LibGuides: U.S. History 2112: Primary Resources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are the raw tools of historical research - the material closest to the topic of investigation.

Often they are created during the time period which is being studied (correspondence, diaries, newspapers, government documents, art) but they can also be produced later by eyewitnesses or participants (memoirs, oral histories).

You may find primary sources in their original format (usually in an archive) or reproduced in a variety of ways: books, microfilm, digital, etc.

Evaluating Websites

Evaluate carefully any information you find on the Web for:

AUTHORITY
OBJECTIVITY
QUALITY
RELEVANCE

Tips on Evaluating Websites

General U.S. Primary Sources

Digital Public Library of America
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The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) offers a single point of access to millions of items - photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more - from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States.

Library of Congress Classroom Materials
Check out Primary Source Sets and Themed Resources for special primary source collections created by LC for classroom use.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Huge assortment of primary sources held by the Library of Congress, in textual, visual, audio and video formats. Collection Connections provide collection overviews and links to related resources.
National Archives Catalog
The National Archives Catalog is the online public portal to our records and information about our records. The catalog currently provides access to over 2 million electronic records currently in the Electronic Records Archives (ERA), which are not available elsewhere online.
Primary Sources for American History
Links to important freely available primary source collections, organized by era.

Reconstruction (1865-1877)

Freedmen's Bureau Online
From 1865 to 1872, this federal agency provided relief to former slaves and impoverished whites in the Southern States. Its records provide an extensive documentary source for investigating the African American experience in the Reconstruction era.

Civil Unrest in Camilla, Georgia, 1868 : Reconstruction, Republicanism, and Race Information
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Photostatic copies from the Freedman's Bureau records held by the National Archives of the United States, consisting of letters, affidavits, and reports relating to a violent episode in Camilla, Georgia, in 1868 involving local republicans, freedmen, and townspeople.

The Gilded Age (1870-1900)

Denver Public Library Digital Collections
Photographs, maps, and other documents from the collections chronicling the people, places, and events that shaped the settlement and growth of the Western United States.
Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
Digitized books, photographs, manuscript collections and more, with a focus on the 19th century, intended to provide a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants.
Railroads and the Making of Modern America
Seeks to "document and represent the rapid and far-reaching social effects of railroads and to explore the transformation of the United States to modern ideas, institutions, and practices in the nineteenth century."

Progressive Era, World War I & Roaring Twenties (1900-1929)

Alcohol, Temperance & Prohibition
Pamphlets, posters, and other documents dealing with prohibition.
The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906
Short films depicting 20th century New York City in the early 20th century.
Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918 to 1919
Newspaper written by soldiers for soldiers on the WWI battlefront.
Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921
Books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign. Part of the Library of Congress' American Memory collection.

Great Depression, New Deal & World War II (1929-1945)

Densho
Videotaped first-person stories, photographs and documents compiled by an organization dedicated to preserving, educating, and sharing the story of World War II-era incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Franklin-Access to the FDR Library's Digital Collections
FRANKLIN is a virtual research room and digital repository that provides free and open access to the digitized collections of the Roosevelt Library—to everyone, anywhere in the world. Whether you are a lover of history, a student working on a school project, or a scholar, FRANKLIN allows you to keyword search for archival documents and photographs and to search, browse, and view whole files, just as you could if you came to the Library’s research room in-person. Now available online are some of the most important documents of the twentieth century—primary source documentation of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s experiences leading the nation through the Great Depression and World War II.
The Great Depression Interviews
Videos and written transcripts of interviews conducted for a PBS TV series on the Great Depression.
Pictures of World War II
From the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Post-WWII to 1970's

Civil Rights Digital Library
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Extensive primary and secondary sources from hundreds of digital collections, including historical news footage, oral histories, documents and many other resources documenting the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's.
Cold War History - Wilson Center Digital Archive
Scroll down the page to view primary source collections of once-secret government documents on topics such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Korean War.
Virtual Vietnam Archive
Letters, photos, and many other materials providing a personal view of the Vietnam War.
Watergate Trial Conversations - Nixon Presidential Library
Excerpts with transcripts of Nixon's infamous White House tapes relating to the Watergate scandal.

Modern Era (1980-

C-SPAN Video Library
Excellent resource for U.S. Congressional activities. Includes videos of all programming aired on C-SPAN's three networks since at least 1987, including House and Senate floor proceedings, hearings, speeches & press conferences.
The Living Room Candidate
TV commercials from presidential candidates from 1952 to 2008.
National September 11 Memorial and Museum Collections
Oral histories, images, and other materials held by the 9/11 Museum.

Topical Sources

African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
Library of Congress exhibition which showcases documents exploring black America's quest for equality from the early national period through the twentieth century
American Presidency Project
Presidential papers, speeches, press conferences, election data and documents, and more
Discovering American Women's History Online
Digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States.
Landmark Cases of the Supreme Court
Background summaries, links to the full-text majority opinions, and excerpts from the majority and dissenting opinions for 17 pivotal Supreme Court Cases, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Roe v. Wade (1973).
Veterans' History Project
Oral history interviews, letters, photos and other materials of American veterans from WWI to the present.

Georgia History

Digital Library of Georgia
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Gateway to Georgia's history and culture through digitized books, photographs, newspapers, audio, video, and other resources. Search or browse by time period, topic, county, and resource type.

Vanishing Georgia
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Photographs from the Georgia Archives documenting over 100 years of the state's history.

Georgia's Virtual Vault
This is your portal to some of Georgia's most important historical documents, from 1733 to the present. The Virtual Vault provides virtual access to historic Georgia manuscripts, photographs, maps, and government records housed in the state archives.

Historic Newspapers

ProQuest Newspapers
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Full text of many U.S. papers including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal & Constitution. Title coverage dates vary but most begin in the 1980's and 1990's.
Digital Library of Georgia - Newspaper Collections
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Digitized historic newspapers from Atlanta, Macon, Milledgeville, Savannah and many other Georgia locales.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search or browse thousands of newspapers from 1836-1922.

Contact Us!

Lanier Technical College Libraries

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