Guides: Primary Sources: 20th Century

In This Guide

Arts and Culture

African American Music Reference (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
African-American Music Reference is a comprehensive reference database that chronicles the rich history of African-American music through 1970. It includes coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression. Resources include biographies, anthologies, encyclopedias, images, lyrics (digitized and fully searchable), song sheets, chronologies, critical textbooks, a comprehensive discography of the top African-American artists, and links to editorially selected Web resources.
Art and Architecture Archive Collection II (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains the digitized backfiles of many of the foremost art and architecture magazines of the twentieth century, and includes sub-disciplines such as fine and applied arts, interior design, industrial design, and landscape gardening.
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.
Disability in the Modern World (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive and international set of resources on disability studies and disability history, to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive Collection 2 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles.
Food Studies Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Provides works which explore how food shapes the world around us, addressing social, historical, economic, cultural, religious, and political implications
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.
LGBT Thought and Culture (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Includes books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day.
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.
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.
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.
The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960-1974: Video (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Includes diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.
The Sixties Video Titles (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Contains fifty hours of primary footage and secondary documentaries that explore the key events of the sixties and early seventies, including the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement and the sexual revolution.
Twentieth Century Religious Thought (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
This collection represents voices from Islam, Judaism, Eastern Religions, and Christianity, from the early 1900s until the first decade of the 21st century.
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.
Archives Unbound: Cultural Studies This link opens in a new window
Contains small, specialized collections of primary sources. Emphasis on anti-communism in Hollywood.

Daily Lives

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.
Food Studies Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Provides works which explore how food shapes the world around us, addressing social, historical, economic, cultural, religious, and political implications
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.

Government and Politics

American Politics and Society from Kennedy to Watergate (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A compilation of document types from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies as well as records from federal agencies. Issues chronicled include women's rights, environmental issues, urban renewal, rural development, tax reform, civil rights, space exploration, international trade, War on Poverty, and the Watergate trials.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This collection includes the FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr.; Centers of the Southern Struggle, a collection of FBI Files covering five pivotal arenas of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis; and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, detailing the interaction between civil rights leaders and organizations and the highest levels of the federal government.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains organizational records from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, along with papers of civil rights leaders.
CIA Cold War Research Reports and Records on Communism in China and Eastern Europe: 1917-1976 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes the CIA Research Reports from 1946-1976 and records collected by Raymond Murphy on Communism in China and Eastern Europe from 1917-1958, reporting on eight areas: Middle East; Soviet Union; Vietnam and Southeast Asia; China; Japan, Korea, and Asian security; Europe; Africa; and Latin America.
FBI Confidential Files and Radical Politics in the U.S., 1945-1972 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains records of the FBI and the Subversive Activities Control Board from 1945-1972.
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.
Human Rights Studies Online: Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, and Conflict Resolution (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Provides comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide from 1900 to 2010.
Immigration: Records of the INS, 1880-1930 This link opens in a new window
Presents the investigations made during the massive immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century. The files cover Asian immigration, especially Japanese and Chinese migration, to California, Hawaii, and other states; Mexican immigration to the U.S. from 1906-1930; and European immigration. There are also extensive files on the INS's regulation of prostitution and white slavery and on suppression of radical aliens.
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.
Japanese American Incarceration: Records of the War Relocation Authority, 1942-1946 This link opens in a new window
An invaluable resource for scholars interested in better understanding the World War II incarceration of Japanese American citizens and residents. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a government agency tasked with rounding up Japanese Americans, incarcerating them into camps, determining their loyalty or disloyalty to the United States, and resettling them into U.S. society. The records are expansive, providing an excellent portrait of incarceration camp management, the failings of the segregation process, and the mindset of Japanese American incarcerees in the camps. In addition, the collection includes significant material on public relations and military recruitment.
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.
NAACP Papers: The NAACPs Major Campaigns Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Covers major campaigns for equal access to education, voting, employment, housing and the military.
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.
Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement This link opens in a new window
14 collections representing 12 different anti-Vietnam War organizations, providing materials from 1958-1981.
Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy This link opens in a new window
Covers U.S. involvement in the region from the early days of the Kennedy administration, through the escalation of the war during the Johnson administration, to the final resolution of the war at the Paris Peace Talks and the evacuation of U.S. troops in 1973. Documents in this collection trace the actions and decisions at the highest levels of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus, as well as events on the ground in Vietnam, from the perspective of State Department officials, Associated Press reporters, and members of the U.S. Armed forces, including the Marines and the Military Assistance Command Vietnam.
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 War I: Records of the American Expeditionary Forces, and Diplomacy in the World War I Era (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes documentation on the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I as well as materials on U.S. intelligence operations and the post-war peace process.
Archives Unbound: African American Studies This link opens in a new window
Contains small, specialized collections of primary sources. Emphasis on civil rights in the 1960s, including school integration and freedom riders.
Archives Unbound: American Studies This link opens in a new window
Contains small, specialized collections of primary sources. Emphasis on anti-communist movements of the 1950s, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and FBI files on notable public figures, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Alger Hiss, John E. Lewis, and Harry Dexter White.

International

Archives Unbound: International Relations This link opens in a new window
Contains small, specialized collections of primary sources. Emphasis on the cold war.
Border and Migration Studies Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Explores and provides historical background on more than thirty key worldwide border areas, including: U.S. and Mexico; the European Union; Afghanistan; Israel; Turkey; The Congo; Argentina; China; Thailand; and others.
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.
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.
Economist Intelligence Unit (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
An archive of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)s quarterly country reports, from their beginning in 1952 up to 1995. The reports combine detailed statistical information with expert commentary and analysis from the EIUs analysts, providing high quality summaries of political, economic and commercial developments in almost 200 countries.
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.
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.
Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa (JSTOR) This link opens in a new window
The liberation of Southern Africa and the dismantling of the Apartheid regime was a major political development in the 20th century. This collection focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in the region, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Over 27,000 objects and 190,000 pages of documents and images are available, including periodicals, records of colonial government commissions, personal papers, photographs, speeches, and interviews
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.
World War I: British Foreign Office Political Correspondence (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains correspondence on World War I beginning with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary in July 1914 and continuing through until the armistice between Germany and the Allies in November 1918, and beyond, into 1920.

Newspapers and Magazine

Chicago Defender (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A Chicago-based weekly newspaper, serving a primarily African-American audience. This collection covers issues published from 1910-1975.
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.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
This collection chronicles the transformative decades of the 60s, 70s and 80s through the lens of an independent alternative press. Independent Voices provides access to over 1,000 titles of publications from feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Latinos, gays, lesbians and more.
Life Magazine Archive (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Life Magazine Archive presents an extensive collection of the famed photojournalism magazine, spanning its very first issue in November, 1936 through December, 2000 in a comprehensive cover-to-cover format. Published by Time Inc., the magazine has featured story-telling through documentary photographs and informative captions.
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.
News, Policy & Politics Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Includes the backfiles of 15 major magazines (including the Newsweek archive), spanning areas including current events, international relations, and public policy. These titles offer multiple perspectives on the contemporary contexts of the major events, trends, and interests in these fields throughout the twentieth century. The collection will provide valuable primary source content for researchers in fields ranging from history and political science, through to law and economics. Coverage from 1918 - 2015
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.
Time Magazine Archive (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
The Time Magazine Archive presents an extensive collection of the prominent weekly news magazine dating back to its first issue in March 1923 through December 2000, presented in a comprehensive cover-to-cover format.
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.

World War I Archives

Archives Outside of the U.S.

World War I Document Archive
This archive of primary documents from World War One has been assembled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List (WWI-L). International in focus, the archive intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War.
The Great War Primary Documents Archive
This archive of primary documents from the Great War period is international in focus. The intention is to present in one location both primary and relevant secondary documents between 1890-1930.
First World War 100 - The National Archives (Great Britain)
Includes an interactive map and links to some digitized documents.
The Great Collection -- World War I Archives from the French National Archives

World War I: British Foreign Office Political Correspondence (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains correspondence on World War I beginning with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary in July 1914 and continuing through until the armistice between Germany and the Allies in November 1918, and beyond, into 1920.
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.

U.S. Archives

World War I: Records of the American Expeditionary Forces, and Diplomacy in the World War I Era (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes documentation on the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I as well as materials on U.S. intelligence operations and the post-war peace process.

World War II Archives

Archives Outside of the U.S.

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.

BBC Online: World War II
The causes, events and people of the most destructive war in history.

U.S. Archives

World War II Documents from the Avalon Project
A large, reputable collection of primary source documents from the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale University.
Center for American War Letters Digital Collection - World War II
Collection of digitized letters written by servicemembers during WWII held at Chapman University's Center for the American War Letters.
Digital Collections of the National World War II Museum
Digitized collections of oral histories and photographs from the collections of the National WWII Museum.
Experiencing War: Stories from the Veterans History Project
A collection of oral histories and wartime correspondence from veterans in several American conflicts, including WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Collection assembled by the Library of Congress.
Historic Government Publications from World War II
Digitized collection of WWII-related government publications from Southern Methodist University Libraries. Publications cover a variety of topics, including wartime rationing and canning, informational guides to other countries, and wartime employment, particularly of women.
National Museum of the Pacific War Digital Archive
Selected collection of digitized letters, photographs, oral histories, and documents from the Center for Pacific War Studies, focusing on the Pacific Theater of WWII. Collections made available by the National Museum of the Pacific War.
National Archives World War II Records
The holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration are crucial to understanding the many facets of World War II: military and political; economic and technological; social and cultural. The military and civilian agencies involved directly or indirectly in World War II, and wartime Presidents Roosevelt and Truman (as well as future occupants of the White House), produced an enormous amount of historical records. Altogether they add up to tens of thousands of cubic feet.