Guides: Primary Sources: 19th Century

In This Guide

19th Century Primary Sources:

Need help finding what you are looking for? Try using ctrl+F (Command + F on a Mac) to search within this page or Talk to a Librarian for personalized assistance.

General 19th Century

19th Century British Pamphlets This link opens in a new window
Throughout the 19th century, pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. This collection contains nearly 26,000 significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in research libraries in the United Kingdom, in support of the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain.
American Antiquarian Society [AAS] Historical Periodicals Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Access to newspapers, bulletins, reports, and other periodicals from the United States, providing coverage from 1691-1877.
American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes collections from the U.S. National Archives, a series of collections from the Chicago History Museum, as well as selected first-hand accounts on Indian Wars and westward migration.
Black Abolitionist Papers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This primary source collection details the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings of the activists themselves.
Black Thought and Culture (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
A collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders, teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures, covering 250 years of history.
British and Irish Womens Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Includes the immediate experiences of approximately 500 women, as revealed in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters spanning over 300 years.
Digital Sanborn Maps (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
More than 660,000 large-scale maps of more than 12,000 American towns and cities, from 1867-1970.
Documents on British Policy Overseas: 1898 - 1990 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A collection of primary source documents from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, shedding light on diplomatic history throughout the twentieth century.
Early American Newspapers (Readex) This link opens in a new window
More than 290 significant 18th- and 19th-century newspapers from every region of the United States. This collection focuses on the period between 1820 and 1860, when the number of American newspapers rose dramatically. Part of the Readex America's Historical Newspapers collection.
Economist Historical Archive (1843-2015) This link opens in a new window
The Economist Historical Archive ('EHA') is the fully searchable complete facsimile edition of The Economist, the weekly paper which is essential reading for anyone engaged in politics, current affairs and all aspects of business and trade worldwide. Containing every issue since its launch in 1843 and more than 600,000 pages, EHA offers full-color images, multiple search indexes, topic and area supplements and surveys. Altogether this is an unrivaled multidisciplinary primary source for researching and teaching the 19th and 20th centuries.
Gilded Age (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Covers the late nineteenth century, and addresses themes such as race, labor, immigration, commerce, western expansion, and womens suffrage.
HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline Academic includes more than 100 million pages of multidisciplinary content in more than 100 subject areas, including history, political science, criminal justice, religious studies, international relations, women’s studies, pre-law, and many more. With more historical content than any other database, HeinOnline provides access to 300+ years of information on political development and the complete history of the creation of government and legal systems around the world.
Indian Claims Insight (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes decisions, transcripts, docket books, journals of the Indian Claims Commission (a judicial panel for relations between the U.S. Government and Native American tribes), and related statutes and congressional publications.
Indigenous Peoples: North America This link opens in a new window
Indigenous Peoples: North America sources collections from across Canadian and American institutions, providing insight into the cultural, political and social history of Native Peoples from the seventeenth into the twentieth century. Including diverse manuscripts; book collections; newspapers from various tribe and Indian-related organizations; materials such as Bibles, dictionaries and primers in Indigenous languages all enable students' examination of important primary source materials.
Law and Society since the Civil War: American Legal Manuscripts from the Harvard Law School Library (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes content highlighting Supreme Court Justices, federal judges, high-profile cases, and insights into developing ideologies and laws, as far back as 1861.
Music Online: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music is the first comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. More than 9,000 pages of material and 300 audio recordings, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world, make this the most complete body of work focused on world music.
New York Times, Historical plus Index (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: the New York Times provides the full image of articles published in the New York Times from its first issue in 1851. It is searchable by keyword, author, article title, and first paragraph (abstract). You can browse issues by clicking Publications at the top of the screen. It includes illustrations and advertisements. The title changed from the New York Daily Times to the New York Times in 1857.
North American Indian Thought and Culture (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Includes autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files on the history of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples.
North American Womens Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chinese Newspaper Collection (1832 - 1953) This link opens in a new window
Contains full text coverage of English language newspapers published in China, between 1832-1953.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Times of India (1838 - 2010) This link opens in a new window
Contains full text coverage of this English language daily newspaper from India, from 1838-2010.
Queen Victoria's Journals This link opens in a new window
Includes 141 volumes of the journal of Queen Victoria, from 1832-1901.
Religious Magazine Archive: 1845 - 2015 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Archive of magazines devoted to religious topics, spanning 19th-21st centuries and a range of religions/denominations.
Revolution and Protest Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Provides a comprehensive, comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of political processes through the lens of revolutions, protests, resistance and social movements occurring between the 18th and 21th centuries.
Times Digital Archive (1785-2013) This link opens in a new window
The Times Digital Archive is an online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times (London), one of the most highly regarded resources for eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century news coverage, with every page of every issue from 1785 through 2013. This historical newspaper archive allows researchers an unparalleled opportunity to search and view the best-known and most cited newspaper in the world online in its original published context.
Women and Social Movements in the U.S. - Scholar's Edition (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
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.
World Heritage Sites: Africa This link opens in a new window
A collection of more than 86,000 objects of visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage and rock art sites. The collection includes spatial data, such as 3D models and plans, facade views, images, and video; and contextual data, such as site plans and maps, excavation reports, archaeological and ethnographic field notes, and person journals and travelers' accounts.
World Scholar: Latin America And The Caribbean This link opens in a new window
World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean provides a portal with access to reference, periodicals, multimedia, reports, studies, journals, newspapers, and statistical data. An archive of digitized primary documents focus on the history of Latin America and the Caribbean back to the early 1800s through the contemporary period sourced from collections in the U.S. and abroad. The archive and portal serve as both integrated and standalone resources.

Get In Touch

Primary Sources

In This Guide

19th Century Primary Sources:

General 19th Century

Get In Touch

Find us on: