Free Online Primary Source Collections
The following links will take you to collections of primary sources in free online archives. These collections contain sources on a wide variety of topics and you can search for your topic within them. For primary sources on specific topics, see the boxes in the columns below.
Searching for primary sources on the internet
Not finding what you need in the links above? You can find primary sources online for just about anything. To find one, go to your favorite search engine, type in your topic and add "primary source." (You can also use words such as "artifact" or "image").
You can do the same type of search in Google Images.
As with any sources from the Web, be sure your document is from a reputable site. Images from a library, museum, or university are much more reliable than someone's personal site. Be sure to evaluate your sources.
To get you started, here is a long list of reliable sites you can use.
Native Americans
- Native American History (University of Washington)The library at the University of Washington has gathered together links to primary sources related to
Native American history for many tribes. Both general and specific links are available here. - Primary Sources - Native Americans (Christopher Newport University)This extensive guide from Christopher Newport University contains tabs of resources on many different areas of Native American history. When clicking through the tabs, be sure to focus on the "Online Resources" boxes, as you may not be able to access the book resources.
- Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842Over 2,000 documents and images dating from 1730 to 1842 on the history of Native Americans in the Southeastern U.S., letters, legal proceedings, military orders, and more.
Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders
- Asian American & Pacific IslandersA list of publicly available digital collections on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, put together by Brandeis University.
- Asian American History (UC San Diego)A collection of primary sources on Asian American history, put together by UC San Diego.
Note: If a source has a lock icon next to it, this resource is unavailable to non-UC students. - Chinese in California, 1850-1925This site illustrates nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigration to California through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials...These documents describe the experiences of Chinese immigrants in California, including the nature of inter-ethnic tensions. They also document the specific contributions of Chinese immigrants to commerce and business, architecture and art, agriculture and other industries, and cultural and social life in California.
- CSU Japanese American Digitization ProjectThe story of Japanese Americans in the 20th century — their migration to the United States, the Alien Land laws under which they lived, incarceration during World War II, and the Redress Movement — is a complex one. The CSU Japanese American Digitization Project, the 23-campus California State University system archives, and other, similar collections across the state now offer scholars, librarians, archivists, educators and the interested public far easier access to a wide variety of archival material about this crucial subject.
- Documenting the Southeast Asian American ExperienceDigitized images and texts related to the experiences of immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Focuses on post-1975 immigration.
- Japanese American Relocation Digital ArchiveDocuments the experience of Japanese Americans in WWII internment camps. Primary source materials include photographs, documents, manuscripts, paintings, drawings, letters, and oral histories.
- Korean American Digital ArchiveThe KADA brings together documents, photographs and sound files that document the Korean American community during the period of resistance to Japanese rule in Korea and reveal the organizational and private experience of Koreans in America between 1903 and 1965.
- South Asian Oral History ProjectThe SAOHP represents one of the first attempts in the U.S. to record pan-South Asian immigrant experiences in the Pacific Northwest using the medium of oral history.
- Vietnamese American Oral History ProjectOral histories of Vietnamese Americans in Southern California. Compiled by UC Irvine.
General Collections on American History
- American in ClassHistorical documents covering the span of American history from 1492 to the 1920s are listed at this site, created by the National Humanities Center. Click on the era that matches your research and find many helpful resources.
- Chronicling America: America's Historic NewspapersSearch America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
- Docs Teach (National Archives)This website from the National Archives, geared towards students of history, is divided into historical periods and has thousands of primary sources.
- Documenting the American SouthSources gathered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill give a glimpse into the history of the American South. The link above will start you at the Collections page.
- Famous TrialsPrimary sources associated with important American trials are located at this site organized by Famous Trials by Douglas O. Linder from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law.
- National Archives Online Public AccessSearch the digital holdings of the National Archives for copies of primary sources from throughout American history at this site. Use the search box on the main page for your research topic. On the
results page, use “View all online holdings” to see what is available in the digital realm about your research area of focus. - New Perspectives on the WestThe PBS documentary that examined the exploration of settling of the American West brings together an archive of memoirs, journals, letters, photos and transcripts. Click on “Archives” in the left hand panel of the page. The site also has a list of other Internet resources related to the American West.
- Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents in American HistoryThis site brings together transcripts of 100 important documents covering American history from 1776 to 1965. The documents were compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration as part of a cooperative effort with National History Day and USA Freedom Corps
- Speech BankFamous speeches from history can be discovered from this online listing. Sponsored by the American
Rhetoric, the site claims to have over 5,000 “full text, audio and video versions of public speeches,
sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events.” - University of Virginia Hypertext CollectionA variety of primary source writings and photographs linked to influential American figures, such as Lewis and Clark, Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl), WPA interviews.
African Americans
- African American Experiences (DPLA)A series of primary source collection from the Digital Public Library of American. These collections focus on the experiences of African Americans through American history.
- African American History Online: A Resource GuideA large number of primary source collection materials related to African American history are digitized and available online via the Library of Congress's website, including manuscripts, newspaper articles, images, and rare books. In addition, the Library also provides digital content on African American history through their exhibition program, "Today in History" essays, and online research guides
- African American Primary Sources (University of Washington)A detailed research guide from the University of Washington on primary sources for African American history.
- Behind the VeilA selection of recorded oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s
- Freedmen and Southern SocietyThis site offers a sampling of primary documents related to the emancipation of slaves and covers the years 1861-1867. The transcriptions are from originals housed in the National Archives. The website explains, The documents convey with first-person immediacy the experiences of the liberated…. the hope that freedom would bring a new world and the fear that, in too many ways, life would be much as before.
- Race and Place: An African American Community in the Jim Crow SouthOral histories, letters, newspaper articles, and photographs bring to life the experiences of the African Americans who lived in Charlottesville from the late 1880s through the mid-1960s. . Sponsored in part by the University of Virginia.
