LibGuides: American Social History since 1865: Primary Source Databases

Primary Source Databases at IUS

African American Poetry, 1750-1900 This link opens in a new window
Contains poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It provides a comprehensive survey of the early history of African American poetry, from the earliest published African American poems to the works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African American poet to achieve national success and recognition.
American Drama, 1714-1915 This link opens in a new window
Includes access to numerous American dramatic works including plays in verse, farces, melodramas, minstrel shows, realist plays, frontier plays, temperance dialogues and a multitude of other genres from the years between 1714 and 1915. Dramatists include David Belasco, Rachel Crothers, Augustin Daly, Clyde Fitch, Edward Harrigan, James Herne, William Dean Howells and Joaquin Miller.
American Film Scripts Online This link opens in a new window
Now called Film Scripts Online.
American History and Culture Online: Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
See Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926.
American Poetry, 1600-1900 This link opens in a new window
Includes the works of more than 200 American poets from the colonial period to the early twentieth century.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
A platform for digital collections of historical documents provided by Gale. Collections available at IUS focus on African American studies, African studies, American studies, Asian studies, British and European history, business and economic history, cultural studies, gender, sexuality, & women's studies, health and environmental studies, international relations, Latin American and Caribbean studies, law, politics, & radical studies, Middle Eastern studies, and Native American studies.
Note: The ability to cross-search multiple primary source collections from the provider Gale is now available on the Gale Primary Sources platform.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
ARTstor is a digital library of more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences with a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes.
Note: ARTstor's previous interface is available through August 2024. More information about the migration is available on the Artstor on JSTOR FAQ.
Note: Images in ArtSTOR may be used for non-commercial, educational purposes if you abide by the Terms and Conditions. More information about copyright and image use in ARTstor (and JSTOR) can be found here: https://about.jstor.org/terms/#content-use.
Associated Press Collections Online This link opens in a new window
An archive of primarily 20th century news materials that provide original perspectives on historical events around the world from a distinguished news reporting organization.
Note: The ability to cross-search multiple primary source collections from the provider Gale is now available on the Gale Primary Sources platform.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Includes the full text of non-fiction works of major African Americans leaders-teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures. Works include monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews, published between the colonial period and 1975.
Declassified Documents Reference System This link opens in a new window
Now called U.S Declassified Documents Online.
Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
Declassified primary documents regarding critical U.S. policy decisions since 1945. Currently there are 50 collections, each with a particular focus on a world event, country, or U.S. policy decision, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. espionage, the Iran-Contra Affair, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War.
Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 This link opens in a new window
A collection of the full-text of more than 700 first editions of American novels and short stories written before 1875 by major and minor authors of the period.
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment This link opens in a new window
Contains letters, diaries, memoirs, and accounts of the peoples, cultures, and environment of North America between 1400-1800.
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window
A digital collection of historical documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collected during the surveillance of numerous African American individuals and the infiltration of a variety of organizations from 1920 to 1984.
Film Scripts Online (formerly American Film Scripts Online) This link opens in a new window
Includes over 1,000 movie scripts, with coverage ranging from the early twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. Film Scripts Online also allows searchable access to detailed information on the scenes, characters, and people related to the scripts.
Indiana Memory This link opens in a new window
Provide access to digitized primary sources about Indiana and its history and culture. Includes digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, maps, and other media.
Liberation Movement in Africa and African America This link opens in a new window
A digital collection of FBI surveillance files on the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People’s Revolutionary Party. This collection provides two unique views on African American support for liberation struggles in Africa, the issue of Pan-Africanism, and the role of African independence movements as political leverage for domestic Black struggles.
Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950 This link opens in a new window
Provides access to one of the most popular American illustrated weekly magazines of the 1920s-1950s. Containing over 17,000 fiction and non-fiction articles and stories, the archive includes the complete 26-year run of the magazine - scanned in full colour and fully searchable.
Note: The ability to cross-search multiple primary source collections from the provider Gale is now available on the Gale Primary Sources platform.
National Security Archive This link opens in a new window
See Digital National Security Archive.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
Includes personal narratives including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories of immigrants who came to the United States and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to the letters and diaries of over a thousand North American women, from the 17th century to the present. Also includes biographies and an annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement This link opens in a new window
This collection consists of materials from the years 1913 through 1998 that document African American author and activist Amiri Baraka. It includes poetry, articles, plays, speeches, personal correspondence, oral histories, and more, and covers Baraka’s involvement in the politics in Newark, N.J., in Black Power movement organizations, and Baraka’s later involvement in Marxism.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 : Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest This link opens in a new window
This collection features primary source materials covering themes such as popular entertainment, consumer culture and mass media, and includes a diverse mixture of topics from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
Provides a wealth of material about the history of North, Central and South America, the Arctic and Antarctica, and the West Indies, with particular emphasis on the history and culture of the United States from 1500-1926. Includes original accounts of exploration, colonization, pioneering, settlement, the American Revolution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the western movement, Native Americans, slavery and abolition.
Note: The ability to cross-search multiple primary source collections from the provider Gale is now available on the Gale Primary Sources platform.
Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 This link opens in a new window
See Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970.
Smithsonian Collections Online: World’s Fairs and Expositions: Visions of Tomorrow This link opens in a new window
Provides access to primary source materials from the Smithsonian collection, including exhibition catalogs, official histories, commemorative accounts, exposition publications, visitors’ guides, lectures, technical reports, promotional publications, and more from landmark exhibits between 1840 to 1923.
Note: The ability to cross-search multiple primary source collections from the provider Gale is now available on the Gale Primary Sources platform.
Social Theory This link opens in a new window
Contains a range of influential works reflecting the major trends of sociological thought from the eighteenth century to the present. Content includes works by such theorists as Harriet Martineau, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Max Weber, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Jürgen Habermas, Talcott Parsons, Michel Foucault, and Jean Baudrillard.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 750,000 pages of government documents covering major policy issues from the period before the Second World War into the twenty first century, the archive serves as a convenient source for documents from government departments including Defense; State; Treasury; CIA; and the White House. USDDO supports the study of history, politics, international relations, and journalism, among other fields.
Underground and Independent Comics (formerly Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to adult comic books and graphic novels, with coverage spanning the first underground comix of the 1960's to the works of modern sequential artists. This resource also includes interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document this art form.
Women and Social Movements in the United States This link opens in a new window
An online archive of publications and documents focusing on women's activism in American public life between 1600 and 2000. The collection is organized around 124 document projects, each posing a new interpretive question and then providing 20 to 50 primary documents that address the question, together with an interpretive introduction and headnotes, bibliography, and related links.
World's Fairs and Expositions: Visions of Tomorrow (Smithsonian Collection) This link opens in a new window
See Smithsonian Collections Online: World’s Fairs and Expositions: Visions of Tomorrow.
Wright American Fiction (1851-1875) This link opens in a new window
A collection of American novels published between 1851 and 1875. Authors in this collection include Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others.

