What are Primary Sources?
Primary Sources are original sources: they were created by someone who participated in or observed an event. They include diaries, letters, newspapers, government documents, photographs, and other manuscripts.
General Collections
- The Vietnam ArchiveThe Vietnam archive at Texas Tech University. The largest archive on the war in the world.
- Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives This link opens in a new windowThis collection of primary resources documents the history, culture, and politics of the 1960s and early 1970's. Included are diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. Especially good if you're working on domestic protest movements
- ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new windowHistory Vault is a collection of primary source material pertaining to the civil rights movement and to U.S. foreign policy during the Vietnam War era. This rich collection of federal records, letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, and diaries is organized in five subject categories: 1) Black Freedom Struggle; 2) NAACP Papers; 3) Slavery and the Law; 4) Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records; and 5) Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975.
- Fold3 This link opens in a new windowThis genealogical database contains personal records, photographs and historic documents. It also includes collections of census materials, military records from the American Revolution, Civil War, World War II and Vietnam, African American and Native American archives, naturalization records and more.
American Newspapers
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowContains the full-text of newspaper articles going back to the 19th century. Coverage includes: The New York Times (1851-2008), The Wall Street Journal (1889-1994), Chicago Tribune (1849-1988), The Washington Post (1877-1995); and Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953).
- Newspapers.com – World Collection This link opens in a new window
Newspapers.com Library Edition offers full page newspaper images with searchable full-text of newspapers. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to both full runs and portions of runs of newspapers.
- America's News This link opens in a new window
This collection of U.S. news from local, regional, and national sources offers print and online newspapers, blogs, journals, newswires, broadcast transcripts, and videos. Included are news sources from various Alabama counties.
- Associated Press Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Associated Press Collections Online Explores the history and back story of the Associated Press, and offers decades' worth of wire copy, correspondence, memos, internal publications, and more. The collection includes 1) News Features & Internal Communications; and 2) Washington, D.C. Bureau Collection.
- African American Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
This collection includes the full text of historically significant African American newspapers, published in 36 states, 1827-1998.
- Nation Archive, The This link opens in a new window
The Nation offers a 135-year archive of reporting opinion and criticism. It includes primary source material covering the history of politics, culture, books and the arts - in America and around the world. The Nation Digital Archive is a fully searchable electronic version of the magazine's complete backfile.
International Newspapers & Magazines
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Gale Primary Sources offers a comprehensive platform for research, enabling users to search multiple collections simultaneously. It goes beyond basic retrieval, providing tools for analysis and discovery of new material.
- Keesing's World News ArchiveSince 1931 Keesing’s has collected news reports on a daily basis from all over the world in a wide range of languages. The Keesing’s editorial team, based in Cambridge, UK, takes this mass of raw data and refines and processes it into a series articles which are published each month.
- Pravda Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowThis archive of the premier Soviet/Russian newspaper of the 20th century includes all images and text in a fully searchable format.
- Krokodil Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowKrokodil,a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union/Russia from 1922 until 2008, ridiculed bureaucracy, religion, alcoholism, foreign political figures and events, and more. This complete archive features full-image, text-searchable files.
Government Documents
- HeinOnline Foreign Relations of the United States This link opens in a new windowHeinOnline Foreign Relations of the United States presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The series, which began in 1861 under President Abraham Lincoln, contains books and documents from various Presidential libraries as well as different governmental agencies. Browse by presidential administration (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, etc.) and then search within the Vietnam collections
- The American National Archive and Records Administration (The US National Archive)This is the website for the American National Archive that is located in Washington, D.C.
- ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowBrings together a vast amount of information published by and about the United States Congress.Use the advanced search option and limit your search by date or congress
- The National Security ArchiveDeclassified reports based on U.S. surveillance.
- CIA Declassified Documents DatabaseRead declassified CIA materials, including files on clandestine operations!
- Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy (The Vietnam War)Another extensive list from Mount Holyoke College focusing on the Vietnam War.
- Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) This link opens in a new windowThe HSDL collection provides quick access to important U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents as well as specialized resources such as theses and reports from various universities, organizations and local and state agencies.
Presidential Papers
- The American Presidency ProjectA searchable database containing a large collection of presidential papers/documents.
We have many print collections of Presidential Papers in Gorgas Library. Just go to Scout or The Classic Catalog and do an author search (you'll need to use the drop-down menu by the search bar to change to author) for the president you're looking for (for example: "Reagan, Ronald"). This is a good way to find memoirs also!
International Documents
- Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1941-1996 This link opens in a new windowFBIS is comprised of the collections from the Archives of the Central Intelligence Agency including government publications, magazines, newspapers and transcribed television and radio broadcasts. Collected between 1941-1996 and translated into English by the Central Intelligence Agency, these intelligence reports are an indispensable source for insight into decades of turbulent world history.
- The Cold War International History Project"Cold War letters, treaties, dispatches and other primary sources, including documents relating to international crises, the roles of specific countries or areas, communist activities, notebooks of famous Russian leaders, as well as intelligence and military operations"
- Parallel History Project on Cooperative SecurityDeclassified documents from the Warsaw Pact and NATO about war plans from both sides, crises, foreign affairs of China and India, roles of specific countries like Poland or Hungary within these alliances, intelligence, and more.
- Cold War Studies at Harvard University--Online Archivesa fascinating set of Soviet documents, including the top-secret History of KGB (1977).
- The British National ArchiveUnless you are planning a trip to the archives in London, make sure to select that you only want to see documents that have been digitized.
Oral Histories
- Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives This link opens in a new windowThis collection of primary resources documents the history, culture, and politics of the 1960s and early 1970's. Included are diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.
- Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History ProjectViet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project at the University of California, Irvine actively assembles, preserves, and disseminates the life stories of Vietnamese Americans in Southern California.
Images
- The Vietnam Center & ArchiveThis vast digital archive was created by Texas Tech University.
- The Cold War Museumphotos of artifacts of the Cold War such as civil defense supplies, communist flags, military aircraft, people.
- Digital Public Library of America"The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world."
Streaming Video
- Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
The TVNA collection holds individual network evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN - and hours of special news-related programming, including ABC's Nightline since 1989.
