Primary sources are original materials that provide firsthand information about an event or person. They can be published or unpublished, and might include newspaper articles from the time of an event, diaries, letters, photographs, and videos. The resources listed on this page have a particular focus on women, gender, and/or sexuality. For more information on finding and using primary sources, visit the primary sources section of the History resource guide.
The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program spans the sixteenth to twentieth centuries and is the largest digital collection of historical primary source publications relating to the history and study of sex, sexuality, and gender research and gender studies research.
The Women's Studies Archive documents the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives, offering resources pertaining to the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society. The database is in four parts: Issues and Identities; Voice and Vision; Rare Titles from the American Antiquarian Society, 1820-1922; Female Forerunners Worldwide.
This collection is a part of Accessible Archives and provides the complete run of Godey's Lady's Book published in 1830 by Louis Antoine Godey, includes color plates and original issues. The magazine targeted American women and featured fashion descriptions, biographical sketches, articles, and sheet music.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries offers a large collection of women's diaries and correspondence spanning more than 300 years.
This collection offers published primary source materials reflecting historical American attitudes towards race, citizenship, education, work, sex, gender roles, life cycles, family, and religion. Included are professional and employee manuals; society publications, among them sorority and fraternity pledge manuals and Boy Scout and Girl Scout manuals; textbooks discussing home economics, health and hygiene, and sex education; teacher-training and course manuals; commercial literature; and government instruction manuals for various workplaces and industries.
Published histories and records of women’s reform organizations throughout the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It includes The History of Woman Suffrage; proceedings of the national conventions of female Anti-Slavery societies in the 1830s and of women’s rights conventions in the 1850s and 1860s; annual reports of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; and local and national histories of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.
This collection includes the full text of historically significant African American newspapers, published in 36 states.
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Provides full text of many U.S. and international news sources. Includes the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Times of London, plus other newspapers and news wires.