Guides: Primary Sources: Documents

In This Guide

Arts and Culture

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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.

Government and Politics

Alexander Hamilton Papers (Library of Congress)
The papers of Alexander Hamilton (ca. 1757-1804), first treasury secretary of the United States, consist of his personal and public correspondence, drafts of his writings (although not his Federalist essays), and correspondence among members of the Hamilton and Schuyler families.

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.
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 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 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.
Colonial State Papers: 1574 - 1757 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, including coverage of the earliest English settlements in North America, encounters with Native Americans, piracy in the Atlantic and Caribbean, the trade in enslaved persons, and English conflicts with the Spanish and French.
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.
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.
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.
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

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.
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 English Books Online [EEBO] (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.
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.
Queen Victoria's Journals This link opens in a new window
Includes 141 volumes of the journal of Queen Victoria, from 1832-1901.
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.
The Cecil Papers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
An archive of approximately 30,000 sixteenth and seventeenth-century manuscripts, consisting principally of the correspondence of William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598) and his son Robert, the 1st Earl of Salisbury (1563-1612). These two men dominated the administration of government during the reign of Elizabeth I and the first eight years under her successor.
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.
Archives Unbound: International Relations This link opens in a new window
Contains small, specialized collections of primary sources. Emphasis on the cold war.

Science and Technology

Environmental Issues Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Includes multimedia materials covering key environmental challenges, including climate change, water/air pollution, biodiversity, conservation, agriculture, deforestation and more.
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