- Yale Slavery and Abolition PortalThis site is designed to help researchers and students find primary sources related to slavery, abolition, and resistance within the university’s many libraries and galleries. Select a repository from the list on the right to browse by location or use the search function to sort collections by topic. Consult the research and links pages for information about how to find additional source material.
U.S. Women
- Suffragists Oral History ProjectSeven major figures in twentieth-century suffragist history are represented here with full-length oral histories. From UC Berkeley Library
- Women (National Archives)The struggle for women to gain acceptance, recognition and equal rights in society has been a long process. In recognition of the contributions of American women, the Archives Library Information Center of the Digital Archives presents a listing of web sites with primary sources on women in the United States.
- Women: Primary Source Collections OnlineThis guide from Sam Houston State University provides a list of primary source collections of women in the United States.
- Women Working, 1800-1930 (Harvard)An exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression.
- Women’s Liberation MovementManifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials documenting various aspects of the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, put together by Duke University.
LGBTQ+
- "Gay is Good": Digital collections in LGBTQ U.S. History (College & Research Libraries News)A list of selected major digital projects from the journal College & Research Libraries News.
- Digital Transgender ArchiveOpen access project that is an “international collaboration among more than twenty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and private collections” aiming to create “a generative point of entry into the fascinating and expansive world of trans history.”
- Lesbian Herstories ArchivesThe Lesbian Herstories Archives Audio/Visual Collections contains digitized copies of some of the 3,000 oral herstory cassettes in the Archives’ Spoken Word Collection and 950 videotapes in the Video Collection. This comprises over 385 hours of digitized content on the site.
- LGBTQ Primary Sources (UW)An excellent and thorough list of digital primary source collections compiled by the University of Washington.
- ONE National Gay & Lesbian ArchivesONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives is the oldest active Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning (LGBTQ) organization in the United States and the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world. Founded in 1952, ONE Archives currently houses over two million archival items including periodicals, books, film, video and audio recordings, photographs, artworks, organizational records and personal papers.
- Primary Source Sets, GLBT Historical SocietyThe GLBT Historical Society collects, preserves, exhibits and makes accessible to the public materials and knowledge to support and promote understanding of LGBTQ history, culture and arts in all their diversity.
Colonial and Revolutionary America
- Massachusetts Historical SocietyThis web site offers the primary sources related to John and Abigail Adams as well as other historical documents important to American history from the first settlers to the 20th century
- The American Colonist's LibraryAn invaluable collection of historical works which contributed to the formation of American politics, culture, and ideals The following is a massive collection of the literature and documents which were most relevant to the colonists' lives in America.
- Early Americas Digital ArchiveThe Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) is a collection of electronic texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.
- Spy Letters of the American RevolutionThe exhibit is based on spy letters from the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Gallery of Letters provides a brief description of each letter and links to more information about the stories of the spies in the letter or the secret methods used to make the letter.
- American Revolution: A Resource GuideThe digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of primary source materials associated with the American Revolution era (1763-1783), including manuscripts, broadsides, government documents, books, images, and maps.
- The American Revolution (National Archives)The National Archives holds records relating to military service during the Revolutionary War, including both Continental troops and state troops that served as Continental troops.
- The Coming of the American Revolution: 1764 to 1776This collection of newspapers, official documents and personal correspondence from 1764 to 1776 was created by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
- Colonial AmericaColonial America enables access to a vast archive of circa 70,000 manuscript documents – now fully searchable using Handwritten Text Recognition technology.
- The American Revolution and The New Nation, 1775-1815This collection of primary documents in American history is from the Library of Congress.
19th Century America (Including the Civil War)
- From Revolution to Reconstruction and BeyondVarious primary documents related to American history from before 1600 to after 1951 are gathered at this website sponsored by a university in the Netherlands.
- Harper's Weekly from the 1800sDuring the mid 1800s to the early 20th Century, Harper’s Weekly offered the nation news in magazine form. Primary sources linked to the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments as well as other historical events can be searched here via the site’s own database. The site says, “The paper’s editorials played a significant role in shaping and reflecting public opinion from the start of the Civil War to the end of the century.”
- Index of Civil War Information Available on the InternetNote: External links may be broken
This collection of links hosted by a Civil War enthusiast is grouped by topic. Primary sources are within many topics, but the Diaries and the Letters sections offer voices of the war time to readers. Background information is also available through the multitude of sites listed for each topic. - The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil WarThis site describes itself as, “a digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War.” Letters, diaries, newspapers articles, and more offer a window into the daily lives of these Southern and Northern communities from 1859-1870.
- The American Civil War (From College & Research Libraries News)This guide highlights a diverse collection of free websites of primary sources for the study of the Civil War. These websites include digitized newspaper archives for both the Union and Confederate sides of the struggle, collections of letters and diaries, digitized photographs, maps, and official records and dispatches from the battlefields.
- The Civil War from the Library of CongressFind a range of primary source sets on the Civil War provided by the Library of Congress.
20th Century America
- 20th Century American Primary SourcesA research guide to primary and secondary sources for American history in the 20th century from the University of Washington. The resources are split into the major eras of the 20th century.
- 20th Century Internet Sites with Primary Sources for U.S. HistoryA collection of publicly accessible pages that include primary sources for the study of U.S. history, from Bowling Green State University.
- Alcohol, Temperance, & ProhibitionFind essays and primary sources that focus on the role of alcohol in society, Prohibition, and its repeal. “The digitized pamphlets were published by various groups leading up to prohibition, during the prohibition
era, and ending with the 21st amendment in 1933, which repealed the 18th amendment from 1919 prohibiting the manufacturing, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors.”