaries and Journals
And So to Bed: A Bibliography of Diaries Published in English
Autobiographies by Americans of Color, 1980-1994: An Annotated Bibliography.
Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series
Through a Woman's I: An Annotated Bibliography of American Women's Autobiographical Writing, 1946-1976.
Women in English Social History, 1800-1914: A Guide to Research
Women's Diaries, Journals and Letters: An Annotated Bibliography
VII. Locating Archival Sources
http://0-archives.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/
Archive Finder is made up of ArchivesUSA and NIDS UK/Ireland. It describes over 206,200 collections of primary source material housed in thousands of repositories across the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland. ArchivesUSA draws from three major information sources: the Directory of Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the United States (DAMRUS), the National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), and the National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS). Updated quarterly.
Georgetown University Libraries Special Collections
http://www.library.georgetown.edu/special-collections
Special Collections owns hundreds of manuscript collections, including more than 200 manuscripts, letters, documents and other items handwritten or signed by Presidents of the United States from George Washington to Gerald Ford. It also contains the University archives, rare books, a number of diaries, memoirs, and interviews, and other items useful for primary source research.
Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
http://www.historydc.org/Do_Research/
Special Collections in the Library of Congress
Special Collections
A guide to special collections in libraries and museums in the United States and Canada.
Washingtoniana Division, District of Columbia Public Library
http://dcpl.dc.gov/dcpl/cwp/view.asp?a=1264&q=566688
VIII. Questions to Ask of Primary Sources
-- Adapted from "Using Primary Sources," from the DoHistory Web site.
Library Staff Contact for this page: Jill Hollingsworth