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred, or well after events occurred. Primary sources may include:

letters
manuscripts
diaries
journals
oral histories
newspapers
speeches
interviews
memoirs
government documents
photographs
audio recordings
video recordings

These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past. When they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research.

Below is a video produced by the University of California San Diego Social Sciences & Humanities Library, which may help explain the difference between primary and secondary sources of information.

Free Primary Sources on the Web

American Memory (now called Library of Congress Digital Collections) This link opens in a new window
Now called Library of Congress Digital Collections.

Discovering American Women's History Online

Library of Congress Digital Collections (previously called American Memory) This link opens in a new window
Provides free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
Making of America (Cornell University) This link opens in a new window
A searchable collection of primary sources in American social history, primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The resource is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. See Making of America Journals (University of Michigan) for related resources.
Making of America (University of Michigan) This link opens in a new window
A searchable collection of primary sources in American social history, primarily from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The resource is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. See Making of America Journals (Cornell University) for related resources.

New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections
Spanning a wide range of historical eras, geography, and media, the NYPL Digital Collections offers drawings, illuminated manuscripts, maps, photographs, posters, prints, rare illustrated books, videos, audio, and more. Encompassing the subject strengths of the vast collections of The Library, these materials represent the applied sciences, fine and decorative arts, history, performing arts, and social sciences.