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Primary Sources

A multi-disciplinary guide to finding primary source material, in print and online

Full-text Collections Online

American Decades Primary Sources Icon20th century; includes oral histories, songs, speeches, advertisements, scripts, letters, legal decisions, recipes, and more; full text and excerpts.

American Historical Documents Icon

American State Papers, 1789-1838 Icon

British History Online Icon11th-19th centuries

Carlyle Letters Online IconDigital archive of The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, 1812-1862.

Colonial State Papers Icon16th-18th centuries

Congressional Publications IconIncludes Annals of Congress 1789-1824; Register of Debates 1824-1837; Congressional Globe 1833-1873; Congressional Record 1873-present.

Early American Imprints, Series I:  Evans, 1639-1800 Icon

Early American Imprints, Series II:  Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 Icon

Early English Books Online Icon100,000 literary and historical works printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, British North America, and works in English printed elsewhere, 1473-1700.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online IconMonographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages.

Oxford African American Studies Center Icon Click "Primary Sources."

U.S. Congressional Serial Set IconDocuments, reports, maps, and statistics from U.S. Congress and federal government agencies, 1819-1950.

Vital Speeches of the Day Icon1934-present

Full-text Collections in Print

100 Key Documents in American Democracy, Howe Library Reference E 173 .A15 1994

African American Archive: The History of the Black Experience in Documents, Howe Library Reference E 184 .A33 2001

American Historical Documents, Howe Library Reference E 173 .A65 1980

American Nation:  Primary Sources, Howe Library Reference E 173 .A747 2008

Annals of America, Howe Library Reference E 173 .A793—2,289 articles, speeches, letters, songs, poems, documents.

Documents of American History, Howe Library Reference E 173 .C66 1973c—Mostly official and quasi-official documents from the Age of Discovery to 1973, including speeches, debates, court cases, laws, and policies.

Documents of United States Indian Policy, Howe Library Reference KF 8205 .D63 1990

Documents in the Political History of the European Continent 1815-1939, Howe Library Books (2nd floor) D 5 .K4

Documents in World History, Howe Library Reference D 5 .D623 1988

Historic Documents, Howe Library Reference E 839 .5 .H57

Milestone Documents in American History:  Exploring the Primary Sources That Shaped America, Howe Library Reference E 173. M62 2008

Milestone Documents in World History:  Exploring the Primary Sources That Shaped the World (2350 BCE-2000 CE), Howe Library Reference D 5 .M54 2009

Presidential Documents: The Speeches, Proclamations, and Policies that have shaped the nation from Washington to Clinton, Howe Library Reference  E 176.1 .P889 2000

Representative American Speeches, Howe Library Books (3rd floor) PS 668 .B3