Prescott Library: Past and Present (Clark, Lytle, Thomas): Find Primary Sources

Thanks to technology, libraries, archives, and museums around the country are digitizing their collections—making it possible to view thousands of primary source collections formerly restricted in access. Here are a few worth exploring...

Audio

American Rhetoric & Speech Bank
British Oral Histories
National Jukebox - Library of Congress
Oral Histories of the Left
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The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University form a unique, internationally-known center for scholarly research on Labor and the Left.

The primary focus of our collections is the complex relationship between trade unionism and progressive politics, and how this shifted over time. Tamiment has one of the finest research collections in the country documenting the history of radical politics: socialism, communism, anarchism, the cultural left, the New Left and the struggle for civil rights and liberties.

This website is a digital repository for Tamiment’s growing collection of digitized materials, including oral histories, films, photos, posters, special projects, publications and Tamiment events.
The Studs Terkel Radio Archive
World War II Archive

Books & Monographs

Government Documents

Milestone Documents in American History This link opens in a new window
Primary texts from documents related to key events in US history are included in this resource as well as document analysis. This site also makes Milestone Documents in World History available.
Milestone Documents in World History This link opens in a new window
Primary texts from documents related to key events in world history are included in this resource as well as document analysis. This site also makes Milestone Documents in American History available.

Maps & Images

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
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Image database containing over 1 million images from art, architecture, music, world history and more. Collections are made up of contributions from museums, libraries, artists' estates, photographers, and scholars from all over the world.
Registered users are able to save images as well as download them into a presentation slide format.
For home access, contact the library staff.

Flickr Commons
Internet Archive: Moving Image Archive
Perry Casteneda Library Historical Maps Collection
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The majority of these maps are in the public domain and free to download and use. Those with restrictions will have copyright clearly labeled.

Mixed Collections

History Study Center This link opens in a new window
"An online resource providing a vast collection of digitised primary and secondary sources for the study of history. It is suitable for a wide range of users, from high school students looking for quick and reliable facts on a historical topic, to researchers examining hard-to-find primary source texts." Includes Study Units, Historical Documents, Maps, References titles, Multimedia, Academic Journals, and Primary Sources.

The Morgan Library and Museum
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Images provided through the Music Manuscripts Online Web pages may be printed or downloaded for personal, educational, or noncommercial use. For example, images may be printed out for study, or downloaded for classroom presentations, dissertations, or non-commercial Web sites or blogs. The images must remain unaltered. The accompanying description (e.g. "Front matter, p. [i]; title page. Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Allegro de concert. Allegro de concert : manuscript in the hand of Julian Fontana, 1841? Heineman MS 42B") must be included without alteration, and the citation should include the manuscript URL (e.g. http://www.themorgan.org/music/manuscript/114337)
National Archives Online exhibits
NYPL Digital Gallery

Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Off campus password is maryc
Opposing Viewpoints in Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information and opinions on hundreds of today's hottest social issues. Drawing on the acclaimed Greenhaven Press series, the solution features continuously updated viewpoints, topic overviews, full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, statistics, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

World Digital Library

World History in Context This link opens in a new window
World History in Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in World History. The new solution merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

Newspapers & Magazines

Flipster for Magazines This link opens in a new window
Access to Digital editions of magazines including The Atlantic, Consumer Reports, Sports Illustrated and more!

Google News Archive

Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Access archived articles from ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times with Index, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Personal Accounts

Repositories

Specific Topics

African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
- Why search here?
  African American Studies Center provides a great collection of resources on people and events within African American History.
- What's included?
  This site includes primary sources.
"The online authority on the African American Experience" from Oxford UP.

Past and Present (Clark, Lytle, Thomas)

Primary v. Secondary Sources

Primary Sources

Types of primary sources include:

Secondary Sources

Evaluating Primary Sources

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