Primary Sources
Primary Sources are:
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A first-hand account or testimony of the past, written during that present moment
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Something that describes the reactions or thoughts of a particular time period
Primary Sources are vastly different across a variety of disciplines, but the basic definition of what a primary source is stays the same - a testimony or an account describing reactions or thoughts from a particular time. How these testimonies take shape is what changes across disciplines.
Search Tips
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!
- Archives of Sexuality & Gender This link opens in a new windowArchives of Sexuality & Gender is a significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas.
- British & Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Over 400 years of personal writings by women from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Shows the various shapes and formats of the diary as it evolved. Allows researchers to view history in the context of women’s thoughts—their struggles, achievements, passions, pursuits, and desires. (Complements Alexander Street’s North American Women’s Letters & Diaries.) (Coverage: 1500s - 1950)
- Defining Gender This link opens in a new windowProvides access to a vast body of original British source material that will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective.
- Everyday Life & Women in America, c.1800-1920 This link opens in a new windowComprises thousands of fully searchable images of rare books, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.
- Gender: Identity and Social Change This link opens in a new windowOffers three centuries of primary source material drawn from across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. From traditional constructions of femininity and masculinity, to the struggle for women’s rights and the emergence of the men’s movement, this resource documents three centuries of expansive developments in gender roles and relations.
- Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs This link opens in a new windowStarted by Dutch physician Aletta Jacobs Gerritsen in the late 1800s, this collection of monographs & periodicals reflects the evolution of a feminist consciousness & womens rights. By the time her successors finished their work in 1945, the collection was the greatest single source for the study of womens history in the world, with materials spanning 4 centuries and 15 languages. (Coverage: 1543-1945)
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowAmerican and Canadian women’s diaries and correspondence, spanning more than 300 years. (Coverage: Colonial - 1950s)
- Women's Studies Archive This link opens in a new windowWomen’s Studies Archive: Women’s Issues & Identities focuses on the social, political and professional achievements of women throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Along with providing a closer look at some of the pioneers of women’s movements, this collection offers scholars a deep dive into the issues that have affected women and the many contributions they have made to society.
Of potential interest: Planned Parenthood Federation of America Records; Herstory; and Women and Health/Mental Health - Women & Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. Includes document projects and archives, the online version of Notable American Women (1971-2004), the database on Commissions on the Status of Women (1961-2005), book reviews, teaching tools, and more.
- Women Writers Online This link opens in a new windowDatabase of the Women Writers Project (WWP), Northeastern University; a long-term research project devoted to early modern women’s writing and electronic text encoding. (Coverage: 1400-1850)
- The LilyFull text of the The Lily, published in Seneca Falls, NY, one of the first newspapers for women.
Coverage: 1830-1898
International Collections
What's a Zine?
Zines are...
- Self-published, usually in small batches
- Distributed by their makers (either independently or through zine distributors) by hand, at zine fests, and by mail
- Labors of love -- made for self-expression, not for profit
- A medium for expressing ideas & telling stories that aren't represented in the mainstream print (or other) media
- Barnard College Digitized ZinesLook for an online or downloadable pdf link in the catalog record
- Broken Beautiful PressRadical zines, many by women of color, created to support radical self- & collective- growth, transformation, healing, and imagining-together. You can download PDFs of the zines for free from the site
- Quarantine Public LibraryBrowse zines by genre or artist in this amazing collection of online zines!
- Queer Zine Archive ProjectThe Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) was first launched in November 2003 in an effort to preserve queer zines and make them available to other queers, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing and underground queer communities.
To get started with the zine archive try browsing through the collections or searching for specific terms. - Small Science CollectiveA collaboration of scientists, artists, students, and anyone else interested in science, this project produces small zines and web comics on a variety of topics . Read online, download zines, and share your ideas!
Finding Current Primary Sources
It can often be challenging to locate current, contemporary primary sources for your research. Below are some types of primary sources and where you might find access to them. Typically, because these sources have been created recently, the best option is to see if you can see find them where they were produced.
| Types of Primary Sources: | Where you can find them? |
|---|---|
| Social media | Social media platforms |
| Interviews, News Articles, Op-Eds | News outlets |
| Documentaries | Library databases and search engines |
| Government reports | Government websites |
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni includes thousands of full-text news sources in English and other languages, and Company Dossier which provides current data on 13 million companies. News coverage includes Broadcast Transcripts and Foreign Language News.
- New York Times (NYTimes.com) This link opens in a new windowCreate an individual account to access current NYT articles.
- Global Newsstream This link opens in a new windowGlobal Newsstream enables users to search the most recent global news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s. It featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full- text format. U.S., Canadian, and international newspapers are included.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowEthnic NewsWatch is a comprehensive full-text database of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press. It is a collection of more than 700,000 full-text articles from over 200 publications. Searchable in both English and Spanish, with titles in both languages and more than 100,000 articles in Spanish, Ethnic NewsWatch provides a rich collection of articles, editorials, and reviews with a broad diversity of perspectives often at variance with the mainstream media.
- Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) This link opens in a new windowCreate a WSJ account to access current articles.
- Washington Post Online This link opens in a new windowThe Washington Post (often referred to as TWP or WaPo) covers national and global news, politics and national security, business and technology, arts and entertainment, sports, and local and regional news. Sections include a range of topical areas — education, climate and environment, science, health, immigration, and more. TWP‘s investigative journalists cover a range of issues of national and international importance, and opinion columnists focus on politics, economics, culture, international news and other topics. The Washington Post Online includes multimedia resources only available in the online edition and access to content published in real-time. Updates are continually added throughout the day.
We have the following databases that have current documentaries on a variety of topics. You can also search for documentary videos in our catalog, DELCAT.
- Swank Digital Campus Streaming Video This link opens in a new windowSwank Digital Campus Streaming Video provides digital access to 1000+ feature films and documentaries from Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros. and other major studios. Films available through Swank will vary from semester to semester based on availability and instruction-related needs.
- Docuseek Complete Collection (Docuseek platform) This link opens in a new windowThe Docuseek Complete Collection provides access to contemporary social issues documentaries in a variety of disciplines, including environmental sciences, political and social sciences, history, health, psychology, and more. In addition to Women Make Movies, the collection includes films from other high-quality distributors such as Bullfrog Films, Collective Eye Films, Icarus Films, Kartemquin Films, and the National Film Board of Canada.
Examples of Documentary Websites:
Consider the following questions and points when evaluating current primary sources.
Author
- Who created this source?
- What authority do they have on the subject?
- How do you know, based on your past experiences, that this person or organization has authority?
Publisher/Platform
- Where was this source published or posted?
- Does the platform the source was published/posted in/on change perspective of the source?
Purpose
- Why was this source created?
- Who was the intended audience?
- Was there a sponsoring organization invested in its creation?
Content
- What is the main idea of the primary source?
- What can you observe about the primary source?
- Has the source been altered in any way from the original?
Context
- What questions could be answered by using this source?
- How does this source fit into other scholarly narratives? Does it challenge those narratives?
Limitations
- What biases or assumptions might have influenced the author or creator?
Connections
- How does this source fit into my knowledge about this topic?