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What are Primary Sources?
Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources, which are produced some time after an event, and serve to analyze or interpret primary sources. More information.
Using Outdated Terms in Searching
When conducting searches in historical primary sources, you may need to use terms used in the documents themselves during that time period. Sometimes these terms are derogratory, offensive, and hurtful by today's standards.
For the English terms: "Africans" "Blacks," you may need to use "Negro" or "Negroes"
For the German terms:"Afrikaner" or "Schwarzen," you may need to use "Neger" or "Mohren" (which comes from the Moors)
Primary Source Databases
- ARTstorARTstor is a cross-disciplinary image database. It offers collections of approximately 300,000 art images and descriptive information covering art, architecture and archeology.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new windowA wide range of Black Studies resources including scholarly journals from around the world, US Black Newspapers, scholarly essays, historic indexes of Black Studies literature, and historic photos and videos.
- EuropeanaSingle access point to millions of artworks, artefacts, books, films and music from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives.
- German History in Documents and Images/Deutsche Geschichte in Dokumenten und BildernPrimary source materials documenting Germany's political, social, and cultural history from 1500 to the present. It comprises original German texts with new English translations, and a wide range of visual imagery.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowHathiTrust provides access to millions of books and other materials. Full text searching of most books is available and books in the public domain (generally older books) can be freely viewed and/or downloaded. Books still in copyright have more limited access. Users with print-reading disabilities can apply for special access to digitized works by emailing wilsref@umn.edu.
- Making of the Modern WorldUse this source to find primary sources and full text books from the 1460-1850 period with focuses on economics interpreted in the widest sense, including political science, history, sociology, and special collections on banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing.
- Zentrales Verzeichnis Digitalisierter DruckePortal to searching digital collections from Germany for publications from the 15th century to the present
Finding Primary Source Materials in Library Catalog
Additional primary source materials can be found by searching Libraries Search. Enter one of the terms below and keywords of the event as subject keywords.
- "personal narratives"
- "sources"
- "documentary film"
- "interviews"
- "correspondence"