Databases/Websites with Primary Sources
This collection of databases is but a small sample of what UD subscribes to. For a full list of what we have, go to our "Databases" page and search for "Arts & Humanities Databases" from the "Browse by Subject" list.
- China: Trade, Politics and Culture This link opens in a new window
Over 200 years of Chinese history, charting the monumental social and political upheaval that recreated China as a modern power. Documents encompass events from the earliest English embassy to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic. (Coverage: 1793 - 1980)
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowHathiTrust has content that resides in the public domain, but UD also pays for additional content to be made available that you can only access from our library website.
- Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new windowReadex AllSearch is an integrated platform that combines all of the Library’s purchased Readex primary sources into a single cross-searchable interface. This broadens and enhances the ability to discover primary source documents from multiple collections. The single platform combines historical sources from the United States, Africa, Latin America and South Asia that include newspapers, books, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents plus more, and covers more than 400 hundred of years of history.
- China: Culture and SocietySpanning three centuries (c1750-1929), this resource makes available for the first time extremely rare pamphlets from Cornell University Library’s Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia. The resource is full-text searchable, allowing for the collection to be comprehensively explored and studied.
- East India CompanyEast India Company offers access to a unique collection of India Office Records from the British Library, London. Containing royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, minutes of council meetings and reports of expeditions, among other document types, this resource charts the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond from 1599 to 1947.
- Foreign Office Files for ChinaThe six parts of this collection make available all British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980:
1919-1929: Kuomintang, CCP and the Third International
1930-1937: The Long March, civil war in China and the Manchurian Crisis
1938-1948: Open Door, Japanese war and the seeds of communist victory
1949-1956: The Communist revolution
1957-1966: The Great Leap Forward
1967-1980: The Cultural Revolution - Foreign Office Files for JapanPublished in three parts, this collection makes available extensive coverage of British Foreign Office files dealing with Japan between 1919 and 1952.
Japanese Imperialism and the War in the Pacific, 1931-1945
Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952
Japan and Great Power Status, 1919-1930 - Meiji JapanThe Edward Sylvester Morse Papers were given to the Peabody Museum in 1926 and consist of 99 boxes of personal and professional papers including diaries, correspondence, research files, drawings, lecture notes, publications, scrapbooks and manuscripts. We have digitised the collection in its entirety. The collection spans the full range of Morse’s interests from his career as a natural historian to his life-changing experiences in Japan. The Phillips library prepared a listing of the Morse collection comprising a biography, a scope and content note, a brief bibliography and a list of contents. The scope and content note is reproduced here.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of online collections of primary sources. Try using Google to search for collections that are publicly available at other institutions.
- Asia Since 1900- FordhamA list of the main sources on the history of the countries in the continent.
- East-West CenterThe East-West Center is a U.S.-based institution for public diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region with international governance, staffing, students, and participants, the Center has built a worldwide network of 65,000 alumni and more than 1,100 partner organizations. In addition to finding relevant news from that region, you can also find published reports on a variety of topics.
- Europeana CollectionsA collection focused on the history of Europe showing primary sources from seven European countries.
- Freer and Sackler GalleryApart of the Smithsonian, the Freer and Sackler Gallery has collections from Asia that are digitally available.
- Internet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. It was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.
Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive has an historical web collection (the Wayback Machine) of over 150 billion web pages, about 240,000 movies, over 500,000 audio items (including over 70,000 live concerts), over 1,800,000 texts, 1600 education items, and over 30,000 software items. - Internet East Asian Sourcebook - FordhamA list of both digitized items that provide specific information on East Asian history. Also includes a link to content on the internet.
- Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive (JARDA)The University of California has digitized thousands of primary sources on the history of Japanese internment in America, including letters, diary entries, and photographs.
- Library of Congress - Asian DivisionThe Library of Congress' Asian Division creates research guides, digitized collections, and a list of e-resources all related to this continent's large history.
- MacArthur MemorialPrimary sources available on MacArthur's involvement in the Philippines, the Korean War, and more.
- Medical History of British IndiaFrom the India Papers Collection from the National Library of Scotland, this feature on the 'Medical History of British India' provides an entry into the history of disease and its prevention in 19th and 20th-century British India, including veterinary medicine and animal husbandry.
- Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)Some of MOCA's collections are digitized online, mainly images and artifacts. The most significant is the digitized oral history collection.
- South Asian American Digital ArchiveHas digitized items available to view within the archive.
- World BankDatasets available - international coverage.
- Asia for EducatorsAsia for Educators is an initiative of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. The site provides resources organized by world history time period, as well as modules on topics such as East Asia in geographic perspective, the Qing and Song Dynasties, among others.
- Association for Asian StudiesThe Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political, non-profit professional association open to all persons interested in Asia and the study of Asia. With approximately 6,500 members worldwide, representing all the regions and countries of Asia and all academic disciplines, the AAS is the largest organization of its kind.Through its publications, online resources, regional conferences, and annual conference, the AAS provides its members with a unique and invaluable professional network.