Finding Primary Sources
One of the best ways to find primary sources about your character is get a good secondary source, like a book or an article, and look in the bibliography to see which primary sources the author used. Once you have citations for some primary sources, you can search library catalogs and/or the Web for these sources.
Since many primary sources can now be found on the Web, it is often fruitful to do a keyword search in
Google for your character’s name followed by “primary sources”. For example, the Google search for
Mother Jones “Primary Sources” leads to a website with a link to the Mother Jones Collection of papers and photographs.
It may also be helpful to search for your character in one of the primary source collections listed in the "sources on the web" section below.
For more information about finding primary sources, visit these excellent websites:
Library Research Using Primary Resources :
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/PrimarySources.html
Primary Sources on the Web :
http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/RUSA/
Sources on the Web
American Memory Project : http://memory.loc.gov/
Library of Congress’ collection of written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
Electronic Text Center at University of Virginia Library : http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/
Approximately 1,800 publicly-available ebooks, including major authors, American history, African-American documents, and much more.
In the First Person : http://www.inthefirstperson.com/
Index of close to 4,000 collections of personal narratives in English from around the world. Keyword search more than 700,000 pages of full-text by more than 18,000 individuals from all walks of life. Contains pointers to 4,300 audio and video files and 30,000 bibliographic records.
Making of America : http://library5.library.cornell.edu/moa/
Primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
Project Gutenberg : http://www.gutenberg.org
A library of over 25,000 free books, including many primary sources.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project : http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/
a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly for educational use. Includes the Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History Sourcebooks.
Google Book Search : http://books.google.com/
Another place to look for published primary sources.
Internet Archive : http://www.archive.org/index.php
A digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.
