Primary Sources
Primary Sources
Often, research calls for the use of primary sources. Primary sources provide direct, first hand evidence (like a newspaper article published at the time of a major event, a diary, or an original document like the U.S. Constitution), whereas a secondary source describes, summarizes or analyzes information (such as a history book or a literary analysis). Click here for a detailed breakdown about the difference between primary and secondary sources.
Many of our databases include primary source documents. In addition what's in our databases, there is a wealth of information available for free online. Sometimes you can find these collections by googling "topic/region"+"digital collections." For example, "Montanta"+"digital collections" or "Japanese American History"+"digital collections." It is important to use both the quotations and the + sign for this search.
Atlases & Maps
Library of Congress - Hundreds of historical United State maps that are easy to browse and search through.
Old Maps Online - A collection of over 400,000 searchable historic maps.
David Rumsey Map Collection at Stanford University - A vast collection of digitized maps online. To search for digital maps, be sure to use the left side filters: select "online" from Access Type and select "map" from Resource Type. You might also want to filter by time period by Era.
United States National Archive - Thousands of maps from the National Archive. To search the digital maps, you must make sure that only "Archival Materials Online" is checked, and you must select "Maps and Charts" from the Type of Materials menu. See Ms. Vander Heide if you need help with this!
Historic Newspapers & Magazines
Elephind - START HERE. A search tool that scours multiple free newspaper archives of more than 4,000 historic newspapers.
California Digital Newspaper Archive - Nearly half a million issues of California newspapers, dating back to the early 1900's. No library card or password is needed.
New York Times Historical Archive - Archive of New York Times articles dating back to the 1851. Create an account by visiting here and using your HNHS email. If you have previously used an account, you need to log-in every year to reactivate the account.
Pennsylvania Digital Newspaper Archive - Digitized Pennsylvania newspapers dating back to the 1700's. To effectively search this database, select "Advanced Search" and filter by date and key words. No card or password is needed.
Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection - Digitized Colorado Newspapers dating back to 1859. No card or password is needed.
New York Historic Newspapers - Digitized New York newspapers dating back to 1725. No card or password is needed.
Library of Congress Historic Newspapers - A collection of digitized historic newspapers dating back to the 1700's. Free access. No library card or password is needed.
U.S. & World History Primary Sources
World Digital Library - Nearly 20,000 documents from 193 different countries spanning from 800 BC - 2000 AD.
EuroDocs - European History digital collections organized by country.
Digital Public Library of America - US History primary source collections, easily searchable by subject &/or time period.
National Archives - U.S. Government archives.
Gilder Leherman Institute - More than 70,000 documents covering 500 years of U.S. History.
Life Magazine Photo Archive - Perfect for reports or posterboard project that require photographs.
National Museum of African American History and Culture Digital Collections - Close to 37,000 primary source documents examining African American history.
Japanese American History Digital Collection - CSU is in the process of building a collective digital archive of Japanese American History. Right now you can search via the individual school collections using the menu on the left side bar, to find things like documents and oral histories.
Yale University Latinx History Primary Source Guide - A list of primary source collections documenting Latinx and Latinx American History.
Archive of Immigrant Voices - Collected oral histories of immigration stories.
Archive of Famous U.S. Presidential Speeches - Full texts of famous U.S. Presidential speeches, provided by the University of Virginia.