Finding Primary Sources
Finding primary sources is a multi-step process. There is no "one-stop-shop" database that will give you everything you need for your paper. Follow these tips:
- Look at the bibliographies and footnotes from articles and books to see what primary sources those scholars are using for evidence
- Think and research multiple institutions, archives, or repositories that could have information and collections about your project
- Use historical language
When searching for primary source collections online, include the following additional phrases with your keywords:
- online collections
- digital collections
- digitized collections
Be aware that digital collections only show a small portion of what an institution holds!
- Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture This link opens in a new window
Collection of monographs and pamphlets assembled by Manoel de Oliveira Lima, a Brazilian diplomat, journalist, historian and book collector whose career spanned Brazils transition from empire to republic. Brazilian history and literature were the central focus of his writing and collecting. The collection was donated to Catholic University of America in 1920. (Coverage: 17th early 20th centuries)
- Confidential Print: Latin America, 1833-1969 This link opens in a new window
The British Government Confidential Print volumes for Central and South America and the French and Spanish speaking Caribbean. Coverage begins in the aftermath of independence for the former Spanish and Portuguese colonies of Latin America, addressing the politics of state-building and the Latin American nations’ establishment of their place in the fast-expanding global economy. (Coverage: 1833-1969))
- Empire Online This link opens in a new windowEmpire Online charts the rise and fall of empires around the world over a span five centuries. Includes a mixture of printed, manuscript and visual primary source documents. Those studying – among other subjects – colonial history, society, trade and travel, politics and culture can explore a diverse range of topics and subjects from ship’s logs to missionaries in Africa. Empire Online provides varying points-of-view, with selections from American, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and German, as well as British perspectives. Also includes texts from the peoples of Africa, India and North America.
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowGale Primary Sources is an integrated platform that combines Gale’s digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface. This broadens and enhances the ability to discover primary source documents from multiple collections. This platform combines dozens of historical archives which include monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, and photographs and covers more than 500 hundred of years of history.
- Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
Through a wide range of primary sources, researchers can explore and chart the history of 15 key commodities and their impact on societies across the world. (Coverage: 18th-20th centuries )
15 Key Commodities: Chocolate – Coffee – Cotton – Fur – Oil – Opium – Porcelain – Silver and Gold – Spices – Sugar – Tea – Timber – Tobacco – Wheat – Wine and Spirits
- Latin America in Video This link opens in a new windowDocumentaries that include primary sources (only for students with language skills).
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new windowThis resource offers in-depth case studies in America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba, along with important material examining European, Islamic and African involvement in the slave trade.
- Archives of Latin America and Caribbean History 16th-20th Century This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database that includes a comprehensive range of content for the region, both for current issues and events in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as for historical perspective back to the colonial period. (Coverage: 15th -20th c.)
- Gale Primary Sources: Newspapers This link opens in a new window
An integrated platform that combines Gales digital newspaper archives into a single cross-searchable interface to enhance the ability to discover primary source documents from multiple collections. Over 20 collections are available to University of Delaware users on this platform. (Coverage: 17th - 21st centuries)
- Latin American Newspapers, Series I This link opens in a new window
Explore Latin American history and culture during the 19th and early 20th centuries via 35 Latin American newspapers. Features titles from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, and elsewhere. (Coverage: 1805-1922)
- Newspapers.com World Collection (Library Edition) This link opens in a new window
Over 3,000 regional and local newspapers in the U.S. and other countries. (Coverage: early 1700s - early 2000s)
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers (New York Times) This link opens in a new window
25 concurrent users. Full pages and article images with searchable full-text back to the first issue. includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. (Coverage: 1851-4 years ago)
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSome larger historical newspaper runs.
- Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Complete digital edition of The Times (London) and its predecessor title, Universal Daily Register. (Coverage: 1785-2019)
- Arquivo NacionalThe National Archives of Brazil has many digitized collections available.
- BNDigitalA Brazilian digital project that seeks to preserve and provide wider access to historic documents pertaining to Brazilian history and literature.
- Brazilian Government DocumentsThe Latin American Materials Project (LAMP) at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) has digitized executive branch serial documents issued by Brazil’s national government between 1821 and 1993, and by its provincial governments from the earliest available for each province to the end of the first Republic in 1930. Additional information about this project is available from the LAMP webpages.
- Library of Congress: Hispanic Reading RoomThe Hispanic Reading Room is the primary access point for research related to the Caribbean, Latin America, Spain and Portugal; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including Latinos in the U.S. and peoples of Portuguese or Spanish heritage in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
- World Digital LibraryThe World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.