Research Guides: Primary Sources: Digital and Physical Archives and Manuscript Collections: Primary Sources at other Institutions

Visiting an Archive/Special Collections

Once you have found information on a collection you would like to use (collection title, series number, box and/or folder numbers), you may contact the library or archive to request the material or you may request reproductions of specific documents, files, etc.

After identifying the repository and perhaps specific collections, contact the repository or visit their website to find answers to questions such as:

1. What are your hours?

2. Who is allowed to conduct research in your facility?

3. What type of information do I need to bring on my first visit? (e.g., photo ID)

4. What is the photocopying policy and what is the cost?

5. Is the material held off-site? Do I need to request it in advance?

6. May I use a digital camera? Laptop? Do you have electrical outlets in the Reading Room?

7. If you already have a collection in mind to use, you should ask if that particular collection has any research restrictions.

Websites Offering Digitized Primary Sources

Ad* Access
Provides over 7,000 images of advertisements from U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines for the period 1911-1955. Images are from collections at Duke University.
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
This site, maintained by the University of Kansas, has links to many important historical documents from 1400 to the present.
American Memory
This digital archive from the Library of Congress has over 100 thematic collections of historical documents, maps, moving images, sound recordings, and photographic images.
Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
Provides the text of many historical documents from around the world related to law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy, and government. Includes documents from the 9th century to the 21st century. In most cases, the source of the text is cited.
Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South
A selection of 100 recorded oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Provides access to millions of resources across the country. Allows the ability to search and browse items in a variety of ways, including by map, timeline, format, and subject.
Documenting the American South
This collection, sponsored by the library at the University of North Carolina, has texts, images, and audiofiles related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the Colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century.
EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
This site, maintained by a librarian at Brigham Young University, has links to transcribed, translated, and facsimile documents from Western European countries. Coverage is from the Medieval period to the present.
Gallica
The digital library of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Includes texts from the Middle Ages to the 20th-century.
Historical Census Browser
Census data pertaining to the population and economy of U.S. states and counties from 1790 to 1960.
Life Magazine, 1935-1970
LIFE Magazine, an iconic photographic magazine that chronicled the American 20th century, has now been digitized and is available online through Google Books.
Making of America
This site, produced at the University of Michigan, is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. The collection contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles.
National Archives--Archival Research Catalog
Provides digital images of many important documents in American history as well as the text transcript of these documents.
New York Public Library Digital Library Collection
Provides thousands of digital images from the NYPL collections including historical maps, illuminated manuscripts, and prints and photographs. It contains texts and images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Official Documents of the United Nations (ODS)
This database has the full text of approximately 800,000 documents, most of them published since 1993. Thousands of documents are being added every year, including many published prior to 1993. Resolutions and Decisions from 1946-1993 are available in a separate Resolutions database, accessible through the advanced search screen.
Online Archive of California
This site brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. Over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of documents, letters, and oral histories; and 8,000 guides to collections are available.
The Perseus Digital Library
This site, produced at Tufts University, provides digital images and transcribed text (in translation or original language) from ancient Greek and Latin sources. Also includes documents related to English Renaissance literature and to London.
UNESCO Archives Portal
Has links to primary sources from international organizations and countries throughout the world. Also links to exhibitions and to ongoing digitization projects.
Women Working, 1800-1930
Provides access to digitized resources selected from Harvard's library and museum collections. These materials address the role of women in the US economy between 1800 and the Great Depression. Currently contains 3,500 books and pamphlets, 1,125 photographs, and 7,500 pages from manuscript collections.
Digital National Security Archive
Declassified documents regarding critical U.S. foreign policy decisions organized into 24 thematic collections.

Primary Sources: Digital and Physical Archives and Manuscript Collections

Research Appointments

Archival Repositories in the D.C. Area

Visiting an Archive/Special Collections

Websites Offering Digitized Primary Sources